Opera and Choral Events

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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Week of March 31 to April 8, 2011

This week on WSBE, RI Public Television:

Not for the faint-of-heart:

SALOME



with
Karita Mattila
WSBE (36.2) (RI Cox Cable 808) (RI Fios 478) (In Massachusetts, Comcast 294)
Saturday, April 2 —  8:00 pm; Sunday,  April 3 — 3:00 am; Monday, April 4  — 12:00 am
Duration: 120 minutes
To see Karita Mattila do the Dance of the Seven Veils, click on "Week of..." above.


A production of the Richard Strauss opera "Salome," about a wild-child princess (Karita Mattila) who performs the Dance of the Seven Veils for King Herod (Kim Bagley) in return for anything she wants---which happens to be the head of a prophet.

Synopsis:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=81

NOTE TO PARENTS: If you are introducing opera to your children via these broadcasts, I would hesitate to recommend this one, not so much because of the partial nudity which is downplayed by the Met cameras but because of the realistically gruesome severed head which is displayed throughout the last third of the opera. You may want to tape, view it, and assess it before showing it to your children. Then again it may be no more disturbing to them than the latest vampire saga.
This commentary by Renate Stendhal of Scene4 will fill you in on the details of this daring production:



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 Opera on WGBH on TV this week:
 Roberto Alagna is

DON CARLO



Verdi's drama about a Spanish prince whose father steals his beloved, told against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition.

MARINA POPLAVSKAYA as Elizabeth


Some reviews:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/arts/music/24carlo.html 
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-27/heretics-fry-alagna-shines-in-don-carlo-manuela-hoelterhoff.html
http://www.theatermania.com/new-york/reviews/11-2010/don-carlo_32325.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/23/AR2010112306731.html


Synopsis:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=4
Approximate running time 4 hrs. 30 min. 

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This week's Met radio broadcast:
DAS RHEINGOLD
You  can listen to the Met Opera Saturday afternoon broadcasts at 1pm on Harvard Radio, 95.3 in the Boston area or live-streaming online at http://www.whrb.org/


Synopsis of Das Rheingold:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=78 


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OPERA ON THE INTERNET WITH  
DAVE D'AGUANNO  


This Saturday, many internet radio stations will be airing the LIVE performance that will be taking place at the Met. The opera: Wagner's "Das Rheingold" featuring Bryn Terfel as Wotan, along with many of the same singers who appeared last October in the HD-transmission of this work.



Otherwise, you may want to check out the offering this week on Swedish Radio: Yes, it's another "Lucia di Lammermoor" (Donizetti) -- this time, it's coming to us from Goteborg with a cast of (mostly) Swedish singers.

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



Or -- for a bit of lighter fare -- French Radio has a performance of Lehar's "Merry Widow" on tap, coming to us from Nancy/Lorraine in a performance from December 23, 2010.

(http://sites.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/accueil/)



Of greater interest to many opera-goers may very well be the broadcast this Saturday from the Vienna State Opera, which will be giving us Anna Netrebko & Elina Garanca in Donizetti's "Anna Bolena" (on ORF). This same opera, with both Netrebko & Garanca, is scheduled to open the 2011/2012 season at the Met, & an HD-transmission is slated for October 15. So, this Saturday's performance may be regarded as a kind of audio preview of what the Met will be giving us in the fall.

As a side-note, this opera is being televised later in the month in Europe. (Lucky Europeans!)

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

Enjoy!

DAVE


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Monthly Radio Broadcast from The  
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA

http://www.kdfc.com/The-San-Francisco-Opera-on-KDFC/5805657
 Click on "Listen Live"
Statue of Giuseppe Verdi, Golden Gate Park

From San Francisco: Sunday evening on KDFC:
Sunday, April 03, 2011 at 11:00 PM EDT  (8PM-PDT)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s

The Marriage of Figaro




A carnally minded count, his neglected wife, their wily servants and a young page who falls in love with every woman he sees: Mozart’s greatest comedy contains a cornucopia of wonderfully flawed and human characters who will amuse and delight you. Soprano Danielle de Niese “has a voice made for Mozart: bright, beautiful, agile and creamy” (National Public Radio). The “charismatic, vocally robust young Italian bass Luca Pisaroni…is an impulsive and charming Figaro” (The New York Times).
Music Director Nicola Luisotti conducts this perfectly cast production with glamorous soprano Ellie Dehn as the Countess and former Adler Fellow Lucas Meachem as her philandering husband. 
Synopsis:         http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=13.

Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Approximate running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes including one intermission
[Recorded Fall 2010]
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Do you think you might want 
to make the trek to Boston?


Dawn Upshaw, soprano

Friday, April 29, 2011, 8pm,

NEC’s Jordan Hall

Boston, MA

http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?organ_val=229&pid=6829205
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At the Cutler Majestic Theater
219 Tremont Street, Boston

OPERA BOSTON
MARIA PADILLA

Described by Donizetti scholar William Ashbrook as "one of the most unfairly neglected of Donizetti's mature operas," Maria Padilla is a tour de force loosely based on the life of a woman who secretly married King Pedro the Cruel of Castile. In this new production, beloved soprano Barbara Quintiliani returns to a role she triumphed in at the 2009 Wexford Festival. In her Ireland debut: "the evening belonged, thrilling and unequivocally, to Barbara Quintiliani as Maria. . . She has a remarkable range of colors at her disposal, her coloratura is superbly executed. . . She also has one of the rarest qualities: an innate understanding of how to build this music to a thrilling climax, with superb high notes" (Opera News)
Sung in Italian with English titles

Cast

Barbara Quintiliani as Maria Padilla
Adriano Graziani as Don Ruiz
Laura Vlasak Nolen as Ines
DongWon Kim as Don Pedro 
Young Bok Kim as Don Ramiro
Yeghishe Manucharyan as Don Luigi
Glorivy Arroyo as Francisca
John Salvi as Don Alfonso di Pardo
Conducted by Gil Rose
Directed by Julia Pevzner

Performances

Friday,
May 6, at 7:30 pm
Sunday,
May 8, at 3:00 pm
Tuesday,
May 10, 2010 at 7:30 pm
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BOSTON LYRIC OPERA
A Midsummer Night's Dream
April 29, May 1m, 4, 6, 8m, 10, 2011
At the Citi Performing Arts CenterSM Shubert Theatre
BLO premiere and new BLO production
Ah, the thrill of the chase. Over hill, over dale, girdling the Earth in 40 minutes—when the words are mostly Shakespeare, even the libretto sings. Britten gives us a stageful of sprites and mortals in a touching and very funny take: a dreamscape. Or is it a nightmare? Depends on how you feel about unrequited love, and donkeys.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Week of March 24 to March 31, 2011

OPERA IN CINEMA PRESENTS AT THE JANE PICKENS THEATER
 
Mozart's 


THE MAGIC FLUTE
LIVE from La Scala in Milan






Thursday, March 24th 3;00pm NOTE TIME CHANGE

Performed at Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy on March 24, 2011

Conducted by Roland Böer
Directed by William Kentridge
Starring Günther Groissböck as Sarastro, Alex Esposito as Papageno, Saimir Pirgu as Tamino, Genia Kühmeier as Pamina
Sung in German with English subtitles
3 hrs with one intermission

Günther Groissböck, Genia Kühmeier, Alex Exposito


Saimir Pirgu


This week on WSBE, Rhode Island Public Television:
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WSBE is fund raising this week. They are reaching out to Opera fans with this special deal: If you contribute $500, your name will be broadcast as a sponsor on your favorite opera. 
For details, contact the Membership Department at (401) 222-3636, extension 209.

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LA CENERENTOLA

Garanča's La Cenerentola and her Prince




Saturday, March 26 -- 8:00pm, Sunday, March 27 -- 3am; Monday, March 28 -- 12am
36.2 - WSBE Learn -  (RI Cox Cable 808) (RI Fios 478) (In Massachusetts, Comcast 29)
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=36

To hear Elīna Garanča in the Quintet in La Cenerentola, click on "Week of ..." above. 

 

Elina Garanča

Read an interview with Elina Garanča:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7rXnljyhII



Lawrence Brownlee

























Read an interview with Lawrence Brownlee:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/sandh/2010/jan-Jun10/brownlee_interview.htm





OPERA ON THE INTERNET WITH 
DAVE D'AGUANNO  

Why not kick things off tomorrow night (Thursday) with a LIVE performance from the Met of Rossini's "Le Comte Ory" starring Juan Diego Florez in the title role? Florez & the rest of the cast will be featured in the upcoming LIVE HD-transmission on Saturday, April 9, so you can catch an audio "preview" by tuning in tomorrow night at 8 p.m. Just go to www.metopera.org & click on "Watch & Listen" to be directed to the free Real Player audio stream at the time of the performance.

Then on Monday (March 28) also at 8 p.m., you can catch an audio "preview" of "Capriccio" by Richard Strauss, which will be televised from the Met on April 23, with the same cast as heard on Monday's free LIVE audio stream. Renee Fleming can be heard as the Countess on both dates.

On Saturday (the 26th), most internet radio stations will be carrying the LIVE Met performance of Tchaikovsky's "Queen of Spades" featuring Karita Mattila in the role of Lisa.

Two Donizetti operas are also on tap for this Saturday:

"L'Elisir d'Amore" can be heard on German Radio in a performance from Venice that was given on October 29, 2010. (www.dradio.de/dkultur/)

"Don Pasquale" (his last comic opera) will be broadcast LIVE from Stockholm on Swedish Radio. (http://sverigesradio.se/p2/)

Enjoy!

DAVE
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This week's Met radio broadcast:
QUEEN OF SPADES
You  can listen to the Met Opera Saturday afternoon broadcasts at 1pm on Harvard Radio, 95.3 in the Boston area or live-streaming online at http://www.whrb.org/

Synopsis of Queen of Spades:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/production.aspx?id=11045

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No opera from WGBH on TV this week.
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