James Emerson, an opera fan since 2010 after seeing “La Traviata” when he was 15 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, described that first show as “magical.” “Opera puts me ...

He sang with other companies, most notably Milan's Teatro alla Scala, London's Royal Opera and the New York City Opera, and sang the Grand Inquisitor in “Don Carlo” at the 1988 Salzburg Festival.

Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times The dinner party’s guests could be the opera chorus ... sublime in the polluted 19th-century city — and maybe something darker, too.