Jay Nordlinger

When New Year’s Eve comes around, what do you want at the opera house? The Merry Widow? Die Fledermaus? The Metropolitan Opera staged a new production of I puritani, by Bellini. At least it has a happy ending.

Lisette Oropesa, the soprano from Louisiana, has become a big, big singer. She is rail thin (a runner and a vegan). But she is a prima donna in New York, Salzburg, and elsewhere.

I like writing the phrase “Icelandic pianist”—or “Icelandic” anything. “Icelandic” is a beautiful word, and exotic sounding. Over the years, I have written “Kristinn Sigmundsson, the Icelandic bass,” and “Anna Thorvaldsdottir, the Icelandic composer.” And “Víkingur Ólafsson, the Icelandic pianist.”

This is Year 250, as most people know by now—the 250 anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Kaija Saariaho, a Finn, was one of the most prominent composers of our time. She died in 2023, at seventy. Last night, the Metropolitan Opera staged her final opera, Innocence, which premiered in 2021.

On a recital by the pianist Khatia Buniatishvili in Carnegie Hall.

Has a review of Eugene Onegin —that is, a performance of Tchaikovsky’s opera, based on Pushkin’s novel-in-verse—ever begun with the Nanny? Well, this one will.

On recent performances at Carnegie Hall & Lincoln Center.

Alan Shipnuck has very good timing. His new book is a biography of Rory McIlroy, the golf champion. It was published last month, two days before the Masters tournament. McIlroy won the Masters last year. That was surely the "hook" of the book, its impetus.

On recent performances at Carnegie Hall & Lincoln Center.