Week of October 28-November 4, 2010

 To hear  Luciano Pavarotti sing "Celeste Aida," click on "Week of October 28-November 4, 2010" above.

AIDA

Johan Botha as Radames

Violeta Urmana as Aida

Dolora Zajick as Amneris

 

Saturday, October 30 -- 8:00pm; Sunday, October 31 -- 3:00am; Monday, November 1 -- 12:00am

WSBE 36.2 is (RI Cox Cable 808) (RI Fios 478) (In Massachusetts, Comcast 294)

A production of Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida," about an enslaved Ethiopian princess (Violeta Urmana) in ancient Egypt who serves the pharaoh's daughter (Dolora Zajick) while competing with her mistress for the affections of a military commander (Johan Botha).

duration: 180 min

Synopsis:      http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=3

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This is a good link for a helium-Mozart laugh:

 

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80845385/

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OPERA ON THE INTERNET WITH DAVE D'AGUANNO

First up, a reminder that at 8 o'clock this Friday (Oct. 29), the Met's free LIVE audio stream will be giving us a performance of Donizetti's "Don Pasquale", featuring Anna Netrebko.

Next week: Bizet's "Carmen" starring Elina Garanca, at 8 p.m. on Thursday (Nov. 4).

(Check "Watch & Listen" at www.metopera.org)

On Saturday, October 30, there's a wide variety of opera performances to be heard on internet radio.

At 1 p.m., WRTI brings us Wagner's "Lohengrin" which was taped during an October 2009 performance at the Houston Grand Opera.

(www.wrti.org/)

At the same time, Canada's CBC Radio is broadcasting a Canadian Opera performance from last May of Mozart's "Idomeneo."

(www.cbc.ca/radio2/)

Also at 1, Deutschland Radio Kultur has on hand a 9/25/10 taping of Tchaikovsky's one-act opera "Iolanta" as performed in Odessa.

(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)

Or you could listen to the Netherlands Opera's current production in Amsterdam of Gounod's "Romeo & Juliette" on Radio 4.

(www.radio4.nl/)

Then at 1:30, ORF digs into the Met archives for a "classic" performance from April 7, 1973, of Rossini's ever-popular "Barber of Seville."

(http://oe1.orf.at/)

Saving the best for last (in a manner of speaking, of course), Swedish Radio is broadcasting the World Premiere of an opera by Hans Gefors which he describes as a Car Radio Opera (!!!) with a title that will surely grab you: "Purification of the Soul Through Play & Fun."

Welcome to 21st century opera, folks!

(http://sverigesradio.se/p2/)

DAVE

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Alas, there is no opera on WGBH during the entire month of October! 

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Week of October 21-28, 2010

Read my article on MyLatinoVoice.com,

My Love Affair With Opera

Click on the "Week of October 21-28, 2010" above to see a YouTube snipet of comic soprano Anna Russell singing on the claymation production of Hansel and Gretel.

On WSBE this week:
Hansel and Gretel

Christine Schäfer

Alice Coote

Hansel and Gretel. Metropolitan Opera 2007. Production: Richard Jones. Cast: Christine Schäfer (Gretel), Alice Coote (Hänsel), Philip Langridge (Witch), Alan Held (father), Rosalind Plowright (mother). Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski

Hansel and Gretel

Saturday, October 23 -- 8:00pm; Sunday, October 24 -- 3:00am; Monday, October 25 -- 12:00am

WSBE 36.2 is (RI Cox Cable 808) (RI Fios 478) (In Massachusetts, Comcast 294)

The second-season opener features the Engelbert Humperdinck opera "Hansel and Gretel," about two children (Alice Coote, Christine Schäfer) who meet a witch (Philip Langridge) in the woods.

DURATION: 120 MIN

Hansel and Gretel with Philip Langridge as the witch

Synopsis:  http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=205

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Alas, there is no opera on WGBH during the entire month of October! 

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OPERA ON THE INTERNET WITH DAVE D'AGUANNO

This coming Saturday, October 23, there are a few "goodies" in store for us on internet radio.

For example, coming to us LIVE from the Bavarian State Opera in Munich is a performance of Dvorak's "Rusalka" which can be heard on Swedish Radio at 1 o'clock.
(http://sverigesradio.se/p2/)

Alternatively, you could tune in to WRTI for a 2007 performance of Puccini's "La Rondine" from the San Francisco Opera. This one stars Angela Gheorghiu who also starred in the Met's relatively recent HD transmission of this same opera.
(www.wrti.org/)


Also at 1 is a rare opportunity to hear Steffani's "Niobe" (which greatly influenced Handel, by the way), coming to us via BBC Radio 3 in a performance last month from London's Royal Opera House.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/)

Then at 2 o'clock, Hindemith's strangely compelling opera "Cardillac" can be heard in an October 17 performance from the Vienna State Opera.
(http://oe1.at/)

A reminder, too, that at www.metopera.org, you can check out the Met's free LIVE audio stream. Coming up on Friday, October 29, at 8 p.m.: Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" with the same cast that will be showcased in cinemas on November 13.
Sounds exciting!

DAVE

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NPR Staff and Wires 

PLACIDO DOMINGO LEAVES THE WASHINGTON OPERA

Monday, September 27, 2010 at 6:56 PM

Placido Domingo performs during the dress rehearsal for Il Postino at the Los Angeles Opera on Sept. 21. The famed 69-year-old Spanish tenor announced Monday he will leave the Washington National Opera when his contract expires next year.

Matt Sayles | AP

Renowned opera singer Placido Domingo announced Monday he will leave the Washington National Opera when his contract expires next year. The famed 69-year-old Spanish tenor has been artistic director of the Washington National Opera since 1996 and general director since 2003.

The famed 69-year-old Spanish tenor has been artistic director of the Washington National Opera since 1996 and general director since 2003. The news comes a week after Domingo announced he will stay on as General Director of the Los Angeles Opera for another two years.

When Domingo became the Washington National Opera's artistic director, opera fans in the city were ecstatic.  He attracted world-class musicians to the nation's capital, started a Young Artist Program and popular, live simulcasts.

Domingo is known for keeping an extremely busy schedule, performing and conducting around the world as well as running the L.A. Opera.  Domingo will end his tenure with the Washington National Opera in June of next year.

In a letter to the opera's board obtained by The Washington Post, Domingo writes that the opera has been transformed into an internationally celebrated company. Still, he raised the possibility of a merger to sustain the opera in Washington.

"I think it is time for the company to go in new directions, including studying the possibility of a merger with the Kennedy Center," he wrote. "And you can rest assured that I will do everything I can to help during this, my last year as general director."

The opera has struggled financially in recent years as a stand-alone company.

Domingo is credited with raising the company's profile by bringing more big productions and international stars to Washington. He led the company's 2002 tour to Japan and created a young artists program to develop new talent.

"He will be missed, but all good things must come to an end," Washington National Opera President Kenneth Feinberg said in announcing Domingo's departure. "Placido's association with WNO was essential to the company's artistic development and helped it to gain recognition nationally and internationally."

Feinberg said the opera hopes to continue artistic collaborations with Domingo in the future.

Under his current contract, Domingo will return to Washington early next year to sing Iphigenie en Tauride and will conduct performances of Madama Butterfly and Don Pasquale.

Domingo is best known to popular music audiences for his "Three Tenors" performances with Jose Carreras and the late Luciano Pavarotti.

The Associated Press contributed to this report [Copyright 2010 National Public Radio]

Week of October 15-22, 2010

In Memoriam

DAME JOAN SUTHERLAND

(1926-2010) 
May jasmine and roses line your path to heaven.
 Thank you, Dame Sutherland.

  

More eloquent voices than mine remember Dame Sutherland:

The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/arts/music/12sutherland.html? r+1&ref+joan sutherland

Guardian of London: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/11/dame-joan-sutherland-obituary

Telegraph of Australia: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8056601/Soprano-Dame-Joan-Sutherland-dies-age-83.html

What we will remember her for:

The Flower Song from Lakme (with Marilyn Horne): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9ZfYr6oLhA

Brindisi from La Traviata, with Luciano Pavarotti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTrUnwILuu0&feature=related

Casta Diva from Norma http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ2L_B7VOWs

 Il Dolce Suono from Lucia de Lammermoor (The Mad Scene) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITlUAA46AFw

Vissi d'Arte from Tosca  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Egs5vGOVtc&p=74571D1F47038973&playnext=1&index=56

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If you don't mind a bit of a drive--

This Saturday, October 16, 2010 at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, MA

from the Salzburg Festival, Austria

Mozart's

DON GIOVANNI

The oldest-known Don Giovanni advertisement

KEY CAST
Christopher Maltman (Don Giovanni)
Anatoly Kocherga (Il commandatore)
Annette Dasch (Donna Anna)
CONDUCTOR Bertrand de Billy
2h56m with one intermission, in Italian with English subtitles

http://www.coolidge.org/node/2713

Synopsis:

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=249

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THIS WEEK AT THE MET ON HD 

OCTOBER 24, 2010

RENE PAPE IS

BORIS GODUNOV

 

  Composer: Modest Mussorgsky
Libretto by the composer, based on the play by Alexander Pushkin
World premiere: St. Petersburg, Mariinsky Theater, February 8, 1874
Revised version (1872–75)

 

 

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=388

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This week on WSBE:

 TURANDOT

Maria Guleghina asTurandot

Turandot, here played by Ukrainian soprano Maria Guleghina, has been called "Puccini's ice princess" for her penchant for beheading the male suitors who are unable to answer her riddles. Clearly, she is not in a hurry to marry.  Marcello Giordani is Calàf, the Persian prince who is determined to win her heart--and keep his head. This is Franco Zefferelli's opulent 1987 production. Also starring Marina Poplavskaya as Liù, the servant girl who is in love with Calàf, and Samuel Ramey as his father, the exiled King Timur.




Synopsis:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=359

Marcello Giordani as Calàf

WSBE 36.2 is (RI Cox Cable 808) (RI Fios 478) (In Massachusetts, Comcast 294)

Saturday, October 16 -- 8:00pm; Sunday, October 17 -- 3:00am; Monday, October 18 -- 12:00am

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At the Jane Pickens Theater in Newport
CARMEN

FROM BARCELONA    
LIVE Bizet's Carmen from the Gran Teatre del Liceu


To be shown at THE JANE PICKENS THEATER, Newport
Wednesday October 13th 2:00pm

Carmen - one of the most popular operas of all time - is broadcast LIVE from Barcelona with an all-star cast in a new production. The thrilling story tells of the fatal attraction between Carmen, the hot-blooded gypsy with French mezzo soprano Beatrice Uria-Monzon as Carmen, and Roberto Alagna as Don José, the upstanding corporal in the Spanish army. Don't miss this opera classic.

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Alas, there is no opera on WGBH during the entire month of October! 

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OPERA ON THE INTERNET WITH DAVE D'AGUANNO

This coming Saturday (Oct. 16), we'll be served the usual mix of the familiar & the unfamiliar, the old & the new.

The Dutch station Radio 4 brings us a performance of Reisopera's current production of Wagner's "Die Walkure." The opera starts at 1 o'clock, & being one by Wagner, ends (much) later in the afternoon.
(http://www.radio4.nl/)


Also at 1, BBC Radio 3 is broadcasting "Salome" by Richard Strauss, as performed at London's Royal Opera House this past July.
(www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/)


Even more Richard Strauss is on tap at 1:30, when Austrian Radio airs a performance from Vienna (10/9/10) of "Ariadne auf Naxos."
(http://oe1.orf.at/)


French Radio is broadcasting a LIVE performance (from the Paris Opera) of the 3 one-act Puccini operas comprising "Il Trittico."
(http://sites.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/accueil/)


At the same time, a 1992 Berlin performance of Busoni's rarely heard "Die Brautwahl" can be heard on Deutschland Radio Kultur.
(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)


Also, a reminder that the Met continues to provide free audio streams on a weekly basis. Coming up on Wednesday, Oct. 20, at 8 p.m. is Puccini's "La Boheme" (live from the Met). Just go to www.metopera.org & follow the links provided by "Watch & Listen."

Enjoy!

DAVE

Week of October 7-14, 2010

IT'S STARTING!
THE MET-HD SEASON BEGINS
THIS SATURDAY!

Scroll down past the weekly listings for the FAQs on the Met-HD transmissions
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HD BROADCAST: OCTOBER 9, 2010 -- 1:00 pm

Encore: Wedensday, October 27, 2010 --6:30 pm
Check your local listings to verify time. 

RICHARD WAGNER'S
DAS RHEINGOLD

Synopsis: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=78
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Meanwhile, on WSBE, Rhode Island Public Television...

Elīna Garanča

is

LA CENERENTOLA

Saturday, October 9 -- 8:00pm; Sunday, October 10 -- 3:00 am; Monday, October 11 - 12:00 am

WSBE 36.2 is (RI Cox Cable 808) (RI Fios 478) (In Massachusetts, Comcast 294)

La Cenerentola

A production of "La Cenerentola," Rossini's adaptation of the "Cinderella" fable, starring mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca in the lead role and tenor Lawrence Brownlee as her Prince Charming. Don Magnifico: Alessandro Corbelli. Alidoro: John Relyea.

DURATION: 180 MIN

Synopsis:

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=253

Lawrence Brownlee and Elīna Garanča

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OPERA ON THE INTERNET WITH DAVE D'AGUANNO

This coming Saturday -- for those of you who may not be attending the live HD-transmission from New York of the Met's "Das Rheingold" (Wagner) -- there's still plenty of opera to be heard. Here are some of the highlights for October 9:

At 12 noon, WFMT is broadcasting a performance of "Salome" by Richard Strauss, coming from San Francisco a year ago this month.
(www.wfmt.com/)


Then at 1 p.m., you can catch a different San Francisco Opera performance: Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" starring Deborah Voigt -- who, incidentally, will star in the Met's HD-transmission of this opera later this season. This particular performance comes from this past June -- sort of a preview of what Ms. Voigt has to offer us later on.
(http://wrti.org/)

Also at 1 o'clock, the Dutch radio station Radio 4 is bringing us a performance from September 29, 2010, of Verdi's "Vespri Siciliani" to be heard in its original French version ("Les Vepres Siciliennes") complete with its extended Act 3 ballet music. This one is courtesy of the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam.
(www.radio4.nl/)

Later, at 1:30, ORF is airing last July's broadcast from the Montpellier Festival of Vincent d'Indy's rarely performed "L'Etranger" -- this being probably a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hear this wonderful music, since d'Indy's opera hasn't been heard in nearly a century -- until now!
(http://oe1.orf.at/)

Then at 2 o'clock, there's a LIVE concert from Paris of Verdi's "Otello" starring Ben Heppner, coming to us via Radio France's audio webstream.
(http://sites.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/accueil/)

Or if you're in the mood for "something a little different" you could try Kurt Weill's "Mahagonny" (live?? from Madrid) on Swedish Radio. That's also at 2 p.m.
(http://sverigesradio.se/p2/)

As usual, there's lots to enjoy this weekend!

DAVE