WSBE: (Comcast 294, Cox 808, Full Channel 109, and Verizon 478)
ERNANI
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| Angela Meade |
Great Performances at the Met
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| Marcello Giordani |
Ernani
Saturday, February 2 -- 8:00pm; Sunday, February 3 -- 3:00am; Monday, February 4-- 12:00am
A production of Verdi's "Ernani," about a maiden (Angela Meade) who is romantically pursued by her uncle (Ferruccio Furlanetto), the Spanish king (Dmitri Hvorostovsky) and a bandit (Marcello Giordani).
DURATION: 150 MIN
DETAILS: [CC] [STEREO]
GENRE: PARENTS PICKS
SYNOPSIS: HTTP://WWW.METOPERAFAMILY.ORG/METOPERA/HISTORY/STORIES/SYNOPSIS.ASPX?CUSTOMID=202
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OPERA ON THE INTERNET
WITH
DAVE D' AGUANNO
The Met opens its series of matinee broadcasts
for the month of February with a performance of Rossini's "Le Comte
Ory" starring the now-famous Rossinian tenor of our time: Juan Diego
Florez. Opera fans who regularly attend the Met's frequently scheduled HD-transmissions
will undoubtedly remember his performance of this same role back in 2011.
(www.wrti.org/)
On the Belgian station Klara, you'll have a
rare opportunity to hear Bellini's "Il Pirata" which the Met hasn't
done since 2003 when Renee Fleming was featured in the soprano role of Imogene.
In this particular performance, however, it's Mariella Devia who sings the role
(Barcelona 1/13).
(http://radio.klara.be/radio/10_home.php)
Another rarity can be heard on ORF (Austria)
when Mozart's early score "Lucio Silla" will be heard, the
performance itself having first been heard in Salzburg this past Thursday (Jan.
24). Tenor Rolando Villazon (remember him?) takes the title role in this one.
(http://oe1.orf.at/)
Finally -- on Monday, February 4 -- we're given
another opportunity to sample an audio-only broadcast of Verdi's
"Rigoletto" with the same cast that will be featured later next month
on the upcoming HD-transmission. Rumor has it that this may be one of those
cases where the opera is better heard than seen -- but I personally will
reserve my own judgment on that for the time being.
(www.metopera.org)
Enjoy!
DAVE
The Dallas Opera
shared Classical Musicians Everywhere's photo.
Did you know...
Did you know that some species or whales are known for their singing. The male humpback whales for example, have been described as "inveterate composers" of songs that are "'strikingly similar' to human musical traditions".
Here you can hear several recorded Whale Songs. They sound very similar to some contemporary works performed nowadays. :)
http://www.whalesong.net/
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New Opera Gets Benefit of The 'Doubt'
by EUAN KERR
January 25, 2013 2:39 PM
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/25/170254886/new-opera-gets-benefit-of-the-doubt
As a play, Doubt won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award. As a movie, it secured Oscar nominations for Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams. This weekend, Doubt gets its world premiere as an opera — which, according to the work's original playwright, provides the story's fullest telling.
As the opera opens, Father Flynn leads his congregation in mass and asks a question that will come back to haunt him. "What do you do, when you are not sure?" Flynn, sung by baritone Matthew Worth, asks.
The question provides the basis of his sermon, but it becomes the theme of Doubt's story, as suspicions arise about his relationship with one of the church's altar boys.
Playwright John Patrick Shanley says he was dubious when composer Douglas Cuomo first suggested he adapt this unsettling story for opera.
"Being a mook from the Bronx, my initial attitude to opera was like Bugs Bunny's, which was, 'Why are those people singing that way?' " Shanley says.
But today, Shanley — who wrote the screenplay for the movie based on his original play, and now the libretto for the opera — says he sees things differently.
"With opera, I have a new set of materials available to me in addition to the ones I have employed so far," he says. "So I took the materials of film and of stage and of music, and can tell an ever more three-dimensional story — and that's a fun and compelling challenge."
Playing With Tonality
Shanley's collaborators credit the musicality of his writing style for making it such a natural fit for opera. Still, composer Cuomo says it was a challenge to devise a score that properly produces a sense of unease while asking the question: Is Father Flynn innocent or guilty? Cuomo creates that extra edge by playing with tonality.
"Sometimes, it's just a matter of adding just even one note to unsettle some more traditional-sounding major chord," Cuomo says. "You get a sense of familiarity, because here's a nice C major chord, but there's also this other note that doesn't belong in there. You have these two things happening at once that together add up to something that's slightly unsettling, or off-kilter."
The overall result is what Shanley calls a "Hitchcockian" score.
"That takes the best of the two previous mediums and adds to it this whole crayon box of audio color," Shanley says, "and it becomes something, a third thing, and maybe the most beautiful thing."
Not Without A Doubt
That combination of music, words and story has sparked its share of doubt in the Minnesota Opera's cast. Soprano Christine Brewer sings the role of Sister Aloysius, the school principal who becomes Father Flynn's accuser. Brewer is a former teacher herself and says she has seen the play a couple of times. The first time, she came away feeling that Father Flynn was guilty.
"And the next time I thought, 'Wow, maybe not,' " Brewer says. "And certainly to play this role, I have to believe he's guilty."
Enlarge image
Playwright John Patrick Shanley transformed the text of his 2005 play Doubt into the libretto of a new opera. He says he appreciates the medium's musical and moral complexities.
Michal Daniel/Minnesota Opera
Another key role is that of Mrs. Miller, the mother of the boy at the center of the firestorm of suspicion, played by mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. Coming out of a recent rehearsal, Graves says that on that particular day she believed the priest might be guilty. But as an actor, she has to convey her character's internal debate between trying to discover what might have happened to her son and the desire to simply get him through the school year and on to better things.
"I think the fact that also she is an African-American is an important layer in this story," Graves says. "She is dealing with a lot here, and trying to hold everyone together — herself included."
Shanley says that even he doesn't know if Father Flynn is guilty, and that the operatic form allows the story's shades of gray to come through.
"Two people in a scene can be in complete disagreement, but in musical terms they are very much in agreement," Shanley says. "And that's a fascinating, different kind of a subtext to me. It's sort of like, 'We may on the face of it differ on many things, but we very much inhabit the same world with the laws of the universe.' "
All doubts aside, Shanley says he now wants to collaborate on more operas, including an operatic adaptation of one of his early screenplays: Moonstruck.
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Bringing the Sinatra Style Out in ‘Rigoletto’
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/arts/music/an-unsteady-rigoletto-rat-pack.html?pagewanted=1&hpw&_r=0
To Heighten the Art? Take It to Vegas
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/arts/music/rigoletto-in-rat-pack-style-at-the-met.html?ref=metropolitanopera
Sin City Duke: Metropolitan Opera moves
Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’ to light-splashed Las Vegas
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/sin-city-duke-metropolitan-opera-moves-verdis-rigoletto-to-light-splashed-las-vegas/2013/01/23/6b2d44e2-6588-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446_story.html
George Condo, On View In and Outside the
Metropolitan Opera House
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/george-condo-on-view-in-and-outside-the-metropolitan-opera-house/
Metropolitan Opera auditions come to Denver,
and it's free - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/music/ci_22436034/metropolitan-opera-auditions-come-denver-and-its-free#ixzz2J2OIa8ep
Met Opera star heads for a night of song at
Quick Center
http://www.ctpost.com/music/article/Met-Opera-star-heads-for-a-night-of-song-at-Quick-4232897.php#ixzz2JPjOFf3a
The Met Opera auditions…the winner is Rebecca
Pedersen
http://blogs.denverpost.com/artmosphere/2013/01/28/metropooltian-opera-auditionsthe-winner-rebecca-pedersen/8496/
Here's a look at the new Rigoletto to be simulcast on February 9, 2013: http://bit.ly/Tz5emB
More Rigoletto videos here! http://www.metoperafamily.org/video/2012-2013/rigoletto
http://www.metoperafamily.org/video/2012-2013/watch/rigoletto-in-rehearsal/2080165324001#play?src=prodpg
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Secrets of Stradivarius Revealed...
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The Met radio broadcast,
February 2, 2013 @ 1:00pm
Gioachino Rossini's
Le Comte Ory
broadcasts on Harvard Radio, 95.3 in the Boston area or live-streaming online at http://www.whrb.org
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NCCO: View From the Road
by SFClassicalVoice
The New Century Chamber Orchestra has been on tour for
two weeks and SFCV asked them for some some stories and reflections from the
tour. Here, including an interview with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, is what they
came up with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NQi4yMhj89U
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Now playing at the Avon (Providence) and the Jane Pickens Theater (Newport):
Not opera but a movie about elderly opera singers--
Quartet
Quartet is a 2012 British comedy-drama film based on the play of the same title by Ronald Harwood, which ran in London's West End from 1999 - 2000, about retired opera singers who get together every year to celebrate Verdi's birthday.
Release date: January 11, 2013 (USA)
Director: Dustin Hoffman
Running time: 98 minutes
Screenplay: Ronald Harwood
Cinematography: John de Borman
Cast:
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NO OPERA ON WGBH TV
THIS WEEK!
