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.
CLICK ON THE LINK: http://www.metoperafamily.org/opera/boheme-puccini-tickets
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
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.
----------------------------------------
COMING SOON!
----------------------------------------
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, 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.
.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment