*ALL LINKS ARE LIVE
This week on Rhode Island Public television,
WSBE: (Comcast 294, Cox 808, Full Channel 109, and Verizon 478)
Saturday, October 4, 8:00pm
Sunday, October 5, 3:00am
Monday, October 6, 12:00am
Great Performances at the Met
La Boheme
Puccini's "La Bohème," about a doomed love affair between poet Rodolfo (Vittorio Grigolo) and seamstress Mimi (Kristine Opolais) in Paris during the 1830s.
DURATION: 150 MIN
DETAILS: [CC] [STEREO]
GENRE: PARENTS PICKS
Synopsis: http://www.metopera.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=820
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La Boheme Cats in Costume Stained Glass The Catopolitan Opera by Susan Herbert
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Great Performances at the Met
12:30 pm
Werther
Sunday, October 5, 2014
12 NOON
Jonas Kaufmann stars in Richard Eyre's production of Massenet's "Werther," about a poet whose feelings for the fair Charlotte (Sophie Koch) lead him to do the unthinkable, for she has another man on her mind: the honorable Albert (David Bizic).
Synopsis:
http://www.metopera.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=91
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Coming: Saturday, October 11
*NEW*
MET HD Simulcast
MACBETH
Starring Anna Netrebko, Zeljko Lucic,
Joseph Calleja
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From The New York Review of Books
Magda
Olivero:
The Unstoppable Soprano
By
Martin Filler
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OPERA ON THE INTERNET
WITH
DAVE D' AGUANNO
There are some interesting items on the
schedule for this coming Saturday (October 4) on internet radio, one of them
being the unique staging of Schonberg's "Gurre-Lieder" (not an opera,
strictly speaking) from last month in Amsterdam. Of course, hearing the work
performed on the radio will necessarily rob us of the opportunity of actually
seeing it staged, although there's some information on the internet indicating
that the performance was filmed. Plus, those of you who may shudder at the idea
of listening to music of Arnold Schonberg (primarily known for his atonal
works) can rest assured that "Gurre-Lieder" is sumptuously romantic
in style.
(www.radio4.nl/)
Another unique feature of this Saturday's opera line-up lies in the appearance of TWO performances of Richard Strauss's rarely performed opera "Daphne" being broadcast. One of these performances took place in Goteborg this past August & can be heard on Swedish Radio, while the other one stems from the current run of performances from Brussels, one of which will probably become available as a free video-stream in the weeks ahead. Videos of "Daphne" usually arouse some interest on the part of opera-goers who are familiar with the plot of this opera and are curious to see how the production depicts the final 10 minutes of the opera during which the heroine of the opera turns into a tree !!!
(http://sverigesradio.se/p2/) & (http://radio.klara.be/radio/10_home.php)
Then there's a rare broadcast of Meyerbeer's opera "Dinorah" being offered on German Radio, the performance actually due to take place today & then broadcast on Saturday. And if the idea of Daphne turning into a tree at the end of the Richard Strauss opera noted above seems bizarre (to say the least), how about the events that take place in the last act of this one? After being jilted at the altar by the man she loves, Dinorah is finally re-united with the cad in Act 3 and BELIEVES him when he convinces her that the whole jilting episode was just a dream !!!! (Cue: happy ending)
(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)
From English National Opera, there's Handel's 1738 opera "Xerxes" on BBC Radio 3, with mezzo Alice Coote singing the lead (a trouser role).
(www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/)
Last but not least, how about some Mozart? On Monday evening (Oct. 6) at 7:25, the Met is offering a FREE live audio-stream of "The Magic Flute."
(www.metopera.org/)
Enjoy!
DAVE
(http://sverigesradio.se/p2/) & (http://radio.klara.be/radio/10_home.php)
Then there's a rare broadcast of Meyerbeer's opera "Dinorah" being offered on German Radio, the performance actually due to take place today & then broadcast on Saturday. And if the idea of Daphne turning into a tree at the end of the Richard Strauss opera noted above seems bizarre (to say the least), how about the events that take place in the last act of this one? After being jilted at the altar by the man she loves, Dinorah is finally re-united with the cad in Act 3 and BELIEVES him when he convinces her that the whole jilting episode was just a dream !!!! (Cue: happy ending)
(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)
From English National Opera, there's Handel's 1738 opera "Xerxes" on BBC Radio 3, with mezzo Alice Coote singing the lead (a trouser role).
(www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/)
Last but not least, how about some Mozart? On Monday evening (Oct. 6) at 7:25, the Met is offering a FREE live audio-stream of "The Magic Flute."
(www.metopera.org/)
Enjoy!
DAVE
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THE SCROLL
Protest Against ‘Anti-Semitic’ Opera in NYC
Controversial Met Opera production said to be sympathetic to
terrorism
By Zachary Schrieber|September 23, 2014 7:14 PM
Protesters
demonstrate as people arrive for the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera
season at Lincoln Center on September 22, 2014 in New York City. (John
Moore/Getty Images)
A group of nearly 1,000 people gathered across the street
from Lincoln Center Monday evening, not to attend the opening night of the
Metropolitan Opera’s fall season, but to protest the New York City
institution’s decision to keep The Death of Klinghoffer in their fall lineup.
(The Met agreed to cancel a scheduled international online simulcast in
November.)
The controversial opera, which was composed by John Adams,
depicts the 1985 hijacking of an Italian cruise ship by the Palestinian
Liberation Front and the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair-bound Jewish
passenger.
“I knew Klinghoffer” said Hyman Silverglad, an attorney who
lives in Manhattan’s East Village. “People don’t know how much of an asset he
was to America.”
The protesters argue that the opera is both sympathetic
towards terrorism and anti-Semitic in its exploitation of the death of a Jewish
man. “It is propaganda masquerading as art,” said Dr. Eve Epstein, a
communications specialist.
The crowd began to gather around 4:30 p.m and quickly
expanded as people left work and schools let out for the day. As the crowd
grew, police extended the barricade into the first lane of traffic on Broadway.
Three local yeshivas brought buses carrying several hundred
students. “Over-acceptance of people who are not accepting is not acceptable”
said one student from Rambam, a boys school on Long Island. Many students were
up to date on the controversy, although none I spoke with had read or seen the
opera.
Protesters carried signs that read “Shame on Peter Gelb,”
the Met Opera’s general manager, and called for his firing, while others
referred to the Met as the “Metropolitan Nazi Opera.” Some demonstrators wore
yellow stars with the phrase “Never Again,” reminiscent of the yellow stars
Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust.
Political and religious officials spoke during the protest
as well. Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York, New York State Assemblyman
Dov Hikind, and former Governor George Pataki all denounced the Met’s decision,
as did Catholic League President Bill Donohue.
But some attending the demonstration went one step further,
using the legitimate concerns of the exploitation of tragedy to put forth a
political message that, at times, bordered on the absurd. One sign claimed that
“9/11: The Musical” would be coming to Lincoln Center soon. Jeff Wiesenfeld,
who helped organize the event, urged the crowd to “be here every night until
the set is burned to the ground,” and later wondered if the Met might someday
put on a production entitled: “ISIS: a love story.” An anonymous donation to
help fund The Death of Klinghoffer was speculated to have been funded by
terrorist organizations.
Across the street, opera-goers arriving at Lincoln Center
appeared surprised by the crowd, and some were unaware of the controversy
entirely. One remarked that he thought “the labor issues had been settled
already”—the Met recently reached an agreement on a new labor contract with two
of its unions—before proceeding into the theater with little issue.
Others were not as lucky. As the 6:15 p.m. curtain
approached, a number of protesters crossed the street to the Lincoln Center
plaza, where some handed out flyers while others shouted “shame on you” at
patrons, accusing them of “supporting terrorism.” One particularly embarrassed
tuxedoed man, who was aware of the controversy and sympathized with the
protesters, said “they should protest at the Klinghoffer opera, not opening
night.” A group of three women found it
“ridiculous” that they were targeted for simply going to see Mozart’s “Le Nozze
di Figaro.” There “is no need for the personal attacks,” one of the women said.
“Art is supposed to be provocative,” she added before
heading in for the performance.
It certainly was last night.
As of now, The Death of Klinghoffer is still scheduled to
begin performances October 20.
Zack Schrieber is an intern at Tablet Magazine. Follow him
on Twitter @zschrieber
THE SCROLL
Judea Pearl Speaks Out Against Klinghoffer
Opera
Father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl calls
production a
‘moral
deformity’
By Stephanie Butnick|September 24, 2014 2:42
PM
To the Editor:
Re “The Met Opera Stands Firm” (editorial,
Sept. 20):
In joining protesters of the New York
Metropolitan Opera’s production of “The Death of Klinghoffer,” I echo the
silenced voice of our son, Daniel Pearl, and the silenced voices of other
victims of terror who were murdered, maimed or left heartbroken by the new
menace of our generation, a savagery that the Met has decided to elevate to a
normative, two-sided status worthy of artistic expression.
We are told that the composer tried to
understand the hijackers, their motivations and their grievances.
I submit that there has never been a crime in
human history lacking grievance and motivation. The 9/11 lunatics had profound
motivations, and the murderers of our son, Daniel Pearl, had very compelling
“grievances.”
In the last few weeks we have seen with our own
eyes that Hamas and the Islamic State have grievances, too. There is nothing
more enticing to a would-be terrorist than the prospect of broadcasting his
“grievances” in Lincoln Center, the icon of American culture.
Yet civilized society has learned to protect
itself by codifying right from wrong, separating the holy from the profane,
distinguishing that which deserves the sound of orchestras from that which
commands our unconditional revulsion. The Met has trashed this distinction and
thus betrayed its contract with society.
I submit that choreographing a “nuanced”
operatic drama around criminal pathology is not an artistic prerogative, but a
blatant betrayal of public trust. We do not stage “nuanced” operas for rapists
and child molesters, and we do not compose symphonies for penetrating the minds
of ISIS executioners.
Some coins do not have two sides. And what was
done to Leon Klinghoffer has no other side.
What we are seeing in New York is not an
artistic expression that challenges the limits of morality but a moral
deformity that challenges the limits of the art.
This opera is not about the mentality of
deranged terrorists, but about the judgment of our arts directors. The
Metropolitan Opera has squandered humanity’s greatest treasure: our moral compass,
our sense of right and wrong, and, most sadly, our reverence for music as a
noble expression of the human spirit.
We might someday be able to forgive the Met
for decriminalizing brutality, but we will never forgive it for poisoning our
music, for turning our best violins and our iconic concert halls into
megaphones for excusing evil.
JUDEA PEARL
President, Daniel Pearl Foundation
Los Angeles, Sept. 21, 2014
A version of this letter was read at the
protest at the Met on Monday.
To the Editor:
You say the Metropolitan Opera’s presentation
of “The Death of Klinghoffer” is “moving and nuanced” and an assertion of
“artistic freedom.” The Met’s right to present this opera is not in question,
but its wisdom in doing so should be.
Even the title is misleading. Leon
Klinghoffer, an elderly, wheelchair-bound American, did not simply die. In
1985, he was murdered, as a Jew, by Palestinian terrorists while on a cruise
ship. Moreover, the composer, John Adams, was blunt in revealing his own
outlook when he complained in his autobiography, “Hallelujah Junction,” that
“Israeli behavior on the world stage is off-limits to criticism.” But Israel
was not even directly linked to the actual story as it unfolded.
Moreover, in a world rife with gruesome
terrorism — from Al Qaeda to the Islamic State, from Hamas to Boko Haram — what
exactly is it about the outlook of anti-American, anti-Western and anti-Semitic
murderers that evokes artistic notions worthy of one of the world’s most
prestigious stages?
In this spirit, should we expect Mr. Adams to
prepare sequels for the Met, including “The Deaths of James Foley and Steven
Sotloff” (not, alas, “The Beheadings”)? The possibilities for giving “voice to
all sides” is endless, if, that is, one is prepared to abandon any semblance of
decency.
DAVID HARRIS
Executive Director
American Jewish Committee
New York, Sept. 20, 2014
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Saturday afternoon radio broadcast is
on hiatus until December
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OPERA ON WGBH TV
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