Week of May 26-June 2, 2011

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THIS WEEK ON RHODE ISLAND PUBLIC TELEVISION, WSBE:

Great Performances at the Met René Pape  is Boris Gudunov To hear René Pape sing Boris Godunov Act 4 – “Farewell my son, I'm dying,”  click on "Week of..." above.

Saturday, May 28 -- 7:30pm; Sunday, May 29 -- 2:30am Monday, May 30 -- 12:00am

WSBE (36.2) (RI Cox Cable 808) (RI Fios 478) 

(In Massachusetts, Comcast 294)

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

Synopsis: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=388

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Read "Sing for your life," about the

Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, 

in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/magazine/an-american-idol-just-for-opera.html?_r=3&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210

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MET-HD SIMULCAST ENCORE

Wednesday,  June 1, 6:30pm 

at a theater near you.

Deborah Voigt is Brünnhilde

iN

Die Walküre 

Die Walküre is the second of four operas

Anna Russell mugging for the camera

that make up Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelungen). The plot of  the Ring cycle is notoriously complicated so we will not attempt to relate it here.  May we suggest a comic yet accurate tutorial by Anna Russell. Die Walküre is in part 2.

PART 1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv7G92F2sqs

PART 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WduYrwAGews&feature=related

PART 3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypisVrbqDqE&feature=related

 

For a more famous parody, check out 

"What's Opera, Doc?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQlmXU1zqfc

 SYNOPSIS: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=406

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SUMMERTIME...and the living is easy....

THIS SUMMER'S MET SIMULCAST 

ENCORE SCHEDULE IS OUT!

  

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly – Wednesday, June 15, 2011
6:30 PM 
Donizetti’s Don Pasquale – Wednesday, June 22, 2011
6:30 PM
Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra – Wednesday, June 29, 2011
6:30 PM
Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment – Wednesday, July 13, 2011
6:30 PM
Puccini’s Tosca – Wednesday, July 20, 2011
6:30 PM 
Verdi’s Don Carlo – Wednesday, July 27, 2011
6:30 PM 

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Met radio broadcast season is over until November 13.

Listen to the Met Opera Saturday afternoon broadcasts at 1pm, starting November 13, on Harvard Radio, 95.3 in the Boston area or live-streaming online at http://www.whrb.org

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OPERA ON THE INTERNET 

WITH  

DAVE D'AGUANNO

This coming Saturday (May 28), it appears to be one of those something-for-everyone days for opera radio broadcast listeners.

Those of you who can't get enough of Mozart have a chance to hear the Canadian Opera Company's performance from this past January of "The Magic Flute." This is just one of several broadcasts from Toronto that are scheduled to be heard in the coming weeks on CBC Radio.

(www.cbc.ca/radio2/)

The BBC, on the other hand, moves into more "modern" territory with Weinberg's "The Portrait" as performed by Opera North this past February.

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

French Radio presents Debussy's "Pelleas & Melisande" in a performance originating from Paris on April 15 of this year.

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

Over on Radio 4 (the Netherlands), you can listen to a performance of the current production of "Der Rosenkavalier" (by Richard Strauss) now being shown in Amsterdam.

(www.radio4.nl/)

On WRTI (& other NPR stations), Verdi's "Macbeth" can be heard. This performance stems from one that was given last October by Lyric Opera of Chicago, and it features baritone Thomas Hampson in the title role.

(www.wrti.org/)

Anyone who may remember the 1964 film "The Visit" (Ingrid Bergman & Anthony Quinn) can sample Gottfried von Einem's "The Visit of the Old Lady" which was based on the same chilling tale that inspired the aforementioned film. This performance being broadcast was actually given this past Sunday (May 22) in Giessen (Germany).

(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)

Then there's Swedish Radio which continues to treat tenor Jussi Bjoerling fans to yet another of his classic performances: Verdi's "Il Trovatore" as given in Stockholm back on March 6, 1960. It doesn't get much better than that, does it?

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

Enjoy!

DAVE

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No opera from WGBH on TV this week.

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