Met-HD December 15, 2012, 12:55 pm ET
Verdi's
AIDA
December 15, 2012, 12:55 pm ET
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| Roberto Alagna as Radames |
“Ms. Monastyrska, a native of Kiev, Ukraine, and an
established star at that city’s opera house, comes to the Met a fully mature
artist. She is gifted with a luscious round soprano that maintains its glow
even in the softest notes. Her “O patria mia” was beautifully drawn and colored
with darker inflections that added dramatic intensity.”
“The combined fervor of Olga Borodina as Amneris and
Fabio Luisi at the helm of a fired-up orchestra made for an electrically
charged and energetic performance” (New York Times).
To hear Roberto Alagna sing Celeste Aida, go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR28e5vasTs
And if you still can’t get enough of
Roberto Alagna, check out this fan video, including the comments:
Roberto
Alagna - Why am I so sexy ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wIfl1kW_Qk
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Live From Lincoln Center Presents 2012
Richard Tucker Opera Gala on PBS
Honoring the legacy of America's greatest tenor through support of young American opera singers.
The complete list of singers appearing on the
gala program includes Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov, who sings the title roles
in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni this season at the Metropolitan
Opera; mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, a 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant
recipient; Russian mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina, who plays Amneris in the Met’s
revival of Aida; tenor Stephen Costello, the 2009 Richard Tucker Award-winner
and husband of Pérez; Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, in her American debut;
Canadian baritone Gerald Finley, who recently sang Count Almaviva opposite
Abdrazakov’s Figaro; Italian tenor Marcello Giordani, who portrayed Calàf in
the Met’s Turandot this season; Siberian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who
stars in the Met’s new production of Un ballo in maschera and later in its
revival of Don Carlo; baritone Quinn Kelsey, a 2006 Richard Tucker Career Grant
recipient and 2004 Sara Tucker Study Grant winner; Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla
Monastyrska, who made her Met debut in title role opposite Borodina in Aida;
and Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott, who at the Met this season sings
Leporello to Abdrazakov’s Don Giovanni and Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore
opposite his real-life partner, Anna Netrebko.
Schedule
| Monday 12/17/12 3:00 AM WGBH 44 | Thursday 12/20/12 9:00 PM WGBH 2/HD | Friday 12/21/12 1:30 PM WGBH 44 |
|---|---|---|
| The Richard Tucker Opera Gala | The Richard Tucker Opera Gala |
The Richard Tucker
Opera Gala
|
This week on Rhode Island Public television,
WSBE: (Comcast 294, Cox 808, Full Channel 109, and Verizon 478)
Il Trovatore
Great Performances at the Met
|
Saturday, December 15 -- 8:00pm; Sunday, December 16 -- 3:00am; Monday, December 17 -- 12:00am
Il Trovatore
A production of Verdi's "Il Trovatore," in which brothers (Marcelo Álvarez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky) compete for the affections of the same woman (Sondra Radvanovsky). Dolora Zajick costars as Azucena, the gypsy with a dark secret.
DURATION: 150 MIN
DETAILS: [CC] [STEREO]
GENRE: PARENTS PICKS
synopsis: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=87
http://www.kdfc.com/pages/12626407.php
WAGNER--LOVE THE MUSIC;
THE MAN, NOT SO MUCH
A new documentary explores the persistent dilemma that faces fans of the music of Richard Wagner. How do you reconcile the music (beautiful) with the man (less so)? Wagner’s anti-Semitism is well-documented and then there’s that whole connection with Hitler and the Third Reich which had the apparent blessing of Wagner’s descendants.
The English actor Stephen Fry who is a fan of Wagner’s music and a Jew narrates the film “Wagner & Me” which considers this question through interviews and performances. In the film, Wagner scholar Chris Walton suggests that just because Wagner may have been “a nasty little anti-Semite doesn't mean that his music is not as supreme as it is.” “Wagner & Me” opened Friday in limited release.
Read more at the New York Times here: http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/movies/stephen-fry-narrates-the-documentary-wagner-me.html?_r=2&.
Rosie’s Corner
I’m not a great one for pitting opera singers against each other. The
snarky bloggers who cannot find an equal to Maria Callas in this generation of
sopranos which is graced with Anna Netrebko, Renée Fleming, Kristin Chavez and
Patricia Racette, to name a few, need to have their ears—and heads—examined. To me, each one
is wonderful in his/her own way. Don’t ask me to compare Roberto Alagna with Rolando Villazon, Marcello
Giordani, Ramon Vargas, or Marcelo Raúl Álvarez; I like each one of them in some performances and in some roles better than others. This is a golden age of opera: We enjoy an embarrassment of
riches.  |
| Cecelia Bartoli |
This week, I found a wonderful concert on YouTube by
Cecilia Bartoli, performing Vivaldi. Unfortunately, after I posted this week's blog, they took it down for copyright violations. Harumph!
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OPERA ON THE INTERNET
WITH
DAVE D' AGUANNO
New York's Metropolitan
Opera leads the way this week by offering us THREE operas to enjoy, starting
tomorrow evening (Thurs.) at 5:55 p.m. when their FREE live audio-stream will
be airing the blockbuster "Les Troyens" by Hector Berlioz. Consider
it a "preview" of what to expect next month when this same opera with
virtually the same cast gets an HD-transmission at local movie theaters.
(www.metopera.org)
Then, as on the past
two Saturday afternoons, the Met has another HD-transmission scheduled for this
coming Saturday, when a LIVE performance of Verdi's "Aida" gets shown
in area movie theaters. Tenor Roberto Alagna will be singing the role of Radames,
with a "new" soprano in the title role who's been getting great
reviews for her recent appearances in this role in New York City.
Plus, on next Tuesday
(Dec. 18), the FREE live audio-stream will be featuring Rossini's "Barber
of Seville" beginning at 7:25 p.m. In the cast will be Isabel Leonard and
Alek Shrader who played the young lovers Miranda and Ferdinand in the recent
HD-transmission of "The Tempest" by Thomas Ades.
"Les Troyens"
is actually only one of TWO blockbuster operas that can be heard on internet
radio this coming week, as BBC Radio 3 on Saturday will be broadcasting a LIVE
performance from London's Royal Opera House of Meyerbeer's "Robert le
Diable" -- the opera which "officially" marked the beginning of
the composer's fame in the 19th century, mainly due to a ballet (within the
opera) featuring nuns rising from their graves and dancing about --
provocatively, I guess. Well! -- The audio version to be heard on Saturday
should be innocuous enough, at least. Bass John Relyea (seen in the Met's "Damnation
of Faust") plays the devilish Bertram, & soprano Marina Poplavskaya
sings Alice, another innocent-victim role like the one she sang in last
season's "Faust" (by Gounod).
(www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/)
Want even more French
opera? Well, leave it to Radio France to give us another one, with their
broadcast from November 22, 2012, of Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffmann."
(http://sites.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/accueil/)
ENJOY!
DAVE
*************************************
RICCO CHAMBER CHOIR
Christmas Program
- Sunday December 16th, 4:00 PM at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Cranston, RI. 237 Garden Hills Drive Cranston, RI 02920
All concerts conducted by
Edward Markward, Music Director
Please visit our web page : http://www.ricco.org/
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 |
| Jonas Kaufmann as Lohengrin |
LA
SCALA OPENS 2012-13 SEASON WITH LOHENGRIN
La
Scala’s 2012-13 opening night was marred by controversy. Many patrons were
upset that it featured Wagner’s Lohengrin rather than an opera by Italy’s own Giuseppe
Verdi. This may account for the reason that it was not, as in past years, broadcast
in theaters around the world.
Italy
is fighting a recession that they blame, in part, on the austerity measures imposed by
the head of the European Union, Germany’s Angela Merkel. In light of the ill
will generated by that conflict, to have a Wagner opera—one that Verdi thought
of as second-rate—open the most famous opera season in the world adds insult to
injury.
Italian
President Giorgio Napolitano was unable to attend the opening because of pressing
state business in Rome, he said, insisting that he did not intend it to be a
deliberate snub. Prime Minister Mario Monti, however, attended the gala along
with five of his ministers.
As if
all the political drama was not enough, both the German soprano Anja Harteros, and
her understudy both fell ill with flu so that Annette Dasch flew into Milan
overnight to rescue the biggest night in the opera world. German tenor Jonas
Kaufmann stars in the title role.
La
Scala has been struggling financially since the state covers only 40%
of its budget. La Scala general manager Stephane Lissner hoped that a glamorous
gala would draw audiences and sponsors to La Scala, saying that if the support
for La Scala did not grow, it would be forced to close its doors after 234
years. Opening night was broadcast in Europe, Russia, and Japan. Why they left
American audiences out in the cold is mystifying to this opera fan. Perhaps it
will show up later in the season.
Lohengrin can be viewed on YouTube but so far, it is only available with German subtitles.
Hail, Maria!
By Ellen Keel
05 Dec 2012
05 Dec 2012
Donizetti’s bel canto
masterpiece Maria Stuarda has its Met premiere on New Year’s Eve—a true cause
for celebration, according to star Joyce DiDonato and director David McVicar.
Each of Donizetti’s three great “Tudor queen” operas—Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux—ends with the heroine considering her legacy and her eternal soul. Poor Anne Boleyn rages with the effort of forgiving her enemies in an extended mad scene, while Elizabeth in Roberto Devereux agonizes over the bloodshed she has caused. Only Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, faces her demise with peace of mind. Absolved of her sins, she even delivers an eloquent wish for the well-being of the rival who condemned her to death. Her vocal line soaring above the chorus of mourners in the finale is an unforgettable musical manifestation of her spiritual triumph. It’s the kind of effect that inspires David McVicar, director of the Met premiere production of Maria Stuarda, which opens on New Year’s Eve, to describe the opera as “a perfect example of bel canto style, telling a vivid dramatic story through music that glories in the possibilities of the human voice.”
To continue reading, go to the following link:
To continue reading, go to the following link:
http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/8737.html
The Metropolitan Opera
In case you missed it, HD host Deborah Voigt dropped
in on a rehearsal of MARIA STUARDA on Saturday to get a sneak peek at Joyce
DiDonato's performance as Mary, Queen of Scots. Check it out!
http://bit.ly/T5kuDo
The Metropolitan Opera
In case you missed it, HD host Deborah Voigt dropped
in on a rehearsal of MARIA STUARDA on Saturday to get a sneak peek at Joyce
DiDonato's performance as Mary, Queen of Scots. Check it out!
http://bit.ly/T5kuDo
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COMING TO THE JANE PICKENS THEATER, Newport
Sunday, January 11, 2012, at 11 AM
Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu singing, on ice skates? NO.
OVERVIEW
Opera On Ice is the coming together of the marvels of
opera music and the acrobatic maneuvers of figure skating all in one show.
Recorded in the magical setting of the Verona Arena, the largest open-air opera
theater in the world, Opera on Ice offers some of the most famous arias from
twelve operas which have made music history: Don Giovanni – Aida – Carmen –
Romeo and Juliet – Turandot – Tosca – La Traviata – Rigoletto – Nabucco -
William Tell – L’Elisir d’Amore – Gianni Schicchi.
The international importance of the show is also due
to the chorus, the orchestra and the Verona Arena singers as well as to the
figure skating stars taking part, first and foremost Carolina Kostner and
Olympic champion Stephane Lambiel. Italian skater, Carolina Kostner, has just
won the European Championships and comes first in the world ranking.
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NOT OPERA BUT...
A Month of Beethoven
Join James David Jacobs in a month-long celebration of the
composer who changed everything. Featuring daily piano sonatas in some of the
most compelling renditions on record, the celebration also includes recent
Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts of Beethoven's orchestral works, in celebration of his 242nd birthday on December 16.
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The 2012-13 Radio Broadcasts:
This week
December 15, at 12:55pm
Verdi's
Verdi's
AIDA
Listen to the Met Opera Saturday afternoon
broadcasts on Harvard Radio, 95.3 in the Boston area or live-streaming online at http://www.whrb.org
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Traveling to London? Want to see Angela Gheorghiu in the
house where she is queen?
Check out the Royal Opera Season Calendar:
http://intermezzo.typepad.com/intermezzo/royal-opera-house-2012-2013-season-calendar-.html
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NO OPERA ON WGBH TV
at prime time
THIS WEEK!
If you want to watch opera on WGBH, you have to watch it in the middle of the night or the middle of the day.
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NO OPERA ON WGBH TV
at prime time
at prime time
THIS WEEK!
If you want to watch opera on WGBH, you have to watch it in the middle of the night or the middle of the day.
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