Weeks of July 28 - August 11, 2016

  Special vacation edition:  
                                                                         

Two weeks:                

                                     1) Week of July 28 - August 4;
                                     2) Week of August 4- August 11.

All links are live!

This week on Rhode Island Public television,

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

Saturday, July 30, 2016, 8:00pm

Sunday, July 31, 2016 3:00am

Monday, August 1,  2016, 12:00am

Great Performances at the Met

Il Trovatore

Il Trovatore

Season 10 opens with Verdi's "Il Trovatore," in which long-lost brothers (Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Yonghoon Lee) compete for the affections of the same woman (Anna Netrebko). Dolora Zajick costars as Azucena, the gypsy with a dark secret.

Length: 180

Synopsis: http://www.metopera.org/Discover/Synopses/Il-Trovatore/

Saturday, August 6, 2016, 8:00pm

Sunday, August 7, 2016 3:00am

Monday, August 15,  2016, 12:00am  -- Note date

Great Performances at the Met

OTELLO

Verdi's "Otello," about a Moorish general (Aleksandrs Antonenko) who comes to suspect his wife (Sonya Yoncheva) of infidelity due to seeds of doubt sowed by a treacherous aide (Zeljko Lucic).

Length: 180

SYNOPSIS: www.metopera.org/Discover/Synopses/Otello/

"I Like to Be In America!"

American Opera and Broadway songs

July 31, 2016  

Hopkins Park/Square

(intersection of Charles Street & Branch Avenue)

Providence, RI

5:00 - 6:30 PM

A Summer Concert at Blithewold

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum

101 Ferry Road (Rt. 114)

Bristol, RI 02809

5:00 - 8:00 PM

For additional information on our exciting opera season,

to purchase tickets, or to contribute to the Annual Appeal, contact:

Opera Providence

585 Elmgrove Avenue

Providence RI 02906

401-331-6060

News from Around the World of Music

Liane Curtis: Pictures and Music at BLmO Exhibition

http://www.classical-scene.com/2016/07/23/blmo-exhibition/

Liane Curtis: “Sing Her Name” Commemorates Sandra Bland

https://www.classical-scene.com/2016/07/20/unfinished-dream/

Simon Wallfisch: The inner voice of the opera singer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0427jk9?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_radio_3&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=radio_and_music

Musical Connections: Ancient Spain & Modern Mexico

https://www.classical-scene.com/2016/07/13/hesperion-tanglewood/

Midsummer Digs and Operas Charm

https://www.classical-scene.com/2016/07/21/bmo-love/

Show Don’t Tell: How Teddy Abrams is Bringing the Louisville Orchestra to the People

http://www.sfcv.org/article/show-dont-tell-how-teddy-abrams-is-bringing-the-louisville-orchestra-to-the-people

Listen: Alan Alda Talks Mozart with Annie Bergen

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/listen-alan-alda-talks-mozart-annie-bergen/?utm_source=local&utm_medium=treatment&utm_campaign=carousel&utm_content=item1

The Magic of Marlboro, Part 1: The Tradition of Napkin Balls

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/magic-marlboro-part-1-tradition-napkin-bells/

The Magic of Marlboro, Part 2: At the Coffee Shop with Violist Sam Rhodes

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/magic-marlboro-part-2-coffee-shop-violist-sam-rhodes/?utm_source=/story/listen-alan-alda-talks-mozart-annie-bergen/&utm_medium=treatment&utm_campaign=morelikethis

The Magic of Marlboro, Part 3: Marriage Made in Vermont

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/magic-marlboro-part-3-marriage-made-vermont/?utm_source=/story/listen-alan-alda-talks-mozart-annie-bergen/&utm_medium=treatment&utm_campaign=morelikethis

The Magic of Marlboro, Part 4: Choral Fantasy Finale

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/magic-marlboro-part-4-choral-fantasy-finale/

A Carefree Inspires a New Mozart Activity

http://www.kdfc.com/pages/15713030.php

The Year of the Woman at the Ojai Festival

http://www.sfcv.org/article/the-year-of-the-woman-at-the-ojai-festival

Letter From the Other Side: Return from a Traumatic Brain Injury

http://www.sfcv.org/article/letter-from-the-other-side-return-from-a-traumatic-brain-injury

A Century After Its Premiere, ‘Iris’ Might Be The Most 

F***ed Up Opera Ever

Sex trafficking ends with the virginal heroine in the sewer

http://observer.com/2016/07/a-century-after-its-premiere-iris-might-be-the-most-fucked-up-opera/

Osaka and Kyoto haggle over the unconscious Iris at Bard SummerScape. Cory Weaver

Beach-ready books on music

San Francisco Classical Voice Beach Blanket Bibliography

http://www.sfcv.org/article/sfcv-beach-blanket-bibliography

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WQXR

What We Learned from the First New York Opera Fest

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

WQXR

By Merrin Lazyan / Amanda Angel

From the Bronx to basketball courts in Brooklyn, the inaugural New York Opera Fest presented more than 25 productions, providing a survey of the state of opera in the city.

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/what-we-learned-first-new-york-opera-fest/

Peter Mattei performs in 'The Illuminated Heart,' conducted by Louis Langree and presented by the Mostly Mozart Festival.

Review: 'The Illuminated Heart' Opens Mostly Mozart Festival

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

WQXR

By David Patrick Stearns

Netia Jones's 'The Illuminated Heart,' a 90-minute program of semi-staged Mozart arias kicked off the 50th anniversary of the Mostly Mozart Festival with operatic star power.

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/review-illuminated-heart-opens-mostly-mozart-festival/

Soprano Carol Vaness now teaches at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.

We Love Carol Vaness

Monday, July 25, 2016

WQXR

By Fred Plotkin

Carol Vaness, whose birthday is this week, was 'an always exciting and engaging artist whose work was not appreciated as fully as I think it should have been,' writes Fred Plotkin.

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/we-love-carol-vaness/

Matthew Boehler and Talise Trevigne star in Bard's production of 'Iris.'

Review: Long Dormant, Mascagni's 'Iris' Opens at Bard

Monday, July 25, 2016

WQXR

By David Patrick Stearns

Bard SummerScape stages the first North American revival of Mascagni's symbolist opera, 'Iris,' in almost a century. Critic David Patrick Stearns weighs in on the production.

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/review-long-dormant-mascagni-iris-opens-bard/

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OPERA ON THE INTERNET 

WITH  

DAVE  D' AGUANNO

The opera festivals this summer have gone into full swing, and although festivals in this country are not offering radio broadcasts at the present time, there's still plenty coming in from Europe, not even counting the ongoing Bayreuth line-up of Wagner operas.

The Rossini Festival in Wildbad this summer offered a performance of his early work "Demetrio & Polibio" as one of its highlights, and the July 9th performance of this opera can be heard this Saturday (July 30) on German Radio.

(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)

In a similar vein, this summer's opera festival at Martina Franca is broadcasting the LIVE performance this Saturday of "Francesca da Rimini." Lest you assume that this is the opera by Zandonai which was done at the Met a couple of seasons ago -- or even the one by Rachmaninov which was performed in Brussels a little over a year ago -- you would be mistaken. Instead, it's Saverio Mercadante's "Francesca da Rimini" (from 1831) which you can listen to on Radio 3 (RAI).

(www.radio3.rai.it/)

On French Radio, it's Handel's "Acis & Galathea" in a LIVE performance from Beaune.

(www.francemusique.fr/)

A performance from earlier this year (January 9) of Tchaikovsky's "Iolanta" can be heard on ORF (Austria), coming to us from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

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

Also, it should be mentioned that the LIVE video-cast of Wagner's "Die Meistersinger" from Munich (originally scheduled for this coming Sunday) has been postponed till a later date (to be announced). No reason for the postponement is given on the Bavarian State Opera website. In other words, Jonas Kaufmann fans in particular will probably want to keep tabs on the goings-on in Munich at this time.

The August 12th performance in Salzburg of Richard Strauss's "Liebe der Danae" will be televised, probably online. No details yet as to its availability to us poor neglected souls here in the U.S.

Also, the originally scheduled video-stream of "Meistersinger" will probably not take place at all. It was cancelled due to recent terrorist activity in Munich.

(Alas, there are few listings available for next week, but here's what we have.)

For many opera lovers, each summer's Salzburg Festival is eagerly awaited, and so, special interest may undoubtedly be paid to the July 31st performance which will be aired on ORF this Saturday (August 6), the opera in question being "Liebe der Danae" by Richard Strauss. This is the one which actually premiered AFTER the same composer's last opera ("Capriccio") due to factors brought on in Germany by the ongoing World War II, the composition of "Danae" having been completed in 1940, while the official premiere didn't take place until 1952. The delay in its premiere, some say, is what accounts for the fact that this work never had a chance to really "take off" (so to speak), its admirers maintaining that the final act contains some of the best music Strauss ever composed!

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

 Here's a video of Franco Faccio's "Amleto" ("Hamlet"), premiered in 1865 & performed last week (July 20) as part of this summer's opera festival in Bregenz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cecdfOR7HBs

 (with German subtitles)

Unfortunately, there are a lot of pop-up ads throughout the entire opera. They can be X-ed out as they appear, but I find them to be quite annoying.

Still, this will probably be the only video of this opera we'll ever get a chance to see, and the music is about what you'd expect from a Verdi contemporary.

Enjoy!

DAVE

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The Met Saturday afternoon
 radio broadcast will return in December. 

Watch this space. Enjoy the haitus! 

Opera Now

The most influential opera magazine in the world 

http://www.rhinegold.co.uk/rhinegold-publishing/magazines/opera-now/

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No opera on

WGBH this week!

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

See you in two weeks!

Stay cool!