Opera and Choral Events

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Your source for classical voice, opera, and choral events

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

August 29 - September 5, 2013

* All links below are live

This week on Rhode Island Public television,
WSBE:  (Comcast 294, Cox 808, Full Channel 109, 
and Verizon 478)
Boris Godunov

Great Performances at the Met
Saturday,  August 31 ~ 8pm; Sunday, September 1 ~ 3am; Monday, September 2 ~ 12am
Boris Godunov
Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" stars bass René Pape as the 16th-century Russian tsar whose reign is challenged by a novice monk (Aleksandrs Antonenko) masquerading as the dead Tsarevich Dimitri, whose murder opened the door for Boris' ascension.
DURATION: 210 MIN. 
DETAILS: [CC] [STEREO]
GENRE: PARENTS PICKS

Director Peter Stein discusses Boris Godunov: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPUk6KlUFuE



Radio Tonight!

A Beautiful Symphony of Brotherhood 
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 28, 7PM, 
99.5 WCRB CLASSICAL NEW ENGLAND


On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, Christopher Wilkins will lead the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, One-City Choir, the New England Spiritual Ensemble, and special guests in a concert of stirring words and inspirational music. The night also will feature the broadcast premiere of Cry, the Beloved Country, Kurt Weill's moving musical adaptation of the groundbreaking novel about life under apartheid."I Have a Dream" 50th Anniversary Concert, hosted by Benjamin K. Roe Wednesday, Aug. 28, at 7pm on 99.5 WCRB Classical New England

Fifty years ago, as a member of the fledgling educational radio network (a forerunner of today’s NPR), WGBH Radio was one of just a handful of stations to cover the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was an unprecedented gathering of 250,000+ people that culminated with the epic “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on the National Mall by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fifty years later, and closer to home, 99.5 WCRB Classical New England’s microphones will be back out in force in a major public gathering, this time to bring you a musical tribute to the inspiration and ideals that lie at the heart of Dr. King’s dream. Join us Wednesday, August 28, at 7pm for a live broadcast of the Boston Landmark Orchestra’s free concert at the Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade.

Christopher Wilkins will lead the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, One-City Choir, the New England Spiritual ensemble, and special guests in a concert of stirring words and inspirational music by Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, Michael Tippett, and Lee Hoiby. The night also will feature the broadcast premiere of Cry, the Beloved Country, Kurt Weill’s moving musical adaptation of the groundbreaking novel about life in South Africa under apartheid.

Tune in this tribute to the man who once declared, “We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody that is far superior to the discords of war.”



The WGBH Labor Day Weekend Opera Bash is here!!

This Labor Day weekend, 99.5 WCRB Classical New England again joins WGBH 2 and WGBX 44 to present our annual Opera Bash, featuring some of the finest operas ever heard on the planet!
On television, revel in more than 30 solid hours of opera. Meanwhile, 99.5 WCRB will bring you special “Opera Without Words” programming all weekend long, as well as some of our stunning operatic productions made right here in the Hub of the Universe.
Sponsorship of Opera Bash is generously provided by Boston Lyric Opera.

Saturday, August 31

12pm on WGBH 44
Puccini:  La Fanciulla del West
A commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the opera's 1910 world premiere at the Met. Deborah Voigt sings the role of Minnie.

2:30pm on WGBH 2
Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
David Daniels and Natalie Dessay star in David McVicar's imaginative take on Handel's opera about Caesar and Cleopatra.

6:30pm on WGBH 44
Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera

7pm on 99.5 WCRB
BSO: All-Wagner program
It’s a Wagner double bill on our Saturday night broadcasts of the BSO, beginning with an encore presentation of a concert featuring some of the most thrilling music from Wagner’s operas, including music from Götterdämmerung, Parsifal, Lohengrin and Tristan und Isolde. Italian conductor Daniele Gatti conducts the BSO in concert at Symphony Hall with mezzosoprano Michelle DeYoung as featured soloist.

RICHARD CROFT
Richard Croft portrays Gandhi in Satyagraha
9pm on WGBH 44
Glass: Satyagraha
Richard Croft once again portrays Gandhi in Philip Glass’ unforgettable opera, which the Washington Post calls “a profound and beautiful work of theater.”

9pm on 99.5 WCRB
BSO: Die Walkure, Act III
It’s already being discussed as one of the most memorable nights of music in Tanglewood’s storied history: the steamy night in July when Welsh bassbaritone Bryn Terfel offered a mesmerizing account of Wotan in Act III of Die Walküre, the second of Wagner’s four-opera Ring cycle. Terfel heads up an outstanding cast that includes soprano Katarina Dalayman as Brünnhilde, soprano Amber Wagner as Sieglinde and German conductor Lothar Koenigs, making his Boston Symphony debut.

Midnight on WGBH 2
Verdi: Don Carlo
A Spanish prince falls for the French princess he's supposed to marry as part of a Spanish-French peace treaty, only to have his father decide to wed her himself.

Sunday, September 1

12pm on WGBH 44
Verdi: Ernani

2pm on 99.5 WCRB
Handel: Almira
Boston Early Music Festival 2013
This standout production, recorded in concert at the Cutler Majestic Theatre by 99.5 WCRB, includes sopranos Ulrike Hofbauer as Almira and Amanda Forsythe as Edilia, tenor Colin Balzer as Fernando, and baritone Tyler Duncan as Raymondo. Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs are musical directors, and Robert Mealy leads the splendid Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra.

2:30pm on WGBH 2
Wagner: Siegfried

7pm on WGBH 44
Donizetti: Don Pasquale

7:30pm on 99.5 WCRB
Handel: Agrippina
World of Opera host Lisa Simeone rounds out our weekend of opera with another great, this time in a production from the Flemish Opera in Ghent led by noted Baroque conductor Paul McCreesh. Ann Hallenberg stars as Agrippina, Nero’s shrewd and savvy mother, without whom the infamous emperor could never have fiddled while Rome burned.

9:30pm on WGBH 44
Strauss: Capriccio 

Midnight on WGBH 2

Gound: Faust

Alas, the summer is ending...







Auditions

New Singer Auditions Soon!

Join us for new singer auditions: Wednesday 28 August and Wednesday 4 September at 7 PM. Auditions for new members will be held on Wednesday August 28th and Wednesday September 4th at 7 PM and again in January at the Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, RI College. For your planning purposes you will be asked to bring a simple prepared song such as a hymn or aria. The audition will include range testing, pitch matching and simple sight singing. Please contact us by phone or email to schedule an audition date and time.

  LOCATION: Rhode Island College, Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts 
  Wed. 28-Aug                 7:00 PM                NC 198
  Wed. 4-Sep                    7:00 PM                NC 198






Auditions

Final auditions for the 2013-14 season
The Providence Singers invite experienced choral singers to audition for the 42nd season. Auditions for new and returning members will be conducted by appointment.
   • Remaining audition day:  Tuesday, August 27
   • Appointments available: 7 to 9 p.m.   
More about auditions  |  Audition brochure (pdf)

It keeps getting better: Auditions for the 2013 Junior Providence Singers
Back for its eleventh concert season, the Junior Providence Singers will hold auditions from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, September 4-5, at the Carter Center in East Providence. Meet new music director Paulette LaParle, sing your audition, and get set for an incredible season that includes an encore performance of Eric Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Love Songs, performed last year by the Providence Singers.
More information  |  Download brochure (pdf)




OPERA ON THE INTERNET 
WITH  
DAVE  D' AGUANNO

For this coming Saturday (August 31), probably the most interesting opera-listening experience would be Czech composer Josef Myslivecek's 1778 opera "L'Olimpiade" which can be heard on German Radio in a performance from Prague that took place on May 2 of this year.

Perhaps of more general interest would be the recent Covent Garden performance of Verdi's "Don Carlo" which can be heard on the Belgian station Klara. In the title role is tenor Jonas Kaufmann who was seen earlier this month in the same role in a LIVE performance from Munich (available on YouTube, the last time I looked). This, by the way, is the 5-act version, so interested listeners will need to devote most of the afternoon to this operatic masterpiece.

Another rather lengthy opera (although perhaps not by this particular composer's standards) is Wagner's "Tannhauser" which ORF is broadcasting this Saturday, the performance itself being one that took place in Berlin this past August 4.


Enjoy!


DAVE





Richard Tucker’s Centennial Birthday
Met Opera Radio celebrates the 100th birthday of legendary American tenor Richard Tucker with a special day-long tribute of historic broadcasts. Tucker, born Reuben Ticker on August 28, 1913 in Brooklyn, sang more than 700 performances at the Met. He made his debut in La Gioconda in 1945 and last appeared as Canio in Pagliacci in 1974. His repertoire with the company included most of the major roles in the Italian repertoire, as well as the title role of Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, and Don José in Carmen, which he sang 60 times. Join us as we celebrate some of his most memorable live performances, such as his 1956 La Forza del Destino, 1957 Andrea Chenier, 1966 Manon Lescautand many more!

Airtime: August 28, 6 am ET
http://www.siriusxm.com/metropolitanopera     


August 28 Named Second Annual 'Richard Tucker Day' in NYC

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has declared Wednesday, August 28 the second annual "Richard Tucker Day" in New York City, marking what would have been the legendary Brooklyn-born tenor's 100th birthday. To observe this honor, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation will lead celebrations throughout the city and online, in collaboration with a number of renowned New York institutions, including Junior's restaurant, Brooklyn Brewery, the Metropolitan Opera, The Juilliard School, the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, WQXR, Operavore and more.

The leading American tenor of his day, native New Yorker Richard Tucker has been dubbed "King of the Met during the 1950s and '60s" (Opera News), and his invaluable contribution to the cultural life of the city has already been recognized in a number of ways: the park adjacent to Lincoln Center was designated "Richard Tucker Square," with a bronze portrait bust of the singer, and last August, on what would have been his 99th birthday, New York celebrated the first annual Richard Tucker Day.

"We are thrilled that Mayor Bloomberg and the City of New York have chosen once again to honor my father's legacy. He had a deep attachment to the city, and on the occasion of what would have been his 100th birthday, the tribute is especially fitting," said Barry Tucker, President of the Richard Tucker Music Foundationand eldest son of the great tenor.

Highlights of the festivities planned for Richard Tucker Day include the following:

- At noon, the Manhattan-based Opera Collective - as featured on NHK's documentary series New York Streets - will present a concert celebrating the centennial at Richard Tucker Square (Broadway between W. 65th and W. 66th Streets), as part of Lincoln Square's Business Improvement District's Free Lunchtime Concert Series.
- Beginning at 2pm, Tucker Foundation award- and grant-winning singers will present an Aria-thon at Richard Tucker Square, singing beloved pieces from some of the 30 different operas in which Tucker starred at the Met during his 30-year career at the famed house.

- At 4pm, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation will hold a panel discussion on the great tenor's legacy at The Juilliard School. The distinguished speakers will include superstar soprano and 1990 Tucker Award-winner Renée Fleming; Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is an ardent, life-long fan of opera; and lyric tenor Neil Shicoff, who serves on the Tucker Foundation's audition panel and whose father, like Richard Tucker, was an American-Jewish opera singer and cantor.

- Richard Tucker Day will conclude with a 7:30pm concert at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. Renée Fleming hosts the evening, while performers will include lyric soprano Ailyn Pérez, winner of the 2012 Tucker Award; mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, a 2012 Tucker Career Grant recipient and winner of the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition; 2009 Tucker Award-winning tenor Stephen Costello; tenor Paul Appleby, who won a Career Grant from the Foundation in 2011; and 2013 Career Grant recipient, soprano Erin Morley will join other Tucker Foundation laureates in a musical tribute to the great tenor's legacy.


Read more about August 28 Named Second Annual 'Richard Tucker Day' in NYC - BWWMusicWorld by www.broadwayworld.com


  BLO's 2013/2014 Season opens on October 4
2013-14_Season_Shows

Single tickets are now on sale for Boston Lyric Opera's 2013/2014 Season of all-new productions, including the season opening world premiere new English adaptation of Mozart's The Magic Flute. This season BLO welcomes an international lineup featuring Sarah Coburn, John Tessier, Emily Hindrichs, Morris Robinson, Caroline Worra, Nadine Sierra, and Music Director David Angus.

Join us for a thrilling season by securing your seats today! Tickets may be purchased online at www.citicenter.org, by phone at 1-866-348-9738, or by visiting the Citi Center box office at the Wang Theatre located at 265 Tremont Street.
          
Interested in seeing more than one opera this season?
  subscribe today and receive the best seats at the best prices!
To become a subscriber please call BLO Audience Services at 617-542-6772.


Boston Lyric Opera
11 Avenue de Lafayette
Boston, MA 02111

Some interesting articles

Tell tale: Soprano Christine Brewer sings from experience

Very Verdi_La Scala_A Two hundredth anniversary celebration

Interview with Ann Netrebko  (in Russian; use cc button for closed captions)

Lend us a tenor: Opera star Joseph Calleja explains the beauty of his home island Malta

From Dave:
Two operas to be broadcast with GERMAN subtitles:
"Die Meistersinger" (from this summer's Salzburg Festival) is available on YouTube (in 3 parts) with German subtitles.

A video (with German subtitles) of "The Flying Dutchman" from this summer's Bayreuth Festival is available (in 3 parts) on YouTube !!
If you're interested, I'd advise you to check it out pretty soon, since I have a feeling that it will "mysteriously disappear" in a few days.


Just released by Decca MP3s!
Photo: OK, one for all you dog lovers.  Decca MP3s has just officially released this today with music from Chopin, Grieg, Beethoven and more.  What would Nipper say?  -Ray


*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
The Met radio broadcast season is
over for now...
check this space the first week
of December. 





OPERA ON WGBH TV 
THIS WEEK! 



The WGBH Labor Day Weekend Opera Bash is here!!