Week of December 1 - December 8, 2011

Saturday, December 3, 2011 
MET- HD Simulcast and 
first Met Radio broadcast of the season:


NOTE EARLY START TIME: 12:30pm

Renee Fleming

is

RODELINDA

Fleming with counter-tenor Andreas Scholl
To hear Scholl sing Handel's Xerxes HWV 40, click on "Week of..." above.

Handel, the most successful composer of the first half of the 18th century, wrote many of his operas in London. He wrote Rodelinda in 1725, the year after the triumphant success of Giulio Cesare. Based distantly on a play by Corneille, it tells the story of the Queen Rodelinda in seventh century Lombardy, whose throne has been usurped and whose husband has been forced to flee Milan. But he returns in disguise, having spread the rumor that he has died.

SYNOPSIS: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=135

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Sunday, December 4, at 12 noon,
 at the Cable Car Cinema 
240 S. Main St., Providence 
~ (401) 272-3970

ANGELOU GHEORGHIU
is

TOSCA  

 

Royal Opera House

Tosca is the story of love; of political intrigue and attempted rape; and of the misuse of power. 

OPENING: Sunday, December 4

From the Royal Opera House, London, England Composed by Puccini Encore Conducted by Antonio Pappano Directed by Duncan Macfarland Starring Angela Gheorghiu, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel & Lukas Jakobski Sung in Italian with subtitles in English 

Synopsis: 

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=25

3 hrs 14 mins Part of 2011-2012 Season, 

Complete Opera in Cinema Series

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At the Jane Pickens Theater in Newport

LIVE FROM MILAN: OPENING NIGHT AT TEATRO ALLA SCALA WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 7TH 12:00 NOON

DECEMBER 07 (ONE SHOW ONLY)

ANNA NETREBKO

Don Giovanni

SHOWTIMES

WEDNESDAY12:00 NOON

Don Giovanni, a young, arrogant, sexually promiscuous nobleman, abuses and outrages everyone else in the cast, until he encounters something he cannot kill, beat up, dodge, or outwit.

Anna Netrebko is “the opera world’s hottest female star, with a pure and silken tone, a beautiful face and figure, and acting skills to boot.” – San Francisco Chronicle

Netrebko has “a captivating voice that is both high and deep, lustrous and velvety, and she is one of that growing breed of opera singers who can actually act.” – the New York Times

Composed by Mozart

Synopsis:  http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=435

Conducted by Daniel Barenboim

Directed by Robert Carsen

Choreographed by Philippe Giraudeau

Starring Anna Netrebko, Bryn Terfel & Peter Mattei

Sung in Italian with English subtitles

3 hrs 15 mins including one intermission

Save the date and make plans for a "day off" now. Opening night at La Scala is always December 7th and we bring it to you LIVE on our screen in HD as it is being performed on the stage in Milan

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On WSBE, Rhode Island Public Television,
Saturday, December 3 ~ 8pm; Sunday, December 4 ~ 3am; Monday, December 5 ~ 12am:

WSBE Learn 36.2= (RI Cox Cable 808) 

(RI Verizon Fios 478)

Great Performances at the Met

Natalie Dessay 
is

LA SONNAMBULA

La Sonnambula

A reimagining of the Bellini opera "La Sonnambula," about a young woman (Natalie Dessay) whose sleepwalking compromises her virtue and causes her beloved (Juan Diego Flórez) to cancel their wedding, adds a play-within-a-play format.

DURATION: 150 MIN

Synopsis: 

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=268

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OPERA ON THE INTERNET 

WITH  

DAVE D'AGUANNO

This Saturday's performance of Handel's "Rodelinda" starring Renee Fleming in the title role dominates the schedules of most internet radio stations, as well as being transmitted LIVE, as many of you know, at some of our local movie theatres.

Other than that, there's some rather lesser-known, but still wonderful Mozart on tap on Radio 4 (the Netherlands) which is broadcasting the November 23rd performance that took place in Amsterdam of his opera "Idomeneo" (written shortly before the more popular "Abduction from the Seraglio").

(www.radio4.nl/)

German Radio gives us a performance that was recently given in Munich of the Gilbert & Sullivan favorite "The Mikado." (G & S in Germany? Why not?)

(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)

Then, at 7:30 p.m. this coming Monday evening (Dec. 5), the Met's free LIVE audiostream features this season's premiere performance of Puccini's "Madame Butterfly."

(www.metopera.org)

Enjoy!

DAVE

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Nov 28, 2011 11:23am

Opera Singing Parrot Lost in New York Aria

By Arielle Milkman

Captain, a multi-talented parrot with a penchant for opera singing and bike rides, is lost in New York City, and owner Allen Kirson is on a mission to find her.

“I’m not doing too good,” Kirson said. “I’m not sleeping, I’m having dreams, it’s like a lost person, you know?”

Captain is a green and yellow Amazon Parrot who has performed with Kirson at venues like senior citizens’ homes and children’s hospitals.

Captain flew off Kirson’s shoulder while they were on a bike ride along Ocean Parkway in Kensington the day after Thanksgiving. After media outlets covered the story, Kirson received a call from someone who had seen a bird with Captain’s features flying between two trees in Owl’s Head Park.

Kirson has headed to the park to look for his parrot, although, he noted, one of his friends told him he was on a wild goose chase.

 Captain isn’t just a beloved companion to her owner. Her talents have turned into entertainment for a number of New Yorkers, Kirson said.

“She entertains 20 people a day when we bike ride,” Kirson said. “Every day I hear ‘wow, awesome, cool,’ and people smile. In New York City if you get 20 smiles a day it’s unheard of, right?”

Kirson shares custody of Captain with his ex-wife, Roberta Klein.

Klein, who helped train the 25-year-old parrot, said losing Captain has been like losing a child.

“We’re all frantic and we’re all heartbroken, she said. “She has the vocabulary of a 2-year-old child.”

Kirson and Klein are offering a reward of $200 for the bird. They hope to find the parrot while the weather is unseasonably warm in New York. Captain, a tropical bird, could perish in cold temperatures.

Those with information about Captain’s whereabouts may call Kirson at (347) 350-5914.

To see the video, click on:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/11/performing-parrot-lost-in-new-york/

NO OPERA ON WGBH TV THIS WEEK!

Week of November 24 to December 1, 2011

NEWSFLASH! 
MET-HD ENCORES OF
THE MAGIC FLUTE (December 21)   and   
HANSEL & GRETEL (December 22)
(Check the Met-HD schedules on-line for locations)
                               

This week on WSBE, Rhode Island Public Television:

WSBE Learn 36.2= (RI Cox Cable 808) 

(RI Verizon Fios 478)

Patricia Racette

is

MADAME BUTTERFLY

To hear Patricia Racette, click on "Week of..." above

Anthony Minghella’s breathtakingly beautiful staging returns with Patricia Racette as the tragic heroine and Marcello Giordani as the faithless Pinkerton and Plácido Domingo conducts.

Synopsis: 

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=8

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This week on WGBH Boston:

PLACIDO DOMINGO

plays Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in
IL POSTINO

Bask in the beautiful voice of world-renowned tenor Plácido Domingo as he performs in a romantic new opera based on the Oscar-winning Italian film.

Schedule

See more

Friday 11/25/11 9:00 PM WGBH 2/HD	Saturday 11/26/11 12:00 AM 'GBH Kids	Saturday 11/26/11 2:00 AM WGBH 44	Saturday 11/26/11 6:00 PM 'GBH Kids
Il Postino From LA Opera	Il Postino From LA Opera	Il Postino From LA Opera	Il Postino From LA Opera

December 14, 2010

OPERA REVIEW

Pablo Neruda and His Mailman, This Time Sung

By GEORGE LOOMIS

VIENNA — You can understand why singers like operas composed by Daniel Catán. They abound in real melodies — melodies with musical shapeliness, a capacity to soar and the potential to move the listener. His operas let singers do what they have been trained to do, and what they do in the theater when not performing operas by contemporary composers.

The response of critics is more mixed. The world premiere of Mr. Catán’s new opera “Il Postino,” based on the 1994 film by Michael Radford, won positive reviews at the Los Angeles Opera in September, but critical reaction to its European premiere at the Theater an der Wien here last week was more varied. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called it “a triumph,“ but Die Presse found that the story, about the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and his unlikely mentoring of a young mailman, was “smothered in operatic sugar-icing.” The word “kitsch” cropped up in more than one review.

One thing everyone seems to agree on is that “Il Postino” sounds a lot like Puccini. It has a lighthearted and nostalgic quality that reminds me especially of “La Rondine.” But what is one to make of an opera that takes so little account of musical developments of the last century? Mr. Catán, who was born in Mexico and lives in Los Angeles, knows well enough what those developments are. He has a Ph.D. from Princeton, where he studied with two stalwarts of musical modernism, Milton Babbitt and Benjamin Boretz. But he chose a very different artistic path.

Drawing on elements from the past is solid practice but those elements need to be given a contemporary slant, if only to give a work its own personality. I am pragmatic enough to appreciate an opera that gives pleasure, and “Il Postino” clearly does that. But its ersatz aspect prevents it from really getting under one’s skin.

Still, it works without a hitch in the theater. The musical tone neatly meshes with the subject, which is essentially fictitious except for its starting point — Neruda’s exile from Chile in 1948 as the result of his pro-Communist activities. With his wife, Matilde, he takes up residence on an Italian island, where his home is the only stop on the route of a bicycle-riding mailman named Mario. Mario becomes fascinated by Neruda’s art — they sing an amusing duet about metaphors — but his interest also has a practical side, for he regards poetry (correctly) as a tool for winning the love of the beautiful barmaid Beatrice.

The transition from film to opera was shrewdly engineered by Mr. Catán to capitalize on the poetic ingredient’s suitability for musical treatment.

Sometimes Neruda’s poems supply readymade aria texts. Mr. Catán also fleshes out the character of Neruda by drawing on Antonio Skármeta’s novella about the poet and expanding on the film’s political content. An actual Puccini tune, amusingly played by a brass band, is appropriated by a right-wing politician, who promises running water for the island but reneges once elected.

Aside from making for good theater, building up the role of Neruda was crucial in another respect: it is sung by Plácido Domingo, the 134th role undertaken by the tenor, who turns 70 next month. It is skillfully written to show off the mid to upper (but not too upper) range of the tenor’s voice, which still sounds rich and burnished. You wouldn’t call it fresh, but it still has much to offer and retains flexibility and a capacity for shading.

Mr. Domingo sets a high standard for the singers. Mario is also a tenor role, though one more lyrically written, and Israel Lozano sings it handsomely, despite occasional patches of roughness, and manages to project the postman’s endearing quality. Singing with a sensuously lyrical soprano, Amanda Squitieri is a captivating presence as Beatrice. The rich soprano tones of Cristina Gallardo-Domâs made her Matilde a good match for Mr. Domingo’s Neruda. Géraldine Chauvet does a nice turn as Beatrice’s comically overprotective aunt Doña Rosa, and Federico Gallar sings strongly as Giorgio, Mario’s good-natured boss at the post office.

Drawing fine playing from the Vienna Symphony, the conductor Jesús López-Cobos ensures that Mr. Catán’s melodies sing and that his transparent orchestral textures are neatly balanced.

Ron Daniels’s production, with sets and costumes by Riccardo Hernández, is not a high-budget affair but its simplicity suits the opera nicely, and it moves swiftly to accommodate the many scene changes. Jennifer Tipton’s lighting bathes Neruda’s seaside patio in Mediterranean sun. Projections are imaginatively used, whether showing social unrest in Chile or poetic words on a blackboard as if they were part of Mario’s learning experience.

Like Mr. Catán’s other operas, “Il Postino” is written in Spanish. You might think this is an effort to reach a Latino audience in the southwestern United States, the locale of all four of his operas’ premieres. But Mr. Catán, who wrote an essay on the subject for the program, seems more interested in helping Spain establish the operatic tradition it has never had. The production goes to Paris in June, but it is not yet scheduled for Spain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/arts/15iht-loomis15.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OPERA ON THE INTERNET 

WITH  

DAVE D'AGUANNO

A nice selection of opera performances are scheduled for this coming Saturday (Nov. 26) on internet radio.

Among the more familiar items, there's a recent performance from this past September of Verdi's "Rigoletto" as played and sung in Toronto, Canada, by the Canadian Opera Company.

(www.cbc.ca/radio2/)

NPR has a Houston Grand Opera performance, airing this Saturday, of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." Donizetti's masterpiece was performed there in January of this year.

(www.wrti.org/)

The BBC has on tap one of this month's performances of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" , courtesy of English National Opera.

(www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/)

French Radio brings us an 11/11/11 performance of Bellini's take on the Romeo & Juliet story: "I Capuleti & i Montecchi" (from Paris).

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

German Radio takes us into the world of 20th century opera with Britten's "Turn of the Screw" in a performance that was given in Vienna on 9/17/11.

(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)

And for all those opera fans who rejoice in archival performances, check this out: Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" in a Met performance that was given on 3/17/56, & starring 3 of the greatest singers of that era: Zinka Milanov, Richard Tucker, & Leonard Warren. An amazing performance!

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

Last but not least, if you feel like more opera on Tuesday (Nov. 29), the Met is offering yet another free LIVE audio-stream, a preview (if you will) of the upcoming HD-transmission of Gounod's "Faust." IMO, another amazing cast: Jonas Kaufmann, Marina Poplavskaya, & Rene Pape!

(www.metopera.org)

Enjoy! -- And have a safe & happy Thanksgiving!

DAVE