Week of September 15 - September 22, 2016

All links are live!

(Met Opera Season starts in a few weeks!)

This week on Rhode Island Public television,

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

Saturday, September 17, 2016, 8:00pm

Sunday, September 18, 2016 3:00am

Monday, September 19,  2016, 12:00am

 Great Performances at the Met 

Madama Butterfly

A production of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," about a callous Navy lieutenant (Roberto Alagna) and a Japanese geisha (Kristine Opolais), whom he marries for convenience rather than for love.

Synopsis:  http://www.metopera.org/Discover/Synopses/Madama-Butterfly/

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WQXR

NYC Opera's Double Bill: Stick Around After Intermission

Friday, September 09, 2016

By David Patrick Stearns

David Patrick Stearns reviews the New York Opera's double bill of Rachmaninoff's "Aleko" and Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci."

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/nyc-opera-double-bill-stick-around-after-intermission/

Remembering Opera Singer Johan Botha

Friday, September 09, 2016

By Fred Plotkin

Fred Plotkin remembers Johan Botha, a favorite heldentenor of many, who died on Sept. 8 in Vienna at the age of 51.

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/remembering-opera-singer-johan-botha/

Fall Preview: Voices of Autumn

Wednesday, September 07, 2016

By Fred Plotkin

This fall, the New York area is brimming with enticements for people who love to hear the human voice in opera and recital. Fred Plotkin highlights what to look for.

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/fall-preview-voices-autumn/

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A class on “Tristan” with Louis Mainelli

I will be offering a course on "Tristan und Isolde" in preparation for the October 8 Metropolitan Opera HD transmission of "Tristan".  The course will be offered as part of the Circle of Scholars program at Salve Regina University.  The course dates are 9/23, 9/28, 9/30,10/5 and 10/7. 

For further information, please contact Mary Edwards, program coordinator, at mary.edwards@salve.edu.

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OPERA ON THE INTERNET 

WITH  

DAVE  D' AGUANNO

Opera fans who consider Rossini's "Barber of Seville" to be one of their favorites have a choice of TWO broadcasts of this opera this coming Saturday(September 17). One of them is a LIVE broadcast on BBC Radio 3 of a performance originating from London's Royal Opera House.

(www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/)

NPR will be carrying the other broadcast of this popular Rossini comedy as it continues its series of operas that were performed during the San Francisco Opera's 2015/2016 season, bringing us a performance that took place there in November 2015.

(www.wrti.org/)

Another Italian opera -- Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" -- can be heard on German Radio in a performance that took place last Saturday (September 10) in Hannover.

(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)

An example of French opera can be heard on Radio 4 (the Netherlands) which is digging into its archives and has come up with a January 19, 1985 performance of Massenet's "Thais" which took place in Amsterdam at that time.

(www.radio4.nl/)

German opera is represented this Saturday by a delayed broadcast oftomorrow's Vienna State Opera performance of Wagner's "Lohengrin." This one can be heard on ORF (Austria).

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

On the other hand, the programming folks at Swedish Radio have recently done a good job of airing contemporary works of living Swedish composers. This time around, they have decided to broadcast a 2015 recording of Wilhelm Stenhammar's 1893 opera "Gildet pa Solhaug" which is, in effect, an operatic treatment of Henrik Ibsen's play "The Feast at Solhaug."

(http://sverigesradio.se/p2/)

Enjoy!

DAVE

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The Met Saturday afternoon
 radio broadcast will return in December. 

Watch this space. Enjoy the haitus! 

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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!

Rudy Giulani, former US Atty., former Mayor of New York

Week of September 8 - September 15, 2016

All links are live!

(Met Opera Season starts in a few weeks!)

This week on Rhode Island Public television,

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

Saturday, September 10, 2016, 8:00pm

Sunday, September 11, 2016 3:00am

Monday, September 12,  2016, 12:00am

 Great Performances at the Met 

Roberto Devereux

Donizetti's "Roberto Devereux," in which Elizabeth I (Sondra Radvanovsky) signs the death warrant for the nobleman (Matthew Polenzani) she loves when he's accused of treason, not because he's guilty but because of spite: he loves another.

Synopsis:  http://www.metopera.org/Discover/Synopses/Roberto-Devereux/

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News from Around the World of Music

Cracking a Glass Ceiling With the Maestro’s Baton

Women are increasingly taking over a stubbornly male preserve in front of orchestras.

BY MICHAEL COOPER

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/arts/music/female-conductors-lucerne-festival.html

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Opera Santa Barbara Names New Director

Kostis Protopapas Takes Over as Artistic Director at OSB

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

by CHARLES DONELAN

http://www.independent.com/news/2015/aug/11/opera-santa-barbara-names-new-director/

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THE FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS STORY

Directed by: Ralf Pleger

Germany | 93 minutes

Florence Foster Jenkins is known as “the worst singer of all time”, yet she is a cult figure whose recordings still outsell many contemporary singers. Opera superstar Joyce DiDonato, making her cinematic debut interprets the flamboyant “queen of dissonance” in this vivid impression of the conflict between inner delusion and external reality.

http://calendar.raindancefestival.org/films/the-florence-foster-jenkins-story

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Calendar and Tickets

Singers at Carnegie Hall

https://www.carnegiehall.org/vocal/?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=stix-vocal&utm_medium=social&sourcecode=24711

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WQXR

The Presidential Candidates’ Silence About the Arts

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

By Fred Plotkin

As we get closer to the 2016 presidential election, Fred Plotkin investigates the candidates' stance — or lack thereof — on funding for the arts.

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/presidential-candidates-silence-about-arts/

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OPERA ON THE INTERNET 

WITH  

DAVE  D' AGUANNO

Continuing their series of broadcasts from the San Francisco Opera's 2015/2016 season, NPR brings us an October 2015 performance of Mozart's ever-popular "Magic Flute."

(www.wrti.org/)

Nicolo Piccinni's rarely performed opera from 1781 -- "Iphigenie en Tauride" (lyric tragedy in 4 acts) -- can be heard on German Radio. This opera, which was premiered just 2 years after Gluck's more famous opera of the same name, was performed in Nurnberg on July 18 of this year, and it is this performance that is being aired on Saturday.

(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)

If you were asked to name an opera in which one of the characters is transformed into a tree at the end of the work, you would probably cite Richard Strauss's "Daphne" as a prime example. However, in 1902 (several decades before "Daphne" saw the light of day), Rimsky-Korsakov gave us his one-act opera "Kashchey the Immortal" in which the evil Princess is magically turned into a weeping willow while the two young lovers enter a world of light, love, & springtime! (Sounds like a happy ending!) In any case, this opera can be heard on Swedish Radio this Saturday; unfortunately, the station's website is being quite secretive regarding when & where this performance took place.

(http://sverigesradio.se/p2/)

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!

Gerard Butler in "300"