parterre box
@parterrebox.bsky.social
The best opera magazine on the web, bet. Performance reviews, breaking news, critical essays, and brainrot commentary on opera from those demented enough to love it.
Big time sensuality
Big time sensuality
Barbara Strozzi links two sensuous programs by L’Arpeggiata and Catapult Opera.
parterre.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Big time sensuality
To Be a Poet is a Condition
To Be a Poet is a Condition
Are today’s stars enough to sustain Andrea Chénier?
parterre.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:00 PM
To Be a Poet is a Condition
Out of the mouths of babes
Out of the mouths of babes
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
parterre.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Out of the mouths of babes
Monkey business
Monkey business
The Monkey King at San Francisco Opera combines spectacle and sentiment.
parterre.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Monkey business
Oceanic feeling
Oceanic feeling
Grand Tier Grab Bag features a complete performance of Ernest Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer ahead of a particular year for both its soloist and conductor.
parterre.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Oceanic feeling
I’m still thinking about Martin Kusej’s Rusalka
I’m still thinking about Martin Kusej’s Rusalka
The production is based on the Elisabeth Fritzl story, and it really made me reconsider this opera's fairy tale storyline.
parterre.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I’m still thinking about Martin Kusej’s Rusalka
Everything the light touches
Everything the light touches
Vincent Lombardo pays poetic tribute to the 60-year-long career of Robert Wilson.
parterre.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Everything the light touches
Hear, O Israel
Hear, O Israel
As Messiah season begins, Christopher Corwin reports on two of Handel’s forays into the Old Testament.
parterre.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Hear, O Israel
I’m getting married in the morning
I’m getting married in the morning
Washington National Opera presented a well-sung and humorous Marriage of Figaro, buoyed by clever direction and a strong cast, particularly Rosa Feola’s Countess and Joélle Harvey’s Susanna.
parterre.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:00 PM
I’m getting married in the morning
Medieval Times
Medieval Times
Carl Orff’s cantata tries its fortunes at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
parterre.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Medieval Times
I’m still thinking about Peter Sellars’s Così fan tutte
I’m still thinking about Peter Sellars’s Così fan tutte
I never thought an opera production could be this well done.
parterre.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I’m still thinking about Peter Sellars’s Così fan tutte
We’re still thinking about Robert Carsen’s Mefistofele
We’re still thinking about Robert Carsen’s Mefistofele
Les Camilles both agree on this one. And WHY? You ask??!
parterre.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:00 PM
We’re still thinking about Robert Carsen’s Mefistofele
La fiamma è bella!
La fiamma è bella!
A new recording of La fiamma from Deutsche Oper Berlin sets Respighi's score ablaze.
parterre.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM
La fiamma è bella!
Celebrate good times
Celebrate good times
Austin Opera's 40th anniversary gala celebrated the present while gesturing boldly towards the future.
parterre.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Celebrate good times
Pride in your work
Pride in your work
Pittsburgh Opera's Fellow Travelers delivers a timely story with detail and care.
parterre.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Pride in your work
I’m still thinking about Krzysztof Warlikowski’s Lulu
I’m still thinking about Krzysztof Warlikowski’s Lulu
Barbara Hannigan's Lulu is the greatest live performance I've seen.
parterre.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I’m still thinking about Krzysztof Warlikowski’s Lulu
Alien encounter
Alien encounter
“Protect the dolls, they say, but who really cares for them?” This question, posed by performer Mara Snip during the postlude of Neuköllner Oper’s 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, had a clear answer: Aliens.
parterre.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Alien encounter
Closer to fine
Closer to fine
Grand Tier Grab Bag looks forward to a big week for Umberto Giordano by sharing Sondra Radvanovsky and Gregory Kunde performing the final duet from Andrea Chénier.
parterre.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Closer to fine
Scarcity mindset
Scarcity mindset
Michael Thalmeier's Tristan und Isolde in Berlin asks, how much minimalism is too much minimalism?
parterre.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Scarcity mindset
I’m still thinking about Hans Neuenfels’s Lohengrin
I’m still thinking about Hans Neuenfels’s Lohengrin
Who are the rats? Why are their tails getting longer? Is Lohengrin a rat trying to free himself from a maze?
parterre.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I’m still thinking about Hans Neuenfels’s Lohengrin
Do the locomotion
Do the locomotion
As my friend and I Ubered out to the luxurious Cobb Energy Centre for Atlanta Opera’s La traviata, I had trains on the mind.
parterre.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Do the locomotion
I’m still thinking about Bob Wilson’s Le trouvère
I’m still thinking about Bob Wilson’s Le trouvère
At every turn, the preconceived notion of Trovatore was denied, right down to the boxing during the ballet.
parterre.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I’m still thinking about Bob Wilson’s Le trouvère
Damned to hell
Damned to hell
Only the singers, led by Benjamin Bernheim, can salvage a dismal La Damnation de Faust at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées.
parterre.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Damned to hell
Animal house
Animal house
Ursula Sturgeon looks at the furry opera company HowlAria and discovers that maybe one man’s Callas recording collection is another man’s fursuit.
parterre.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Animal house