* All links below are live
This week on Rhode Island Public television,
WSBE: (Comcast 294, Cox 808, Full Channel 109,
and Verizon 478)
ERNANI
Saturday, August 3 -- 8:00pm; Sunday, August 4 -- 3:00am; Monday, August 5-- 12:00am
ERNANI
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
JOYCE DiDONATO ANNOUNCES
NEW ALBUM: REJOYCE!
from Joyce DiDonato's FACEBOOK page:
Are you READY?!?! I have the GREAT pleasure and honor
to unveil the cover image for #ReJOYCE ~ the "best of" album produced by YOU, my amazing fans.
Here's the best part about this cover: the beautiful photograph is taken by
Xenia Varelas, a long-time fan and occasional photographer of curtain calls. She
has always generously shared her photos with many singers, but this shot from
Baden Baden just seemed to capture the mood of ReJOYCE perfectly, that it
simply had to be. Thank you, Xenia!
Ladies and Gents: ReJOYCE:
♫♫♫♫♫♫
Coming
Soon!
Renée
Fleming’s
Guilty Pleasures
Arriving in September from Decca, Guilty Pleasures is
the long-awaited follow-up to Renée's Grammy winner The Beautiful Voice. This
album allows Renée to indulge in musical cherry-picking, singing songs and
arias in eight different languages. The sheer, unabashed beauty of these pieces
provides their thematic connection. Ranging from familiar favorites like the
ambrosial Flower Duet from Lakmé (sung with Renée's friend Susan Graham) to
rapturous, rarely-heard melodies of Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Rachmaninov, Guilty
Pleasures is a collection of treats Renée has long wanted to enjoy: an album of
pure gratification. To pre-order, click here.
♫♫♫♫♫♫
Scalia V. Ginsburg: Supreme Court Sparring, Put
To Music
by NINA TOTENBERG
July 10, 2013 4:21 PM
Charles Dharapak/AP
On the day after the Supreme Court concluded its epic term
in June, two of the supreme judicial antagonists, Justice Antonin Scalia and
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, met over a mutual love: opera.
When it comes to constitutional interpretation, the
conservative Scalia and the liberal Ginsburg are leaders of the court's two
opposing wings. To make matters yet more interesting, the two have been friends
for decades, since long before Scalia was named to the court by President
Reagan and Ginsburg by President Clinton.
Ginsburg likes Scalia because he makes her laugh; Scalia
likes Ginsburg because she laughs at his jokes; and the two love to spar over
ideas. What unites them, though, is opera.
Enter Derrick Wang, a talented musician who has just
graduated from the University of Maryland's Carey School of Law.
Wang is composing an opera entitled Scalia/Ginsburg, based
on the justices' own words and using musical themes and styles of other
composers from Verdi to Puccini and Bizet. The University of Maryland plans to
premiere excerpts this fall, and it will get a partial airing next spring from
the Washington National Opera and its young artists program.
In the meantime, at the Supreme Court, Scalia and Ginsburg
got a preview in the East Conference Room on June 27 with a small audience of
law clerks and staff on hand.
The germ of Wang's idea came as he was plowing through
Supreme Court legal opinions in law school, including Scalia's dissents.
Derrick Wang, pianist and composer, and Peter Scott
Drackley, tenor, perform a preview of the opera Scalia/Ginsburg.Enlarge image
Derrick Wang, pianist and composer, and Peter Scott
Drackley, tenor, perform a preview of the opera Scalia/Ginsburg.
Nina Totenberg/NPR
"I realized this is the most dramatic thing I've ever
read in law school ... and I started to hear music — a rage aria about the
Constitution," Wang said. "And then, in the midst of this roiling
rhetoric, counterpoint, as Justice Ginsburg's words appeared to me — a beacon
of lyricism with a steely strength and a fervent conviction all their own. And
I said to myself, 'This is an opera.' "
He wrote to the justices to ask if he could put their words
to music. Scalia and Ginsburg quickly responded that Wang did not need their
permission, in view of the First Amendment. But he got their blessing anyway.
So, an opera was born, based on the two justices'
personalities — Scalia's, bombastic, and Ginsburg's, demure — and their
ideological disagreements. Like all births, this one had a midwife: opera lover
and Maryland adjunct law professor Mike Walker, who was "blown away"
when Wang approached him about his composition. Walker has mentored the
composer and the project ever since.
Constitutional Interpretation, In Song
As the plot unfolds, the two justices find themselves locked
in a room, and the only way out is to agree on a constitutional approach. A
grumpy Scalia fulminates:
The justices are blind — how can they possibly spout this?
The Constitution says absolutely nothing about this!
This right that they've enshrined — when did the document
sprout this?
The Framers wrote and signed words that endured without
this;
The Constitution says absolutely nothing about this!
When Ginsburg enters, Scalia implores her, to strains of
"The Star-Spangled Banner," asking why she can't seem to read the
Constitution properly.
Oh, Ruth, can you read? You're aware of the text.
Yet so proudly you've failed to derive its true meaning.
Finally, he tells her there is no way he is changing his
mind. He will fight on.
You will do well not to doubt this:
Since I have not resigned, I will proceed to shout this.
The Constitution says absolutely nothing about this!
Ginsburg replies with calm reason, asking Scalia to consider
a different approach.
How many times must I tell you, dear Mister Justice Scalia,
You'd spare us such pain if you'd just entertain this idea.
You are searching in vain for a bright-line solution,
To a problem that isn't so easy to solve.
But the beautiful thing about our Constitution is that
Like our society, it can evolve.
Our Founders, of course, were men of great vision, she says,
but their culture restricted how far they could go. So to us, they bequeathed
the decision to allow certain meanings to flourish and grow.
We are freeing the people we used to hold captive, who
deserve to be more than just servants or wives.
If we hadn't been willing to be so adaptive, can you
honestly say we'd have led better lives?
In his finale, Scalia replies with characteristic flourish,
on a soaring high note, followed by this harrumph: "Anyway, that's my
view, and it happens to be correct."
'A Great Diva'
After the performance, the two justices congratulated Wang
and the two singers, both Peabody Conservatory graduates: tenor Peter Scott
Drackley, who sang the Scalia role, and soprano Kimberly Christie, who sang the
Ginsburg role.
"It was wonderful," Scalia said, adding, "If
I had my choice, I'd be a tenor."
In fact, he says, he's "a crypto-tenor" — meaning,
he's a baritone.
As for Ginsburg, she just sighs.
"The truth is, if God could give me any talent in the
world, I would be a great diva."
Instead, she is the court's diva, playing regularly opposite
divo Antonin Scalia. Their run resumes on the first Monday in October, when the
new term begins.
♫♫♫♫♫♫
OPERA ON THE INTERNET
WITH
DAVE D' AGUANNO
Items of interest for this coming Saturday (August 3)
include the broadcast on German Radio of the July 26 performance from Bayreuth
of Wagner's "Das Rheingold."
NPR continues its series of broadcasts from Los
Angeles Opera this week with a performance of Puccini's "Madame
Butterfly" -- a work which was presented in L.A. in November of last year.
German composer Walter Braunfels's opera "Jeanne
d'Arc" (1943) gets an opportunity to be heard when Austrian Radio (ORF)
broadcasts its August 1 performance from this summer's Salzburg Festival. While
written in the 20th century, its musical language is definitely conservative
(i.e. accessible for most listeners), and with tenor Bryan Hymel singing the
role of Archangel Michael, it may pique some listeners' interest, as Hymel
impressed most of us when he appeared in the Met's HD-transmission of Berlioz's
"Les Troyens" earlier this year.
Enjoy!
DAVE
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
Rolando Villazón
On Cosi Fan Tutti, Webisode 1:
On Cosi Fan Tutti, Webisode 2:
On Cosi Fan Tutti, Webisode 3:
"The great thing about Mozart is that he makes us enter
into absurdity with great complexity." Rolando discusses "Così fan
tutte" - the second installment of his and Yannick Nézet-Séguin's Deutsche
Grammophon Mozart cycle:
You can pre-order the album now on iTunes:
or Amazon:
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
Diversity
Don’t assume you know how Retta rolls~on Conan O'Brien on TBS
Watch And Learn: How To Roll Down
Your Window And Deliver A Fantastic Response To a critic
Marietta
Sirleaf, better known simply as Retta, is an American stand-up comedian and
actress, who from 2009 has appeared as Donna Meagle on the NBC comedy series
Parks and Recreation.
“I get judgy looks at
intersections all the time because I am playing rap music at loud volumes, and
I watch people decide things about my character and what kind of person I am
because of that. One of my favorite TV Actors had this same experience, and
freakin' nailed the perfect comeback.” ~
http://www.upworthy.com/watch-and-learn-how-to-roll-down-your-window-and-deliver-a-fantastic-response-to-an-ahole?c=ufb1
WATCH:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=56OzqxGMr_U
♫♫♫♫♫♫
♫♫♫♫♫♫
Summer production of
"Elixir of Love"
Thursday, August 1, 5:30pm
@Blithewold Mansion and Gardens, Bristol, RI
$30 General admission and $25 for Blithewold Members
♫♫♫
(2 performances on Aug 7 and 8 canceled)
For additional information on our exciting opera season,
to purchase tickets, or to contribute to the Annual Appeal, contact:
Opera Providence
585 Elmgrove Avenue
Providence RI 02906
401-331-6060
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
The Met radio broadcast season is
over for now...
check this space the first week
of December.
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
NO OPERA ON WGBH TV
THIS WEEK!
With the arrival of the newest member of the British royal family, we here at San Francisco Opera decided to take a look at the members of nobility seen throughout opera to see what kind of lessons they could impart to the world's newest prince. Compiled here are a selection of lessons from twelve of our favorite operas that we think will serve the future king well.
