Live Offerings - Saturday, February 13, 2009

The Met broadcast is now underway, but most other offerings are just about to start:

• Metropolitan Opera Broadcast (on numerous stations) - Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment, with Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Florez, Meredith Arwady, Maurizio Muraro, Donald Maxwell, Roger Andrews and Kiri te Kanawa, conducted by Marco Armiliato.
• Radio 4 Netherlands - From La Monnaie in Brussels, a Gluck double bill: Iphigénie en Aulide, with Andrew Shore, Charlotte Hellekant, Véronique Gens, Avi Klembergand and Henk Neven; and Iphigénie en Tauride, with Nadja Michael, Stéphane Degout, Topi Lehtipuu, Werner van Mechelen and Violet Serena Noorduynconducted by Christophe Rousset.
• France Musique - From Opera Bastille in Paris, a February 12th performance of Massenet's Werther, with Jonas Kaufmann and Lodovic Tezier.
• KBIA 2 - NPR World of Opera: From the Chorégies Festival in Orange, France, Verdi's La Traviata, with Patrizia Ciofi, Vittorio Grigolo, Marzio Giossi, Laura Brioli, Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Jean-Marie Delpas and Armando Noguera, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung.
• NRK Klassisk & NRK P2 - From La Monnaie in Brussels, Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, with Nadja Michael, Stéphane Degout, Topi Lehtipuu, Werner van Mechelen and Violet Serena Noorduynconducted by Christophe Rousset.
• Radio Oesterreich International (OE1) - From Schlosstheater Schönbrunn, an August 2009 performance of Zeller's Der Obersteiger, with Bernhard Berchtold, Santiago Bürgi, Cornelia Zink, Wolfgang Müller-Lorenz, Donna Ellen and Anna Siminska, conducted by Herbert Mogg.
• Espace 2 - From the Ukrainian National Opera, an October 31st performance of Lysenko's Taras Bulba, with Taras Shtonda, Alla Pozniak, Petro Priymak, Pavlo Priymak, Yevghen Orlov, Svetlana Golevska, Vasyl Kolybabiuk, Serghiy Skochelias, Viktor Dudar, Oleksandr Gourets, Andriy Gonkulov and Dmytro Gryshyn, conducted by Volodymyr Kozhukhar.
• HR2 Kultur - From the Vienna State Opera, a June 20th performance of Strauss's Die Schweigsame Frau, with Jane Archibald, Kurt Rydl, Michael Schade, Janina Baechle, Adrian Eröd, conducted by Peter Schneider.
• Klara - Starting at GMT 1900/EST 2:00PM - the Met's La Fille du Régiment.
• Latvia Radio Klasika - From the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, a November 21st performance of Verdi's Don Carlos, with Jonas Kaufmann, Marina Poplavska, Simon Keenlyside, Feruccio Furlanetto and Marianne Korneti, conducted by Semyons Bychkov.
• MDR Figaro - From Staatsoper Dresden, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, with Krassimira Stoyanova, Elina Garanca, Michael Schade and Franz-Josef Selig, conducted by Christian Thielemann.
• Radio Tre (RAI) - From Teatro San Carlo in Naples, a January 27th performance of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, with Gregory Kunde, Teresa Romano, Elena Monti,, Monica Bacelli, Francesca Russo Ermolli and Vito Priante, conducted by Jeffrey Tate.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera on a one-week delay: From Washington National Opera, Puccini's La boheme, with Adriana Damato, Vittorio Grigolo, Nicole Cabell, Paolo Pecchioli, Hyung Yun, Trevor Scheunemann, conducted by Emmanuel Villaume.
• ABC Classic FM (Australia) & Concert FM (New Zealand) - From the Metropolitan Opera, the historic broadcast (February 1, 1958) of Barber's Vanessa, with Eleanor Steber, Nicolai Gedda, Rosalind Elias, Regina Resnik, Giorgio Tozzi, George Cehanovsky and Robert Nagy, conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos.
• And, last but not least, don't forget video feed of the the last (of 4) performance of the Indiana University production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, with Heather Youngquist, Joshua Lindsay, Andrew Kroes, Scott Hogsed, Nikhil Navkal, Samuel Green, Jane Rownd and Amanda Sesler, conducted by Arthur Fagen (Guest Stage Director: James Marvel, Set & Costume Designer: C. David Higgins).

Happy listening (and watching) . . . .

Live Offerings - Saturday, February 6, 2009

Somewhat slimmer pickings than usual. The biggest curiosity will probably bed Placido Domingo singing the title role in Simon Boccanegra (usually tackled by baritones). Also two different performances of Verdi's Macbeth, and from La Scala, a live performance of Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust. Here's the complete lineup:

• DR P2 - From Geneva, Mozart's Don Giovanni, with Pietro Spangnoli, José Fardilha, Diana Damrau, Serena Farnocchia and Christoph Strehl, conducted by Kenneth Montgomery.
• Metropolitan Opera Broadcast (on numerous stations)- Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, with Placido Domingo, Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordano, James Morris, Nicola Alaimo and Richard Bernstein, conducted by James Levine.
• Radio 4 Netherlands - Handel's Ariodante, with Ann Hallenberg, Karina Gauvin, Maarten Engeltjes, Jaël Azzaretti and Krystian Adam, conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli.
• Radio Clasica de Espana - From Ukrainian National Opera in Kiev, Lysenko's Taras Bulba, with T. Shtonda, A. Pozniak, P. Priymak, P. Priymak, Y. Orlov, S. Godlevska, T. Kuzminova, O. Gourets, V. Kolybabiuk, S. Skochelias, V. Dudar, A. Goniukov, D. Gryshyn, O. Boyko, M. Gubchuk and O. Vostriakov, conducted by V. Kozhukhar.
• KBIA2 - NPR World of Opera: From Washington National Opera, Puccini's La Boheme, with Adriana Damato, Vittorio Grigolo, Nicole Cabell, Paolo Pecchioli, Hyung Yun and Trevor Scheunemann, conducted by Emmanuel Villaume.
• Radio Tre (RAI) - From La Scala in MIlan, Schumann's Szenen aus Goethes Faust, with Michael Volle, Dorothea Röschmann, Dimitri Ivashchenko, Steve Davislim, Irena Bespalovaite, Adina Aaron, Elena Zhidkova, Maria Radner and Jacheui Kwon, conducted by Pinchas Steinberg.
• Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - From Glyndebourne, Dvorak's Rusalka, with Ana Maria Martinez, Brandon Jovanovich, Tatiana Pavlovskaya, Mikhail Schelomianski, Larissa Diadkova, Natasha Jouhl, Barbara Senator, Elodie Méchain, Diana Axentii, Alasdair Elliott and John Mackenzie, conducted by Jirí Behlohlávek.
• Espace 2 - From the Vienna State Opera, a December 7, 2009 performance of Verdi's Macbeth, with Simon Keenlyside, Erika Sunnegardh, Stefan Kocan, Dimitri Pittas, Gergely Nemety, Donna Ellen and Alfred Sramek, conducted by Guillermo Garcia Calvo.
• Klara - From Vlaamse Opera, Bernstein's Candide, with Michael Spyres, Jane Archibald, Graham Valentine, Thomas Oliemans, Andrew Ashwin, Katarina Bradic, Karan Armstrong, Keith Lewis, Adrian Fischer, Gijs Van der Linden, Milcho Borovinov and Thorsten Buettner, conducted by Yannis Pouspourikas.
• HR2 Kultur - A November 1, 2009 performance of Act 2 of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, with Waltraud Meier, John Mac Master, Michelle Breedt, Franz Josef Selig and Kurwenal Michael Vier, conducted by Daniel Harding.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera (on a one week delay): From Bastille Opera in Paris, Verdi's Macbeth, with Dimitris Tiliakos, Violeta Urmana, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Stefano Secco, Alberto Nigro and Letitia Singleton, conducted by Teodor Currentzis.
• ABC Classic FM (Australia) & Concert FM (New Zealand) - Another chance to hear the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Bizet's Carmen, with Elina Garanca, Barbara Frittoli, Roberto Alagna, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Earle Patriarco, Keith Jameson, Keith Miller, Trevor Scheunemann, Elizabeth Caballero and Sandra Piques Eddy, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

. . . And don't forget the live videocast of the Indiana University Lucia di Lammermoor tonightat 8:00PM EST.

Happy listening . . . .

A Rocket to Mannheim

DIE FLEDERMAUS / ROBERTO DEVEREUX
National Theater, Mannheim

Why do you want to come all the way to Mannheim just to hear such an old production of Die Fledermaus? asked a lifelong Mannheimer and operagoer.

“Because I need some ear candy,” I replied.

Mannheim has supplied an estimable variety of ear candy to the world for well over three centuries. Most notably: Mozart visited the city four times and spent a total of 176 days here. Some of the venues where he made music are still functioning. The so-called Mannheim School made its home here. The Court Orchestra under Carlo Grua (1700-1773) won renown as one of Europe’s finest ensembles. In the last century, its opera house, first established in 1779, became a way station for such up-and-coming musicians and singers as Artur Bodansky, who led the German wing of the Metropolitan Opera from 1915 to his death in 1939, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Donald Runnicles, Jun Märkl, Adam Fischer; Inge Borkh, Diana Damrau, Franz Mazura, Jean Cox and Scott McAlister.

With such a formidable history that is continually in the making, performers in Mannheim have a lot to live up to, and they know it. Of the 30 odd performances I’ve heard here since 1990, only a few have been lackluster. (A couple of disasters -- yes -- but interesting catastrophes.)

During my most recent stay, I attended two consecutive performances at the National Theater: a production of Die Fledermaus, dating from 1978, and the premiere of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux in concert-format, apparently the first time ever that this opera has been performed professionally in Mannheim. So it came as a surprise to me, how lively and vital the 30 year-old production of Fledermaus came across, whereas the premiere of Devereux seemed somewhat phlegmatic in comparison.

I doubt that any Fledermaus can match the sparkle and fizzle that the Metropolitan Opera’s mounting nearly always manages to produce, but Mannheim comes close. Friedrich Meyer-Oertel clearly conceived his production with fun as the guiding principal, and the principals, bit-players and chorus at this performance were determined to play out this comedy of manners with mirth always in mind.

Particularly rewarding for me was to hear Eisenstein sung by a tenor, as Johann Strauss originally intended. I never heard Uwe Eikötter before, but I’d like to hear him again. He has precisely the right lilt in his voice as he tries to play a not-so good-natured trick on his wife. A mellow sweetness in the timbre suggests he might do well to attempt a more ambitious Fach than Melot, Monostatos and Pong -- parts he apparently regularly sings.

Cornelia Ptassek took a while to get inside Rosalinda, but by the time she got to her rousing Czardas in the second act, she turned into a spouse not to be trifled with.

I’m told that Diana Damrau made Adele into one of her signature roles during her stay in Mannheim, but Katharina Göres at this performance left little to long for. She has clean coloratura, a bright top and an attractive stage personality -- a package that could take her to stages far beyond Germany. Whether she has Damrau’s dramatic range and vocal allure, remains to be seen.

Edna Prochnik as Orlovsky was delightful to experience, not merely because she reveals an incipient vocal temperament that portends bigger roles. She is also a refreshing change from the counter-tenors that I’ve encountered too frequently in this role. Which brings to mind a suggestion for the idea-starved directors, whose da-duh productions of this wonderful work I’ve had to endure in the past couple of years: How about an Orlovsky performed by a counter-tenor in an evening gown?

The big surprise of the evening, though, was Wolfgang Neumann as Alfredo. Yes, the Wolfgang Neumann everybody who has survived his Siegfried and Tristan loves to hate! Rarely, have I experienced Alfredo so electrifyingly sung and non-acted! And on this occasion, he was even funny. Neumann sings his farewell this spring in Mannheim, but surely he has more than enough voice left to return for an occasional turn as Alfredo.

At this performance, Lars Møller, Thomas Jesatko and Uwe Schönbeck were cast as Dr. Falke, Frank and Frosch respectively. Møller eschewed the manipulative side of the role and made the most of the merry side of Eisenstein’s sidekick. Jesatko enlivened the party scene, and Schönbeck clearly had the audience in his bottle the moment he stepped on stage as the inebriated jailer. Oskar Pürgstaller’s Blind was a treat.

The linking entity between Fledermaus and Devereux was Alexander Kalajdzic on the podium. He is among the batch of younger conductors cutting their teeth on the international circuit. Currently, the Zagreb native is wrapping up his tour of duty as first Kappelmeister in Mannheim. Next season, he moves on to become Generalmusikdirector at Bielefeld’s opera house.

On Friday night he generated high voltage with his reading of Fledermaus. It became clear at the outset of the overture, that he has Strauss the Younger in his blood, and he communicated his affinity with this music with bodacious enthusiasm. On Saturday, though, his wattage sputtered: possibly because the house orchestra, still after nearly 300 years one of the finest in Europe, seemed disinterested during Devereux. Several back-stand violinists were leaning back in their seats throughout the evening, and the winds and brass generally lacked punch in the big ensemble passages. I would have expected this at Fledermaus. After all, it was the upteenth performance of an old production, but the musicians played like New Year’s Eve. Devereux was a premiere and a First for Mannheim. Yet, the orchestra sounded as though nobody wanted to go to the party.

The seeming lack of enthusiasm among the players seemed to infect the principals, all of whom were performing their respective roles for the first time. Ludmila Slepneva has sufficient power and technique to essay Elizabetta, but she seemed preoccupied with the notes rather than the music. And the notes to which she devoted such care were thrifty on ornamentation. Her voice on this occasion also had a tendency to spread at the top in some instances, while turning shrewish at others. Nonetheless she turned out an effective “Vive Ingrato” in the final scene. Comparisons with singers of the past who have scored in this role are admittedly silly. But Slepnova has formidable competition in this Fach from contemporaries such as Alexandrina Pendatchanska. There’s an Elisabetta!

Marie-Belle Sandis fared better as Sara, Elisabetta’s rival for the affections of Roberto Devereux. Hers is a dark mezzo that retains its warmth from top to bottom. She is not exactly suited for Sara, but she came closest to surmounting the lethargy around her.

Juhan Tralla in the eponymous role sounded the most energetic of the three principals, but it became apparent that he has yet to master his part. He has a pleasing and flexible lyric instrument that holds up under pressure, but he too seemed preoccupied with getting out the notes, rather than enlivening them.

The rest of the principal roles were capably rounded out by Thomas Berau (Nottingham), Mihail Mihylov (Raleigh) and Christoph Wittmann (Cecil).

Thinking back on these two performances and the marked contrast in effect, it occurs to me that Fledermaus is a German/Austrian work that was performed by German-speaking artists, whereas Devereux is an Italian work that was played out on this occasion with quite possibly no Italians onstage. Admittedly, most of the live performances of Devereux I’ve heard have been sung by non-Italians, but the Italianate stylistic panache was always there. At the same time, I failed to sense a Germanic or northern European approach to the music, as is palpable in numerous pirate recordings of Donizetti operas in German. Are we now in a New Age of an intra-national style of performing opera?

© Sam H. Shirakawa

Live Offerings, Saturday, November 21, 2009 - Part II

Further live offerings for this afternoon:

• Dwojke Polskie Radio - Is also carrying the Szymanowski Król Roger from the Liceu; a correction: Josep Pons is the sonductoir (and not the singer Juan Pons, as I ahd eal;rier supposed).
• France Musique - From Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, a November 9 performance of Donizetti's Don Pasquale, with Nicola Alaimo, Laura Giordano, Mario Cassi, Francisco Gatell and Gabriele Spina, conducted by Riccardo Muti.
• NPR World of Opera - From the Vienna State Opera, Mozart's Don Giovanni, with Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, Rene Pape, Ricarda Merbeth, Soile Isokoski, Michael Schade, Michaele Selinger, Boaz Daniel and Eric Halfvarson, conducted by Constantinos Carydis.
• NRK Klassisk & NRK P2 - From Palais Garnier in Paris, Gounod's Mireille, with Inva Mula, Charles Castronovo, Franck Ferrari, Alain Vernhes, Sylvie Brunet, Anne-Catherine Gillet, Sébastien Droy, Nicolas Cavallier and Amel Brahim-Djelloul, conducted by Marc Minkowski.
• Radio Oesterreich International (OE1) - From Theater an der Wien, an October 22 performance of Vivaldi's Armida al Campo d'Egitto, with Sara Mingardo, Furio Zanasi, Monica Bacelli, Raffaella Milanesi, Marina Comparato, Romina Basso and Martin Oro, conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini.
• Cesky Rozhlas-3 Vltava - From trhe Metropolitan Oper archives, a 1959 broadcast pf Verdi's Macbeth, with Leonie Rysanek, Leonard Warren, Carlo Bergonzi, Jerome Hines, William Olvis, Carlotta Ordassy, Gerhard Pechner, Harold Sternberg, Osie Hawkins, Calvin Marsh, Emilia Cundari and Mildred Allen, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.
• Klara - Is running a full day of Purcell programming, and in their opera slot listen to Glyndebourne performance of Purcell's The Fairy Queen, with Lucy Crowe, Claire Debono, Anna Devin, Carolyn Sampson, Robert Burt, Ed Lyon, Andrew Foster-Williams, Sean Clayton, Adrian Ward, and Lukas Kargl, conducted by William Christie.
• Latvia Radio Klasika - From the Grand Theatre in Geneva, a February 28 performance of Strauss's Salome, with Alan Held, Nikola Bellere Karbone, Hedviga Fasbindere and Kim Begley, conducted by Gabriele Ferro.
• NDR Kultur - From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, a September performance of Verdi's Don Carlo, with Jonas Kaufmann, Maria Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside, Sonia Ganassi, Ferruccio Furlanetto and John Tomlinson, conducted by Semyon Bychkov.
• Radio Tre (RAI) - From Opéra Berlioz, Le Corum, Montpellier, a July 13 performance of Bellini's Zaira, with Ermonela Jaho, Varduhi Abrahamyan, Shalva Mukeria, Wenwei Zhang, Franck Bard, Marianne Crebassa and Carlo Kang, conducted by Enrique Mazzola.
• Radio Tre (RAI) - In their weekend late-night archival broadcast slot, tonight hear an October 25, 1963 broadcast of Leoncavallo's's La Boheme, with Angelo Loforese, Guido Mazzini, Fernando Lidonni, Giorgio Tadeo, Osvaldo Scrigna, Osvaldo Scrigna, Walter Brunelli, Antonio Petrini, Bianca Maria Casoni, Florida Assandri Norelli and Maja Sunara, Orchestra Sinfonica e coro di Milano della Raiconducted by Pietro Argento; tomorrow night hear Puccini's La Boheme, with Agostino Lazzari, Rolando Panerai, Enrico Ciampi, Franco Calabrese, Aristide Baracchi, Melchiorre Luise, Elena Rizzieri, Graziella Sciutti, Walter Artioli and Egidio Casolari, Orchestra Sinfonica e coro di Milano della Rai conducted by Nino Sanzogno.

Happy listening.....

Live Offerings, Saturday, October 10, 2009

The big news in radio in these parts has been the conversion of WQXR here in New York City - this week WQXR, which had previously been a commercial station owned by the New York Times, became a public radio station, owned and managed by WNYC. We were curious what would happen to their Saturday afternoon opera programming. In the coming weeks (before the start of the MEt season) they will be picking up the WFMT series, but first they will be inaugurating their new regime with this past summer's Bayreuth Festival Meistersinger.

Here's the rest of the live lineup:

• BBC Radio 3 - From the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia, with Pietro Spagnoli, Juan Diego Florez, Joyce DiDonato, Alessandro Corbelli, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Jennifer Rhys-Davies, Changhn Lim, Bryan Secombe, Christopher Lachner, conducted by Antonio Pappano. On the opening night of this run, Di Donato fell and broke her leg but soldiered on to finish the performance. She performed the rest of the run in a wheelchair. Read her own account of the whole experience in her blog.
• CBC Two - From Chicago Lyric Opera, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, with Patricia Racette, Frank Lopardo, James Westman and Katherine Goeldner, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From the Festivalul George Enescu at Opera Nationala in Bukarest, an August 30 performance of Enescu's Oedipe, with Mihai Lazar, Oana Andra, Franck Ferrari, Crina Zancu, Ionut Pascu, Horia Sandu, Vicentiu Taranu, Adriana Alexandru, Pompeiu Harasteanu, Valentin Racoveanu and Ecaterina Tutu, conducted by Oleg Caetani.
• DR P2 & Klara - From the 2009 Rossini Festival in Pesaro, an August 9 performance of Rossini's Zelmira, with Kate Aldrich, Marianna Pizzolato, Alex Esposito, Juan Diego Flórez and Mirco Palazzi, conducted by Roberto Abbado.
• Espace Musique & Latvia Klasika Radio - From Chorégies d’Orange 2009, Verdi's La Traviata, with Patrizia Ciofi, Laura Brioli, Christine Labadens, Vittorio Grigolo, Marzio Giossi, Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Jean-Marie Delpas, Armando Noguera and Nicolas Courjat, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung.
• KBYU - From Utah Opera, a 2008 performance of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, with Barbara Shirvis, Scott Piper, Jon Kolbet, Andrew Oakden, Kirsten Gunlogson, Brent Turner, Dominick Chenes, Tyler Oliphant, Christopher Clayton and Rachel Willis-Sørensen, conducted by Joseph Mechavich.
• Radio Clasica de Espana - From Teatro Real de Madrid, Berg's Lulu, with A. Eichenholz, J. Larmore, H. Shipp, G. Siegel, R. González, I. Mentxaka and M. J. Suárez, conducted by E. Inbal.
• WETA - From Washington National Opera, Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia, with Renee Fleming, Vittorio Grigolo, Kate Aldrich, Ruggero Raimondi, Oleksandr Pushniak, Girgory Soloviov, Jose Ortega, Yingxi Zhang and David B. Morris, conducted by Placido Domingo.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From San Francisco Opera, Puccini's Tosca, with Adrianne Pieczonka, Carlo Ventre, Lado Ataneli, Jordan Bisch, Dale Travis, Matthew O’Neill, Austin Kness and Kenneth Kellogg, conducted by Marco Armiliato.
• NPR World of Opera - From Drottningholm Court Theatre, Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea, with Ingelina Bohlin, Charlotte Hellekand, Matilda Paulsson, Christopher Ainslie, Lars Arvidson and Malin Christensson, conducted by Mark Tatlow.
• XLNC1 - From San Francisco Opera, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, with Joyce DiDonato, Soile Isokoski, Miah Persson, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Jochen Schmeckenbecher and Robert McPherson, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
• Dwojke Polskie Radio - From Netherlands Opera, Cavalli's Ercole amante, with Veronica Cangemi, Anna Bonitatibus, Anna Maria Panzarella, Wilke te Brummelstroete, Johannette Zomer, Mark Tucker, Jeremy Ovenden, Luca Pisaroni and Umberto Chiummo, conducted by Ivor Bolton.
• Bartok Radio - From the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, an historic broadcast of Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini, with Douglas Robinson, Nicolai Gedda, Jules Bastin, Robert Massard, Roger Soyer, Derek Blackwell, Robert Lloyd, Raimund Herincx, Hugues Cuénod, Christiane Eda-Pierre, Jane Berbié and Janine Reiss, conducted by Colin Davis.
• France Musique - From La Scala in Milan, a July 6 performance of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with David Daniels, Rosemary Joshua, Daniel Okulitch, Natasha Petrinsky, Gordon Gietz, David Adam Moore, Deanne Meek, Erin Wall, Matthew Rose, Andrew Shore, Christopher Gillett, Graeme Dandy, Adrian Thompson and Simon Butteriss, conducted by Andrew Davis.
• NRK Klassisk & NRK P2 - An historic Metropolitan Opera broadcast: from February 21, 1959, Verdi's Macbeth, with Leonie Rysanek, Leonard Warren, Carlo Bergonzi, Jerome Hines, William Olvis, Carlotta Ordassy, Harold Sternberg, Gerhard Pechner and Osie Hawkins, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.
• Radio Oesterreich International (OE1) - From Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, a May 23, 2008 performance of Rossini's Tancredi, with Bernarda Fink, Rosemary Joshua, Lawrence Brownlee, Anna Chierichetti, Federico Sacchi and Elena Belfiore, conducted by René Jacobs.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - From Kungliga Operan in Stockholm, Handel's Xerxes, with Katarina Karnéus, Matilda Paulsson, Katarina Leoson, Malin Byström, Ailish Tynan, Lars Arvidson and Mark Stone, conducted by Andreas Stoehr.
• Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - Auber's Fra Diavolo, Sumi Jo, Doris Lamprecht, Kenneth Tarver, Marc Molomo, Antonio Figueroa, Vincent Pavesi, Thomas Dolié and Thomas Morris, conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire.
• Espace 2 & Radio Slovenia Tretji - From l'Opéra National de Paris, a February 21 performance of Gounod's Mireille, with Inva Mula, Charles Castronovo, Franck Ferrari, Sylvie Brunet, Alain Vernhes, Nicolas Cavallier, Anne-Catherine Gillet, Amel Brahim Djelloul, Sébastien Droy and Ugo Rabec, conducted by Marc Minkowski.
• Radio Tre (RAI) - From the 2009 Glyndeboune Festival, Dvorák's Russalka, with Mischa Schelomianski, Ana Maria Martinez,, Larissa Diadkova, Brandon Jovanovich, Tatiana Pavlovskaya, Natasha Jouhl, Barbara Senator, Elodie Mechain, Alasdair Elliott, Diana Axentii, Alasdair Elliott, conducted by Jirì Belohlàvek.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera, on a one week delay: from the Vienna State Opera, Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin, with Simon Keenlyside, Tamar Iveri, Ramon Vargas, Ain Anger, Nadia Krasteva and Aura Twarowska, conducted by Seiji Ozawa.
• Concert FM (New Zealand) - From the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Haydn's Orlando Paladino, with Pietro Spagnoli, Marcel Reijans, Kenneth Tarver, Peter Gijsbertsen, Laura Cherici, Nikolay Borchev, Elena Monti and Martijn Cornet, conducted by Alessandro De Marchi.
• KING - From San Francisco Opera, Korngold's Die Tode Stadt, with Torsten Kerl, Emily Magee, Lucas Meachem, Katharine Tier, Ji Young Yang, Daniela Mack, Alek Shrader Andrew Bidlack, Bryan Ketron and Ben Bongers, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
• ABC Classic FM (Australaia) - From Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse, Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, with Philippe Talbot, Anne-Catherine Gillet, Allyson McHardy, Stéphane Degout, Françoise Masset, Jennifer Holloway, Bruno Calucci, Jaël Azzaretti, François Lis, Jérôme Varnier, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro and Aurélia Legay, conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm.

Happy listening . . . .

Live Offerings - Saturday, September 26, 2009 - Part I

• Sveriges Radio P2 - already underway, from Göteborg Opera, Börtz's Goya, with Anders Larsson, Anders Lorentzon, Fredrik Zetterström, Michael Weinius, Mats Persson, Linus Börjesson, Iwar Bergkwist, Johan Schinkler, Henric Holmberg, Ann-Kristin Jones, Ann-Marie Backlund, Katarina Giotas and Natalie Hernborg, conducted by Joakim Unander.
• BBC Radio 3 - From the Grand Theatre in Leeds (Opera North), the British premiere of Gershwin's Let 'em Eat Cake, with William Dazeley, Rebecca Moon, Steven Beard, Nicholas Sharratt, Martin Hyder, Rob Edwards, Richard Morris and Graham Howes, conducted by Wyn Davies.
• CBC Two - From the Vienna State Opera, Strauss's Die Schweisame Frau, with Kurt Rydel, Michael Schade, and Diana Damrau, conducted by Peter Schneider.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From the Vienna State Opera, a February 13 performance of Verdi's Stiffelio, with José Cura, Hui He, Anthony Michaels-Moore, Gergely Németi, Alexandru Moisiuc, Benedikt Kobel and Elisabeta Marin, conducted by Michael Halász.
• DR P2 - From the Aix-en-Provence Festival, a July 30 performance of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, with Daniel Behle, Marlis Petersen, Anna-Kristiina Kaapola, Daniel Schmutzhard, Sunhae Im, Marcos Fink and Kurt Azesberger, conducted by René Jacobs.
• Espace Musique & Radio Oesterreich International (OE1)- From Festival de Radio-France et Montpellier 2009, Bellini's Zaira, with Ermonela Jaho, Varduhi Abrahamyan, Shalva Mukeria, Wenwei Zhang, Gezim Myshketa, Franck Bard and Marianne Crebassa, conducted by Enrique Mazzola.
• Radio 4 Netherlands & France Musique - From Paris Opera, Gounod's Mireille, with Inva Mula, Charles Castronovo and Franck Ferrari, conducted by Marc Minkowski.
• RTP Antena 2 - From the 2009 Bayreuth Festival, Wagner's Parsifal.
• WETA - From the NPR World of Opera archives, from Houston Grand Opera, Verdi's Aida, with Zvetelina Vassileva, Marco Berti, Dolora Zajick, Gordon Hawkins, Tigran Martirossian, Bradley Garvin and Tamara Wilson, conducted by Carlo Rizzi.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From San Francisco Opera, Puccini's La Boheme, with Angela Gheorghiu, Piotr Beczala, Quinn Kelsey, Norah Amsellem, Oren Gradus, Brian Leerhuber, Dale Travis, Chester Pidduck, Colby Roberts, Ryan Hedrick, David Kekuewa and Jere Torkelsen, conducted by Nicola Luisotti.
• NPR World of Opera - From Capitole Theatre in Toulouse, Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, with Bernard Richter, Anne-Catherine Gillet, Allyson McHardy, Stephane Degout, Fancoise Masset, Jennifer Holloway, Bruno Calucci, Jael Azzaretti and Francis Lis, conducted by Emmanuelle Haim.
• XLNC1 - From San Francisco Opera, Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore, with Inva Mula, Ramon Vargas, Giorgio Caoduro, Alessandro Corbelli and Ji Young Yang, conducted by Bruno Campanella.
• NRK P2 & NRK Klassisk - From The Metropolitan Opera, the February 1, 1947 broadcast of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, with Bidú Sayão, Jussi Björling, Mimi Benzell, Claramae Turner, John Brownlee, Nicola Moscona, Anthony Marlowe, Kenneth Schon, Thomas Hayward, George Cehanovsky, Philip Kinsman and William Hargrave, conducted by Emil Cooper.

More to come shortly . . .

Live Offerings - Saturday, September 19, 2009

Lots of interesting performances from all over on offer today and this evening. Highlights include - Verdi's Macbeth from Edinburgh with the Lady Macbeth of Susan Neves; from Pesar, Rossini's Zelmira with Juan Diego Florez and Kate Aldrich; from Rome, Glück's Iphigénie en Aulide, with Krassimira Stoyanova; from Vienna, Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau with Diana Damrau. Here's the menu:

• BBC Radio 3 - From this summer's Edinburgh Festival, Verdi's Macbeth, with Lado Ataneli, Susan Neves, John Relyea, Vsevolod Grivnov, Katherine Broderick, Nicholas Phan, Vuyani Mlinde, Wade Kernot, Michael Yeoman and Niall Docherty, conducted by David Robertson.
• CBC Two & (much later) Concert FM - From the Vienna State Opera, a May 25 performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni, with Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, René Pape, Ricarda Merbeth, Michael Schade and Soile Isokoski, conducted by Constantinos Carydis.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Studio Lukaskirche Dresden, an August performance of Offenbach's La Pericole, with Sabine Brohm, Ralf Simon, Gerd Wiemer, Bernd Könnes, Marcus Günzel, Jessica Glatte, Elke Kottmair, Tanja Höft, Annegret Reißmann, Frank Ernst, Christian Grygas, Mirko Poick and Dietrich Seydlitz, conducted by Ernst Theis.
• Espace Musique & RTP Antena 2 - From the 2009 Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Italy, Rossini's Zelmira, with Kate Aldrich, Marianna Pizzolato, Alex Esposito, Juan Diego Flórez, Gregory Kunde, Mirco Palazzi, Francisco Ruben Brito and Savio Sperandio, conducted by Roberto Abbado.
• France Musique & Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - From Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, a March 17 performance of Glück's Iphigénie en Aulide, with Beatriz Diaz, Alexey Tikhomirov, Ekaterina Gubanova, Krassimira Stoyanova, Avi Klemberg, Mario Cassi, Maxim Kuzmin-Karavaev, Carlos Garcia-Ruiz, Alessandra Ruffini, Sara Allegretta, Miljana Nikolich, Monica Tarone, Francesco Marsiglia and Marta Moretto, conducted by Riccardo Muti.
• KBYU - From San Francisco Opera, Korngold's Die Tode Stadt, with Torsten Kerl, Emily Magee, Lucas Meachem, Katharine Tier, Ji Young Yang, Daniela Mack, Alek Shrader, Andrew Bidlack, Bryan Ketron and Ben Bongers, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
• Radio 4 Netherlands - From La Scala in Milan, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with David Daniels, Rosemary Joshua and Gordon Gietz, conducted by Andrew Davis.
• Radio Oesterreich International (OE1) - From Theater an der Wien, Britten's Death in Venice, with Kurt Streit, Russell Braun, Christophe Dumaux, Erik Arman and Klemens Sander, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
• WETA - From the NPR World of Opera archives: From the 2009 Schwetzingen Festival Handel's Ezio, with Yosemeh Adjei, Netta Or, Rosa Bove, Hilke Andersen, Donat Havar and Marcell Bakonyi, conducted by Attilio Cremonesi.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From San Francisco Opera, Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore, with Inva Mula, Ramon Vargas, Giorgio Caoduro, Alessandro Corbelli and Ji Young Yang, conducted by Bruno Campanella.
• NPR World of Opera - From Grand Theatre of Geneva, Verdi's Il Trovatore, with Tatiana Serjan, Irina Mishura, Zoran Todorovich, George Petean and Burak Bilgili, conducted by Evelino Pido.
• XLNC1 - From San Francisco Opera, Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, with Samuel Ramey, Vsevolod Grivnov, John Uhlenhopp, Vladimir Ognovenko, Vitalij Kowaljow, Andrew Bidlack, Ji Young Yang, Jack Gorlin, Catherine Cook, Daveda Karanas, Matthew O’Neill, Nicolai Janitzky, Kenneth Kellogg and Mityukha Valery Portnov, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky.
• MDR Figaro - From the Vienna State Opera, a June 18 performance of Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau, with Diana Damrau, Kurt Rydl, Janina Baechle and Michael Schadeconducted by Peter Schneider.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - From La Scala, an April performance of Rossini's Il Viaggio a Rheims, with Carmela Remigio, Patrizia Ciofi, Nicola Ulivieri, Alastair Miles, Annick Massis, Juan F. Gatell Abre, Daniela Barcellona, Dmitry Korchak, Fabio Capitanucci, Bruno Praticò, Alessandro Guerzoni and Enrico Iviglia, conducted by Ottavio Dantone.
• Espace 2 - From l'Opéra National de Paris, a July 24 performance of Szymanowski's Le Roi Roger, with Mariusz Kwiecien, Olga Pasychnik, Eric Cuttler, Stefan Margita, Wojtek Smilek and Jadwiga Rappé, conducted by Kazushi Ono.
• Klara - From the 2009 Drottningholm Festival, an August performance of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, with Ingelina Bohlin, Charlotte Hellekant, Matilda Paulsson, Christopher Ainslie, Lars Arvidson, Malin Christensson, Rickard Söderberg, Lars Johansson Brissman, Johan Christensson, Daniel Carlsson and Thomas Walker, conducted by Mark Tatlow.
• Latvia Klasika Radio - From Vienna, Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin, with Simon Keenlyside, Tamara Iveri, Ramon Vargas, and Nadia Kresteve, conducted by Seiji Ozawa.
• Radio Tre - Direct from La Scala, Montiverdi's Orfeo, with Roberta Invernizzi, Sara Mingardo, Luca Dordolo, Leonardo Cortellazzi, Martin Oro, Luigi De Donato, Raffaella Milanesi and Giovanni Battista Parodi, conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera (on a one week delay) - From Washington National Opera, Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia, with Renee Fleming, Vittorio Grigolo, Kate Aldrich, Ruggero Raimondi, Oleksandr Pushniak, Girgory Soloviov, Jose Ortega, Yingxi Zhang and David B. Morris, conducted by Placido Domingo.

And later on this evening:

• WCLV - From Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, a September 19, 2002 performance of Haydn's Creation, with Malin Hartelius, James Taylor, and Thomas Quasthoff, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.
• KING - Yet another chance to hear the Los Angeles Opera performance of Shore's The Fly, with Daniel Okulitch, conducted by Placido Domingo.
• ABC Classic FM (Australia) - From the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Haydn's Orlando Paladino, with Marcel Reijans, Henriette Bonde-Hansen, Pietro Spagnoli, Kenneth Tarver, Peter Gijsbertsen, Laura Cherici, Nikolay Borchev, Elena Monti and Martijn Cornet, conducted by Alessandro de Marchi.

Happy listening,

Live Offerings - Saturday, September 12, 2009

The summer festival season comes to an official end with the Last Night of the Proms - and half of all the radio stations we list seem to be carrying it. But there are a few other items of interest to hear this afternoon: From Pesaro, Rossini's La Scala di Seta with Ann Malavasi, a repeat of this summer's Bayreuth Festival Tristan und Isolde with Robert Dean Smith, and from Dortmund Verdi's I Due Foscari with Francisco Casanova. Here's the complete lineup:

• Dr P2 - From the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, an August 10 performance of Rossini's La Scala di Seta, with Anna Malavasi, Olga Peretyatko, Paolo Bordogna, Carlo Lepore and José Manuel Zapata, conducted by Claudio Scimone.
• CBC Two - From the Canadian Opera Company, a February performance of Dvorak's Russalka, with Julie Makerov, Michael Schade, Richard Paul Fink, Irina Mishura and Joni Henson, conducted by John Keenan.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Schloss Weikersheim, and August 1 performance of Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, with Sebastian Pilgrim, Viktoria Varga, Patrick Ruyters, Dorothee Schlemm, Artur Grywatzik, Camille Butcher, Martin Platz, Gae¨l Mercier and Glenn Desmedt, conducted by Peter Kuhn.
• Espace Musique - From Festival international d'opéra baroque de Beaune 2009, Handel's Ariodante, with Ann Hallenberg, Karina Gauvin, Maarten Engeltjes, Jaël Azzaretti, Kristian Adam and Sergio Foresti, conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli.
• Latvia Radio Klasika - From the 2009 Bayreuth Festival, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
• Radio 4 Nertherlands - From Netherlands Opera, Halévy's La Juive, with Angeles Blancas Gulin, Dennis O'Neill, John Osborn and Annick Massis, conducted by Carlo Rizzi.
• WETA - From the Grand Theatre in Geneva, Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, with Marc Laho, Nicolas Cavallier, Stella Doufexis, Patricia Petibon, Rachel Harnisch, Maria Riccarda Wesseling, Francisco Vas, Bernard Deletre, Gilles Cachemaille and Eric Huchet, conducted by Patrick Davin.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From San Francisco Opera, Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, with Samuel Ramey, Dimitry Vsevolod Grivnov, John Uhlenhopp, Vladimir Ognovenko, Vitalij Kowaljow, Andrew Bidlack, Ji Young Yang, Jack Gorlin, Catherine Cook, Daveda Karanas, Matthew O’Neill, Nicolai Janitzky, Kenneth Kellogg and Valery Portnov, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky.
• NPR World of Opera - From Washington National Opera, Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia, with Renee Fleming, Vittorio Grigolo, Kate Aldrich, Ruggero Raimondi, Oleksandr Pushniak, Girgory Soloviov, Jose Ortega, Yingxi Zhang and David B. Morris, conducted by Placido Domingo.
• XLNC1 - From San Francisco Opera, Mozart's Idomeneo, with Kurt Streit, Alice Coote, Genia Kühmeier, Iano Tamar, Alek Shrader, Robert MacNeil, Kenneth Kellogg, Mary Finch, Natasha Ramirez Leland, Chester Pidduck and David Kekuewa, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
• Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - Handel's Partenope, with Christine Schäfer, Kurt Streit, David Daniels, Patricia Bardonová, Florian Boesch and Matthias Rexroth, conducted by Christophe Rousset.
• NRK Klassisk & NRK P2 - From Dortmund, a performance from earlier this summer of Verdi's I Due Foscari, with Renato Bruson, Francisco Casanova, Monan Feubel, Alexander Teliga, Viktor Sawaley and Francisca Devos, conducted by Carlo Montanaro.
• Bayern 4 Klassik, BBC Radio 3, Catalunya Musica, DR P2, Dwojke Polskie Radio, France Musique, KBYU, Klassikaraadio, KUSC, MDR Figaro, Musiq3, NDR Kultur, Radio Clasica de Espana, Radio Oesterreich International (RAI), Radio Tre (RAI), RBB Kulturradio, RTP Antena 2, Sveriges Radio P2, WCLV, WDR3, WFMT and YLE Klassinen - Last Night of the Proms from the Royal Albert Hall in London, with Sarah Connolly conducted by David Robertson, featuring works by Knussen, Purcell, Haydn, Mahler, Villa-Lobos, Arnold, Ketelby, Gershwin, Piazzola, Handel, Arne, Parry and Elgar.
• Klara - From the Aix en Provence Festival, Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, with Magnus Staveland, Marlis Petersen, Anna-Kristiina Kaapola, Daniel Schmutzhard, Sunhae Im, Marcos Fink, Kurt Azesberger, Inga Kalna, Anna Grevelius, Isabelle Druet, Konstantin Wolff, Joachim Buhrmann, conducted by René Jacobs.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera (on a one-week delay) - From Washington National Opera, Janacek's Jenufa, with Patricia Racette, Catherine Malfitano, Kim Begley, Judith Christin, Raymond Very, Charles Robert Austin, Janice Meyerson, Leslie Mutchler, Elizabeth Andrews Roberts, Jeffrey Wells, Christina Martos and Madgalena Wor.

And later on this evening:

• WQXR - From the Conceretgebouw, Berlioz's Romeo et Juliette, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe.
• Concert FM (New Zealand) - From La Scala, Milan, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with David Daniels, Rosemary Joshua, Emil Wolk, Daniel Okulitch, Natasha Petrinsky, Gordon Gietz, David Adam Moore, Deanne Meek, Erin Wall, Matthew Rose, Andrew Shore, Christopher Gillett, Graeme Danby, Adrian Thompson and Simon Butteriss, conducted by Andrew Davis.

Happy listening,

Live Offerings - Saturday, August 2,, 2009

We are in Geneva, New York, this weekend visting a dear friend and attending two performances of a double bill of Mozart's The Impresario and Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury at the Smith Opera House, a lovely gem of a house in Geneva built in the 1890's and lovingly restored a decade or so ago. It's been lot's of fun so far. We went to the opening night last night. The production is being directed and conducted by Al Bergeret (of NY Gilbert and Sullivan Players fame). Some lovely singing and acting all around.

And now..... Bayreuth beckons. The broadcast of Götterdämmerung has begun and other nice, juicy live offerings are in the offing for later on today: more Wagner, including rebroadcasts of Meistersinger and Rheingold,

• Dwojke Polski Radio, Radio 4 Netherlands, Radio Clasica de Espana, Bartok RadioCesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - From Bayreuth, the final installment of Wagner's Ring, Götterdämmerung is just underway, with Christian Franz, Ralf Lukas, Hans-Peter König, Andrew Shore, Linda Watson, Edith Haller, Christa Mayer, Simone Schröder, Martina Dike, Edith Haller, Christiane Kohl, Ulrike Helzel and Simone Schröder, conducted by Christian Thielemann.
• MDR Figaro - From Stuttgart, a concert performance of Handel's pastorale, Acis and Galatea, with Christoph Prégardien, Julia Kleiter, Michael Slattery and Wolf Matthias Friedrich, conducted by Nicol Matt.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - Let the rebroadcasts of the Bayreuth Festival begin! Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, with Alan Titus, Artur Korn, Charles Reid, Rainer Zaun, Adrian Eröd, Markus Eiche, Edward Randall, Hans-Jürgen Lazar, Florian Hoffmann,l Martin Snell, Mario Klein, Diógenes Randes, Klaus Florian Vogt, Norbert Ernst, Michaela Kaune, Carola Guber and Friedemann Röhlig, conducted by Sebastian Weigle.
• CBC TWO - A rebroadcast from Vienna State Opera, of Gounod's Faust, with Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu and Kwangchoul Youn, condcuted by Bertrand de Billy.
• DR P2 - From Den Jyske Opera in Aarhus, an August 2008 performance of Wagner's Der Fliegende Hollander, with John Lundgren, Majken Bjerno, Sten Byriel, Jens Krogsgaard, Mette Ejsing and David Danholt, conducted by Giordano Bellincampi.
• Espace Musique & WETA - A rebroadcast from Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, of Berlioz' Béatrice et Bénédict, with Joyce Di Donato, Charles Workman, Jean-François Lapointe, Elodie Méchain, Jean-Philippe Laffont and Nathalie Manfrino, conducted by Sir Colin Davis.
• KBYU - From Los Angeles Opera, Wagner's Das Rheingold, with Stacey Tappan, Lauren McNeese, Beth Clayton, Gordon Hawkins, Michelle DeYoung, Vitalij Kowaljow, Ellie Dehn, Morris Robinson,; Eric Halfvarson, Beau Gibson, Wayne Tigges, Arnold Bezuyen, Graham Clark and Jill Grove, conducted by James Conlon.
• RTP Antena 2 - From Budapest, an October 10, 2008 performance of Beethoven's Fidelio, with Tünde Szabócki, Zita Váradi, Thomas Moser, Friedmann Kunder, Attila Fekete, Béla Perencz and Gábor Bretzconducted by Adam Fischer.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - Fron Los Angeles Opera, Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, with Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone, Anthony Dean Griffey, Robert Wörle, Donnie Ray Albert, John Easterlin, Mel Ulrich, Joe Stevn Humes, Catherine Ireland, Karen Vuong, Rena Harms, Natasha Flores, Sharmay Musacchio, Priti Gandhi, Derek Taylor and Mark Kelley, conducted by James Conlon.
• XLNC1 - From Los Angeles Opera, Braunfels' The Birds, with Désirée Rancatore, Brandon Javanovich, James Johnson, Stacey Tappan, Martin Gantner, Thrush Valerie Vinzant, Courtney Taylor, Brian Mulligan, Matthew Moore, John Kimberling, Daniel Armstrong, Renee Sousa, Rebecca Tomlinson, Ayana Haviv, Nicole Fernandes, Tara Victoria Smith, Adriana Manfredi, Helene Quintana, Amber Erwin and Jennifer Wallace, conducted by James Conlon.
• Bayern 4 Klassik, MDR FIgaro, NDR Kultur, RBB Kulturradio & WDR 3 - These German stations are beginning a four week traversal of this year's Bayreuth Ring, starting today with Das Rheingold, and continuing for the next three Saturdays.
• NPR World of Opera - From Houston Grand Opera, Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen, with Lisa Saffer, Hector Vasquez, Jennifer Root, Ekaterina Gorlova, Fiona Murphy, Meredith F. Flores, Alina Slavik, Jon Kolbet, Allan Lawrence, Maria Markina, Laurie Lester, Rebeka Camm, Albina Shagimuratova, Alicia Gianni, Ryan McKinny, Bradley Garvin, Beau Gibson, Liam Bonner and Tamara Wilson, conducted by Patrick Summers.
• Radio Oesterreich International (OE1) & Concert FM (New Zealand)- A rebroadcast of an April 9th performance from Deutsche Oper Berlin of Respighi's Marie Victoire, with Takesha Meshé Kizart, Markus Brück, German Villar, Stephen Bronk, Jörn Schümann and Simon Pauly, conducted by Michail Jurowski.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - A rebroadcast of a December 3, 2008 performance from opera Bastille in Paris of Werther's Werther, with Rolando Villazon, Susan Graham and Ludovic Tézier, conducted by Kent Nagano.
• Latvia Klasika Radio - A rebroadcast from Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London of Wagner's Der Fliegende Hollander, with Bryn Terfel,Hand Peter Keonig, Anja Kampe and Torsten Kerls, conducted by Mark Albrecht.
• Radio Tre (RAI) - From the Festival della Valle d'Itria, Richard Strauss's revision of Gl;uck's Iphigenie en Tauride (Iphigenie auf Tauris), with Olga Kotlyarova, Liu Song-Hu, Marcello Nardis, Giorgi Turabelidze, Alessandra Gioia, Pietro Lisi and Anna Schiavulli, conducted by Ramon Tebar.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera on a one week delay: From Washington National Opera, Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment, with JiYoung Lee, Jose Bros, Victoria Livengood, Simone Alberghini, Obed Urena, Matthew J. Minor and Madeleine Gray, conducted by Riccardo Frizzi.
• ABC Classic FM (Australia) - From Muziektheater in Amsterdam, Cavalli's Ercole amante (Hercules in Love), with Luca Pisaroni, Veronica Cangemi, Anna Bonitatibus, Jeremy Ovenden, Anna Maria Panzarella, Marlin Miller, Wilke te Brummelstroete, Umberto Chiummo, Johanette Zomer, Mark Tucker and Tim Mead, conducted by Ivor Bolton.
• So far it looks like Bayern 4 Klassik, Bartok Radio and Catalunya Musica will be the only stations carrying tomorrow's Bayreuth Parsifal live, but keep checking our Bayreuth Page, as we will update it if and as we learn more (also the rebroadcast season has begun).

Happy listening,

Live Offerings - Saturday, April 18, 2009 - Part II

If you missed the start of the Met's Matinee Ring Cycle, you can catch it late this evening on Australian Radio (ABC Classic FM) .... Stephen Gould in Peter Grimes looks like a definite listening possibility .... From Radio Oesterreich International, an interesting-looking cast for Damnation of Faust .... Another chance to hear Rolando Villazon in magnificent form in a late March performance of Werther from Opera Bastille .... Here's the the lineup:

• Espace 2 - From the Grand-Théâtre in Geneva, an April 9th performance of Britten's Peter Grimes, with Stephen Gould, Gabriele Fontana, Peter Sidhom, Carole Wilson, Julianne Gearhart & Laurence Misonne, Elizabeth Sikora, Michael Howard, Clive Bayley, Adrian Thompson, Daniel Belcher, Simon Kirkbride, Luke Clare-Wrigley and Dominique Dupraz, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
• KBIA2 - NPR World of Opera: from Houston Grand Opera, Donizetti's Don Pasquale, with John Del Carlo, Heidi Stober, Norman Reinhardt and Brian Leerhuber, conducted by Patrick Summers.
• MDR Figaro - A historic April 9, 1959 broadcast of Handels Poros, with Pietro Metastasio, Günther Leib, Philine Fischer, Margarethe Herzberg, Hellmuth Kaphahn, Werner Enders and Franz Stumpf, conducted by Horst Tanu-Margraf.
• NRK Klassisk - a rebroadcast of Massenet's Werther from Opera Bastille in Paris, with Rolando Villazon, Susan Graham, Adriana Kucerova, Ludovic Tezier, Christian Jean, and Christian Treguier, conducted by Kent Nagano.
• Radio Oesterreich International - From Wiener Konzerthaus, an April 2nd concert performance of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, with Olga Borodina, Ramón Vargas, Ildar Abdrazakov, Ante Jerkunica and Nina Bernsteiner, conducted by Bertrand de Billy.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - From Göteborg Opera, a February 27th performance of Carl Unander-Scharin's Sömnkliniken, with Ann-Christine Larsson, Mats Persson, Karl Rombo, Peter Loguin, Linus Flogell, Susanne Sundberg and Erika Andersson, conducted by Martin Andersson.
• Klara - From the Vienna State Opera, a performance of Bizet's Carmen, with Vesselina Kasarova, José Cura, Ilderbrando d'Arcangelo, Genia Kühmeier, Janusz Monarcha, Ileana Tonca, Sophie Marilley, Hacik Bayvertian, Clemens Unterreiner and Benedikt Kobel, conducted by Asher Fisch.
• Latvia Klasika Radio - From Vienna, a September 8, 2008 performance of Verdi's Stiffelio, with José Kura, Hui He and Anthony Michaels-Moore, conducted by Mihaels Halašs.
• RBB Kulturradio - From Dresden, Handel's oratorio, Jeptha, with Markus Schäfer, Miriam Meyer, Britta Schwarz, Patrick Von Goethem, Gotthold Schwarz, Birte Kulawik, conducted by Matthias Grünert.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera (one week delayed): From Bavarian State Opera, Verdi's Macbeth, with Zeljko Lucic, Nadja Michael, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Dimitri Pittas and Fabrizio Mercurio, conducted by Nicola Luisotti.
• Concert FM (New Zealand) - From the Metropolitan Opera in New York, a rebroadcast of Dvorak's Rusalka, with Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Stephanie Blythe, Aleksandrs Antonenko and Kristinn Sigmundsson, conducted by Jirí Belohlávek.
• ABC CLassic FM (Australia) - From the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the start of the Matinee Ring Cycle, Wagner's Das Rheingold, with James Morris, Charles Taylor, Garrett Sorenson, Kim Begley, Yvonne Naef, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Jill Grove, Richard Paul Fink, Gerhard Siegel, Franz-Josef Selig, John Tomlinson, Lisette Oropesa, Kate Lindsey and Tamara Mumford, conducted by James Levine.

Happy listening . . . .

Live Offerings - Saturday, April 4, 2009

Four main items of interest for this afternoon: the Met's L'Elisir d'Amore with Gheorghiu and Giordani; La Monnaie's La Grande Macabre, by Ligeti, with Chris Merritt; from NPR World of Opera comes a Mariinsky Theatre performanc of The Maid of Pskov, with an all-Russian cast, conducted by Gergiev; and from Dwojke Polskie Radio, a recent performance of Werther with Rolando Villazon (who will be returning to the Met's L'Elisir cast this coming week) and Susan Graham. Also, three Met broadcasts from earlier this season are airing again: Il Trovatore with Radvanovsky, Doctor Atomic with Gerald Finley, and Dvorak's Rusalka with Renée Fleming.

• Radio 4 Netherlands, Musiq3 & Radio Tre (RAI) - From La Monnaie in Brussels, Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, with Chris Merritt, Frances Bourne, Ilse Eerens and Werner van Mechelen, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.
• Metropolitan Opera - Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, with Massimo Giordano, Angela Gheorghiu, Franco Vassallo, Ying Huang and Simone Alaimo, conducted by Maurizio Benini.
• Dwojke Polskie Radio - From the Opera Bastille in Paris, a March 28th performance of Massenet's Werther, with Rolando Villazon, Alain Vernhes, Susan Graham, Adriana Kucerová, Ludovic Tézier, Christian Jean, Christian Tréguier, Vincent Delhoume and Letitia Singleton, conducted by Kent Nagano.
• KBIA2 - NPR World of Opera: From Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Maid of Pskov, with Alexei Taovitski, Irina Mataeva, Nikolai Gassiev, Gennady Bezzubenkov, Yuri Vorobyev, Mikhail Vishnyak and Varvara Solovyeva, conducted by Valery Gergiev.
• MDR Figaro - From Thomaskirche in Leipzig, a March 21st performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, with Sally Matthews, Anna Zander, Martin Petzold, Stephan Genz and Egbert Junghanns, Georg Christoph Biller conducting the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Thomanerchor Leipzig.
• Klara - From Grand Théâtre in Geneva, a performance of von Weber's Der Freischütz, with Nikolai Schukoff, Alexander Puhrer, Peter Wimberger, Jaco Huijpen, Olga Pasichnyk, Ellie Dehn, Jean Lorrain, Rudolf Rosen, and Feodor Kuznetsov, conducted by John Nelson.
• Latvia Radio Klasika - Another chance to hear the Metropolitan Opera's November 8, 2008 broadcast of Adams's Doctor Atomic, with Penny Woolcock, Gerald Finley, Sacha Cooke, Meredith Arwady, Richard Paul Fink, Eric Owens, Earle Patriarco, Roger Honeywell and Thomas Glenn, conducted by Alan Gilbert.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera (one week delayed): From Vienna State Opera, Verdi's Stiffelio, with Jose Cura, Hui He, Anthony Micheals-Moore, Gergely Nemeti, Goran Simic, Peter Jelosits and Elisabeth Marin, conducted by Nicola Luisotti.
• Concert FM (New Zealand) - Another chance to hear the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Verdi's Il Trovatore, with Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Kwangchul Youn, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.
• ABC Classic FM (Australia) - Another chance to hear the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Dvorak's Rusalka, with Renée Fleming, Aleksander Antonenko, Christine Goerke, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Stephanie Blythe, David Won, James Courtney and Kate Lindsey, conducted by Jirí Belohlávek.

Happy listening . . . .

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR OR What I Did for Love...

Our old friend Sam Shirakawa gives his view of the Met's Lucia (keep them coming, Sam!):

Metropolitan Opera -- 3 October

If love can make you loony, there was plenty of lunacy to be found during the first fortnight of the Metropolitan's 125th season. On Friday 3 October Lucia di Lammermoor returned to the boards. It's the opera (1835), some critics claim, that restored the themes of transcendent love and death to lyric theater of the 19th century.

Gaetano Donizetti and his librettist Salvatore Cammarano stick fairly closely to the story Sir Walter Scott tells in The Bride of Lammermoor, but they amend some salient details. In the opera, for instance, Lucia is said to be extremely distraught over her mother's death. In Scott's novel (1819), Lucia's shrewish mother is very much alive and takes the lead in forcing her daughter to renounce her paramour and enter into an expedient marriage. In another deviation from the source, Donizetti's Lucia fatally stabs her bridegroom on their wedding night, while Scott's Lucy wounds Arthur Bucklaw seriously, but not fatally. The victim, pursuantly goes to some length in forbidding evermore the mere mention of the incident in his presence.

Why such emphatic entreaties for discretion?

Some surmise, perhaps correctly, that hapless Lucy, having become irreparably separated from her senses, attempts to separate her groom from his private parts. [How many sane women throughout the ages have done that?] In simply eliminating Bucklaw entirely, Donizetti and Cammarano saved countless impresarios from having to hire a castrato/counter-tenor for just one expository scene.

The Arturo, by the way, was the big surprise at the premiere. Sean Panikkar made a meal out of the bit-part and displayed a clarion lyric tenor that was nothing less than large. Blessed with musicality as resplendent as his voice, he brought his all-too-brief appearance into bold relief against some hefty competition from the lead singers.

Those who know, knew that Diana Damrau's Lucia would be good, but few could have guessed how much so. It took a moment or two for her to find her focus, but by the time she got around to the second verse of "Regnava nel silenzio" Damrau was well on her way to surpassing her immediate predecessor at the Met in the part -- vocally at least -- in this hold-over of last season's hotly hyped new production. Damrau traversed the fiortituri up and down the scale with the ease of a gold-medal skateboarder, and her top notes were uniformly bang-on. [Yes, all the high Cs and Ds have been restored, thank you very much.]

Dramatically, she still needs to decide what kind of heroine she wants to embody, but she appears to be working on it. The challenge lies in her genes: a German coloratura and then some, but she's on Italian turf. Berger was perhaps the most recent of that pedigree to assimilate this rep comfortably. And that was eons ago. If Damrau can succeed in making her Lucia sound easy and inevitable, she stands a chance of fading fond memories of Jaws, who owned the role from 1959 until her retirement.

Piotr Beczala as Edgardo was no real surprise either. Watch his stuff on YouTube. Do it in chronological order, and you'll see how rapidly he's developing into a contender. But enjoy him while you may: imbecilic agents and moronic managements have a way of wasting up-and-comers like Beczala or just ignoring them.

Vladimir Stoyanov made a likable debut as Lucia's dislikable brother Enrico. There is no doubt that a fine baritone, faintly reminiscent of Bastianini, has come among us. Fine as the basic equipment may be, it remains to be heard how refined an artist this Bulgarian can become.

The payroll was respectably rounded out by Ildar Abdrazakov, Ronald Naldi and Michaela Martens as Raimondo, Normanno and Alisa respectively.

Mary Zimmerman's production is arguably the most interesting Lucia seen at the Met in decades, but problems with Daniel Ostling's Adobe-driven sets continue to generate interminable intermissions. Adding a dubious lagniappe at the season premiere, the huge flying staircase refused to recede into the wings at the conclusion of Damrau's riveting Mad Scene. That left the poor lackeys carrying Lucia to the balcony holding the bag, so to speak, for what seemed an eternity. And that left the audience madly clapping and clapping and... Really, now, must any production of Lucia in this day and age of nifty hi-tech scene changes shlep on for nearly three hours and forty minutes?

Proceedings in the pit went much more fluidly. The orchestra under Marco Armilato performed miracles with a score that all too often falls prey to oom-pah-pah listlessness; sensational solo playing by harpist Mariko Anraku, flutist Stefan Ragnar Höskuldsson and Celia Breuer on glass armonico. Only Anraku, however, got to go home before the epic-length second intermission.

Sam H. Shirakawa

Live offerings - Saturday, August 30, 2008

Late summer on the opera scene offers several live offerings on interest, including an historic 1976 Puritani from the Met with Sutherland, Pavarotti and Milnes, all at or near the peak of their powers; Paolo Gavanelli in Verdi's Nabucco; from Glimmerglass Opera, another chance to hear Britten's Death in Venice; and a concert featuring vocal works by Messiaen, Liszt and Mendelssohn, with Ruth Ziesak.

Just underway as I post this:

• Espace Musique - From the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Italy, Rossini's Maometto II, with Francesco Meli, Marina Rebeka, Daniela Barcellona, Enrico Iviglia, Michelle Pertusi and Cosimo Panozzo, conducted by Sylvia L'Écuyer.

And starting shortly:

• CBC Two - From Vienna State Opera, a rebroadcast of Mozart's Così fan tutte, with Barbara Frittoli, Angelika Kirchschlager, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Francesco Meli, Laura Tatulescu, Natale de Carolis, conducted by Riccardo Muti.


• KUHF & XLNC1 - Another chance to hear Olga Borodina star in Saint-Saens's Samson et Dalilah from San Francisco Opera; her colleagues are Clifton Forbis, Juha Uusitalo (High Priest of Dagon), Oren Gradus (Old Hebrew), Eric Jordan (Abimélech), Noah Stewart (Philistines' messenger), Richard Walker (First Philistine) and Jere Torkelsen (Second Philistine), with Patrick Summers conducting.


• RTP Antena 2 - From Ópera Estatal da Baviera, today's leading Verdi baritone, Paolo Gavanelli, stars in Verdi's Nabucco, with Maria Guleghina, Daniela Sindram, Lana Kos, Alexander Antonenko, Kevin Conners, Giacomo Prestia and Andreas Kohn, conducted by Paolo Carignani.


• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From San Francisco Opera, Wagner's Tannhäuser, with Peter Seiffert, Petra Maria Schnitzer, Petra Lang, James Rutherford, Eric Halfvarson, Stefan Margita ,Gregory Reinhart, Ricardo Lugo, Matthew O'Neill and Ji Young Yang, conducted by Donald Runnicles.


• NPR World of Opera - From Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, New York, Britten's Death in Venice, with William Burden, David Pittsinger, Bruce Reed, Craig Phillips, John Gaston and Nicola Bowie, conducted by Stewart Robinson.


• Radio Clasica de Espana - A live broadcast from Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, of Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin, with F. Maria Capitanucci, S. Vassileva, D. Korchak, A. Abdrazakov, T. Tramonti, M. Pardo, A. Vespasiano and M. Bolognesi, conducted by J. Mena.


• Radio Oesterreich International - A September 22, 2007 performance of Berlioz's Les Troyens, from the Grand Théatre in Geneva, with Anna Caterina Antonacci, Kurt Streit, Anne Sofie von Otter, Isabell Cals, Marie-Claude Chappius and Jean-François Lapointe, conducted by John Nelson.


• France Musique, MDR Figaro & RBB KulturRadio - From the Frauenkirche in Dresden, a concert featuring among other works, two by Messiaen: O sacrum convivium with Ruth Ziesak, Mojca Erdmann, Christian Elsner, Alexander Marco-Buhrmester; and Apparition de l'église éternelle, with Johannes Unger playing the organ; Liszt 's San Francesco, Preludio per II cantico del Sol di San Francesco, with Johannes Unger playing the organ; Mendelssohn's Symphonie-cantate n°2 en si bémol Majeur op.52 "Lobgesang", with Ruth Ziesak, Mojca Erdmann, Christian Elsner, and Alexander Marco-Buhrmester, all works conducted by Jun Märkl.


• Latvia Radio Klasika - From the Metropolitan Opera in New York, an historic broadcast of Bellini's I Puritani, from March 13, 1976, with Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti and Sherrill Milnes, conducted by Richard Bonynge.


• WDAV - A rebroadcast from NPR World of Opera of Donizetti's Lucie de Lammermoor (French version) from Glimmerglass Opera, with Sarah Coburn, Chad A. Johnson, Earle Patriarco, Raúl Hernández, Craig Phillips and Bryon Grohman, conducted by Beatrice Jona Afron.

Happy listening....