Week of January 1, 2015 - January 8, 2015

All links are live!

This week on Rhode Island Public television,

WSBE:  (Comcast 294, Cox 808, Full Channel 109, and Verizon 478)

Saturday, January 1, 2015, 8:00pm

Sunday, January 2, 2015  3:00am

Monday, January 3, 2015 12:00am

GREAT PERFORMANCES

Don Giovanni 

Don Giovanni

Baritone Mariusz Kwiecien stars as the serial seducer "Don Giovanni," who swaggers his way to eternal damnation in this production of Mozart's 1787 masterpiece, which costars soprano Barbara Frittoli as the fiery Donna Elvira.

DURATION: 180 MIN

DETAILS: [CC] [STEREO]

GENRE: PARENTS PICKS

SYNOPSIS: http://www.metopera.org/metopera/season/synopsis/don-giovanni

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Ten Opera-based New Year’s Resolutions

http://www.buzzfeed.com/royaloperahouse/10-opera-based-new-years-resolutions-i4zh

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MET OPERA HD

COMING JANUARY 17!

Lehár’s The Merry Widow—

New Production

January 17, 2015, 12:55 pm ET

U.S. Encore:         Wednesday, January 21, 2015 at 6:30 pm local time

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OPERA ON THE INTERNET 

WITH  

DAVE  D' AGUANNO

Opera-lovers whose idea of ushering in the New Year may involve some serious (or not-so-serious) opera listening can tune in to the Met's FREE live audio-stream this evening at 6:55 for a performance of Lehar's "The Merry Widow" with soprano Renee Fleming singing the leading role. Or you could wait till the 17th of next month when this same work (& with Ms Fleming in the lead) will be presented as an HD-transmission at area movie theatres. Or you could do both!

(www.metopera.org/)

The Met also has a LIVE performance scheduled for this coming Saturday afternoon (January 3) as they usually do on Saturday afternoons during these bleak winter months. This time around it's Humperdinck's "Hansel & Gretel" which has been known to appeal to adults as well as children. (Of course!)

(www.wrti.org/)

This Saturday also seems to be favorable to those opera buffs who adore the operas of Tchaikovsky, as TWO of his operas will be broadcast. One of them is "The Queen of Spades" which will be broadcast on ORF in a performance from Munich which took place on October 11, 2014.

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

The other opera by Tchaikovsky on Saturday's schedule is one of his less frequently performed works: "The Maid of Orleans." The performance to be heard on Saturday comes to us on Radio 4 (the Netherlands) from the Bolshoi Opera (September 2014).

(www.radio4.nl/)

Keeping the festive spirit going for the coming weekend, French Radio will be presenting Johann Strauss's ever-popular comic opera "Die Fledermaus." It's a performance that took place in Paris this past December 23.

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

Plus, in case you may be about to bemoan the absence of any Italian operas on this Saturday's schedule, you may take solace in knowing that German Radio is broadcasting a performance from Baden-Baden of Bellini's "I Capuleti & I Montecchi" with mezzo Elina Garanca in the trouser role of Rome. The performance itself took place this past November 27.

(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)

Happy New Year, everyone!

DAVE

P.S.:

This is something a little different, but fans of Netrebko & Florez may be interested in this YouTube video of a concert performance of Kalman's operetta "The Csardas Princess" as performed last Sunday in Dresden (no subtitles):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzTqYn8fEn8

DAVE

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The Met

Saturday afternoon radio broadcast 

Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel

January 3, 2015 1:00 pm ET

Davis; Stober, Rice, Martens, Brubaker, Croft

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Week of December 25 - December 31- 2014

Carmen, the gingerbread cookie

All links are live!

This week on Rhode Island Public television,

WSBE:  (Comcast 294, Cox 808, Full Channel 109, and Verizon 478)

Special showing->  Saturday, December 20, 12 noon

Saturday, December 27, 8:00pm

Sunday, December 28, 3:00am

Monday, December 29, 12:00am

GREAT PERFORMANCES

Anna Bolena

Season 6 opens with Gaetano Donizetti's "Anna Bolena," based on the last days of Anne Boleyn (Anna Netrebko), the second wife of British monarch Henry VIII (Ildar Abdrazakov).

DURATION: 210 MIN

DETAILS: [CC] [STEREO]

GENRE: PARENTS PICKS

SYNOPSIS: http://www.metopera.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=431

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OPERA ON THE INTERNET 

WITH  

DAVE  D' AGUANNO

One of Verdi's most popular operas -- "La Traviata" -- hits the "airwaves" this coming Saturday afternoon (December 27), as the Met continues its series of LIVE broadcasts of operas this season.

(www.wrti.org/)

BBC Radio 3, on the other hand, will be devoting time to a broadcast from London's Royal Opera House, namely Wagner's "Tristan & Isolde." It's worth noting that, even if you should miss the initial broadcast, the performance can be heard for the entire week following the broadcast on the BBC website.

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

From Paris comes the December 12, 2014 performance of Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito." It may also be worth noting in this instance that a video of this opera (with the same cast, etc.) may be seen on YouTube with French subtitles.

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

German Radio is providing a rare opportunity to listen to an archival performance of Handel's 1741 oratorio "Samson." This performance originally took place in Berlin on September 18, 1955. The cast may be largely unknown to American listeners, although tenor Ernst Haefliger is featured & may be familiar to some listeners via his various recordings from that era.

(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)

Then, on ORF, there's this little oddity: American composer Robert Ashley's 1985 opera entitled "Don Leaves Linda" (I kid you not!). According to the ORF website, the performance is being broadcast in memory of Mr. Ashley who died this past March 3, a fact which probably eluded everyone's notice. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

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

Enjoy! -- And enjoy the holidays, too, of course!

DAVE

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WGBH's Opera Bash

WGBX 44

12/27/2014  11:00:00:00   Great Performances at the Met #604 ­ Rodelinda

12/27/2014  14:30:00:00   Great Performances at the Met #609 ­ La Traviata

12/27/2014  17:30:00:00   Great Performances #3912 ­ Encores! Great

Performances at the Met

12/27/2014  19:30:00:00   Great Performances at the Met #612 ­ Wagner¹s

Ring Cycle ­ Di Walkure

12/28/2014  11:00:00:00   Great Performances at the Met #805 ­ Rusalka

12/28/2014  14:00:00:00   Great Performances at the Met #810 ­ La

Cenerentola  

12/28/2014  17:30:00:00   Great Performances at the Met #702 ­ Otello

12/28/2014  20:30:00:00   Great Performances at the Met #601 ­ Anna Bolena

WGBH 2

12/28/2014 00:00:00:00   Great Performances at the Met #614 ­ Wagner¹s

Ring Cycle - Gotterdammerung

12/29/2014 00:30:00:00   Great Performances at the Met #704 ­ La Clemenza

Di Tito

12/29/2014 03:00:00:00   Great Performances at the Met #608 ­ Manon

La Cenerentola had been listed in Explore for 11/16 before I asked Maria to hold it for the Bash.

I think some pledge replaced it then.

The Encores! Program is a compendium program with pledge possibilities.

Encores! Great Performances at the Met – featuring 19 unforgettable arias and duets selected from the past eight seasons of broadcasts, performed by today’s greatest opera stars and talents – will air on Great Performances in December. (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the program on Thursday, December 11 at 8:30 p.m.)

Hosted by soprano Deborah Voigt, from the Grand Staircase of the Met, the special covers a wide range of operatic ground, from heartbreak to hilarity, delivered by such artists as Natalie Dessay, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Juan Diego Flórez, Jonas Kaufmann, and Anna Netrebko, along with Voigt herself.  These extraordinary moments, selected from more than 75 productions, were initially seen as part of the Met’s global Live in HD movie-theater transmissions, and later shared with PBS audiences as presentations of Great Performances at the Met.

These broadcast performances are the “high pressure performances that separate the divas from the girls,” says Voigt with a twinkle in her eye.

The musical excerpts are interspersed with commentary by Voigt and some backstage interviews with the singers.

Excerpts Listing: 

“Chacun le sait, chacun le dit”

La Fille du Régiment (Donizetti)

Natalie Dessay

“Ah, mes amis”

La Fille du Régiment (Donizetti)

Juan Diego Flórez

“Figlia impura di Bolena”

Maria Stuarda (Donizetti)

Joyce DiDonato, Elza van den Heever 

“Pourquoi me réveiller”

Werther (Massenet)

Jonas Kaufmann

Final Scene, Carmen (Bizet)

Elīna Garanča, Roberto Alagna

“So anch’io la virtù magica”

Don Pasquale (Donizetti)

Anna Netrebko

“How soft and sweet your magic tone”

The Magic Flute (Mozart)

Matthew Polenzani

“En proie à la tristesse”

Le Comte Ory (Rossini)

Diana Damrau

“Plebe! Patrizi!”

Simon Boccanegra (Verdi)

Plácido Domingo

with Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordani, James Morris

Final Scene, Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky)

Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky

“Largo al factotum”

Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini)

Peter Mattei

“Fin ch’han dal vino”

Don Giovanni (Mozart)

Mariusz Kwiecien

“D’amor sull’ali rosee”

Il Trovatore (Verdi)

Sondra Radvanovsky

“Mild und leise wie er lächelt”

Tristan und Isolde (Wagner)

Deborah Voigt

“Questa o quella”

Rigoletto (Verdi)

Piotr Beczala

“Un bel dì vedremo”

Madama Butterfly (Puccini)

Patricia Racette

Death Scene, Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky)

René Pape

“O soave fanciulla”

La Bohème (Puccini)

Kristine Opolais, Vittorio Grigolo

“Loge, hör!”

Die Walküre (Wagner)

Bryn Terfel

December 29-30-31

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The Met

Saturday afternoon radio broadcast 

Verdi
LA TRAVIATA

December 27, 2014 1:00 pm ET
Armilato; Rebeka, Costello, Kelsey