The Poetry of Opera

by Mark Bauerlein

Dana Gioia joins in to discuss his new book, Weep, Shudder, Die: On Opera and Poetry. Continue Reading »

30 Dec 2024

San Francisco Sacred (I)

by Michael Linton

We do not customarily look to opera for moral edification. Examples abound: twins, separated at birth, reunite and conceive a superman child before one is killed by his father (Wagner’s Die Walküre ); a polygamous American seduces and later abandons an Asian girl and their child . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Feb 2003

Sing Unto the Lord

by Michael Linton

In opera, it’s good to be the tenor. You get the high notes, you get the girl, and you get the big fees. And this has been a half century rich in remarkable tenors. Perhaps there has been no voice so purely beautiful as Luciano Pavarotti’s (or as profitable), and probably no singer so broadly . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Dec 2000

Moses at the Met

by Michael Linton

The twentieth century an age of religious art? It wouldn’t seem so. In the ranks of painters, sculptors, writers, and architects it is hard to think of very many (Rouault, Gaudi, Solzhenitsyn) for whom matters of faith were a significant subject for their creativity. But as this aggressively . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Dec 1999