The Vargas Blog

Peter Gelb 's first year at The Metropolitan Opera was a fantastic beginning to what will apparently be an exciting, productive tenure ...

The Tristan Project has finally arrived in New York three years after its premiere in Los Angeles. Although it is presented here different...

Peter Shaffer 's magnificent play Equus , the troubling story of a boy who undergoes therapy after blinding a stable of race horses, has...

The new Production of Philip Glass 's opera Satyagraha is now playing at the English National Opera where I saw it last night. This pr...

The following bit of news appeared in The New York Times on February 22. The article is by Daniel J. Wakin. It took only 45 years, but Lor...

It is good to be able to report some Wagner news. A new production of Tannhäuser is playing in Frankfurt. Here is a review from Bloomberg...

Giuseppe Verdi found inspiration time after time in the history and literature of Spain. Some of his best works, such as that perennial fa...

I finally got around to watching Kevin MacDonald 's The Last King of Scotland , the powerful film about the relationship between Ugandan...

With the Oscars ceremony a mere twelve days away, and the nomination of Children of Men , Pan's Labyrinth , and Babel for major awards,...

The following exciting news was reported on Playbill arts: Peter Gelb , the new general manager of The Metropolitan Opera , revealed some ju...

Last night I was very fortunate to be a part of the American Songbook series at the Allen Room inside the AOL-Time Warner Building. As a mem...

Here are four limericks on Wagner’s Ring Cycle DAS RHINEGOLD When swimming along in the Rhine With maidens who rarely said “nein”, A dwarf f...

Now it can be said that I have played all three major houses at Lincoln Center. Tonight, I made my Metropolitan Opera debut in the chorus ...

In the middle of a busy Christmas season, it was good to take a break from all the running around that the Yuletide usually brings and atte...

Online searches come up empty if you want to know when Deborah Voigt was born. I found this a little unusual because, being a highly respe...

I am not sure if The Metropolitan Opera needed a new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia , but the new Peter Gelb administration has bro...

Madama Butterfly is the one opera that never fails to please, even when the cast is not ideal, the production questionable, and the orchest...

The great American bass-baritone Thomas Stewart died this week. He passed away after making par on a golf course. He had turned 78 last m...

The Metropolitan Opera 's new season opened with a production of Giacomo Puccini 's Madama Butterfly . This is the first new produc...

The following appeared on the CNN website today. BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- A leading opera house called off a production of Mozart's ...