Ronald Blum, Author at The Rapid City Post

Nero’s ancient Rome and Jazz Age New York meet in `The Comet/Poppea’ at Lincoln Center

June 19, 2025

“The Comet/Poppea” has started its five-performance run at Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City in New York. The performance is a 90-minute combination of Monteverdi’s 1643 opera “L’incoronazione di Poppea” and George E. Lewis’ “The Comet,” which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist this year. The show’s action unfolds on a spinning turntable, with an audience of 290 split into sections on opposite sides of the set on stage at the David Koch Theater. “The Comet” is based on W.E.B. Du Bois’ story in which a working-class Black man and a society white woman believe they are the only survivors of a comet.

FILE - People appear in Josie Robertson Plaza in front of The Metropolitan Opera house at Lincoln Center in New York on March 12, 2020. . (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

Met Opera attendance dropped in spring as tourism fell, coinciding with immigration crackdown

June 13, 2025

Metropolitan Opera season attendance dropped slightly following the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown that coincided with a decrease in tourists to New York. The Met sold 72% of capacity, matching 2023-24 and down from its 75% projection. Met general manager Peter Gelb says “I attribute the fact that we didn’t achieve our sales goals to a significant drop in tourism.” New York City Tourism & Conventions last month reduced its 2025 international visitor projection by 17%, the Met said. International buyers accounted for 11% of sales, down from the Met’s projection of 16% and from about 20% before the coronavirus pandemic.

Nina Stemme says farewell to Isolde after 126 performances

June 9, 2025

Soprano Nina Stemme sung her 126th and final performance of Isolde in Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Marian Anderson Hall. Accompanied by tenor Stuart Skelton mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, baritone Brian Mulligan, Stemme had tears in her eyes after the final notes. She has been a top choice in the demanding role since 2003 but at 62 said it was time to concentrate on roles for older sopranos. Music director music Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who had never conducted the opera before, will conduct a new production at New York’s Metropolitan Opera next year with Lise Davidsen debuting her take on Isolde.

`This House’ makes world premiere, exploring Black history through a family’s legacy in Harlem

June 3, 2025

“This House,” a rumination on love, aspiration, coping and the unyielding weight of history, made its world premiere Saturday night at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. The work was composed by Ricky Ian Gordon to a libretto by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and her daughter Ruby Aiyo Gerber. It weaves impacts of the Civil War, Great Migration, Black Power movement, AIDS crisis and gentrification. There are five more performances through June 29. Gerber, 27, started “This House” in 2020, during her senior year at Brown.

Ronald Blum.

Nero’s ancient Rome and Jazz Age New York meet in `The Comet/Poppea’ at Lincoln Center

Met Opera attendance dropped in spring as tourism fell, coinciding with immigration crackdown

Nina Stemme says farewell to Isolde after 126 performances

`This House’ makes world premiere, exploring Black history through a family’s legacy in Harlem

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