NPR World of Opera Schedule

 

NPR World Of Opera Schedule
1-5-2008 through 3-29-2008
Sundays at 6:00 p.m.
91.3 KVLU


Week 1 | 01/05/2008
TCHAIKOVSKY: The Queen of Spades 
Vienna State Opera
TCHAIKOVSKY: The Queen of Spades
Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Seiji Ozawa, conductor
CAST: Neil Shicoff (Hermann); Martina Serafin (Lisa); Anja Silja (Countess); Albert Dohmen (Tomsky); Markus Eiche 
(Yeletsky); Nadia Krasteva (Lisa's confidante); Peter Jelosits (Chekalinsky); Goran Simic (Surin); Benedikt Kobel (Chaplitsky)

Gambling has gotten lots of folks in trouble, but few more dramatically than the unfortunate Herman of Tchaikovsky's opera. 
Based on a chilling story by Pushkin, the operatic version is no less disturbing than the original. 



Week 2 | 01/12/2008
VERDI: Attila 
Concertgebouw (Amsterdam)
VERDI: Attila
Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic and Chorus
Jaap van Zweden, conductor
CAST: Ildar Abdrazakov (Attila); Hasmik Papian (Odabella); Paolo Gavanelli (Ezio); Massimiliano Pisapia (Foresto); 
Giorgio Trucco (Udino); Dennis Wilgenhof (Leone)

So, you think Attila the Hun was nothing but a vicious, bloodthirsty conqueror? Well, that's the popular notion -- 
though maybe not the historical truth. Verdi's opera presents yet another version of one history's most vivid figures. 
This production from Amsterdam's Concertgebouw features the powerful bass Ildar Abdrazakov, bringing us Verdi's decidedly 
Romantic take on the notorious title character. 



Week 3 | 01/19/2008
WAGNER: Rienzi 
Leipzig Gewandhaus
WAGNER: Rienzi
Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig Opera Chorus
Axel Kober, conductor
CAST: Stefan Vinke (Rienzi); Marika Schoenberg (Irene); Pavel Kudinov (Colonna); Elena Zhidkova (Adriano); Juergen Kurth 
(Paolo Orsini); Christopher Robertson (Raimondo); Martin Petzold (Baroncelli)

Rienzi is an early, grand opera by Wagner, written before he launched his revolutionary journey into the world of "music drama" 
that we now think of as truly and uniquely Wagnerian. This production comes from one of music's most historic venues, 
the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. 



Week 4 | 01/26/2008
Special Presentation: Placido Domingo "Trilogy" 
Washington National Opera
Special Presentation: Placido Domingo "Trilogy"
UMBERTO GIORDANO: Fedora (Act II)
Eugene Kohn, conductor
CAST: Placido Domingo (Loris); Sylvie Valayre (Fedora);Amanda Squitieri (Olga); Lee Poulis (De Sirieux)

GIUSEPPE VERDI: Otello (Act IV)
Heinz Fricke, conductor
CAST: Placido Domingo (Otello); Barbara Frittoli (Desdemona); Erin Elizabeth Smith (Emilia); John Marcus Bindel (Iago); 
Corey Evan Rotz (Cassio)

FRANZ LEHAR: The Merry Widow (Act III) 
Eugene Kohn, conductor
CAST: Placido Domingo (Danilo); Christiane Noll (Valencienne); Leslie Mutchler (Hanna); Steven Condy (Baron Zeta); Corey Evan Rotz (Njegus)

This special "Trilogy" is a showcase for the legendary talents of the Washington National Opera's music director, tenor Placido Domingo. 
His unmistakable voice illuminates acts from three very different operas, and Domingo's portrayal of the title character in Verdi's 
incomparable Otello is a performance for the ages. 



Week 5 | 02/02/2008
EDOUARD LALO: The King of Ys 
Capitole of Toulouse
EDOUARD LALO: The King of Ys
Capitole National Orchestra and Chorus
Yves Abel, conductor
CAST: Sophie Koch (Margared); Inva Mula (Rozenn); Charles Castronova (Mylio); Franck Ferrari (Karnac); Eric Martin-Bonnet 
(Saint Corentin); Andre Hayboer (Jahel); Paul Gay (King of Ys)

Lalo's rarely heard yet evocative opera tells the legendary story of Ys, a mythical city in Brittany, built below sea level and 
protected by an enormous dam at the city's gates -- that is until a love triangle leaves the keys to the gates, and the dam, in the 
hands of a woman scorned, and the city is destroyed by a great flood. 



Week 6 | 02/09/2008
FEDERICO MORENO TORROBA: Luisa Fernanda 
The Washington National Opera
FEDERICO MORENO TORROBA: Luisa Fernanda
Washington National Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Miguel Roa, conductor
CAST: Placido Domingo (Vidal Hernando); Maria José Montiel (Luisa Fernanda); Elena de la Merced (Duchess Carolina); Israel Lozano 
(Javier); Suzanna Guzmán (Mariana); Sebina Puertolas Azara (Rosita); Federico Gallar (Don Luís Nogales); Peter Joshua Burroughs (Anibal); 
Valeriano Lanchas (Don Florito Fernandez)

Madrid-born superstar Placido Domingo brings Washington opera-goers a taste of the Spanish musical delicacy, zarzuela. Love and 
revolution mix when the republican title character must choose between Vidal (Plácido Domingo), a gallant, older man who is deeply 
devoted to her and comes to share her convictions, and her true love, a fiery captain of the Royal guard. 



Week 7 | 02/16/2008
MICHAEL JOHN LaCHIUSA: Send and FRANCIS POULENC: The Human Voice. 
Houston Grand Opera, Double Bill
MICHAEL JOHN LaCHIUSA: Send (who are you? I love you)
FRANCIS POULENC: The Human Voice.
Houston Grand Opera Orchestra
Ted Sperling, conductor
CAST: Audra McDonald (singing the single roles in both operas)

Tony Award-winning Broadway star Audra McDonald takes to the opera house in a true tour-de-force --a one-woman double-bill! 
In Poulenc's classic one-acter, McDonald's character struggles to save a dying romance over the telephone. In the World 
Premiere of LaChiusa's Send, she plays a woman trying to fan a romantic flame in more up-to-date fashion -- over the internet. 



Week 8 | 02/23/2008
GAETANO DONIZETTI: The Elixir of Love 
Washington National Opera
GAETANO DONIZETTI: The Elixir of Love
Emmanuel Villaume, conductor
CAST: Elizabeth Futral (Adina); Paul Groves (Nemorino); Marc Barrard (Belcore); Steven Condy (Dr. Dulcamara); 
Christina Martos (Giannetta)

There's not a lot to be taken seriously in this comic romp by Donizetti. Unless, of course, you count the music! It's 
some of Donizetti's finest, and takes the opera beyond the world of farce to a place where simple confidence can lead 
to life-changing revelations. 



Week 9 | 03/01/2008
ARRIGO BOITO: Mefistofele 
Royal Opera of Wallonie, Liege
Royal Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Patrick Davin, conductor
ARRIGO BOITO: Mefistofele
CAST: Barbara Haveman (Margherita); Paata Burchuladze (Mefistofele); Antonello Palombi (Faust); Guy Gabelle (Wagner/Nero); 
Christine Solhosse (Marta/Panalis); Tiziana Cararro (Elena)

Boito is best known as the librettist for Verdi's great operas Otello and Falstaff. But, as this opera proves, he was also 
a fine composer in his own right. Mefistofele is Boito's extravagant take on the legend of Faust. 



Week 10 | 03/08/2008
MONTEVERDI: Orfeo 
Netherlands Opera, Amsterdam
MONTEVERDI: Orfeo
Tragicomedia, Concerto Palatino
Stephen Stubbs, conductor
CAST: Jeremy Ovenden (Orfeo); Judith van Wanroij (Euridice); David Cordier (La Musica); Pascal Bertin (Hope); 
Tania Kross (Messenger); Alan Ewing (Caronte); Panajotis Iconomou (Pluto); Wilke Te Brummelstroete (Proserpina); Ilse Eerens (Ninfa)

It's hard to say who wrote the very first opera. But there's little debate as to the first, truly great opera. It was 
Monteverdi's Orfeo, heard here in a production from Amsterdam, featuring some of the world's finest performers of early opera. 



Week 11 | 03/15/2008
Mark Adamo: Lysistrata 
Houston Grand Opera
Mark Adamo: Lysistrata (World Premiere Production)
Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Stefan Lano, conductor
CAST: Emily Pulley (Lysia); Heidi Stober (Tisiphone/Charito/Aphrodite); Laquita Mitchell (Myrrhine); Chad Shelton (Nico); 
Joshua Hopkins (Kinesias); Nicholas Phan (Maron/Ares); Norman Reinhardt (Meleagros); Fiona Murphy (Megaera/Arete); 
Jennifer Root (Sappho); Joshua Winograde (Leonidas); Victoria Livengood (Lampito); Arturo Chacón-Cruz (Alpheus)

In the words of Monty Python, this time Mark Adamo brings us "something completely different." Adamo is the composer of the 
operatic hit Little Women. In Lysistrata, he steps away from the charming, affable world of Louisa May Alcott, and into the 
legendary world of ancient Greece. Here, the men of Athens and Sparta are constantly at war. That is, until the women of the two, 
battling city states threaten their warriors with the ultimate weapon: abstinence! 



Week 12 | 03/22/2008
SMETANA: The Secret 
Prague National Theater
SMETANA: The Secret
National Theater Orchestra and Chorus
Zbynek Mueller, conductor
CAST: Miloslav Podskalsky (Malina); Katerina Jalovcova (Roza); Maria Haan (Blazenka); Roman Janal (Kalina); Tomas Cerny (Vit); 
Jiri Sulzenko (Bonifac); Jaroslav Brezina (Skrivanek)

Written about 15 years after The Bartered Bride, Smetana's best-known opera, The Secret is a gentle comedy about a bitterly 
abandoned love affair that comes back to life after a long held secret is revealed, leaving the right two people together at last. 



Week 13 | 03/29/2008
VERDI: A Masked Ball 
Maggio Musicale, Florence
VERDI: A Masked Ball
Maggio Musicale Orchestra and Chorus
Daniel Oren, conductor
CAST: Ramon Vargas (Riccardo, Governor of Boston); Violeta Urmana (Amelia); Roberto Frontali (Renato); Elena Zaremba (Ulrica); 
Donata D'Annunzio Lombardi (Oscar); Mario Cassi (Silvano); Carlo Stiuli (Samuel); Duccio Dal Monte (Tom)

The original version of Verdi's A Masked Ball -- an opera about illicit love and backstabbing traitors at a European royal court -- 
so offended the Italian censors that Verdi eventually picked up the whole story and moved it all the way to Boston! No matter where 
it takes place, the story is bolstered by one of Verdi's most heartfelt scores, and one of the most passionate love affairs in any of his operas.