Opera and Choral Events

WINNER of 2012 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY'S BEST OF RHODE ISLAND AWARDS: Website for La Boheme Junkies

Your source for classical voice, opera, and choral events

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Week of April 3 - April 10, 2014


ALL LINKS ARE LIVE
SATURDAY, April 5 2014,  12:55pm
Live in HD *
Puccini's
La Bohème




Puccini’s moving story of young love is the most performed opera in Met history—and with good reason. Anita Hartig stars as the frail Mimì in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production, with Vittorio Grigolo in the role of her passionate lover, Rodolfo.




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


Rodelinda

Great Performances at the Met
Saturday, April 5 -- 8:00pm; Sunday, April 6 -- 3:00am; Monday, April 7 -- 12:00am
Rodelinda
Renée Fleming stars in the title role of Handel's "Rodelinda," a baroque opera about a queen and her assumed-dead husband (Andreas Scholl), and the usurper (Joseph Kaiser) who wants Rodelinda for his wife.
DURATION: 210 MIN
DETAILS: [CC] [STEREO]
GENRE: PARENTS PICKS






Rhode Island Civic Chorale Chamber Choir: 

Intimate Songs of the Heart

Sunday, April 27, 2014 3:00 PM, Redwood Library and Athenaeum: 50 Bellevue Avenue Newport, RI 02840

Sunday, May 4, 2014 7:00 PM, First Baptist Church in America: 75 North Main Street Providence, RI 02903

Featuring the music of Bolcom, Brahms and Lauridsen Tickets are $12 at the door. Call (401) 521-5670 to reserve. 
Note: tickets will not be sold for the Sunday May 4, 2014 concert. 
A free will offering will be taken.
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COMING SOON!

ELIJAH
Felix Mendelssohn’s Masterpiece
Dear Friends,
Please join us on Saturday, May 17, 2014 at 7:30 PM for our next concert at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter & Paul, Providence.  We invite you to hear our presentation of Felix Mendelssohn’s masterpiece, Elijah, featuring our chorus, orchestra, four distinguished, internationally acclaimed soloists and members of the Chorus of the Community College of RI, Dr. Joseph Amante, Conductor.  Completed in 1846, one year before his untimely death, Mendelssohn had begun work on the oratorio ten years earlier, but it might never have been written except for the close ties he had with the English musical community. He established that relationship in 1829 when, at the age of 20, he visited London as both pianist and composer.  The success of his St. Paul, in 1836, prompted Mendelssohn to contemplate another oratorio.  In 1845, the director of the Birmingham Music Festival proposed that Mendelssohn write a new oratorio for presentation the following year.  Large choral works such as oratorios were staples at the festival.  He went to England himself to conduct the work, presented in a quickly written English translation (later revised).  The performance provided one of the great triumphs of his career and ensured Elijah’s position as one of the great oratorios of the 19th century.  Elijah has no unbroken narrative thread but is, rather, a series of tableaux depicting scenes from the prophet’s life interspersed with prayers or prayer-like meditations.  Mendelssohn described the process this way, “With a subject such as Elijah, the dramatic must predominate…and the contemplative, moving aspect…must be conveyed through the words and moods of the characters.”  Dramatic scenes, such as God’s appearance to the prophet, provide many of the musical highpoints, and the opportunity to set these events to music was what most attracted Mendelssohn to the subject of Elijah.  I will, in future notes leading up to our performance on May 17, comment on various aspects of Mendelssohn’s great oratorio and his religious beliefs, as well as include short bios of our wonderful solo artists: Diana McVey, Soprano; Teresa Buchholz, Mezzo-soprano; Kirk Dougherty, Tenor and Stephen Bryant, Bass-baritone, who portrays the title role.
 Stephen Bryant
Stephen Bryant, Elijah

My association with my good friend and colleague, Stephen Bryant, goes back to our graduate school days at the University of Michigan.  Since then, Stephen has gone on to have a stellar career as a performer here and abroad and a much sought-after voice teacher.  His distinguished career in opera Stephen Bryanthas taken him around the world, with acclaimed performances in the US, Europe and Asia. He has sung with the New York City Opera and the Santa Fe Opera, and with orchestras such as the New York and Japan Philharmonics. He was nominated for a Grammy® in 2009 for "Best Opera Recording" in Tan Dun's Marco Polo. He has performed roles such as Colline in La Bohème, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and Figaro in La Nozze di Figaro.  Recent concert appearances include Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra; Handel’s Messiah with the Indianapolis Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony; Mozart’s Requiem with Princeton Pro Musica; and Verdi’s Requiem with the Washington National Opera Orchestra under the auspices of the Defiant Requiem Foundation.
On the opera stage he has appeared in numerous roles with New York City Opera, most recently in productions of A Quiet Place and Intermezzo during the 2010-11 Season. Other opera performances include Mr. Gobineau in The Medium at the Spoleto Festival USA; Robert Gonzales in Stewart Wallace’s Harvey Milk and the Bonze in Madama Butterfly with San Francisco Opera; Capulet in Roméo et Juliette with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Michigan Opera Theatre, Chautauqua Opera, and Toledo Opera; George Milton in Of Mice and Men with Arizona Opera; and Indiana Elliot’s Brother in Thomson’s The Mother of Us All with Santa Fe Opera.

Mr. Bryant holds a Master's degree from the University of Michigan, and is on the voice faculty at William Paterson University.

I hope to see you at our concert on May 17. This will be the RI Civic Chorale & Orchestra’s first performance of Elijah since the spring of 1987.  I promise you a spectacular evening!

Yours truly,

Edward
Edward Markward, Music Director
Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra

The Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra
ELIJAH
Edward Markward, Music Director
Diana McVey, Soprano
Teresa Buchholz, Mezzo-soprano
Kirk Dougherty, Tenor
Stephen Bryant, Bass-baritone as Elijah
Members of
Chorus of CCRI
Dr, Joseph Amante, Conductor
Saturday, May 17, 2014
7:30 PM
Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul
Providence, RI



OPERA ON THE INTERNET 
WITH  
DAVE  D' AGUANNO


One of Puccini's most popular operas -- "La Boheme" -- will be seen this Saturday (April 5) on the big screens of certain area movie theatres, as the Met relays their next LIVE HD-transmission. A word to the wise: If you're planning on going and don't yet have a ticket, get there early in order to get a decent seat. Like "Carmen," this one has a tendency to draw in the crowds! In any case, it can also be heard on many internet radio stations.


Another Puccini opera -- "La Fanciulla del West" -- turns up on Saturday's schedule. It's actually a re-broadcast of the work from October 2013 when it was performed at the Vienna State Opera. With tenor Jonas Kaufmann singing the role of Dick Johnson, it may very well attract many opera-fan listeners.

Mozart enthusiasts may decide to tune in to yet another performance of "Don Giovanni" as ORF brings us a performance from Vienna that took place as recently as March 19 of this year.

Lovers of French opera, on the other hand, have 2 basic choices this Saturday, one of them being the comparatively rare opportunity to hear what is probably Halevy's most famous opera: "La Juive." It's a LIVE performance from Goteborg, which Swedish Radio will be broadcastingthis Saturday.

The other French opera this weekend is Debussy's masterpiece "Pelleas & Melisande." French Radio has scheduled a performance that took place in Nantes on March 23.

A Russian opera, performed at La Scala? Why not? -- Especially when it's as tragic as any Italian opera like "Traviata" or "Tosca" (for example). It's Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tsar's Bride" in a recent performance conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

In the category of Obscure Opera of the Week, Walter Braunfels's 1937 opera "Der Traum ein Leben" surely fits the bill. Described as a "dramatic fairy tale in 3 acts," this basically conservative-sounding opera was performed in Bonn this past Sunday (March 30), and it is this performance that German Radio will be broadcasting on Saturday.

Last but not least, the Met's free LIVE audio-stream will be active tomorrow evening (April 3) at 7:25 when the season premiere of "Arabella" (Richard Strauss) can be heard. Check it out!

Enjoy!

DAVE





Helen Keller and Music


Helen Keller wrote the following letter to the New York Symphony Orchestra in March 1924. Here's how she describes listening to Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" over the radio:

“Dear Friends:

I have the joy of being able to tell you that, though deaf and blind, I spent a glorious hour last night listening over the radio to Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony.” I do not mean to say that I “heard” the music in the sense that other people heard it; and I do not know whether I can make you understand how it was possible for me to derive pleasure from the symphony. It was a great surprise to myself. I had been reading in my magazine for the blind of the happiness that the radio was bringing to the sightless everywhere. I was delighted to know that the blind had gained a new source of enjoyment; but I did not dream that I could have any part in their joy. Last night, when the family was listening to your wonderful rendering of the immortal symphony someone suggested that I put my hand on the receiver and see if I could get any of the vibrations. He unscrewed the cap, and I lightly touched the sensitive diaphragm. What was my amazement to discover that I could feel, not only the vibration, but also the impassioned rhythm, the throb and the urge of the music! The intertwined and intermingling vibrations from different instruments enchanted me. I could actually distinguish the cornets, the roil of the drums, deep-toned violas and violins singing in exquisite unison. How the lovely speech of the violins flowed and plowed over the deepest tones of the other instruments! When the human voices leaped up thrilling from the surge of harmony, I recognized them instantly as voices more ecstatic, upcurving swift and flame-like, until my heart almost stood still. The women’s voices seemed an embodiment of all the angelic voices rushing in a harmonious flood of beautiful and inspiring sound. The great chorus throbbed against my fingers with poignant pause and flow. Then all the instruments and voices together burst forth – an ocean of heavenly vibration – and died away like winds when the atom is spent, ending in a delicate shower of sweet notes.

Of course this was not “hearing,” but I do know that the tones and harmonies conveyed to me moods of great beauty and majesty. I also sense, or thought I did, the tender sounds of nature that sing into my hand-swaying reeds and winds and the murmur of streams. I have never been so enraptured before by a multitude of tone-vibrations.


As I listened, with darkness and melody, shadow and sound filling all the room, I could not help remembering that the great composer who poured forth such a flood of sweetness into the world was deaf like myself. I marveled at the power of his quenchless spirit by which out of his pain he wrought such joy for others – and there I sat, feeling with my hand the magnificent symphony which broke like a sea upon the silent shores of his soul and mine.” The Auricle, Vol. II, No. 6, March 1924. American Foundation for the Blind, Helen Keller Archives.

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The Met 
Saturday afternoon radio broadcast 


Puccini's
LA BOHEME

April 5, 2014 1:00 pm ET
Ranzani; 
Hartig, Phillips, Gricolo, Cavalletti, Carfizzi, Gradus, Maxwell
Synopsis: 



 If you missed the Met's April Foolery,  you should take a minute to read this.


NO OPERA ON WGBH TV 
THIS WEEK!

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