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This week on Rhode Island Public television,
WSBE: (Comcast 294, Cox 808, Full Channel 109, and Verizon 478)
IL TROVATORE
IL TROVATORE
Great Performances at the Met
|
Saturday, March 8 -- 8:00pm; Sunday, March 9 -- 3:00am; Monday, March 10 --12:00am
Il trovatore
David McVicar's stirring production of Verdi's intense drama
premiered in the 2008-09 Met season. James Levine leads this revival, starring
Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Alvarez and Dmitri Hvorostovsky --
in what might be the composer's most melodically rich score.
DURATION: 2 hr. 45 min.
DETAILS: [CC] [STEREO]
GENRE: PARENTS PICKS
SYNOPSIS: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/trovatore?customid=87
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And now for a bit of humor--
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Anna Netrebko withdraws from Faust
"I am so sorry to have to withdraw from the role of
Marguerite in Faust. After much consideration and intensive preparation, I have
come to the conclusion that the role is not right for me. I had been very much
looking forward to debuting this role at the Royal Opera House and following it
with further performances in Vienna and Baden-Baden. Unfortunately, I must now
withdraw from all these productions. I am very sad to be disappointing my fans
in these cities and hope they will understand the difficult decision that I
have had to make. However, I am very much looking forward to returning to The
Royal Opera to perform with the company again in 2015."
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OPERA ON THE INTERNET
WITH
DAVE D' AGUANNO
There's quite a variety of opera styles to be heard this upcoming weekend on internet radio, what with the LIVE broadcast from the Met this Saturday (March 8) being the operatic "medley" (shown not so long ago as an HD-transmission) -- "The Enchanted Island" -- with music by Handel, Vivaldi, and various other Baroque composers.
In a
similar vein, BBC Radio 3 is broadcasting Handel's "Rodelinda" as
it's currently being performed by English National Opera (in London).
Also
from London (but from Covent Garden, rather than ENO): another chance to hear
the French version of Verdi's "Sicilian Vespers" as performed last
May with tenor Bryan Hymel and bass Erwin Schrott (among others) featured in
the cast.
The
Belgian station Klara will be broadcasting a performance from Malmo of
Massenet's "Manon." The particular performance being aired actually
took place in January of this year.
And for
those who think they've already heard everything, German Radio has scheduled
the world premiere performance of Mark Andre's "Wunderzaichen" which
is labeled as "an opera in 4 situations." Hmmm. . .It's a Stuttgart
Opera production from this past Sunday (March 2).
Plus,
thanks to the Met's generosity in frequently providing us with FREE live
audio-streams, tomorrow evening's performance of Berg's
"Wozzeck" can be heard, featuring the talents of baritone Thomas
Hampson and soprano Deborah Voigt as Wozzeck and Marie, respectively. It's at 7:25
pm.
Enjoy!
DAVE
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"The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life"
Documentary on oldest Holocaust
survivor wins Oscar a week after her death
Click here to see video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LrXHcQyixTE
By JTA, JPOST.COM STAFF
03/03/2014 11:13
The
film’s director said that he was struck by Herz-Sommer’s “extraordinary
capacity for joy” and “amazing capacity for forgiveness.”
Herz-Sommer,
the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor, who died in London on Feb. 23 at the age
of 110, was the subject of The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life, which won
the Academy Award for documentary short Sunday night.
The Prague-born Herz-Sommer, a concert
pianist, was a prisoner in Theresienstadt.
In accepting the Oscar, the film’s director,
Malcolm Clarke, said that he was struck by Herz-Sommer’s “extraordinary
capacity for joy” and “amazing capacity for forgiveness.”
Alice
was born on November 26, 1903 into an upper-class Jewish family steeped in
literature and classical music.
Trained
as a pianist from childhood, Alice made her concert debut as a teenager,
married, had a son and seemed destined for the pleasant, cultured life of a
prosperous Middle European. But everything changed in 1939 when Hitler,
casually tearing up the Munich accord of a year earlier, marched his troops
into Prague and brought with him his anti-Semitic edicts.
Her
public concert career was over, yet the family managed to hang on in an
increasingly restrictive existence in the Czech capital.
In
1943, however, Alice and her husband, their 6-year old son Raphael (Rafi), and
Alice’s mother were loaded on the transport to Theresienstadt. The fortress
town some 30 miles from Prague was touted by Nazi propaganda as the model
ghetto — “The Fuhrer’s gift to the Jews,” with its own orchestra, theater group
and even soccer teams.
With the full extent of the Holocaust still
largely unknown, Alice took her deportation with relative equanimity, as was
typical for many European Jews.
“If
they have an orchestra in Terezin, how bad can it be?” she recalled asking,
using the Czech name of the town.
Alice
soon found out, as her mother and husband perished there. Alice was saved by
her musical gifts; she became a member of the camp orchestra and gave more than
100 recitals.
But her main focus was on Rafi, trying to make
his life bearable, to escape the constant hunger and infuse him with her own
hopefulness.
“What
she did reminded me of Roberto Benigni in the Italian film ‘Life is Beautiful,’
“ said Malcolm Clarke, director of “The Lady in Number 6.” “He plays an Italian
Jew who pretends to his young son that life in the camp is some kind of
elaborate game for the boy’s special amusement.”
Liberated
in 1945, Alice and Rafi returned to Prague but four years later left for
Israel. There she taught at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and performed in
concerts frequently attended by Golda Meir, while Rafi became a concert
cellist.
Alice
said she loved her 37 years living in Israel, but when Rafi, her only child,
decided to move to London, she went with him. A few years later Rafi died at
65, but the mother remained in her small flat, No. 6, in a North London
apartment house.
Nearly
all of the film was shot over a two-year period inside the flat dominated by an
old Steinway piano on which Alice played four hours each day, to the enjoyment
of her neighbors.
Originally
the filmmakers considered “Dancing Under the Gallows” as the film’s title
before going with The Lady in Number 6.
It was
a wise decision, for the film is anything but a grim Holocaust documentary with
Alice’s unfailing affirmation of life, usually accompanied by gusts of
laughter.
Her
health and speech have declined in recent months, and she no longer does
interviews. But in a brief phone conversation, conducted mainly in German,
Alice attributed her outlook partially to having been born with optimistic
genes and a positive attitude.
“I know
there is bad in the world, but I look for the good,” she said, and “music is my
life, music is God.”
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Spring is coming!
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SUSANNA PHILLIPS, SOPRANO
Posted by
classictalk on February 28, 2014
- Susanna Phillips is an American opera singer who has sung
leading lyric soprano at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, and the
Metropolitan Opera.
- Phillips was born in Birmingham, Alabama and grew up in
Huntsville where she attended Randolph School. At Randolph, she also began
studying voice with Ginger Beazley at Ars Nova School of the Arts.
- She received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees
from the Juilliard School where was a student of Cynthia Hoffmann.
- In 2010, Phillips co-founded Twickenham Fest, a week-long
chamber music festival that takes place in her hometown of Huntsville, Alabama.
The festival invites around a dozen young musicians to the North Alabama area
to perform free concerts for the public. Phillips co-founded the festival with
bassoonist Matthew McDonald, also a fellow Huntsville native.
- She made her Metropolitan Opera debut on 15 March 2008
singing Musetta in La bohème and returned there to sing Pamina (2009, 2010),
Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (2012), and Fiordiligi (2013). In 2010 she won the
Met’s Beverly Sills Award .
- She will be featured this season on Met- HD broadcasts of La Boheme and Cosi Fan Tutti
Hear the interview:
Never heard her sing? Click here to hear her sing a song by Faure:
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The Met
Saturday afternoon radio broadcast
The
Enchanted Island
March
8, 2014 12:00 pm ET
Summers;
de Niese, Chuchman, Graham, Daniels, Costanzo, Domingo, Pisaroni
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Coming next week to a theater near you!
SATURDAY, March 15 2014, 12:00pm
Live in HD *
Massenet's
Werther
March 15, 2014, 12:55 pm ET
Jonas Kaufmann stars in the title role of Massenet's sublime
adaptation of Goethe's revolutionary and tragic romance, opposite Sophie Koch
as Charlotte. The new production is directed and designed by Richard Eyre and
Rob Howell, the same team that created the Met's recent hit staging of Carmen.
Rising young maestro Alain Altinoglu conducts.
Duration: 3 hrs. 15 min.
U.S. Encore: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 at 6:30 pm local time
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And
now for something completely different…
Spring
really IS coming.
(Duration: 60 min. )
Carnival, from Rio de Janeiro
(There
are no subtitles but you can enjoy the parade and
the music...it's NOT opera!)
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NO OPERA ON WGBH TV
THIS WEEK!
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