Week of December 18 - December 25, 2014

All links are live!

This week on Rhode Island Public television,

WSBE:  (Comcast 294, Cox 808, Full Channel 109, and Verizon 478)

Special showing->  Saturday, December 20, 12 noon

Saturday, December 20, 8:00pm

Sunday, December 21, 3:00am

Monday, December 22, 12:00am

GREAT PERFORMANCES

SILENT NIGHT

Saturday, December 20 at 12:00 noon

SILENT NIGHT - This opera recounts the true story of the World War I Christmas Eve truce. For one magical evening on December 24, 1914, French, German and British soldiers laid down their arms and joined in a spontaneous celebration reflecting the peace, fellowship and humanity of the season. Based on the Academy Award-nominated film Joyeux Noel, this two-act production was commissioned by the Minnesota Opera and premiered in November 2012 to national acclaim, including a Pulitzer Prize for Music for composer Kevin Puts. With a libretto by Mark Campbell, "Silent Night" is sung in French, English, German, Italian and Latin with English subtitles.

DURATION: 180 MIN

DETAILS: [CC] [STEREO]

GENRE: PARENTS PICKS 

Website: http://www.kevinputs.com/SilentNight/

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OPERA ON THE INTERNET 

WITH  

DAVE  D' AGUANNO

Opera fans who might want to take a break from their holiday shopping this Saturday (December 20) have numerous interesting listening choices on hand, one of which is being carried by many internet radio stations: the LIVE broadcast from the Met of Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" with a slightly different cast from the one that was featured in the HD-transmission of this opera from this past October.

(www.wrti.org/)

Another Mozart opera -- "Idomeneo" -- can be heard on Saturday, this one on Belgium's Klara radio station. The performance comes from London's Royal Opera House, as heard last month, with tenor Matthew Polenzani singing the title role.

(http://radio.klara.be/radio/10_home.php)

LIVE from the Vienna State Opera is Verdi's "Rigoletto" (on ORF). The cast is headed by baritone Simon Keenlyside as Rigoletto & tenor Piotr Beczala as the Duke of Mantua.

(http://oe1.orf.at/)

The Obscure Opera of the Week unquestionably goes to Nicola De Giosa's 1850 3-act opera buffa "Don Checco" which was performed onSeptember 25 of this year in Naples. RAI's Radio 3 is broadcasting that one.

(www.radio3.rai.it/)

If you'd prefer to kick-start your upcoming opera listening experiences, the Met is offering a free LIVE audio-stream tomorrow evening (December 18) at 7:25 pm of Humperdinck's "Hansel & Gretel." For this particular performance, the work is scheduled to be sung in English.

(www.metopera.org/)

Enjoy!

DAVE

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Watch this space for

WGBH's OPERA BASH

December 29-30-31

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The Met

Saturday afternoon radio broadcast 

Mozart's 

Le Nozze di Figaro 

December 20, 2014 12:00 pm ET
de Waart; Rachel Willis-Sørensen, de Niese, Malfi, Kwiecien, Schrott