It's hard to believe it's been a month since I last posted here, but it has been a very hectic month. This week we finally had our windows (not of the computer variety) replaced, after several weeks of packing and sorting and shifting and sifting and moving STUFF around. As someone else in our building commented the other day, preparing to have one's windows replaced is worse than moving - it's more like playing with a Rubik's Cube and trying to find the right combination that solves the puzzle. Anyway, enough of personal things...

The big and confusing thing that happens this weekend and next is the switchover to Daylight Savings Time. Europe does it first this coming Sunday night and then, next weekend, North America follows suit. And while North America turns ON to Daylight Savings Time, Australia, a couple of weeks behind New Zealand and South America, goes OFF Daylight Savings Time - it's all a bit like the old trick of rubbing your stomach and patting your head and then being told to switch!

So, with the understanding that some of the European offerings will (seemingly) be an hour earlier than usual because of the time difference created by their being on DST while we Americans are not, here's a look at the lineup for Saturday (not the most boutiful week on record, but still ... the Met broadcast this weeks looks like a comer...):

• DR P2 -- a recent performance of Mozart's Il re pastore from Budapest featuring Anna Maria Panzarella, Kresimir Spicer, Ditte Højgaard Andersen, Katerina Beranova, sopran and Lothar Odinius, conducted by Adam Fischer.
• KLARA -- Among other Pucciniana, will be carrying a performance of Le Villi with Stefano Antonucci, Cristina Gallardo-Domas and Carlo Ventre, conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi.
• RADIO 4 NETHERLANDS -- A concert performance from Amsterdam of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, with Carol Vaness, Tania Kross, Nicola Rossi Giordano, Zeljko Lucic and Livia Budaï, and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci with Ana Maria Martinez, Dennis O'Neill, Zeljko Lucic, Riccardo Botta and Kyle Pfortmiller, conducted by Carlo Rizzi.
• METROPOLITAN OPERA INTERNATION RADIO BROADCAST (numerous stations)-- A live performance of Verdi's Luisa Miller with Karen Slack, Eduardo Villa, Carlos Alvarez, James Morris, Philip Ens and Irina Mushura, conducted by Maurizio Benini. (From what we hear, Eduardo Villa, who has been replacing the originally scheduled Neil Shicoff - who has been suffering from laryngitis - has been making quite a splash; and Karen Slack, a new face on the scene, at least here in New York, has also been mighty impressive - definitely worth a listen....).
• NPR WORLD OF OPERA -- A performance of Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades from Paris National Opera, with Vladimir Galouzine, Hasmik Papian, Irina Bogatcheva, Nikolai Putilin, Ludovic Tézier, Vsevolod Grivnov, Sergei Stilmachenko and Christianne Stotijn, conducted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky.
• NRK ALLTID KLASSISK and NRK P2 -- will be rebroadcasting the Washington National Opera performance of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess from this past summer, with Indira Mahajan, Gordon Hawkins, Angela Simpson, Terry Cook, Laquita Mitchell, Marietta Simpson, Eric Green, Jermaine Smith and Michael Forest, conducted by Wayne Marshall.
• RADIO OESTERREICH INTERNATIONAL -- a performance of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer with Juha Uusitalo, Anja Kampe, Kurt Moll, Stephen Gould, Heike Grötzinger and Kevin Connersconducted by (the paripatetic) Adam Fischer.
• SVERIGES RADIO P2 -- a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio with Gunnel Bohman, Jon Ketilsson, Ingrid Frøseth, Mattias Ermedahl, Mats Persson, Mats Persson’, Krister St. Hill and Christof Fischesser, conducted by Andreas Spering.
• ESPACE 2 -- A performance of Donizetti's L'Assedio di Calais from London with Christian Du Plessi, Nuccia Focile, Paul Nilon, Ian Platt, Mark Glanville, Della Jones, Rico Serbo, Russell Smythe, John Treleaven, Eiddwen Harrhy and Norman Bailey, conducted by David Parry.
• LATVIA RADIO KLASIKA -- a December 2005 performance from Vienna of Verdi's Falstaff with Ambrodžio Maestri, Saimirs Pirgu, Krasimira Stojanova, Tatjana Lisnic(a and Nadja Krasteva, conducted by Daniele Gatti.
• CATALUNYA MÚSICA -- A recital from Gran Teatre Liceu in Barcelona by Ana Maria Sanchez, with Enrique Pérez de Guzmán on the piano, including works by Giuseppe Verdi, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss, Enric Granados, Eduard Toldrà and Joaquín Turina.

As always....

Happy listening,

Hello all - it's been a couple of weeks since we have had the time to post the Saturday highlights, so here'e the full-blown run down of this afternoon's OperaCasts:

• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Budapest, Mozart's Great Mass in C featuring Andrea Csereklyei, Andrea Melath, Attila Fekete and Istvan Kovacs, and the Chor und Sinfonieorchester des Ungarischen Rundfunks, conducted by Tamas Vasary.
• France Musiques - A November 2005 performance of Caldara's L'Olympiade, with Brian Asawa, Gemma Bertagnolli, Martin Oro and Barbara di Castri.
• Klara - a May 2005 performance of Handel's Atalanta with Dominique Labelle, Susanne Rydén, Emma Curtis, Michael Slattery, Philipp Cutlip, William Berger, conducted by Nicholas McGegan.
• Radio 4 Netherlands - From Da Nationale Reisopera a February 11, 2006 performance of Puccini's Turandot with the original Alfano ending, featuring Lisa Livingstone, Hein Meens, Frank van Aken and Machteld Baumans, conducted by Ed Spanjaard.
• MDR Figaro - From Staatsoper Under den Linden Berlin, a January 21, 2006 performance of Faustus, the last night, by Pascal Dusapin, with Georg Nigl, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Robert Wörle, Jaco Huijpen and Caroline Stein, conducted by Michael Boder.
• Metropolitan Opera Broadcast (Numerous stations) - A live performance of Verdi's Aida, with Andrea Gruber, Johan Botha, Olgas Borodina and Juan Pons, conducted by James Conlon. Note that RDP Antena 2 and Lyric FM will be carrying the Aida on a delayed basis.
• NRK Alltid Klassisk - From Lyons, a February 2005 performance of Chabrier's Le roi malgré, with Nicolas Rivenq, Magali Léger, Laurent Naouri, Maryline Fallot, Yann Beuron and Franck Leguérinel, conducted by Evelino Pidò.
• Radio Oesterreich International - From Zurich, Heinz Karl Gruber's Der Herr Nordwind with Cornelia Kallisch, Oliver Widmer, Alexander Kaimbacher, Judith Schmid, Sandra Trattnigg, Reinhard Mayr, Volker Vogel and Peter Keller, conducted by HK Gruber.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - A rebroadcast of the Metropolitan Opera performance of Berg's Wozzeck from earlier this season, with Alan Held, Katarina Dalayman, Graham Clark, Walter Fink, Clifton Forbis and Eric Cutler, conducted by James Levine.
• NPR World of Opera - From Houston Grand Opera, a live performance of Handel's Ariodante with Susan Graham, Alexandra Coku, Oren Gradus, Christine Brandes, Sally Burgess, John McVeigh and Nicholas Phan, conducted by Christopher Hogwood.
• Cesky Rozhlas 3 - Vltava - A repeat broadcast of the Covent Garden performance of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West with Jose Cura, Mark Delavan, Andrea Gruber, Jonathan Lemalu, and Robert Lloyd, conducted by Antonio Pappano.
• Radio Tre (RAI) - From Rome, a live performance of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, with Rainer Trost, James Morris, Ellie Dehn, Sara Fulgoni, Barbara Di Castri, Daniel Borowski and Lorenzo Carola, conducted by Daniele Gatti.
• RBB Kulturradio - The February 16, 2006 premiere performance from Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione de Poppea, with Carmen Giannattasio, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Amel Brahim-Djelloul, Malena Ernman and Lawrence Zazzo, conducted by René Jacobs.
• Catalunya Musica - A live performance from Barcelona of Verdi's Otello with José Cura, Krassimira Stoyanova, Lado Ataneli and Vittorio Grigolo, conducted by Antoni Ros-Marbà.
• Bayern 4 Klassik - Hear different conductor's interpretations of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail - Karl Böhm, William Christie, Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Ferenc Fricsay, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Christopher Hogwood, Eugen Jochum, Istvan Kertész, Otto Klemperer, Josef Krips, Charles Mackerras, Peter Maag, Zubin Mehta, Yehudi Menuhin, Georg Solti, Otmar Suitner, George Szell and others.

Liz and I were glad we went to the MET performance of Verdi's Rigoletto on February 1. Although Placido Domingo is still not well enough to sing these days (he is undergoing treatment for a severe case of tracheitis), he was back at the podium on the 1st to conduct this performance, featuring Frederick Burchinal in the title role, Anna Netrebko as Gilda, Rolando Villazon as the Duca, Vitalij Kowaljow as Sparafucile and Nancy Fabiola-Herrera as Maddalena.

Domingo's conducting was generally sensitive to the singers, although (surprisingly) there seemed a certain lack of sympathy (I thought?) with Burchinal. I didn't sense it was at all deliberate. They just somehow did not seem entirely in sync to me. This was hardly the case throughout, just at certain odd moments.

As for Burchinal himself, he was reasonably effective on an emotional and dramatic level. It was odd, though, hearing the very occasional flatness and unsteadiness to a few incidental high notes, but then hearing him triumph easily with the really exposed high notes, such as the climax of "Si, vendetta" and the final scene. Here, the tones were pingy and steady as a rock! In fact, in general, the essential amplitude of the instrument itself and the presence he brings to the role as a result make his entire interpretation persuasive and authentic enough not to "let down the side", as the saying goes.

Anna Netrebko's spellbinding and remarkably fluent "Caro nome" was the capstone to a luminous Gilda. It was especially welcome hearing her sound so free and easy after her (I thought) pretty spotty reading on the broadcast. To me, she did not sound at her best in the Saturday b'cast at all, and I actually wondered if she was in vocal trouble. On the 1st, she demonstrated conclusively that she is now in fine shape after all. Thank goodness.

In Villazon's case, too, I heard more strain in the b'cast than in this February outing, which registered as a distinct improvement. Again, he was a bit rocky at the start, but he got going at the "La costanza tiranno del core" stanza, where I thought he was fine (unlike the broadcast, where he took much longer reaching his stride). Yes, at this February performance, the opening before that second stanza was indeed a bit strained, but honestly, he seemed to me in ringing and easy form for the rest -- and his exciting "Possente amor" in the second act, despite his not going for the optional top note at its climax, was so wonderfully precise in the "little notes" (the Nilsson term) and so energized at the same time that it convinced me even more that this aria is essential to the Duke's character and should never be omitted.Villazon's interpretation was as much a triumph of brilliant characterization, pure impatience and eagerness and callowness and selfishness and hot-headedness incarnate, as scrupulous music-making. This was my first time hearing him in person, and I felt he fulfilled most expectations.

I did much admire the Sparafucile too: Vitalij Kowaljow -- the first time I've ever seen him too. This is one formidable talent, and I applauded lustily at the conclusion of his second-scene duet with Rigoletto. He sports a spooky-smooth line and is a musician of uncommon suavity. His tones, rich and steady with an unfailing legato, combine clear definition with great ease at his lowest extension. The true menace he imparted to this role was achieved through sinister precision with the vocal line. One knew this character was especially dangerous precisely because of the icy delivery Kowaljow has mastered. Then when the full nastiness of the man exploded in the confrontation with his sister (with the disguised Gilda eavesdropping), the impact was terrifying. This man is an artist.

Fabiola-Herrera's Maddalena was musical enough not to detract from the final act, even though there was nothing that made it especially memorable. Still, with a voice that well disciplined, I'd be curious to see here in some more meaty role.

The Count Ceprano (a role one rarely notices) was a standout, Andrew Gangestad. Surprisingly, in this one case, this was very much like the December broadcast, where the Ceprano was possibly even more of a standout, John Shelhart. At any rate, for both Shelhart and Gangestad, I was hooked from the words "anima nera" on! I am even reminded of the impact that Brian Davis's Valvert had on me in Alfano's Cyrano on January 31. Suddenly, the Met seems to be producing a bumber crop of these young bass-baritones. Where are all these wonderful new bass-baritones coming from? We definitely need them.

It was unfortunate that Stephen West, usually a much more distinguished singer, did not match his usual standard, nor that of his colleague's Ceprano, in the pivotal role of Monterone. Still, he did not take away from the glow of the evening, and one hopes that it was a momentary lapse.

This was certainly one of the few recent Rigolettos of my experience where there was little out of place. In fact, much in it was superb and there was nothing that was really inadequate. In all, an uncommonly solid reading.

Geoffrey Riggs

Today, we have a number of "live" events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

But I want to draw special attention to one event in particular showcasing one of the finest artists of our age, Thomas Quasthoff:

At GMT 1900/EST 2:00PM, MDR FIGARO and RBB KULTURRADIO will be carrying the Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim in an all-Mozart program starring Thomas Quastoff and also featuring soprano Sylvia Schwartz and violinist Nikolaj Znaider. Daniel Barenboim will also be heard at the piano. If you can, try and catch this broadcast, which starts slightly over an hour from now.

There are at least three or four other "live" Mozart entries today in addition, making it well worthwhile for you to check out the many commemorative offerings yourself:

http://www.operacast.com/thiswkdays.htm

Happy listening!

Geoffrey Riggs

Today, we have a number of "live" events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

A few of these are being given multi-station coverage and may prove special:

Starting right now, at GMT 1700/EST 12:00NOON, KBYU, WCLV and WFMT will be carrying the Vienna Philharmonic Gala with Riccardo Muti at the podium and featuring, among others, Cecilia Bartoli and Thomas Hampson. During intermission, the bells of 100 churches in Salzburg will be heard ringing in Mozart's birthday marking the very minute he was born.

At GMT 1800/EST 1:00PM, DR KLASSISK, FRANCE MUSIQUES, LATVIA RADIO KLASIKA, RADIO OESTERREICH INTERNATIONAL, RADIO TRE (RAI) and SVERIGES RADIO P2 carry Idomeneo, with Neil Shicoff (Idomeneo), Angelika Kirchschlager (Idamante), Genia Kühmeier (Ilia), Barbara Frittoli (Elettra) -- Peter Schneider conducting.

More to come very shortly -- stay tuned!

Happy listening

Geoffrey Riggs

Well, there are two great clumps of stations today. One group is carrying the Met Broadcast of Die Zauberflöte, and the other, a group of seven European stations are carrying a live Norma with Gruberova from the Munich Staatsoper. And that about covers it.....





Seriously, there are other offerings out there. Here's a more detailed account of today's operas:

Bayern 4 Klassik, Cesky Rozhlas-3 (Czech Radio), Latvia Radio Klaika, Musiq3, Radio Slovenia Tretji, RDP Antena 2 (Radio Portugal) and Sveriges Radio P2 (Swedish Radio) - starting at 1:00PM Eastern Time will be carrying the aforementioned Norma, with Edita Gruberova, Sonia Ganassi, Zoran Todorovich and Robert Scandiuzzi.

Deutschlandraadio Kultur - From Staatsoper Berlin, a live performance of Pascal Dusapin's Faustus, the last night with Georg Nigl, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Robert Wörle, Jaco Huijpen and Caroline Stein, Michael Boder conducting.

DR P2 (Copenhagen) - a live performance of Schreker's De mærkede with Duke Antoniotto, Robert Hale, Michael Volle, Wolfgang Schöne, Anne Schwanewilms, Robert Brubaker and Bernard Richter, Kent Nagano conducting.

Radio 4 Netherlands - a 2005 live performance of Prokoviev's War and Peace, from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, with Andrei Grigoriev, Yekaterina Shcherbachenko and Roman Muravitsky, Alexander Vedernikov conducting.

Metropolitan Opera Broadcast - Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, with Eric Cutler, Mary Dunleavy, Morris Robinson, Erika Miklósa, Nathan Gunn, Anna Christy, Greg Fedderly, Susannah Glanville, Maria Zifchak and Malin Fritz, Paul Daniel conducting.

NRK P2 (Norwegian Radio) - will be having a Portrait of Birgit Nilsson, and then what looks to highlights of Thomas Adès opera Powder in Her Face.

Radio Oesterreich International - From Vienna, a live concert performance of Vivaldi's Bajazet (Tamerlano), with Christian Senn, Vivica Genaux, Wilke te Brummelstroete, Elisabetta Scano, Manuela Custer and Marina de Liso, Fabio Biondi conducting.

YPR (Billings, Montana) - NPR World of Opera, which this week features a live performance from Glimmerglass opera of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte with Anne-Sophie Duprels, Sandra Piques Eddy, John Tessier, Palle Knudsen, Sanford Sylvan, and Camille Zamora, Stewart Robinson conducting.

Espace 2 (Laussane, Switzerland) - a February 2005 live performance from La Fenice in Venice of Rossini's Maometto II with Lorenzo Regazzo, Maometto II
Federico Lepre, Maxim Mironov, Carmen Giannattasio, Anna Rita Gemmabella and Nicola Marchesini, Claudio Scimone conducting.

France Musiques - a November 2005 live performancs of Handel's Tamerlano featuring Les Talens Lyriques with Bejun Mehta, Bruce Ford, Sandrine Piau, Patricia Bardon, Kristina Hammarstrom, and Lars Arvidsson, Christophe Rousset conducting.

KING (Seattle, Washington) - Late tonight, catch a live Fledermaus from Seattle Opera with Jane Eaglen, Richard Berkeley-Steele, Sarah Coburn, Christopher Feigum, Alan Woodrow, Nancy Maultsby and Patrick Carfizzi, Gerard Schwartz conducting.

Also to keep in mind:

Mozart's upcoming 250th Birthday means that some stations (Klara from Belgium comes immediately to mind) are already carrying a heavy load of special Mozart programming in lieu of their regularly scheduled programs.

WHRB, Harvard's radio station in Cambridge, Mass. is still carrying on with their January season of Orgy® programming, offering something for every imaginable taste. Tomorrow they are running a Bruno Walter Orgy®.

In 1849, Meyerbeer's Le Prophete introduces certain startling patterns
for that time in opera: there is the unaccustomed (though not
unprecedented) dominance of an unequivocally mezzo role combined with
the tenor's having to make, at one point, a choice for that mezzo
character -- his mum! -- over the Falcon role -- his sweetheart.
Verdi, in 1853, picks up Le Prophete's new pattern in Il Trovatore.
Granted, cultural differences between our Anglo world and the world of
the romance languages, both French (Le Prophete) and Italian (Il
Trovatore), may impact on varying standards of what it means to be the
"hero". Sometimes in the Anglo world, making a choice for the Mom can
make one a "Momma's boy", but that may not necessarily carry the same
pejorative connotations in France and/or Italy. Still, to be the hero
and to engage, in addition to a dependency on "Mom", in a game of
self-deception as well(!) does bring the concept of the "hero" into
question, and this self-deception is what Manrico seems to do in
parallelling Jean's choice in Prophete in favor of the Mom, even
though Jean makes his choice with open eyes, while Manrico seems
profoundly unaware of the game he's playing with himself.

Consider: To begin with, Manrico's vocal line contrasts the intense
and the heroic versus the lyrical and the contemplative. The latter
conveys Manrico as the artist, the troubadour, the man of imagination.
The former depicts him as the revolutionary, the gypsy, the follower
of Urgel. It seems to me the librettist, Cammarano, conceives
of the revolutionary as the real Manrico and the lyrical artist as a
put-on, rather than a genuine projection of Manrico's soul - the
opposite of what a genuine artist's art would be. Verdi's music
reflects the polarities in the libretto. Does he maintain an aura of
artifice around the lyrical moments?

We first hear Manrico in his "deserto" serenade as the contemplative
artist, creating a song for his lady love, Leonora. He weaves a
self-created persona, constructing a world unrelated to his gypsy
camp, his Mom and his political activism. The divide between these two
worlds is never bridged, not in the text and not in Verdi's music. I
find it odd that the only duet moments with Leonora are a fleeting
duettino between Manrico's cavatina and his cabaletta, and a
full-length duet intruded on by the chorus with Manrico entirely off
stage, and this too is placed between a cavatina and a cabaletta. But
our "hero" has in Act II one extended duet scene with Azucena, which
is a full-bore two-part duet with both of them on stage throughout,
together with yet another onstage duet for the two of them in the last
scene of the opera for good measure.

Verdi states in his correspondence that he views Azucena as more
important than Leonora, and certainly, musically, the relationship
between Azucena and the "hero" is explored in much greater depth than
that between Leonora and Manrico, who always seem to have an angry
baritone, or a fire-reporting comprimario, or a funereal chorus, or a
sleeping but mumbling mezzo to keep them company.

Who is "the woman" in Manrico's life? Here is where his game of
self-deception comes in. Not only does he never really "duet" with
Leonora, but his "poetry" to Leonora (the serenade, "Ah! si ben mio",
and his offstage verse in the Miserere) is an (unconscious?) lie. "Ah!
si ben mio" can stand for the whole: he says he will die with
Leonora's name on his lips. That is put to the test in the final
scene: With poor Leonora dead at his feet(!), he is dragged to his
execution, and what does he say? "Madre addio!"

My two cents,

Geoffrey Riggs

The most striking items on offer today:

RDP ANTENA 2 - rebroadcasts last year's star-studded revival of Verdi's Ballo in Maschera at Covent Garden, with Marcelo Alvarez, Karita Mattila and Thomas Hampson.

Metropolitan Opera International Radio Broadcast - Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore, with Ramon Vargas, Ruth Ann Swenson and Andrew Shore.

MDR FIGARO - rebroadcasts Berg's Wozzeck from the Metropolitan Opera, with Alan Held and Katarina Dalayman.

RADIO OESTERREICH INTERNATIONAL- a performance from Geneva, of Wagner's Tannhäuser, starring Stephen Gould, Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet and Nina Stemme.

CBC TWO- an all-Mozart Gala, featuring soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, tenor Michael Schade and baritone Russell Braun.

Happy listening!

It's been a very busy week here in the land of streaming opera. It always is the week before the Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts begin again.

For us, the changeover on the operacast site can seem overwhelming. We still aren't quite finished, so please be patient. And if you are aware of a station that is streaming these broadcasts that we do not currently list, please let us know about it. We are grateful that this year the Met finally got around to updating the list of stations in their network (a task that had been neglected once they lost Chevron/Texaco's support), even though it appears to mean that there are several new stations that we will be vetting and then adding to our Met listings in the next few days.

It seems that even fewer stations than in the past have decided to stick with the NPR World of Opera this year. The NPR website is not very useful for finding out which stations are broadcasting this program.

If I get a second wind I may post further highlights for this Saturday, but probably not....

Happy listening,

The most exciting items on offer today:

NPR WORLD OF OPERA - From Houston Grand Opera, Verdi's Il Trovatore, with what looks to be an exciting threesome, Marcello Giordani, Irina Mishura and Sondra Radvanovsky.

BBC RADIO 3 - From English National Opera, a performance of Britten's Billy Budd with Simon Keenlyside and John Tomlinson.

WETA- a performance from Washington National Opera, of Saint-Saens's Samson et Dalila, starring Olga Borodina.

Happy listening!

Recently we have put a banner ad up on the OperaCast site advertising the availability of back issues of the Vocal Record Collectors' Society Annual CDs. The VRCS is a group of diehard vocal record mavens that meets once a month in a church hall here in Manhattan to hear a program of 20-25 vocal records, often rarities you couldn't find, let alone hear, anywhere else. Since it was started in the 1950's, the Society has issued an annual record (since the early 90's, it's been a CD) containing old 78rpm recordings that have never been released on either LP or CD. There are some pretty weird and wonderful things on these CDs. I hope you'll take a moment to look at the list of singers and the contents of each disc.

Happy listening!

Folks --

A number of you have privately expressed some interest in what my retrospective on Tristan recordings might look like once I've heard the new Pappano/Domingo/Stemme set. Accordingly, having now heard this set, I can finally offer a revised version of the overview for those who may still be intrigued:

http://www.operacast.com/tristan.htm

Hoping this may be useful to a few here and looking forward to any responses either pro or con,

Cheers,

Geoffrey

A couple of rebraodcasts are noteworthy this weekend. Those who have been wondering where all the repeat Bayreuth broadcasts had disappeared to should be very happy this week - RDP Antena 2 from Portugal is starting what looks to be a complete cycle of those broadcasts, starting on Saturday with Tristan und Isolde and continuing on over the next two Saturdays with Flying Dutchman and Tannhauser. Also look for the the rebroadcast of the World Premiere from Houston Grand Opera (as part of NPR World of Opera), of Salsipuedes, a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies by Daniel Catán.

Some other exciting items are on offer for Saturday as well:

• KLASSIKARAADIO, DR P2, LATVIA KLASIKA RADIO and RADIO OESTERREICH INTERNATIONAL - A special Gala from Vienna Staatsoper celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the reopening of that house after WWII, featuring the likes of Thomas Hampson, Placido Domingo, Bryn Terfel, Soile Isokoski, Agnes Baltsa and Angelika Kirchschlager.
• BBC RADIO 3 - A Cleveland Orchestra concert performance of Verdi's Don Carlo with Samuel Ramey, Marcus Haddock, Simon Keenlyside, Miriam Gauci, Yvonne Naef and Hao Jiang Tian, conducted by Franz Welser-Most.
• DEUTSHLANDRADIO - a Concert performance from Salle Olivier Messiaen Paris, of Johann Adolf Hasse's oratorio, Les Serpents de feu dans le désert, with Sandrine Piau, Stéphanie d'Oustrac, Isabelle Poulenard, Valérie Gabail, Annette Markert and Robert Expert, Econducted by Jérôme Corréas.
• ESPACE 2 - A double bill: first a reairing a wonderful performance from Geneva of Janacek's From the House of the Dead, with Peter Mikulas, Stéphanie Novacek, Stefan Margita, Alexander Vassilev, Gordon Gietz and Pavlo Hunka, conducted by Jirí Belohlávek (if you missed this one the first time around, try to catch it this time); then a performance of Rachmaninoff's Francesca de Rimini, with Marina Shaguch , Vialy Tarashenko, Viktor Savaley, Vladimir Matorin and Konstantin Gorny, lconducted by Eliahu Inbal.
• KLARA - From Radio France, Vivaldi's 1719 opera, Tito Manlio, with Lorenzo Regazzo, Anne Hallenberg, Patricia Ciofi, Marina de Liso, Mariana Pizzolato, Barbara di Castri, Mark Milhofer and Christian Senn, conducted by Ottavio Dantone.
• RADIO 4 NETHERLANDS - From Amsterdam, a performance of Handel's Alcina, with Christine Schäfer, Alice Coote, Marijana Mijanovic, Ingela Bohlin, Cassandre Berthon and Jeremy Ovenden, conducted by Christophe Rousset.
• NPR WORLD OF OPERA - From Houston Grand Opera, Mozart's Idomeneo, with what looks to be a superlative cast, Susan Graham, Laura Claycomb, Richard Croft, Alexandra Deshorties, Norman Reinhardt and Arturo Chacón-Cruz, conducted by Patrick Summers; and, as mentioned above, the repeat on certain stations, of last week's broadcast from Houston Grand Opera, the world premiere broadcast of Catán's new opera, Salsipuedes, a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies, with Ana Maria Martinez, Zheng Cao, Chad Shelton, Scott Hendricks, James Maddalena, Oren Gradus, Nicholas Phan, Laquita Mitchell, Heidi Stober, Joseph Evans and Pablo Bracho, conducted by Guido Maria Guida.
• BARTOK RADIO - A Hungarian performance of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, with Kincses Veronika, Takács Klára, Peter Dvorsky, Számadó Gabriella, Miller Lajos, Rozsos István and Korcsmáros Péter.
• WETA - Is now carrying the Washington National Opera on Saturday afternoons. Today's opera is Giordano's Andrea Chanier, with Salvatore Licitra, Paoletta Marrocu, Jorge Lagunes, Keri Alkema, Elizabeth Bishop, John Marcus Bindel, James Shaffran and Peter Joshua Burroughs, conducted by Eugene Kohm. (Next week WETA will be carrying the live simulcast of a special WNO performance of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, along with stations on the NPR World of Opera network).
• FRANCE MUSIQUES - From Opéra de Marseille, a concert performance of Henri Tomasi's Sampiero Corso, with Irina Mataeva, Laurence Schonn, Nadia Ninio, Carlo Guido and Sergey Murzaev, conducted by Direction : Patrick Davin.
• RADIO TRE (RAI) - From Teatro la Fenice in Venice, a performane of Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, with Elena Zilio, Patrizia Cigna, Massimiliano Tonsini, Thomas Morris, Enrico Paro, Olivier Grand, Gabriele Viviani, Franck Cassard, Sabrina Vianello, Elisabetta Martorana,Ornella Silvestri and Julie Mellor, conducted by Cyril Diederich.
• KUAT - Continues wiuth their series from Arizone Opera: Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, with Barbara Shirvis, Mary Phillips, Chad Shelton, Philip Cutlip, Arianna Zukerman and Steven Condy, conducted by Joel Revzen.
• LYRIC FM - Continues its series from rthe Wexford Festival with Pénélope by Gabriel Fauré, with Nora Sourouzian, Gerard Powers and Vincent Pavesi, conducted by Jean-Luc Tingaud.

Happy listening!

Finally this afternoon we will have a rebroadcast from last summer's Bayreuth Festival -- Tristan und Isolde with Robert Dean Smith and Nina Stemme. Plus what looks to be a luscious Tamerlano with Bejun Mehta, Bruce Ford and Sandrine Piau; Karina Gauvin in a performance of Scylla et Glaucus ; and, celebrating Halloween, two Humperdinck offerings:

• RADIO TRE (RAI) - At noon EDT, Britten's War Requiem with Christine Brewer, Ian Bostridge and Thomas Hampson, conducted by Antonio Pappano; later in the afternoon, from Maggio Musicale in Florence, Rossini's Tancredi with Raúl Giménez, Darina Takova, Daniela Barcellona, Marco Spotti, Barbara Di Castri and Nicola Marchesini, conducted by Riccardo Frizza.
• BAYERN 4 KLASSIK - From Munich a live performance of Humperdinck's Königskinder , with Robert Gambill, Annette Dasch, Roman Trekel, Dagmar Peckova, Daniel Lewis Williams and Ulrich Reß, conducted by Fabio Luisi.
• DEUTSCHLANDRADIO KULTUR and MUSIQ3 - From Teatro Communale in Florence, a September performance of Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata , with Massimiliano Pisapia, Erwin Schrott , Katia Pellegrino, Dimitra Theodossiou, Marco Spotti, Enrico Cossutta, Cesare Lana, Ramón Vargas and Daniela Schillaci, conducted by Roberto Abbado.
• ESPACES MUSIQUES (French Radio Canada) - From Geneva, a performance of Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel , with Franz-Josef Kapellmann, Nadine Denize, Anke Vondung, Camilla Tilling, Pierre Lefebvre and Katia Velletaz, la conducted by Armin Jordan.
• FRANCE MUSIQUES - An October 8th performance from Opéra Royal au Château de Versailles of Jean-Marie Leclair's Scylla et Glaucus , with Salomé Haller, Céline Scheen, Jean-Christophe Henry, Marc Manodritta, Robert Getchell, Gaëlle Le Roi, Karina Gauvin, Salomé Haller, Nicolas Achten, Didier Chevalier, Cécile Dibon-Lafarge, Solange Añorga, Nicolas Achten, conducted by Joël Suhubiette et Christophe Rousset.
• KLARA, SVERIGES RADIO P2 and ESPACE 2 - Yet another rebroadcast of the Covent Garden performance of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West with Andrea Gruber, Jose Cura and Mak Delevan.
• LATVIA RADIO KLASIKA - The rebroadcast of the Bayreuth Tristan und Isolde , with Robert Dean Smith, Nina Stemme, Kwangchul Youn, Andreas Schmidt, Alexander Marco-Buhrmester and Petra Lang , conducted by Eiji Oue.
• RADIO 4 NETHERLANDS - From Amsterdam, a live performance of Händel's Tamerlano , with Bejun Mehta, Bruce Ford, Sandrine Piau, Patricia Bardon, Kristina Hammarström, Lars Arvidson and Jennifer Hanna, conducted by Christophe Rousset.
• NPR WORLD OF OPERA - From Houston Grand Opera, Salsipuedes, a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies by Daniel Catan (World Premiere), with Ana Maria Martinez, Zheng Cao, Chad Shelton, Scott Hendricks, James Maddalena, Oren Gradus, Nicholas Phan, Laquita Mitchell, Heidi Stober, Joseph Evans and Pablo Bracho, conducted by Guido Maria Guida; also available is last weeks broadcast of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, with Patricia Racette, Paul Charles Clarke, and Peter Coleman-Wright, conducted by Patrick Summers.
• WQXR - If you missed the Ana Netrebko, Rolando Villazón La Traviata when it was first broadcast live some months back, here is another chance to catch it before its release as a Deutsche Grammophon recording .
• BBC RADIO 3 - Covent Garden continues its Ring Cycle with a performance of Siegfried , with John Treleaven, Lisa Gasteen, Gerhard Siegel, John Tomlinson, Peter Sidhom, Philip Ens, Sarah Fox and Jane Henschel, conducted by Antonio Pappano.
• CBC TWO - From Vienna, a performance of Massenet's Werther , with Marcelo Alvarez, Adrian Eröd, Elina Garanca, Ileana Tonca, conducted by Philippe Jordan.
• CESKY ROZHLAS 3 -VLTAVA - Smetana's LIBUŠE , with Drahomíra Tikalová, Jindrich Jindrák, Zdenek Kroupa, Ivo Žídek, Karel Berman, Milada Šubrtová, Jirí Joran, Ivana Mixová, Helena Tattermuschová, Sylvia Kodetová, Eva Hlobilová and Antonín Votava, conducted by Alois Klíma.
• MDR FIGARO - From Moscow, a performance of Rimski-Korsakow's Der Goldene Hahn , with Dmitri Stepanowitsch, Michail Vekua, Dmitri Kontratkow, and Denis Makarow, conducted by Felix Korobow.
• NRK ALLTID KLASSISK and NRK P2 - From the Proms, London's Royal Albert Hall, a July concert performaance of Purcell's The Fairy Queen , with Mhairi Lawson, Julia Gooding, Susan Hemington-Jones, Rebecca Outram, Danil Auchincloss, Marc Le Brocq, Peter Harvey and Jonathan Best, conducted by Raul McCreesh.
• LYRIC FM - From this past summer's Wexford Festival, a performance of Donizetti's Maria de Rohan , with Église Gutierrez, Yeghishe Manucharyan and James Westman, Conducted by Antonino Fogliani.

Happy listening,