Live Offerings, Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year! The highlights for this afternoon include two different performances of Verdi's Macbeth from the same December run in Vienna, with Simon Keenlyside; a Meistersinger from the Liceu in Barcelona, with Robert Dean Smith and Véronique Gens; Hansel und Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera, with Miah Persson and Angelika Kirchschlager; from Opéra Bastille in Paris, Giordano's Andréa Chenier, with Marcelo Alvarez. Here's the lineup:

• Deutschlandradio Kultur & DR P2 - From the Vienna State Opera, a December 7th performance of Verdi's Macbeth, with Simon Keenlyside, Erika Sunnegardh, Stefan Kocán and Dimitri Pittas, conducted by Guillermo García Calvo.
  
• HR2 Kultur - From Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, a March 23, 2009 performance of Wagner's Die Meistersinger, with Albert Dohmen, Reinhard Hagen, Bo Skovhus, Robert Dean Smith, Norbert Ernst, Véronique Gens and Stella Grigorian, conducted by Sebastian Weigle.
• Metropolitan Opera (on numerous stations) - Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel, with Miah Persson, Angelika Kirchschlager, Rosalind Plowright, Dwayne Croft, Philip Langridge, Jennifer Johnson and Erin Morley, conducted by Fabio Luis.
• Radio 4 Netherlands - Chabrier's L'Etoile, with Jean Paul Fouchecourt, conducted by Jean-Yves Ossonce.
• Dwojka Polskie Radio - From the Vienna State Opera, a June 2009 performance of Gounod's Faust, with Soile Isokoski, Zoryana Kushpler, Roxana Constantinescu, Piotr Beczala, Kwangchul Youn, Boaz Daniel and Hans Peter Kammerer, conducted by Bertrand de Billy.
• France Musique - From Opéra Bastille in Paris, a December 18 performance of Giordano's Andréa Chenier, with Marcelo Alvarez, Sergei Murzaev, Micaela Carosi, Varduhi Abrahamyan, Stefania Toczyska, Maria José Montiel, André Heyboer, Igor Gnidii, Antoine Garcin, David Bizic, Carlo Bosi, Bruno Lazzaretti, Ugo Rabec and Guillaume Antoine, conducted by Daniel Oren.
• KBIA2 & KOHM - NPR World of Opera: From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Tchaikovsky's The Tsarina's Slippers, with Olga Guryakova, Vsevolod Grivnov, Larissa Diadkova, Vladimir Matorin, Sergei Leiferkuss, Maxim Mikhailov, Vyacheslav Voynarovsky, Alexander Vassiliev and John Upperton, conducted by Alexander Polianichko.
• MDR Figaro - From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, an August 23, 2009 performance of Verdi's Don Carlo, with Jonas Kaufmann, Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside, Sonia Ganassi, Ferruccio Furlanetto and John Tomlinson, conducted by Semyon Bychkov.
• Radio Oesterreich International (OE1) - From Teatro Comunale in Bologna, an August 9, 2009 performance of Rossini's Zelmira, with Kate Aldrich, Juan Diego Florez, Marinna Pizzolato, Alex Esposito, Mirco Palazzi and Gregory Kunde, conducted by Roberto Abbado.
• Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - From Czech radio archives, a 1964 performance of Dvorak's Jacobin, with Richard Novák, Jindr(ich Jindrák, Antonín Švorc, Milada Šubrtová, Karel Berman, Oldr(ich Spisar, Antonín Votava and Helena Tattermuschová, Marie Ovc(ac(íková, conducted by Jan Hus Tichý.
• Klara - From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, with Changhan Lim, Juan Diego Florez, Pietro Spagnoli, Joyce DiDonato, Alessandro Corbelli, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Jennifer Rhys-Davies, Bryan Secombe, Christopher Lackner and Andrew Macnair, conducted by Antonio Pappano.

Happy listening.....

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

Getting a late start on this blog today (thanks to a late but great party last night). Some things are already underway:

• Sveriges Radio P2 - Stravinski's The Rakes Progress, from Malmö, with Nikola Matisic, Hulda Björk Gardarsdóttir, Bengt Krantz, Emma Lyrén, Ethel Schelin, Daniel Hellström, Sellem - Rickard Söderberg, Thomas Hildebrandt and Skådespelare - Keijo J. Salmela, conducted by Staffan Larsson.
• WUFT-FM HD2 - From Houston Grand Opera, a Choral Gala.
• Bartok Radio - Its Budapest Ring Cycle continues with a June 14 performance of Gotterdammerung, with Christian Franz, Oskar Hillebrandt, Eric F. Halfvarson, Hartmut Welker, Linda Watson, Markovics Erika, Cornelia Kallisch, Gál Erika, Németh Judit, Szabóki Tünde, Korondi Anna, Fodor Gabriella and Shöck Atala, conducted by Adan Fischer.
• BBC Radio 3 - From Opera North, Massenet's Werther, with Paul Nilon, Alice Coote, Fflur Wyn, Peter Savidge, Donald Maxwell, Richard Burkhard and Joshua Ellicott, conducted by Richard Farnes.

And about to start:

• CBC Two - From La Scala in Milan, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with David Daniels, Rosemary Joshua, Emil Wolk, Daniel Okulitch, Gordon Gietz, and Erin Wall, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Staatsoper Hannover, a November 14 perfromance of Wagner's Das Rheingold, with Tobias Schabel, Jin-Ho Yoo, Young-Hoon Heo, Robert Künzli, Stefan Adam, Jörn Eichler, Albert Pesendorfer, Young Myoung Kwon, Khatuna Mikaberidze, Arantxa Armentia, Okka von der Damerau, Nicole Chevalier, Julia Faylenbogen and Mareike Morr, conducted by Wolfgang Bozic.
• DR P2 - From the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck, an August 29 performance of Haydn's Orlando Paladino, with Tom Randle, Sine Bundgaard, Pietro Spagnoli, Magnus Staveland, Alexandrina Pendatchanska and Sunhae Im, condiucted by René Jacobs.
• Espace Musique - From Vienna State Opera, Wagner's Lohengrin, with Robert Dean Smith, Morten Frank Larsen, Ain Anger, Falk Struckmann, Janina Baechle and Camilla Nylund, conducted by Leif Segerstram.
• KBYU - From Houston Grand Opera, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Iestyn Davies, Laura Claycomb, Jon Michael Hill, Norman Reinhardt, Liam Bonner, Marie Lenormand, Katie van Kooten, Matthew Rose, Steven Cole, Ryan McKinny, Robert Pomakov and Leann Sandel-Pantaleo, conducted by Patrick Summers.
• Radio 4 Netherlands - From The Liceu in Barcelona, Szymanovsky's Krol Roger, with Juan Pons and Anne Schwanenwilms and Scott Hendricks.
• Radio Clasica de Espana - From Wexford, an October 31 performance of a double bill: Chabrier's Une éducation manquée, with K. Jayasinghe, P. Murrihy; and Rossini's La cambiale di matrimonio, with G. Bellavia, C. Pervin, G. Pelligra, V. Prato, L. Dall’Amico and A. Gill, both conducted by C. Franklin.
• RTP Antena 2 - From Thuríngia, a February 2 performance of Mendelssohn's Soldatenliebschaft, with Gerlinde Illich, Linlin Fan, Joan Ribalta, Bernardo Kim and Serge Noviqueconducted by Eric Solén.
• WETA - From Washington National Opera, one more airing of Handel's Tamerlano, with Placido Domingo, David Daniels, Sarah Coburn, Patricia Bardon, Claudio Huckle and Andrew Foster Williams, conducted by William Lacey.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From Houston Grand Opera, a Choral Gala.
• WQXR - from Los Angeles Opera, Verdi's Requiem, with Adrianne Pieczonka, Stephanie Blythe, Arturo Chacón-Cruz, and René Pape, conducted by Placido Domingo.
• XLNC1- From Houston Grand Opera, Verdi's Rigoletto, with Scott Hendricks, Albina Shagimuratova, Eric Cutler, Andrea Silvestrelli, Maria Markina, Bradley Garvin, Jamie Barton, Adam Cioffari, Shon Sims, Octavio Moreno, Faith Sherman and Tommy Ajai George, conducted by Patrick Summers.

More to come shortly. Happy listening.....

Live Offerings - Saturday, October 24, 2009

Reruns seem to be the order of the day. Most of the available "live" offerings have appeared elsewhere in previous weeks. Exceptions include a Budapest Rheingold from Bartok Radio, BBC 3's Carmen, yesterday's Lady Macbeth from Mtensk from the Vienna State Opera (being carried by three stations), the San Francisco Opera Don Giovanni, France Musique's Die Tote Stadt from Opera Bastille, and last, but certainly not least, the live La Traviata from Seattle Opera later on this evening (Charles Taylor's Germont pere will be worth a listen...).

Here's the complete lineup:

• Sveriges Radio P2 - From Stadshallen in Göttingen, a May 13, 2008 performance of Handel's Acis and Galatea, with Christoph Prégardien, Julia Kleiter, Wolf Matthias Friedrich and Michael Slattery, condcuted by Nicholas McGegan
• BBC Radio 3 - From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Bizet's Carmen, with Elina Garanca, Roberto Alagna, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Liping Zhang, Changhan Lim, Henry Waddington, Eri Nakamura, Louise Innes, Adrian Clarke and Vincent Ordonneau, conducted by Bertrand de Billy.
• CBC Two - From Lyric Opera of Chicago, Mozart's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, with Matthew Polenzani, Erin Wall, Aleksandra Kurzak, Steve Davislim and Andrea Silvestrelli, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From the Vienna State Opera, Gounod's Faust, with Piotr Beczala, Kwangchul Youn, Soile Isokoski, Boaz Daniel, Hans Peter Kammerer, Roxana Constantinescu and Zoryana Kushpler, conducted by Bertrand de Billy.
• DR P2, Radio Clasica de Espana & Radio Oesterreich International (OE1) - From the Vienna State Opera, an October 23 performance of Shastakovich's Lady Macbeth from Mtensk, with Kurt Rydl, Marian Talaba, Angela Denoke, Misha Didyk, Donna Ellen and Michael Roider, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher.
• Dwojke Polskie Radio - From the 2009 Glyndebourne Festival, Dvorak's Rusalka, with Ana Maria Martinez, Brandon Jovanovich, Tatiana Pavlovskaya, Misza Szelomian'ski, Larissa Diadkova, Diana Axentii and Alasdair Elliott, conducted by Jirí Belohlávek.
• Espace Musique - From the Vienna State Opera, Strauss's Die Schweigsame Frau, with Kurt Rydel, Janina Baechle, Adrian Eröd, Michael Schade, Jane Archibald, Caroline Weinborne, Michaela Selinger, Clemens Unterreiner, Janusz Monarcham and Walter Fink.
• RTP Antena 2 - From Teatro da Música in Amsterdam, a June 7, 2008 performance of Messiaen Saint Francois d'Assise, with Camilla Tilling, Hubert Delamboye, Rom Randle, Donald Kaascg, Rod Gilfry, Henk Neven, Arman Arapian, Jan Willen Baljet and André Morsch, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher.
• WETA - From the Grand Theater in Geneva, Verdi's Il Trovatore, with Tatiana Serjan, Irina Mishura, Zoran Todorovich, George Petean and Burak Bilgili, conducted by Evelino Pido.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From San Francisco Opera, Mozart's Don Giovanni, with Mariusz Kwiecien, Oren Gradus, Elza van den Heever, Twyla Robinson, Charles Castronovo, Claudia Mahnke, Luca Pisaroni and Kristinn Sigmundsson, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
• WQXR - From San Francisco Opera, Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, with Torsten Kerl,
• Marie/Marietta: Emily Magee, Lucas Meachem, Katharine Tier, Ji Young Yang,: Daniela Mack, Alek Shrader, Andrew Bidlack, Bryan Ketron and Ben Bongers, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
• NPR World of Opera - From the 2009 Aix en Provence Festival, Mozart's The Magic Flute, with Marlis Petersen, Magnus Staveland, Anna-Kristiina Kaapola, Daniel Schmutzhard, Sunhae Im, Marcos Fink and Kurt Azesberger, conducted by Rene Jacobs.
• XLNC1 - From San Francisco Opera, Verdi's La Traviata, with Anna Netrebko, Charles Castronovo, Dwayne Croft, Leeann Sandel-Pantaleo, Renee Tatum, Andrew Bidlack, Dale Travis, Austin Kness and Kenneth Kellogg, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
• Bartok Radio - From Budapest, a June 11 performance of Wagner's Das Rheingold, with Johan Reuter, Oskar Hillebrandt, Fekete Attila, Christian Franz, Hartmut Welker, Michael Roider, Thomas Jesatko, Ain Anger, Németh Judit, Herczenik Anna, Kovács Annamária, Korondi Anna, Fodor Gabriella and Schöck Atala, conducted by Stephen D´Agostino.
• France Musique - From Opéra Bastille in Paris, Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, with Robert Dean Smith, Ricarda Merbeth, Stéphane Degout, Doris Lamprecht and Elisa Cenni, conducted by Pinchas Steinberg.
• NRK Klassisk & NRK P2 - From the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Haydn's Orlando Paladino, with Henriette Bonde-Hansen, Joan Martin-Roya, Marcel Reijans, Kenneth Tarver, Peter Gijsbertsen, Sharon Rostorf-Zamir Jörg Schneider, Elena Monti, Martijn Cornet, conducted by Alessandro De Marchi.
• Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - From Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila, with Torsten Kerl, Marianna Tarasova, Micho Borovinov, Nikola Mijailovic, Thorsten Büttner, Onno Pels, Gijs Van der Linden and Tijl Faveyts, conducted by Tomáš Netopil.
• Klara - From Vienna, a January 25 concert performance of Vivaldi's Ercole su'l Termodonte, with Vivica Genaux, Roberta Invernizzi, Emanuela Galli, Stefanie Iranyi, Carlo Allemano, Romina Basso, Philippe Jaroussky and Philippo Adami, conducted by Fabio Biondi.
• Radio Tre - From Teatro la Fenice (or possibly Teatro Malibran??) in Venice, an October 9 performance of Handel's Agrippina, with Lorenzo Regazzo, Ann Hallenberg, Florin Cezar Ouatu, Veronica Cangemi, Xavier Sabata, Ugo Guagliardo, Milena Storti and Roberto Abbondanza, conducted by Fabio Biondi.
• Lyric FM - Carlo Pedrotti's opera Tutti in maschera (Everyone in Masks) from last year's Wexford Festival Opera. Bass-baritone Enrico Marabelli heads the cast.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera (on a one-week delay): From Washington National Opera, Handel's Tamerlano, with Placido Domingo, David Daniels, Sarah Coburn, Patricia Bardon, Claudio Huckle and Andrew Foster Williams, conducted by William Lacey.
• Concert FM (New Zealand) - From Opéra Bastille in Paris, Szymanowsky's King Roger, with Mariusz Kwiecien, Eric Cutler, Olga Pasichnyk, Stefan Margita, Wojtek Smilek and Jadwiga Rappé, conducted by Kazushi Ono.
• KING - Live from Seattle Opera, Verdi's La Traviata, with Nuccia Focile, Dimitri Pittas and Charles Taylor, conducted by Brian Garman.
• ABC Classic FM - From the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Maid of Pskov, with Alexei Tanovitski, Irina Mataeva, Gennady Bezzubenkov, Nikolay Gassiev, Yuri Vorobyev, Pavel Shmulevich, Mikhaol Vishnyak, Varvara Solovyeva, Ludmila Kanunnikova and Olga Legkova, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Happy listening . . . .

Disdaining the Master's Art

Sam Shirakawa went to Cologne last week to see Wagner's Die Meistersinger:

WAGNER: DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG
26 September 2009
Cologne

As I was leaving the Cologne Opera House, following a performance of Die Meistersinger last Saturday night. I couldn’t help but overhear two women conversing behind me:

“I didn’t understand the production at all,” said one in a distinctive Kölner accent.

“Neither did I,” replied the other.

I could barely keep myself from turning around to add: “And neither did I.”

Uwe Eric Laufenberg’s new production starts off with all the characters, with the exception of Walther von Stolzing, in period costumes--possibly the Wilhelmenian era. He is sporting a tie-less black suit that could possibly bear a Hugo Boss label. He is also snapping photos with a camera that is presumably digital. (The flash didn’t function on Saturday night.) The set sketches out a church -- presumably St. Katharine’s Church in Nuremberg. Is Walther then a visitor from the future?

In the second Act, the outdoor setting, top hats and bustles suggest the same period. Walther’s white satin dress coat suggests that he has quickly adjusted to the fashions of the times.

The interior of Hans Sachs’ house in the final act, though, is decked out in what looked like 1960s Bargain Outlet or maybe DDR Moderne. And the final scene takes place, not on the meadows outside Nuremberg’s walls, but on the plaza outside the Cologne Opera House -- presumably NOW. A mini-Jumbotron flashes a video montage of Cologne’s history over the past century, using archive photos, newsreels and other films, many of which I have never seen before. As a bonus, televised excerpts of from an earlier production of Meistersinger (no sound though) are interspersed with the other images.

Confusing? Distracting? No, just awful.

Thanks largely to Markus Stenz’s leadership at the podium, the performance withstood most of the on-stage shenanigans. Stenz’ love of Wagner was palpable in every measure of the score, as he moved the musical impulses in a seamlessly ascendent direction from start to finish. Only in the final scene did the powerful images on the Jumbotron overwhelm the thrust of the music. Despite a flub here and there, the Gürzenich Orchestra produced continuous incandescence.

Before the performance started an announcement from the stage informed the audience that Marco Jentzsch (Walther) and Johannes Martin Kränzle (Beckmesser) were suffering from colds and asking for indulgence. Kränzle fared better of the two. In fact, his scrivener was one of the most touchingly sung I have experienced live. Kränzle plays Beckmesser as an infatuated middle-age schoolboy. The desperate desire to please in his protracted second act serenade was well-nigh embarrassing.

Jentzsch, singing the role for the first time, got through the first two acts with style and in full, rounded voice. In the third act, he nursed his voice through the first scene and managed to deliver a prize-winning Prize Song in the finale. Given the circumstances, it’s difficult to assess what appears to be potential revealed, rather promise fulfilled. Jentzsch is young, tall and good-looking with a bright sizable tenor in the middle range. Since he sang most of the exposed upper notes between F and A in half voice, it’s impossible to say whether he’s in full possession of The Right Stuff for middle-weight Wagner.

Astrid Weber delivered a charming, occasionally neurotic Eva. Her voice shows signs of turning acidic at the top, but it retained its focus throughout the long evening.

Carsten Süß as David has two voices -- a candy-sweet lower and middle voice and another voice in the upper register that falls back into the head. If he can knead the two voices into one instrument, he could become a Lohengrin to be reckoned with.

The two glories of the evening were Bjarni Thor Kristinsson as Pogner and Robert Holl as Sachs. I never have heard Kristinsson before, and I wondered where I’ve been keeping myself. If you remember Gottlob Frick and Kurt Boehme, remember this: they live on in Kristinsson.

I’ve heard Robert Holl here and there for many years, but it’s hard to believe that nearly four decades have gone by since he started making the rounds on the international opera circuit. He is one of those blessed few singers who last long enough to implement the experience they acquire. Holl is still going strong and sounding better than ever.

As he struck a solid F in Sach’s peroration, I wondered what he thinks of some of his colleagues, who, though much younger, can barely make it through a performance.

© Sam H. Shirakawa

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, August 16, 2009

The 2009 Bayreuth Ring Cycle continues this weekend on five German stations - Siegfried on Saturday and Gotterdammerung on Sunday . . . Another Ring Cycle, from Seattle Opera gets underway this afternoon . . . Simon Boccanegra from San Francisco Opera . . . from Prague, Janacek's Makropoulos Affair . . . from Potsdam Sanssouci, Haydn's L'Infidelta Delusa . . . Rossini's Zelmira from Pesaro . . . Gilbert and Sullivsan's Patience, Purcell's The Fairy Queen and a Beethoven Ninth Symphony from the Proms in London . . . and more.

Here's the complete lineup:

• Bayern 4 Klassik, MDR Figaro, NDR Kultur, RBB Kulturradio & WDR3 - From the 2009 Bayreuth Festival, Wagner's Siegfried; and on Sunday catch Gotterdammerung.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From San Francisco Opera, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, with Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Barbara Frittoli, Marcus Haddock, Vitalij Kowalojow and Patrick Carfizzi, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
• CBC Two - From the National Theatre in Prague, Janacek's Makropoulos Affair, with Gun-Brit Barkmin, Gustáv Belácek, Gianluca Zampieri and Alzbeta Polácková, conducted by Tomás Hanus.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, a June performance of Haydn's L'Infidelta Delusa, with Gemma Bertagnolli, Raffaella Milanesi, Andreas Karasiak, Daniel Auchincloss and Christian Senn, conducted by Andreas Spering.
• DR P2 - From Pesaro, and August 9 performance of Rossini's Zelmira, with Kate Aldrich, Marianna Pizzolato, Alex Esposito, Juan Diego Flórez and Mirco Palazzi, conducted by Roberto Abbado. Correction: from London, Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, with Anna Netrebko, Dario Schmunck, Eric Owens, Giovanni Battista Parodi and Elina Garanca, conducted by Mark Elder.
  
• Espace 2 - From the International Baroque Opera Festival in Beaune, a July 11 performance of Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto, with Lawrence Zazzo, Juliette Gastian and Maria Riccarda Wesseling, conducted by Lopez Banzo.
• KBYU - From Los Angeles Opera, Braunfels' The Birds, with Désirée Rancatore, Brandon Javanovich, James Johnson, Stacey Tappan, Martin Gantner, Valerie Vinzant, Courtney Taylor, Brian Mulligan, Matthew Moore, John Kimberling and Daniel Armstrong, conducted by James Conlon.
• Radio 4 Netherlands - From the Proms in London, Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience, with Rebecca Bottone, Felicity Palmer, Pamela Helen Stephen, Elena Xanthoudakis and Sophie-Louise Dann, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.
• RTP Antena 2 - From Vienna State Opera, an October 11, 2008 performance of Gounod's Faust, with Angela Gheorghiu, Michaela Selinger, Janina Baechle, Roberto Alagna, Adrian Eröd, Alexandru Moisiuc and Kwangchul Youn, conducted by Bertrand de Billy.
• WETA - From La Scala, Rossini's Il Viaggio a Rheims, with Patricia Ciofi, Annick Massis, Carmela Remigio, Juan F. Gatell Abre, Dmitry Korchak, Alastair Miles, Nicola Ulivieri and Fabio Capitanucci, conducted by Ottavio Dantone.
• XLNC1 - From Los Angeles Opera, Verdi's Requiem, with Adrianne Pieczonka, Stephanie Blythe, Arturo Chacón-Cruz and René Pape, conducted by Placiso Domingo.
• Bartok Radio - From Amsterdam, a June 7 performance of Messiaen's Saint-François d'Assise, with Camilla Tilling, Rod Gilfry (bariton), Hubert Delamboye, Henk Neven, Rom Randle, Donald Kaasch, Armand Arapian, Jan Willem Baljet and André Morsch\, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher.
• BBC Radio 3 & France Musique - From the Royal Albert Hall, Prom 40, a Stravinsky and Beethoven program, including Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with Rebecca Evans, Caitlin Hulcup, Anthony Dean Griffey and James Rutherford, conducted by Ilan Volkov.
• NPR World of Opera - From Grand Theatre of Geneva, Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, with Marc Laho, Nicolas Cavallier, Stella Dufexis, Patricia Petitbon, Rachel Harnisch, Maria Riccarda Wesseling, Eric Huchet, Francisco Vas, Bernard Deletre, Rene Schirrer and Gilles Cachemaille, conducted by Patrick Davin.
• Radio Oesterreich International (OE1) - From the Metropolitan Opera, an historic broadcast from Feberuary 1, 1947 of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, with Bidu Sayao, Jussi Björling, Nicola Moscona, John Brownlee, Anthony Marlowe and Mimi Benzell, conducted by Emil Cooper.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - From Läckö slott, a July 29 performance og Rossini's L'Italiana in algeri, with Markus Schwartz, Åsa Danielsson, Astrid Robillard, Andreas Lundmark, Fredrik Strid, Ulrika Skarby and Anders Kjellstrand, conducted by Simon Phipps.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera on a one-week delay: From Royal Albert Hall, the London Proms performance of Purcell's The Fairy Queen, with Lucy Crowe, Claire Debono, Anna Devin, Carolyn Sampson, Robert Burt, Ed Lyon, Sean Clayton, Adrian Ward and Andrew Foster-Williams.
• KING - From Seattle Opera, recorded live earlier this month, Wagner's Das Rheingold (first installment of a complete Ring cycle to be heard over the next four weeks), with Greer Grimsley, Richard Paul Fink, Stephanie Blythe, Kobie van Rensburg and contralto Maria Streijffert, conducted by Robert Spano.
• Concert FM (New Zealand) - From Teatro Real in Madrid, Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, with Terry Way, Luigi Da Donato, Hanna Bayodi-Hirt, Claire Debono, Christine Rice, Marina Rodríguez-Cusí, Ed Lyon, Kobie van Rensburg, Joseph Cornwell, Robert Burt, Cyril Auvity, Humberto Chiummo, Xavier Sabata, Juan Sancho and Sonya Yoncheva, conducted by William Christie.

Happy listening . . .

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

More live offerings today:

• Espace Musique & Latvia Radio Klasika - From Paris, a rebroadcast of a March 12 performance of Massenet's Werther, with Rolando Villazon, Susan Graham, Adriana Kucerova, Ludovic Tézier, Christian Jean, Christian Tréguier, Vincent Delhourne and Letitia Singleton, conducted by Kent Nagano.
• KBYU - From Los Angeles Opera, Wagner's Die Walkure, with Plácido Domingo, Anja Kampe, Eric Halfvarson, Vitalij Kowaljow, Linda Watson, Michelle DeYoung, Ellie Dehn, Susan Foster, Erica Brookhyser, Ronnita Miller, Melissa Citro, Buffy Baggott, Jane Gilbert and Margaret Thompson, conducted by James Conlon.
• Klassikaraadio - From Tallinna XXIII Rahvusvahelise Orelifestivali, Handel's Theodora, with Kädy Plaas, Charles Humphries, Teele Jõks, Mati Turi and Uku Joller, conducted by Toomas Siitan.
• KUHF - From the Metropolitan Opera on February 22, 2009, the Met Opera National Council Finals Concert 2009.
• Radio Clasica de Espana - From Théâtre Municipal in Lausanne, a December 3, 2008 performance of Verdi's La Traviata, with V. Tola, S. Pirgu, S. Catana, B. Hool, C. Cornu, B. Bernheim, M. Mazuir, M. Signorini, B. Capt, Y. François, J. Etchepareborda and N. Woldi, conducted by P. Arrivabeni.
• RTP Antena 2 - From Teatro Régio in Turin, an October 18, 2008 performance of Cherubini's Medea, with Anna Caterina Antonaci, Cinzia Forte, Erika Grimaldi, Luísa Francesconi, Sara Mingardo, Giuseppe Filianoti, Giovanni Battista Parodi and Diego Matamoros, conducted by Evelino Pidò.
• WETA - From the Metropolitan Theatre of Lausanne, Handel's Faramondo, with Max Emanuel Cencic, Sophie Karthäuser, Marina de Liso, Insung Sinn, Philippe Jaroussky, Xavier Sabata Corominas, Fulvio Bettini and Johann Ebert, conducted by Diego Fasolis.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From Los Angeles Opera, the Verdi Requiem, with Adrianne Pieczonka, Stephanie Blythe, Arturo Chacón-Cruz and René Pape, conducted by Placido Domingo.
• XLNC1 - from 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.
• Bartok Radio - From Magyar Állami Operaház, a June 28 performance of Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani, with Fekete Attila, Sümegi Eszter, Rácz István, Fokanov Anatolij, Vadász Dániel, Ulbrich Andrea, Tóth János, Daróczi Tamás, Horváth Ádám, Cserhalmi Ferenc and Derecskei Zsolt, conducted by Matthias Stegmann.
• Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - From La Scala in Milan, Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims, with Carmela Remigio, Patrizia Ciofi, Nicola Ulivieri, Alastair Miles, Annick Massis, Juan F. Gatell, Daniela Barcellona, Dmitrij Korc(ak, Fabio Capitanucci, Bruno Praticó, Alessandro Guerzoni, Enrico Iviglia, Paola Gardina, Aurora Tirotta, Annamaria Popescu, Filippo Polinelli, Patrizio Saudelli and Fabrizio Mercurio, conducted by Ottavio Dantone.
• NPR World of Opera - From Royal Albert Hall in London, Purcell's Fairy Queen, with Lucy Crowe, Claire Debono, Anna Devin, Carolyn Sampson, Robert Burt, Ed Lyon, Sean Clayton, Adrian Ward, and Andrew Foster-Williams.
• Lyric FM - Opera Ireland's production of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa with Valeri Alexeev and Sinead Mulhern.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - From Drottningholm, Monteverdi's L'Incorinazione de Poppea, with Ingela Bohlin, Charlotte Hellekant, Matilda Paulsson, Christopher Ainslie, Lars Arvidson, Malin Christensson, Rickard Söderberg, Thomas Walker, Lars Johansson Brissman, Johan Christensson and Daniel Carlsson, conducted by Mark Tatlow.
• Dwojke Polskie Radio - From Aix-en-Provence, a July 20 performance of Offenbach's Orpheus aux Enfers, with Pauline Courtin, Julien Behr, Mathias Vidal, Vincent Deliau, Marie Gautrot, Jérôme Billy, Paul Cremazy, Emmanuelle de Negri, Soula Parassidis, Marie Kalinine, Estelle Kaique and Sabine Revault d'Allonnes, conducted by Alain Altinoglu.
• Radio Tre (RAI) - From Teatro San Carlo in Naples, an April 23 performance of Mozart's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, with Peter Simonischek, Jane Archibald, Valentina Farcas, Yi Jie Shi, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke Kristinn Sigmundsson and Giulio Barbato, conducted by Jeffrey Tate.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera on a one week delay: 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.
• ABC Classic FM (Australia) - A double bill: From Göttingen Handel Festival, Handel's Acis and Galatea (arr Mendelssohn), with Julia Kleiter, Christoph Prégardien, Michael Slattery and Wolf Friedrich, conducted by Nicholas McGegan; and from the Baltic Sea Festival, Janacek's From the House of the Dead, with Esa Ruuttunen, Robert Künzli, Tuomas Katajala, Gabriel Suovanen, Dan Karlström, Jussi Myllys, Petri Bäckström, Anna Danik and Hannu Niemelä, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
• Concert FM (New Zealand) - From Göttingen Handel Festival, Handel's Acis and Galatea (arr Mendelssohn), with Julia Kleiter, Christoph Prégardien, Michael Slattery and Wolf Friedrich, conducted by Nicholas McGegan.
  

Happy listening . . . .

Live Offerings - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - Part I

Just getting under way or about to start:

• Bayern 4, MDR Figaro, NDR Kultur & RBB Kulturradio - From the International Handel Festival in Göttingen, a May 26th performance of Handel's Admeto, with Tim Mead, Marie Arnet, Kirsten Blaise, Andrew Radley, David Bates, William Berger and Wolf Matthias Friedrich, conducted by Nicholas McGegan.
• CBC Two - From Vlaamse Opera, a February 13th performance of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa, with Nikolai Putilin, Mikhail Kit, Tatiana Pavlovska, Leandra Overmann, Viktor Lutsiuk, and Milcho Borovinov, conducted by Dmitri Jurowski.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - Live from Kurhaus Bad Wildbad, Vaccaj's La sposa di Messina, with Jessica Pratt, Filippo Adami, Armando Ariostini, Jessica Pratt, Filippo Adami, Pietro Terranova, Wakako Ono and Maurizio Lo Piccolo, conducted by Antonio Fogliani.
• DR P2 - From Beaune, a july 4th performance of Handel's Ariodante, with Karina Gauvin, Daniel Taaylor, Yaël Azzaretti, Andrew Kennedy and Sergio Foresti, conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli.
• Espace 2 - From London, Proms 2, Haydn's Creation, with Sophie Bevan, Mark Padmore, Neal Davies and Peter Harvey, conducted by Paul McCreesh.
• Espace Musique - From Montpellier, Betin's La Esmeralda, with Maya Boog, Manuel Nunez Camelino, Francesco Ellero d'Artegna, Frédéric Antoun, Yves Saelens, Eugénie Danglade, Éric Huchet, Evgeny Alexeiev, Marc Mazuir, Marie-France Gascard, Sherri Sassoon-Deshler, Alexandra Dauphin-Heiser and Gundars Dzilums, conducted by Lawrence Foster.
• KBYU - From Utah Opera, a 2008 performance of Puccini's Manon Lescaut, with Irina Rindzuner, Marcos Aguiar, Alvaro Rodriguez and Bojan Knezevic, conducted by Barbara Day Turner.
• Radio Clasica de Espana - From Opéra Royal de Wallonie, an April 30th performance of Auber's Fra Diavolo, with K. Tarver, S. Jo, D. Lamprecht, M. Molomo, A. Figueroa, V. Pavesi, T. Dolié and T. Morris, conducted by J. C. Malgoire.
• RTP Antena 2 - From Teatro Rococó de Schwetzingen, an April 25, 2008 performance of Steffani's Niobe, with Maria Bengtsson, Ana Maria Labin, Delphine Galou, Peter Kennel, Pascal Bertin, Jacek Laszckowski, Lothar Odinius, Tobias Scharfenberger and Matjaz Robavs, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock.
• WETA - From Washington National Opera, Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, with Samuel Ramey and Denyce Grasves, conducted by Giovanni Reggioli.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From Los Angeles Opera, Wagner's Die Walkure, with Plácido Domingo, Anja Kampe, Eric Halfvarson, Vitalij Kowaljow, Linda Watson, Michelle DeYoung, Ellie Dehn, Susan Foster, Erica Brookhyser, Ronnita Miller, Melissa Citro, Buffy Baggott, Jane Gilbert and Margaret Thompson, conducted by James Conlon.
• XLNC1 - From Los Angeles Opera, another chance to hear 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.

More to come...stay tuned.

Live Offerings - Saturday, June 20, 2009

Here's today's live lineup:

• BBC Radio 3 - From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, a double bill: Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, with Sarah Connolly, Lucy Crowe, Lucas Meacham, Anita Watson, Sara Fulgoni, Eri Nakamura, Pumeza Matshikiza, Iestyn Davies and Ji-Min Park; and Handel's Acis and Galatea, with Charles Workman, Danielle de Niese, Paul Agnew, Ji-Min Park, Matthew Rose, Juliet Schiemann and Philip Bell, both conducted by Christopher Hogwood.
• CBC Two - From Vancouver Opera, a May 2009 performance of Strauss's Salome, with Mlada Khudoley, Greer Grimsley, John Mac Master and Judith Forst, conducted by Jonathan Darlington, followed by an interview with Dame Gwyneth Jones.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, a live performance from the Schlosstheater Neues Palais of Haydn's Philemon und Baucis, with Lothar Odinius, Ruth Sandhoff, Ruby Hughes, and Magnus Staveland, conducted by Gary Cooper.
• DR P2 - From Deutsche Oper and April 9th performance of Respighi's Marie Victoire, with Takesha Meshé, Markus Brück, German Villar and Jaco Huijpen, conducted by Michail Jurowski.
• Dwojke Polskie Radio & WETA- From Flemish Opera in Antwerp a February 13 performance of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa, with Nikolai Putilin, Mikhail Kit, Leandra Overmann, Tatiana Pavlovskaya, Viktor Lutsiuk, Milcho Borovinov and Thorsten Büttner, conducted by Dimitri Jurowski.
• Espace Musique - From La Scla in Milan, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with David Daniels, Rosemary Joshua, Emil Wolk, Daniel Okulitch, Natacha Petrinsky, Gordon Gietz, David Adam Moore, Deanne Meek, Erin Wall and Matthew Rose, conducted by Andrew Davis.
• France Musique - From Opéra de Lyon a January 27 performance of Prokofiev's The Gambler, with Misha Didyk, Kristine Opolais, Alexander Teliga, Marianna Tarasova, Maria Gortsevskaja, Francesco Lorenz and Andrew Schroeder, conducted by Kazushi Ono.
• Radio 4 Netherlands - From Nationale Reisopera, Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, with Sophie Daneman, Paul Agnew, Eugénie Warnier, Maarten Koningsberger and Frans Fiselier, conducted by Jed Wentz.
• Radio Clasica de Espana - From la Salle Métropole in Lausanne, a March 8 performance of Handel's Faramondo, with M. Emanuel Cencic, S. Karthäuser, M. de Liso, I. S. Sim, P. Jaroussky, X. Sábata, F. Bettini and J. Ebert, conducted by D. Fasolis.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From Lyric Opera of Chicago, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, with Deborah Voigt, Tristan - Clifton Forbis, Brangäne - Petra Lang, Kurwenal - Jason Stearns and Stephen Milling, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.
• XLNC1 & KING - From Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, with Nicole Cabell, Nathan Gunn, Eric Cutler and Christian Van Horn, conducted by John Mauceri.
• KUSC - From Los Angeles Opera, Wagner's Die Walküre, with Placido Domingo, Michelle DeYoung, Linda Watson, Vitalij Kowaljow, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Eric Halfvarson, Ellie Dehn, Susan Foster, Melissa Citro, Erica Brookhyser, Margaret Thompson, Buffy Baggott, Jane Gilbert and Ronnita Miller, conducted by James Conlon.
• Bartok Radio - Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, with Marc Laho, Patricia Petibon, Maria Riccarda Wesseling, Rachel Harnisch, Stella Doufexis, Nicolas Cavallier, Eric Huchet, Francisco Vas, Gilles Cachemaille, Bernard Deletré, René Schirrer and Nadine Denize, conducted by Patrick Davin.
• NPR World of Opera - From Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Berlioz' Beatrice et Benedict, with Joyce di Donato, Charles Workman, Nicolas Cavallier, Nathalie Manfrino, Jean-Francois Lapointe, Jean-Philippe Laffont and Elodie Mechain, conducted by Sir Colin Davis.
• Latvia Radio Klasika - From Vienna, a February 8 performance of Bizet's Carmen, with Veselina Kasarova, Jose Cura, Ildebrand d'Archangelo, Geniia Kumeier, conducted by A. Fisher.
• NRK Klassisk & NRK P2 - From the Vienna State Opera, Mozart's Don Giovanni, with Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, Alexandru Moisiuc, Ricarda Merbeth, Michael Schade, Roxana Briban, Rene Pape, Boaz Daniel and Michaela Seliger, conducted by Constantinos Carydis.
• Radio Oesterreich International (OE1) - From the Vienna State Opera, a June 18 performance of Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau, with Kurt Rydl, Adrian Eröd, Michael Schade and Jane Archibald, conducted by Peter Schneider.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - From Stockholm, Berwald's Drottningen av Golconda, with Carrie Nilsson, Marianne Öhrn, Ingvar Wixell, Erik Sundquist, Uno Ebrelius and Sven-Erik Jacobsson, conducted by Tor Mann.
• Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - From the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer, with Bryn Terfel, Hans Peter König, Anja Kampe, Torsten Kerl, Clare Shearer and John Tessier, conducted by Marc Albrecht.
• Espace 2 - From l'Opéra de Lausanne, Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, with Fabio Capitanucci, John Osborn, Sabina Puertolas, Luciano Di Pasquale, Deyan Vatchkov, Isabelle Henriquez, Alexandre Diakoff, Manrico Signorini and Sacha Michon, conducted by Günter
• Klara - From the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Rossini's Matilde di Shabran, with Aleksandra Kurzak, Vesselina Karasova, Enkelejda Shkosa, Juan Diego Flores, Alfonso Antoniozzi, Mark Beesley, Marco Vinco, Carlo Lepore, and Bryan Secombe, conducted by Carlo Rizzi.
• Radio Tre (RAI) - From Teatro San Carlo in Naples, a March 23 performance of Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust, with José Bros, Sonia Ganassi, Erwin Schrott, Maurizio Lo Piccolo, Bernadette Siano, Loredana Conte and Antonello Cossia, conducted by George Pehlivanian.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera on a one week delay - From Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, Gluck's Iphigenie en Aulis, with Krassimira Stoyanova, Alexey Tikhomirov, Avi Klemberg, Ekaterina Gubanova and Beatriz Diaz, conducted by Riccardo Muti.
• Concert FM (New Zealand) - From Parco della Musica in Rome, Vivaldi's Orlando furioso, with Romina Basso, Manuela Custer,. Sylva Pozzer, Anna Rita Gemmabella, Jordi Domenech, Xavier Sabata and Lorenzo Regazzo, conducted by Andrea Marcon.
• ABC Classic FM (Australia) - From Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Handel's Partenope, with Christine Schäfer, Kurt Streit, David Daniels, Patrica Bardon, Florian Boesch and Matthias Rexroth, conducted by Christophe Rousset.

Happy listening,

Happy hour @ Hunding's Hovel

Sam Shirakawa went to Essen recently to see Wagner's Die Walküre:

WAGNER: DIE WALKÜRE
ESSEN
11 JUNE 2009
[see Video Clip]

The curtain goes up long before the house lights dim. The audience attending Dietrich Hilsdorf’s new production of Die Walküre at Essen’s Aalto Theater has little choice but to contemplate a huge faded reception hall, fungus-stained green paint peeling from the walls and columns. The salle de réception, which doubles as a banquet hall, is designed in the mock-Hellenic style that characterized many bourgeois German mansions in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A few chairs, a long banquet table covered with a white table cloth, and a coal-burning stove are the only noteworthy furnishings. An enclosed staircase leads to an upper floor, and a wide escalier center-stage leads somewhere below. It’s a place that’s notable for its palatial size. The joint has seen better days.

So This is supposed to be Hunding’s hovel?

Yup.

Oh, so that rod with a handle sticking out of the column at stage left is really the sword Nothung!

Yessiree.

And that’s why the stove is so close to the column -- so the flames can light up the sword during Siegmund’s big solo!

In fact, this unit set is going to serve as the environment for all the proceedings that take place during the First Day of The Ring.

In his program note, Hilsdorf explains why he instructed his designer Dieter Richter to create such a room for all the action in Walküre:

“Hunding’s abode distills the essence of the world as the setting for the struggle for power and its loss. Despite changes in physical locale [throughout the opera], the inner setting remains unchanged.”

It’s a fascinating metaphor: A decaying mansion as the setting for power plays that ultimately produce no winners, only losers; its main remaining feature -- a banquet table where deadly deals are served.

Unfortunately, Hilsdorf doesn’t work his fecund conceit out. Once the idea of the idea is set forth, the players are left pretty much on their own -- to sit, stand and move around the banquet table -- sometimes rather awkwardly. For some reason almost everyone is dressed in evening clothes -- the Valkyries in crimson gowns and red Dorothy-in-Oz pumps, Fricka in a blue and white number, custom-tailored for a Cecil Beaton portrait sitting. Brünnhilde is in a party mood in her initial appearance, as she fills goblets of wine while flinging out the high notes of her Brindisi -- i.e. the War Cry. When Wotan puts his errant daughter to sleep, he leaves her slumbering erect at the banquet table, not on it.

A rude awakening awaits this Hilde: She’ll have to do the dishes...

We may never know which detergent Brünnhilde favors because Hilsdorf won’t be supervising next season’s new production of Siegfried. Essen is following the trend set by Stuttgart’s wildly successful Ring Cycle, which assigned each of the four operas to different directors.)

In one of Hilsdorf’s hilarious violations of the text, Sieglinde shows up in the second act very much in the family way. My, how time flies when you’re committing incest! Have the Wälsung Twins managed to elude Hunding, his henchmen, and their dogs for eight months between act one and two? Did they motel hop all that time? Slum with friends? (I thought neither had any.)

Oddly enough, though, the performance I heard on 11 June was spellbinding, owing primarily to Stefan Soltesz’ masterful leadership of a superb cast and orchestra. At age 60, Soltesz is becoming something of a cult figure. He’s well known on podiums throughout Europe, South America, and the Far East, but his appearances in the United States have been spotty. His well-deserved reputation as General Music Director in Essen brings visitors to his performances from far beyond the Ruhr area -- including me. His appearances are always well attended, if not sold out.

His view of The Ring has aroused huge expectations.

From the sound of Walküre, Soltesz is fulfilling those expectations. He served part of his apprenticeship under Karl Böhm, and the much-missed maestro’s influence is unmistakable. Soltesz tends to favor brisk tempos; the drive behind the tempo seems to be ruled more by the exigencies of the moment than a structural vision. At least, that’s how it sounded a few days ago. I’m looking forward to hearing how he takes things at a future performance.

Thomas J. Mayer is one of four Wotans cast for the current run of this production. (The others are Egils Silins (see photos), Terja Stensvold and Almas Svilpa.) Mayer is a bitter and angry Wotan -- bitter at how badly his shady deals have turned out; angry at himself for letting things slip so far and so fast. His fury is all the more alarming as he confronts his favorite errant daughter before her sisters. Through it all, Mayer never resorts to shouting out notes or barking to make a point. It’s clear that he’s heard Thomas Stewart’s recordings of the role at least once, and that by no means is a bad thing.

Idilko Szönyi as Fricka is truly a bad thing for Mayer’s Wotan, as she cooly exploits her diesel middle register to harass her wayward husband into submission. It’s been a while since I’ve heard Fricka sung with such elegant bitchiness.

Catherine Foster’s Brünnhilde could use a bit more shading, but for me, she can do no wrong, after the mini-vaudeville moment she essays, batting out those hellish Bs and Cs way over the Green Monster while, with steady hand, she fills goblets with Zinfandel. The glasses, helas, didn’t shatter. (But can she also rap out the War Cry while juggling a half-dozen raw eggs, and balancing a unicycle perched on a high-wire?)

Jeffrey Dowd sounds better, even more attractive, each time I hear him. He’s narrowed the vibrato in the upper register and deepened his middle and lower voice. His Siegmund is boyish and nervy -- especially effective in “Ein Schwert verhiess mir der Vater,” but his gestures and movements betray not merely an American Wälsung, but a Ziggy from New York. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it takes a bit of getting used-to.

Marcel Rosca’s Hunding also takes a bit of getting used-to. He’s not nearly as menacing as you might expect from a Hunding, but his svelte bass charms the ear. He may be better suited for Philip or Mephistopheles. In truth, he may be hampered by Hilsdorf's staging: His Hunding is a sappy middler, doomed to fall because of a mess that’s not entirely of his own making.

Now for the major find: I often wonder what Regine must have sounded like before she became Crespin. If a certain Danielle refuses to pack it in for family and security, she stands an excellent chance of becoming Danielle Halbwachs, the Sieglinde to be reckoned with. She’s sympathetic, warm and her immense soprano gains strength and amplitude as it rises above the staff. What she still lacks, though, is interpretive insight; her Wälsung sibling emerges at this point from her head, not from her heart. Despite a second act maternity costume that makes her look as though she’s just shoplifted a honeydew melon, it’s Danielle Halbwachs’ voice, a gorgeous instrument, that lingers in the memory.

No standouts among the Valkyrie Sisters, but they were all up for it.

© Sam H. Shirakawa 2009

Aural Viagra (or Tristan Redux)

Sam went back to the Cologne Tristan to see if he could catch lightning in a bottle ... he claims to have captured "aural Viagra" instead:

WAGNER: TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
Cologne
8 May 2009

To discover a dream singer before the Great Unwashed is told what to think: It makes all those ho-hum hours of so-so opera-going worthwhile. There’s little else to compare with the thrill of hearing–-to name only a few--Regine Crespin, Jon Vickers, Marilyn Horne, Kiri te Kanawa, René Pape, Juan Diego Flórez before they became big stars. But to discover within a week not one but two turbojet singers who may be destined to join their ranks... that’s aural Viagra!

Recently I reported on finding mezzo-soprano Elena Zhidkova at the Cologne Opera, belting out what I called a “hair-raising” Brangäne. I could hardly believe it, so I returned a few days later to the succeeding performance of Tristan. She took a few dozen bars to really get with the program this time, but she nonetheless confronted me again with a voice that diddles the nerve-endings and invigorates those arcane longings that only a select few larynges can induce.

At this performance, a second discovery: Samuel Youn as Kurwenal. This South Korean bass-baritone, now in his mid-30s, was reportedly one of the few cast members who drew approval at the production’s much maligned premiere two months ago. (I have no doubt, that some readers may well be muttering: You’re only discovering him now? Catch up, Sam,– this guy’s already appeared at Bayreuth in Christoph Schlingensief’s production of Parsifal!. To which, I with abject contrition can only reply: Silly me, who could possibly forget that fabulous Second Knight on the radio four years ago...?)

Youn’s curriculum vitae shows that he’s been around and around, and he’s used his time profitably in honing his voice into a force to be reckoned with. It’s big, bright and it lingers in the ear -- a baritone with a distinctive vocal (and stage) profile. Unfortunately, Wagner gives Kurwenal only one real crack at taking command of the stage, but Youn made the most of it on this occasion in his third act duologue with Tristan.

The Cologne Opera has in Youn and Zhidkova a pair of powerhouse vocalists, and its beleaguered management should make sure it doesn't miss a golden opportunity to market their respective and combined merits. Here’s a proposal for the suits to consider: Cast Zhidkova as Dalilah in the current dropout-ridden new production of Samson, whose scandals are making it fodder for ridicule. Nobody will give a damn about the production if she’s on stage. (If she hasn’t learned the role yet, lock her in a rehearsal room with a coach or just have her sing it from the vocal score.) Mount Rigoletto and Il Tabarro for Youn. Recast Barbiere and revive Don Carlo for them both. Top line them in a Germany's Got Talent monster benefit concert. If you don’t do it now, somebody else soon will...

Two other noteworthy cast changes at this performance: Barbara Schneider-Hofstetter as Isolde and Mischa Schelomianski as King Mark. I first heard Schneider-Hofstetter as Minnie about seven years ago in Wiesbaden, when big plans for her were being hatched. A number of them have materialised. The voice has also grown in the interim – large enough to give Zhidkova a breath-baiting sprint for the money. Their first and second act exchanges raised the decibel level way into the red zone -- unusually exciting Can Belto -- more commonly heard on Pasta Nights. In its current estate, Hofstetter's soprano is evenly distributed and brightens metallically under pressure. She also possesses two pigments that complete the picture Gabriella Schnaut tried with variable success to paint: a pair of secure, well-placed and sustained high-Cs. (In fact, Gabi could manage neither top C convincingly, when she visited Cologne with Siegfried Jerusalem in Gunter Kramer's laser-lousy production a couple of years ago.)

If the audience applause level at the curtain calls was any indication, Schelomianski is a house favorite. He has a rich, compelling sound, but I would have welcomed a more plaintive articulation of King Mark’s self-pity.

Robert Gambill’s Tristan was in far better form that in his previous performance. His top, especially in the third act, seemed freer and more luminous than it was five days earlier. In fact, Gambill enacts the role more effectively than a couple of better known Tristans, who have appeared at the Met lately.

Some ragged entrances and intonation issues – an oboe was at one point markedly out of tune in the third act – diminished the otherwise grand sweep of the orchestral playing somewhat, but the Cologne Opera’s music director Markus Stenz maintained the impression he initially gave me of a master Wagner conductor well into the making.

© Sam H. Shirakawa

A Lotta Night music

After Bremen, Sam went to Cologne to see their controversial new production of

WAGNER: TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
Cologne Opera
3 MAY 2009

The once mighty Cologne Opera has been having a tough time of late. This season the company has met with much printed and public disapprobation. In the latest scandal, the premiere of a new Samson et Dalilah, set for 2 May, had to be postponed a week. The originally announced Dalilah quit, after finding the production -- reportedly redolent with violence and rape -- too distressing. Her replacement dropped out at the last minute, citing illness.

On the following afternoon, I arrived from Bremen, just in time to witness the specter of another roundly heckled new production on the boards of the opera house. Few, it seems, liked David Pountney's setting of Tristan und Isolde when it was unveiled back in March. Even fewer liked the principals. Not much could be done about the production, but several cast changes were effected, and the show has been going on with hastily engaged replacements. The performance I was now witnessing sort of amounted to a somewhat newer new production of Tristan.

Since I was not present at the premiere, comparisons are not just odious but impossible. Pountney certainly has his detractors, but I certainly have been subjected to productions of Tristan that struck me as far worse. The only substantive objection I have to Pountney's staging is its visual disconnect between the middle and outer acts. Designer Robert Israel sets the first act with a grey ship on a grey Irish Sea. The last act is set in a similarly grey-hued cemetery. The second act, however, looks like an outsize fun house you might find in the toy section of a department store-- bright colored slabs of geometric constructs, strewn about a slowly revolving turntable.

None of this bothered me in the slightest, because nearly everything else about this performance was so surprising, so bodacious!
Swiss soprano Marion Ammann was a last-minute replacement, but she looked, moved and above all sounded as though she had been the chosen Isolde all along. But be warned -- especially those awaiting the Second Coming of St. Birgit: Ammann is different and quite possibly a throwback to an earlier epoch. How such a solid but beautiful sound can emanate from such a slender, willowy torso is truly a wonder. And, ah, the sweet sorrow that informs her glance as her tall, tortured Isolde remembers how she became powerless to prevent herself from dropping the sword, as she tried to kill Tristan: simply haunting. Those who recently heard Irene Theorin at the Met might summon comparisons, but Ammann is warmer, more vulnerable: Germaine Lubin resurrected.

Ammann also had the good fortune of playing off American Robert Gambill, another replacement whose grandly nuanced Tristan sounded and acted as though weeks of rehearsal had come to satisfying fruition. Gambill is a Tamino-turned-Tristan, who I first heard as Siegmund about eight years ago. He looks like a leading man and moves graciously. His voice has heft and stamina, but it tends to recede as it ascends beyond F, which puts a clamp on the tone, where it ought to open out. Nonetheless, Gambill shows signs of neither wear nor tear, as he finds himself in what appears to be a golden period of his career.

Some years ago, when Soviet mezzo-soprano Elena Obratztova took the Free World by storm, I wondered (perversely) how she would sound as Brangäne. Now I know. But putting it this way does disservice to both Obratztova and a diminutive, Lolita-looking singer named Elena Zhidkova. How often can you describe a singer portraying Brangäne as "hair-raising?" As big-voiced as Amman and Gambill are, Zhidkova's is by far bigger and ballsier than you're likely ever to get without invoking Sigrid Onegin. And like Onegin, she is also capable of mystical subtlety, as evidenced in her exchanges with Ammann. So mind your backs ladies, and I mean YOU -- Olga, Ewa, Larissa, Magdalena et cie: this one's for real and her handlers are comin' straight atcha!

Thomas J. Meyer was a virile sounding Kurwenal, Gerardo Graciacano a malicious Melot and Alfred Reiter an unusually introspective King Marke.

The performance was ultimately made cohesive by the direction of Markus Stenz, the Cologne Opera's music chief, who induced the kind of orchestral tension that I have come to expect mostly from much older Wagner conductors. He shows the kind of innate understanding of this work, at which recordings under great conductors hint, but never teach. Too bad, he chose to perform it with standard cuts -- no Tag und Nacht, etc.

Whoever played the English horn solo (no program credit) in the third act was marvelous.

The takeaway: Forget about the noise surrounding this production. This performance ranks among the all-time top five of the 40-odd Tristans I have attended thus far. The other four? Don't ask.

© Sam Shirakawa

Tristan Production Photo courtesy of Opera Cologne (© Klaus Lefebvre)

Wagner alla Romana

Sam Shirakawa will be in Europe for the next few months, reporting to us periodically on what he sees and hears.

WAGNER: RIENZI
Bremen 2 May 2009
video clips

You may know that Richard Wagner's breakout work was Rienzi, his third opera. It was supposed to have its premiere in 1840 in Paris, but Wagner had to get out of town because of his political activities. The first performance finally took place in Dresden in 1842. Despite its six-hour-plus duration (long even for Wagner), it was perhaps the composer's most frequently performed work during his lifetime. It's often said, that this opera is rarely produced these days, but that's not really the case. A partial list: The English National Opera staged it in 1983, the Komische Oper Berlin mounted it in 1992 and revived it in 1999, the Vienna State Opera put it up for Siegfried Jerusalem in 1998, Oper Leipzig produced it last year, and the Opera Orchestra of New York has presented it twice in concert form.

Wagner himself, of course, eventually found his breakout work to be an embarassment, and his heirs have yet to permit a production of it at Bayreuth--though certain family members have been agitating for mounting ALL of the composer's stage oeuvre at the composer's shrine.

One of those activist clan members is Katharina Wagner, great-granddaughter of the Master and youngest child of Wolfgang Wagner, the composer's grandson and recently retired Lord of the Sanctum Sanctorum. She, along with her half-sister Eva, is now co-director of the annual Festival at Bayreuth. This year she directed a production of it in Bremen, so I trekked all the way to this lovely Hanseatic city to attend its 13th and final performance this season.

The fascistic themes of the plot, based on a book by the 19th century English nobleman, writer and politician Edward Bulwer-Lytton, may have emboldened Katharina to revisit those very leitmotifs that her family has sought assiduously to avoid since the end of World War II. The story revolves around Cola di Rienzi, a medieval Italian politician, who defeats a grim coterie of nobles in behalf of the populace. But the power Rienzi accrues goes to his head, and he ultimately is crushed by his erstwhile supporters.

In a simple stroke of theatrical brilliance, Katharina uses wigs to show how the trappings of power and the futility of vanity are inextricably related in the hero's ascent. Katharina's Rienzi is bald, but donning facsimiles of hair invigorates his political potency: the trendier the wig, the greater his power. She also arms Rienzi with a flame-throwing device that becomes a one-man instrument of annihilation. Katharina's designer Tilo Steffans places a huge faux-alabaster statue of a female deity on a stage-length set of steps. The statue ultimately devolves into a prurient cartoon poster, as the decadence that Rienzi causes turns the Glory that was Rome into a lascivious caricature of itself.

While Katharina's basic take on her great-grandfather's nascent work frequently provokes even as it amuses, it's hard to make out where she is leading us. Yes, power corrupts and ultimately destroys itself. But so what? Rienzi doesn't lose all his hair as he loses power. And yes, I am also aware of the commonplace wisdom that tells us that powerful friends can turn into deadly enemies. (A certain recently elected world leader is learning that sad fact.) Perhaps the point lies in those immoveable steps, spanning the stage. They remain unchanged through bloodbaths and debauchery- They also lead nowhere...

What strikes me as most fascinating about the work as a whole, though, is that Wagner is forced to articulate in a musical language that is not his own. You hear bits and chunks of Tannhäuser and Dutchman straining to burst out, but hardly a trace of Tristan, not to mention Parisfal. Wagner at this stage of his career must still speak through the tub-thumping, rum-ti-tum conventions of early 19th century Italian opera and the inflated gestures that animated Parisian Grand Opera of his time. To experience the eventual revolutionary composer of the Ring "putting out" for paltry approval is both unnverving and, at times, utterly delectable.

No less delectable in this production, which was performed with about half an hour worth of cuts -- not including the 40-minute ballet -- is the singing. Hats off to American heldentenor Mark Duffin in the killer title role. His big, beefy timbre never tires, as it bulldozes its way through page after page of stentorian declamation. While Duffin's tenor runs the risk of turning coarse if he sings like this too often, his musicality prevents it in this instance from taxing the ear.

As Rienzi's sister Irene, Duffin's fellow American Patricia Andress soared effortlessly above the staff, as her role evolved act by act into what might be described as Senta's step-sister. If Andress' professional ambitions are leaning toward Wagner, she already has at least one listener looking forward to her Brühnnhilde.

Why Wagner conceived of Irene's lover Adriano as a trouser-role remains a mystery for me, even though he tailored it for his favorite Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, who created the role. But if singers like Tamara Klivadenko are assigned to it, I have no regrets. It's hard to say in which direction Klivadenko is leaning, but her bright and warm Adriano left me with the impression that her options are wide open.
The English National Opera staged it in 1983, the Komische Oper Berlin mounted it

Other standouts in the cast were Pavel Kudinov as Steffano Colonna, Loren Lang as Paolo Orsini and Franz Becker-Urban as Kardinal Raimondo.

Daniel Montané leading the Bremen Philharmonic and the Theater Bremen Chorus brought focus and clarity to a score that seems at times to ramble. Speaking of the orchestra, it never fails to astonish me how much superior the brass and woodwinds sound among so-called provincial pit orchestras in comparison to some of their counterparts in so-called "major" opera houses.

© Sam Shirakawa

Selective Listening

Sam Shirakawa heard the Met's first Götterdämmerung of the season, but he didn't see it. He explains:

WAGNER: GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG
METROPOLITAN OPERA
25 APRIL 2009 Season Premiere

Have you ever felt glad that you didn’t get into an opera performance you really wanted to attend?

Through quirks of fortune, I was unable get to the Metropolitan Opera’s first performance this season of Götterdämmerung--which happened to take place on last Saturday´s broadcast matinee. So I tuned in to the radio at home--late--just in time for the Brünnhilde-Siegfried Duet that caps off the Prologue.

Ugh!

In my recent report on the Met’s first Siegfried of the season, I said that Christian Franz in the eponymous role had learned to refrain from squawking out notes, an annoying proclivity that had marred his previous performances, when I had heard him elsewhere as Siegfried.

I spoke too soon.

Apart from barking out note-less words here, there, and a lot, Franz was also afflicted on this occasion with a nasty wobble that often straddled at least two semi-tones.
Incipient motion sickness I was beginning to experience from that wobble was little helped by Katerina Dalayman’s squally Brünnhilde. She hit the top C in the duet squarely on target, but her mid-size voice appeared to be laboring fruitlessly under the weight of the role.

What to do?

Listening via radio or computer allows you do other things at the same time or just tune out. So, I opted for the latter and went outside to enjoy a beautiful spring afternoon--pitying, from time to time, those sea-worthy Wagnerites consigned to stay afloat in their seats at the Met.

When I returned home, the live performance was over, but a delayed transmission of the third act was about to begin online by way of a European station [Editor: Ireland's Lyric FM]. The Rhine Maidens were in good shape. A good omen maybe? If it was, Franz’ pneumatic delivery of the Hunting Narrative fell short of it. Some tender moments, yes, but I nonetheless found myself craving Siegfried's demise.
The Funeral Music came as an ear-cleanser. Levine’s Spell held the Met Orchestra in thrall. Great playing.

The phone rang, so I didn’t hear much until Brünnhilde’s Big Moment.
Dalayman had the energy for her Immolation Scene but not the gravitas. Rarely have I been so grateful for Brünnhilde to catch fire; this is no role for a pleasant, pushed-up mezzo. Several years ago, I heard Dalayman as Lisa in Pique Dame in Munich, and she was wonderful. She should stick with roles in which she sounds wonderful.

Judging from snippets I heard, John Tomlinson as Hagen was a study in malevolence, Margaret Jane Wray was a good Gutrune and Iain Paterson, making his Met debut as Gunther, was a revelation--a singer on the threshold. Don’t be surprised if he soon becomes a star Amfortas, Dutchman, and, of course, Sachs.

I am told the Schenk/Schneider-Siemsen/Langenfass production is not being dismantled after this season. Is the Met hedging its bets on the new production of the Ring, set for 2010? No matter. If the news proves true: O tidings of comfort!

© Sam Shirakawa

Live Offerings - Saturday, April 25, 2009 - Part I

Today is the last of the Met's Matinee Ring Cycle, Götterdämmerung, and also the final broadcast of the season from the Met. James Levine was ill on Thursday evening and did not conduct Rheingold, so we hope he is feeling well enough for today's marathon performance (the Met website still lists him).

Many stations in the Met network will start next Saturday with an eight-week series of operas from Lyric Opera of Chicago and other will segue to NPR World of Opera - stay tuned as our Saturday page for next week fills in as we figure out who's airing what...

Here's the rest of today's live lineup:

• Metropolitan Opera (on numerous stations) - Wagner's Götterdämmerung, with Christian Franz, Iain Paterson, Richard Paul Fink, John Tomlinson, Katarina Dalayman, Margaret Jane Wray, Yvonne Naef, Wendy White, Elizabeth Bishop, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Lisette Oropesa, Kate Lindsey and Tamara Mumford, conducted by James Levine.
• Dwojkie Polsjie Radio, DR P2, Radio 4 Netherlands, Radio Clasica de Espana & Radio Tre (RAI) - From Teatro Real in Madrid, a performance of Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, with Christine Rice, Kobie van Rensburg, Cyril Auvity, Sonya Yoncheva, Ed Lyon, Luigi De Donato, Xavier Sabata and Terry Wey, conducted by William Christie.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Aachen, a March 29th performance of Mozart's Lucio Silla, with Juan Tralla, Antonia Bourvé, Iva Danova, Eva Berard, Michaela Maria Mayer and Louis Kim, conducted by Marcus Bosch.
• France Musique - From Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, with Bernard Richter, Anne-Catherine Gillet, Allyson McHardy, Stéphane Degout, Françoise Masset, Jennifer Holloway, Bruno Calucci, Jaël Azzaretti, Francis Lis, Jérôme Varnier, Emiliano Gonzales Toro, Aurélia Legay, Nicholas Mulroy and Nicolas Letilleux, conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm.
• KBIA2 - NPR World of Opera: From Washington National Opera, the American Premier of Maw's Sophie's Choice, with Angelika Kirchschlager, Rod Gilfry, Gordon Gietz, Corey Evan Rotz, Clayton Brainerd, Erin Elizabeth Smith and Trevor Scheunemann, conducted by Marin Alsop.
• Radio Oesterreich International - From the Vienna State Opera, a February 13th performance of Verdi's Stiffelio, with José Cura, Hui He, Anthony Michels-Moore, Gergely Nemeti, Alexandru Moisiuc, Benedikt Kobel and Elisabeth Marin, conducted by Michael Halász.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - From Berwald Hall in Stockholm, an April 18th concert performance of Torstensson's Expeditionen, with Charlotte Riedijk, Göran Eliasson, Mats Persson and Olle Persson, Niklas Willén.

More to follow in few minutes.....

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Sam Shirakawa attended the opening performance of this season's run of Siegfried at the Met, on Saturday afternoon/ Here's his squib:

SIEGFRIED

METROPOLITAN OPERA
18 APRIL 2009 Season Premiere

Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungs has, in my view, two major inciting incidents. The first takes place in Rheingold, when Alberich curses love and steals the ring. The second incitement happens in the third act of Siegfried, which the Metropolitan Opera mounted for the first time this season at Saturday’s broadcast matinee -- the penultimate installment in the first of three Ring Cycles this season. Wotan’s mortal grandson challenges him at the proverbial crossroad and breaks his spear, thereby ending the god’s control of the world he created.

None of the nine Ring productions I’ve witnessed makes much of the spear-breaking. Except for a lightning flash in some stagings, it’s over in a blink. Wagner doesn't make much of it either: no anguished soliloquies, no Mozartean ensemble numbers, not even a da-da-da-dum from the orchestra to denote Destiny Descending. And yet, it marks the Beginning of The End, for which Wotan longs during his tortured narrative in Day One of the saga. Siegfried is now at liberty to go his merry way and do whatever he wants.

So what’s a liberated, horny teen love-child of an incestuous union to do? Commit incest, of course. And who better to guide him through the ins and outs of banging, than the archetypal Older Woman, namely his equally virginal but knowing great-aunt, Brünnhilde. (We’re not privy to the party that proceeds after the curtain falls on Act Three, but presumably, they know instinctively what goes where, when it comes to doin’ what comes unnaturally.)

Siegfried has occasionally been dubbed the “happy opera” of the Ring Cycle, given it’s flame-throwing dragon, chatty bird, nasty ogres and Sleeping Beauty. But while it has its sanguine moments, it’s really a somber setup for the six-hour tragedy to come in Day Three of the saga.

I’ve often complained that Siegfried has too many men barking at each other for far too long, before we get some feminine ear candy. But thanks to James Levine’s priorities, which places cantilena always at the top, we heard some wonderful singing from the guys bickering and bellowing during the first two acts on Saturday afternoon.

For me, the big pleasure of the afternoon was Christian Franz, making his Met debut as the eponymous hero. I’ve heard him several times over the past couple of years -- mostly in Berlin -- and was little impressed with his tendency to bark out phrases for emphasis, in much the way you expect from the Drum Major in Wozzeck. While he still yelps out some notes, this is essentially an all but reborn Christian. A Heldentenor in the Melchior vein Franz is not, but who is? Nearly always tone-perfect, he managed to maintain the requisite energy for this killer role all the way from the Forging Scene to the exhausting Awakening Duet at the finish.

The second major pleasure of being in the house on Saturday afternoon was hearing and seeing Irene Theorin as Brünnhilde. The role is comparatively small, but its pitfalls are huge, and Theorin avoided them all. Appearing even more radiant than she had looked in Walküre, she soared confidently from strength to strength, making the fitful transition from goddess to woman seemingly effortless. Hers is not a mega-voice, nor is it an emotional button-pusher like, say, Susan Boyle’s. But it shows a telltale sign of emerging major Wagner sopranos: a predisposition for grandly invigorating the dynamics Wagner prescribes. Its grace under pressure and the two bang-on high Cs reminds me of how Gwyneth Jones sounded all too rarely.

The sound of James Morris as Wotan/Wanderer was focused, on pitch and by turns effectively condescending in the Quiz Scene with Mime, cunningly brutish in dealing with Alberich, and just plain desperate in Wotan’s big scene with Erda in the third act.

Robert Brubaker is a bit tall to qualify as a dwarf, but his unctuous way with a whine makes him a memorable Mime. Richard Paul Fink turns Alberich into a fascinating portrait in slime.

It struck me as unfortunate that the role of the Fafner in dragon form (sung off-stage) prevents John Tomlinson from singing on stage. If his days as a top-notch Wotan and Sachs are behind him, he still has plenty of mileage left to portray backbench Wagner heavies.

The much-missed Lili Chookasian spoiled me for anybody else singing Erda, but Wendy White brings a dark, slender imperiousness to her brief appearance scolding Wotan for making a mess of Everything. Lisette Oropesa as the Woodbird sounded as if she had been placed too far off-stage, but the young native of the Big Easy has the right stuff for bigger things to come.

The legendary Wagner conductor Reginald Goodall often said the big challenge in taking on the Ring is finding the right basic tempo. After years of imposing phlegmatic pacing on his readings of late Wagner, James Levine at last has found the right basic tempo that works for him and his listeners. And the relatively brisk pacing he’s taking currently enlivens the tetralogy immeasurably. You can feel the pulse arching over the entire work. There is finally a sense of inevitability in his Ring that makes it Levine’s Ring once and for all.

© Sam H. Shirakawa

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 18, 2009 - Part I

Siegfried, the third installment in the Met's Matinee Ring Cycle gets under way at Noon Eastern Time today. More Handel (two different Partenopes to catch). Other offerings of note:

• France Musique - From Opéra Garnier in Paris,a January 24th performance of Boesmans' Yvonne, princesse de Bourgogne, with Dörte Lyssewski, Paul Gay, Mireille Delunsch, Yann Beuron, Victor von Halem, Hannah Esther Minutillo, Jason Bridges and Jean-Luc Ballestra, conducted by Sylvain Cambreling.
• Metropolitan Opera (on numerous stations) - Wagner's Siegfried, with Iréne Theorin, Wendy White, Christian Franz, Robert Brubaker, James Morris, Richard Paul Fink, John Tomlinson and Lisette Oropesa, conducted by James Levine.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - An historic live March 20, 1940 Stockholm Opera performance of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, with Hjördis Schymberg, Helga Görlin, Isa Quensel, Einar Andersson, Hugo Hasslo and Sigurd Björling, conducted by Fritz Busch.
• Dwojkie Polskie Radio - From the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersberg, a December 20, 2008 performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Maid of Pskov, with Alexei Tanovitski, Gennady Bezzubenkov, Nikolai Gassiev, Yuri Vorobyev, Pavel Shmulevich, Mikhail Vishnyak, Edem Umerom, Rina Mataeva, Varvara Solovyeva, Ludmila Kanunnikova, Olga Legkova and Andrei Karabanov, conducted by Valery Gergiev.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater in Schwerin, an April 9th performance of Flotow's Martha, with Ulrike Maria Maier, Frauke Willimczik, Andreas Lettowsky, Stefan Heibach, Olaf Plassa and Dietmar Unger, conducted by Matthias Foremny.
• DR P2 - From Copenhagen, an October 11, 2008 performance of Handel's Partenope, with Inger Dam-Jensen, Andreas Scholl, Christophe Dumaux, Tuva Semmingsen, Bo Kristian Jensen and Palle Knudsen, conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen.
• Radio 4 Netherlands - From Nationale Reisopera, a March 28th performance of Beethoven's Fidelio, with Patrick Davin. Roland Wood, Peter Wedd, Lisa Livingstone, Machteld Baumans, Almas Svilpa.
• Radio Clasica fe Espane - From the Vienna State Opera, a February 22nd performance of Handel's Partenope, with Christine Schäfer, Kurt Streit, David Daniels and Patricia Bardon, conducted by Christophe Rousset.

More to come shortly......

Live Offerings - Saturday, April 11, 2009 - Part III

Still more offerings, starting later on this afternoon:

• Radio Tre (RAI) - From the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, a March 4th performance of Wagner's Der Fliegende Höllander, with Bryn Terfel, Anja Kampe, Hans-Peter König, Torsten Kerl, Clare Shearer and John Tessier, conducted by Marc Albrecht.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera (one week delayed): From the 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
• WOMR - On their program after the Met Broadcast is over, catch Anna Russell's Ring Analysis.
• Concert FM (New Zealand) - Another chance to hear the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, with Patricia Racette, Maria Zifchak, Marcello Giordani and Dwayne Croft, conducted by Patrick Summers.
• KWAX - From the 2008 Oregon Bach Festival, a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, with Sibylla Rubens, Ingeborg Danz, Lothar Odinius, Nathan Berg and Michael Nagy, conducted by Helmut Rilling.
• ABC CLassic FM (Australia) - Another chance to catch the Metropolitan Opera's broadcast of Bellini's La Sonnambula, with Jennifer Black, Jeremy Galyon, Natalie Dessay, Jane Bunnell, Bernard Fitch, Juan Diego Flórez and Michele Pertusi, conducted by Evelino Pidò.

Happy listening . . . .

Live Offerings - Saturday, April 11, 2009 - Part II

Lots of Handel today - Orlando, Partenope, Acis and Galatea, and Tamerlano....Klara is probably not alone in running a Handel marathon over the next two of three days.

Here's this afternoon's lineup:

• Bayern 4 Klassik - a 2008 performance of Handel's Acis and Galatea, with Julia Kleiter, Christoph Prégardien, Michael Slattery and Wolf Matthias Friedrich, conducted by Nicholas McGegan.
• Deutschlanadradio Kultur - From Deutsche Oper in Berlin, an April 9th performance of Respighi's Marie Victoire, with Takesha Meshe Kizart, Markus Brück, German Villar, Stephen Bronk, Jörn Schümann, Simon Pauly, Martina Welschenbach, Gregory Warren, Nicole Piccolomini, Yosep Kang, Anna Fleischer, Stephen Bronk, Krzysztof Szumanski, Nathan Myers, Tomislav Lucic, Thomas Blondelle, Andrew Ashwin and Hyung-Wook Lee, conducted by Michail Jurowski.
• DR P2 - From the Vienna State Opera, a February 13th performance of Verdi's Stiffelio, with osé Cura, Hui He, Anthony Michaels-Moore and Gergely Németi, conducted by Michael Halász.
• RAdio 4 Netherlands - From the Royal Opera Covent Garden, Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, with Hans Peter König, Anja Kampe, Thorsten Kerl and Bryn Terfel, conducted by Marc Albrecht.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - From last season's Bayreuth's Festival, Wagner's Parsifal, with Detlef Roth, Fujimura, Arnold Bezuyen, Friedemann Röhlig, Julia Borchert, Ulrike Helzel, Clemens Bieber, Timothy Oliver, Julia Borchert, Martina Rüping, Carola Guber, Anna Korondi, Jutta Böhnert, Ulrike Helzel and Altsolo Simone Schröder, conducted by Danielle Gatti.
• KBIA2 - NPR World of Opera: From Bavarian State Opera, Verdi's Macbeth, with Zeljko Lucic, Nadja Michael, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Dimitri Pittas and Fabrizio Mercurio, conducted by Nicola Luisotti.
• Klara & Espace 2 - From Theater an der Wien, Handel's Partenope, with Christine Schäfer, Kurt Streit, David Daniels, Patricia Bardon, Florian Boesch and Mattias Rexroth, conducted by Christophe Rousset.
• Latvia Radio Klasika - A February 5th performance of Handel's Orlando, with Viljams Tovers, Dominika Labelle, Daiana Mu-ra, Suzanna Ri-dena, Volfs Matiass Fridrihs, conducted by Nikolass Makgegans.
• NRK Klassisk - From Berwald Hall in Stocjholm, a September 28th performance of Haydn's Creation, with Dorothea Röschmann, Mark Padmore, Thomas Quasthoff, conducted Daniel Harding.
• Radio Oesterreich International - From Washington National Opera, an April 2008 performance of Handel's Tamerlano, with Placido Domingo, David Daniels, Sarah Coburn, Patricia Bardon, Claudia Huckle and Andrew Foster-Williams, conducted by William Lacey.

Part III to come....

Live offerings for Saturday April 11, 2009 - Part 1

The first couple of offerings start at or shortly after Noon Eastern Time:

• France Musique - From Opéra Bastille in Paris, Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth From Mtsensk, with Vladimir Vaneev, Ludovit Ludha, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Michaël König, Carole Wilson, Alexander Kravets, Lani Poulson, Valentin Jar, Alexander Vassiliev, and Nikita Storojev, conducted by Hartmut Haenchen.
• Metropolitan Opera (on numerous stations) - Wagner's Die Walküre, with Gary Lehman, John Tomlinson, James Morris, Waltraud Meier, Irene Theorin, Yvonne Naef, Kelly Cae Hogan, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Laura Vlasak Nolen, Jane Bunnell, Claudia Waite, Lann Sandel-Pantaleo, Mary Ann McCormick and Teresa S Herold, conducted by James Levine.

More listing in a few minutes. Stay tuned....

DIE WÄLKURE - Season Premiere

Sam Shirakawa, peripatetic Wagnerian that he is, was at the opening night of Die Walküre at the Met on Monday night. His squib:

Season Premiere 6 April 2009
Metropolitan Opera

The Muses were in attendance at the Met on Monday night. I never thought “riveting” would be an appropriate way to describe James Levine’s reading of any score, but absent a lapse here and there, his umpteenth traversal of Wagner’s [who else’s?] Die Walküre was indeed riveting. The pacing seemed livelier, the dynamic thrust more propulsive than ever before.

After a briefly tentative start, James Morris sang possibly his finest Wotan at the Met to date. Few veteran singers get to show what they have learned over the years, because their voices give out before they get the chance. Morris is one of the lucky ones. Drawing from a wealth of acquired and innate reserves, he rendered a deeply moving account of an embattled god, forced to sacrifice two of his most beloved children. On Monday, though, his soft and heartbreaking farewell to his love child was overshadowed by the orchestra. Too loud, Jimmy!

The much anticipated curiosity of the evening was the debut of Iréne Theorin, a hastily recruited Brünnhilde, replacing the indisposed Christine Brewer. The Swedish soprano has an ample voice that’s evenly distributed from top to bottom, and she showed no signs of strain in scooping up to those treacherous Bs and Cs in the valkyrie’s signature war cry. What her voice lacks at this point in her young career is a personality that is distinctive and lingers in the ear. Withal, Theorin proved herself an effective actress on her first showing, and she needed no extra makeup to highlight her estimable comeliness.

The same can hardly be said of Jan Botha’s appearance. The stage lights may have been kept on extra low wattage to mask his corpulence. Ah, but the rotund sound of his Siegmund! Think Jon Vickers meets Franz Völker: seductive, sweet and potent. Too bad Wagner kills the Wälsung off at the end of the second act.

Too bad, too, that the composer also kills off Hunding almost at the same moment. Especially when the role is so deftly portrayed by John Tomlinson -- another veteran Wagnerian, who’s made a well-deserved name for himself as Wotan and Sachs over the years. As an acquaintance sagaciously commented during the first intermission, Tomlinson purveys a depth of understanding about the role that makes Hunding far more complex than a brutish cuckold. And it’s not all about the singing, about which: no complaints. The way he listens to Siegmund’s tale of woe and becomes aware that he’s giving hospitality to his arch-enemy; the way he makes his long-suffering trophy wife stand up so that he can sit down.

And speaking of that long-suffering wife, Waltraud Meyer is back again as Sieglinde. I’ve always liked her, but I don’t care for mezzo-Sieglindes. I long for that slightly girlish inflection that real sopranos bring to the role. But Meyer was in full possession of her dark powers on Monday night, and satisfied customers gave her huge ovations.
Yvonne Naef is a cooly bitchy Fricka in her Virginia Woolf encounter with Morris. When she quits the stage with no loss of perspiration, you know it’s Game Over.

The eight Valkyrie Sisters -- all in great shape.

Monday’s cast is set to appear on the broadcast matinee. Theorin will also appear in Siegfried, which is fortunate. But not, apparently, in the broadcast of Götterdämmerung, which is unfortunate.

A sidebar to Monday night’s performance: It was marred by the cacophony of cellphones beeping and jangling throughout the performance. The hall frequently sounded like an intensive care unit. Isn’t it time for a full-page ad opposite the cast listing in the program, telling patrons to shut off? Or maybe the security personnel at the entrances should make it mandatory. Even better, why not create a firewall around the building to prevent incoming calls? If Wotan could do it for Brühnnhilde way back in those pre-digital days of yore, certainly the Met management can do it for its public now.

© Sam Shirakawa

TOXIC ASSETS

Sam Shirakawa attended the Opening Night of this season's run of Das Rheingold at the Met on Wednesday evening. Here's his squib:

Das Rheingold

Season Premiere 25 March 2009
Metropolitan Opera

If Das Rheingold is on the boards, it must be springtime now and Ring time again at the Metropolitan Opera. Otto Schenk has returned to supervise the final incarnations of his grandly representational production dating from 1987. The new version of what one critic has called “the ultimate mini-series” is set for 2010 and promises to be something entirely different.

This year, there are extra performances of Rheingold and Walküre to supplement the usual three cycles beginning at today’s matineé broadcast and continuing through early May. Expect to hear a lot of Japanese, German, Brit-English and Russian spoken during intermissions. Even in these wretched economic times, the Met remains Mecca for financially intrepid Wagnerites.

The first performance of Rheingold this season turned out to be only the 150th time the company has mounted the work -- by far the least performed of the four Ring operas.

Many of the singers who appeared at the premiere of this production have long since retired, but in an age when change happens too fast and too often, it is comforting to many to have James Morris back once again as Wotan. The incursions of time have diminished his vocal powers, but he was able to summon the requisite strength at the most critical moments -- especially in “Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge” -- the god’s articulation of relief at the completion of Valhalla. The rest of the cast was about as fine as money can buy these days: Yvonne Naef (Fricka), Wendy Bryn Harmer (Freia), Jill Grove (Erda), John Tomlinson and Franz-Josef Selig respectively as Fafner and Fasolt -- all in fine form. In a cast of equals Kim Begley (Loge), Richard Paul Fink (Alberich) and the trio of Lisette Oropesa, Kate Lindsey and Tamara Mumford as the Rhine Maidens were incandescent.

The other holdover from the production’s premiere, of course, is James Levine. Of some 20 odd times I’ve been present to hear him conduct Rheingold in the house, Wednesday evening’s performance was arguably his finest to date -- primarily because he seems to have discovered, finally, the recondite magic and sad sense of wonder in the work, which he palpably missed in his previous excursions into Nibelheim.

All of which led me to reflect afterwards on what take-away the performance may have offered. If nothing else, Rheingold, indeed the entire Ring, is about the Grand-Daddy of all Toxic Assets. The forged ring ultimately ruins everybody in a cumulative tidal wave of devastating collateral. The dire warnings of this intermittently hummable tale, adumbrated so seductively in swathes of wicked harmonies, continue to go unheeded, as the world sucks itself into the Augean stables of fiduciary feculence.

Sooner or later, though, what may get even worse gets better: We are, it seems, living out the Shakespearean-Wagnerian Dialectic. But how long in really real time is the journey between that deceptive E flat pedal which begins the infelicitous tetralogy in whose midst we now find ourselves -- and our arrival enfin at the redemptive D-flat Major coda that only the love which transcends understanding can win?

© Sam H. Shirakawa

Lehman does Tristan....

An internet correspondent, REG, was in the house to hear Gary Lehman (hero of last seson's star-crossed Tristan run), sing his first Tristan of this season on Tuesday night (12/2/08), replacing an indisposed Peter Seiffert:

. . . . Almost as interesting was tonight's performance of Tristan. The MET, I think, is already experiencing revival-itis with this production, and much of the problem has to lie with Baron Danny-boy, who led an at-best fitful performance. When Mozart died, the young Beethoven, who had hoped to study with him and was instead shuttled off to an older and somewhat less-motivated Franz Josef Haydn, was told by his patrons, "Receive Mozart from the hands of Hadyn." I suppose in going to Danny-boy performances, I always expect to be somehow handed performances of the depth and complexity of Furtwangler, but in the event he almost consistently disappoints, and tonight was no exception. While I think as a pianist he remains, when he is in technical fettle, first-rate, his major limitation as a conductor is that he has, essentially, the attention span of a gnat - at any given moment, there can be a lovely emphasis (he particularly seems to favor the darker woodwinds, and the strings sounded heavenly towards the end of Act II when Tristan turns to Isolde and asks her if she will accompany him in exile), but he doesn't ever seem to 'see' these details against each other, or in terms of a larger structure, and so solecisms and musical tautologies abound....I thought that the entire first part of Act III might never end, although Gary Lehman himself did a wonderful job as Tristan. A pianist can get away with moment-to-moment insights in recital, in quicksilver differences in touch and musical underlinings, but a conductor cannot so easily do so. I thought the orchestra sounded well, but it didn't have either the glow that a great Levine performance can have, or, for that matter, the warmth I'd hoped to hear from the Baron.

As to casting, I thought Lehman did a more-than creditable job in the house. The sound isn't particularly clarion, or even highly colored - he is clearly not a pushed-up baritone - but he (almost) never tired, and he saved enough of himself to be impressive indeed on stage in Act III, even with a few moments where he lost focus. If Peter Gelb's Dram Shop ever opens, I'm afraid that Katarina Dalayman is most likely to be found at the Kool-Aid counter - she has almost all the notes, and she's obviously listened when people have told her to move, but as to the singing, it was largely dispassionate and, frankly, not much more than dutiful - if she felt the role, she certainly didn't share it. If Voigt has some moments of vocal frailty, she is still an Isolde in bearing and line, and can dominate the orchestra and the music where she has to. Michelle DeYoung is a fine singer, but I thought the voice smaller (or was the orchestra louder?) than last time around, and this is a tough role if you don't make a real impact in the middle of the voice. Rene Pape was passionate and made a lot of the words (particularly in the upper half of his voice), but though Marti Salminen isn't the superstar the Pape is, I thought Salminen's King Marke a far greater accomplishment - the voice was more solid, the bearing more regal, and interpretively Salminen knows that an effective interpretation starts from a single point of view, and not a kaleidescope of individual moments. But you know me, I'm not complaining.

The production has been tampered with a bit - most obviously the various-colors of lighting seem to have been eliminated in favor of a recourse at moments of emotion to yellow verging on chartreuse, and more unfortunately, the crespuscular darkness of Act II and the hieratic staging, which were all of a piece, have been sacrificed to something both more neutral, and naturalistic, at the cost of some of the sense of suspense and wonder in that critical scene.

Heads up to listeners to tomorrow's MET broadcast --- Mr. Lehman will be singing Tristan (finally getting his due...), but (and it's a big caveat) Pape has canceled and Youn is singing King Marke.

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE at the Metropolitan Opera

Sam Shirakawa has been to the Opening Night of the Met's run of Tristan und Isolde:

28 November 2008

A surprise saved Friday night's season premiere of Tristan und Isolde at the Met from terminal boredom:

René Pape has sung King Mark over a dozen times at the Met, and it would seem that he's old news. He is still too young for the part, but surprisingly, he is even more astonishing every time you hear him, and he turned out to be the glue that held a patchy performance together.

Headlining the new news, of course, was the house debut of Daniel Barenboim. It seems he's performed everywhere, except at the Met. He has recorded Tristan commercially, and numerous live performances and broadcasts of his forays into the work can be found on tape.

Remember that sampling of his way with Tristan back in 1989, when he assembled Hildegarde Behrens, Gary Lakes and L'Orchestre de Paris for a concert version of Act Two at Avery Fisher Hall?

If you don't remember, that may be the key to the disappointment I, at least, felt at Friday's performance. That long ago performance was not memorable, and neither was Friday night's.

Forget about those knee-jerk complaints that may come up: the orchestra was too loud, the sound synthesis was overly brass heavy, the textural contrasts were exaggerated. These are all signature characteristics of the Barenboim-the-Conductor brand. A lot of people love it and buy it, especially on CD where digital technology can produce aural miracles that have little to do with the source material. But no filter except denial can disguise the zits, warts and whoopsy-daisies exposing themselves mercilessly within the real-time exigencies of a live performance. On Friday, there was plenty of rhythmic smudging among the singers and vast stretches of listlessness that prevented the performance from taking off or shaping up into an organic whole. This, despite the Met orchestra playing as though its life depended on it. [During rehearsals several orchestra members commented on how exited they were to work with Barenboim.] Fabulous as the Met Orchestra always is, and no-less so for the wonderful English Horn solo by Pedro R. Diaz, it was left to Pape to provide rescue and respite.

Evidence of the Gestalt that Friday's performance was producing could best be seen in the droves of people departing, even during the first intermission. Does this say more about the departed than about brand DB? Barenboim brings them in, oh yes, but for those many who left, it apparently was not a night to remember.

Barenboim was not entirely to blame, unless he approved the casting, which he almost certainly must have. After all, he led the opera just two months ago with three of the principals -- Katarina Dalayman, Michelle DeYoung and Gerd Grochowski -- at Berlin's Staatsoper unter den Linden, where he is Music Director. (And another lead singer in that short string of performances is also in town at the moment.)

Let's face it folks: Dalayman is at best a B-line Isolde. Despite some attractive singing in the softer passages of the second act love duet, she failed to summon mortal rage in the cursing climax of the Narrative and delivered a diffident Liebestod. Her top notes were squally, her middle range middling, and her lower register thin. Dalayman was a laudable Brangaene when she made her Met debut in 1999, and I marveled at her Lisa in Pique Dame in Munich several years ago. Net-net though: Katya Darling, Isolde is not the way to go.

Peter Seiffert as Tristan is an appealing Wagner tenor and an effective stage personality, but he is developing a worrisome beat in his voice -- which also is showing signs of wear. He tired toward the end of his third act delirium. A few seasons ago, he sang one of the finest Tannhäusers that the Met has heard since the opera was revived in 1976. Why is he now palpably ruining his voice?

Michelle de Young reprises her well-received Brangaene from last season. She is one of the Met's brightest young singers, and she might well take a hard look at Dalayman's misstep in considering what roles she would be ill-advised to undertake.

Gerd Grochowski made an objection-free debut as Kurwenal. Stephen Gaertner was a serviceable Melot.

While Barenboim deservedly has won acclaim for his Wagner, I have always thought his true life resides at the piano. He is scheduled to perform Liszt's operatic transcriptions at the Met on 14 December. Now THAT should be a treat.

©Sam H. Shirakawa

Live Offerings - Saturday, November 15, 2008

Some promising live, live offerings: Marshner's Der Vampyr from Bologna; Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov from English National Opera; and Opera Ireland's performance of Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

More chances to hear historic Met broadcasts: Beethoven's Fidelio from 1966 with Nilsson, King, et al; Verdi's Otello with Vickers, Te Kanawa (Met debut) and Stewart.

From Houston Grand Opera (all part of the WFMT opera Series): Mozart's Magic Flute and Abduction from the Seraglio, Britten's Billy Budd.

And THIS, just in (as of 1PM EST): WRTI in Philadelphia has preempted its airing of the WFMT Opera Series Billy Budd to offer us the Academy of Vocal Art's performance of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, with Angela Meade (who filled in so affectingly for Sondra Radvanovsky in Trovatore at the Met last season), Taylor Stayton, Olivia Vote, Ben Wager, Cynthia Cook, Nicholas Masters, and Noah Van Niel, conducted by Christopher Macatsoris. Starts at 1830/1:30PM. NOT TO BE MISSED!!!

Take a look and listen:

• Espace Musique - From Pacific Opera Victoria, Blitzstein's Regina, with Kimberly Barber, Kathlenn Brett, Robyn Driedger-Klassen, Doug MacNaughton, Gregory Dahl, Dean Elzinga, Lawrence Williford, Tracie Luck, DeAndre Simmons and Louise Rose, conducted by Timothy Vernon.
• LRT Klasika - From Vienna, Gounod's Faust, with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu, conducted by Bertrand de Billy.
• KBYU - A rebroadcast of this summer's Bayreueth Festival performance of Wagner's Parsifal.
• CBC Two - A double bill: From Los Angeles Opera, Puccini's Tosca, with Neil Shicoff, Adrianne Pieczonka, Juan Pons and Robert Pomakov, conducted by Sir Richard Armstrong; and from Opera Australia, Puccini's Suor Angelica, with Nicole Youl, Hye Seoung Kwon, Milijana Nikolic, Elizabeth Campbell, Dominica Matthews, Rosemary Gunn, Elizabeth Ellis, Adele Johnston and Teresa La Rocca, mezzo-soprano, conducted by Andrea Licata.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Gdansk, Poland, a June 28th performance of Siegfried Wagner's Der Schmied von Marienburg, with Marek Kalbus, Till Schulze, Anton Leiß-Huber, Christoph von Weitzel, Karl Schneider, Maacha Deubner, Johannes Föttinger, Therese Glaubitz, Ralf Sauerbrey and Rebecca Broberg, conducted by Frank Strobel.
• DR P2 - From Lausanne, an April 25th perforomance of Hande's Julius Cæsar, with Andreas Scholl, Yannis Francois, Stéphanie d'Oustrac, Max Emanuel Cencic, Elena de la Merced, Christophe Dumaux, Riccardo Novaro and Florin Cezar-Ouatu, conducted by Ottavio Dantone.
• France Musique - From l'Opéra Bastille in Paris, an October 13th performance of Janácek's La petite renarde rusée (The Cunning Littel Vixen), with Jukka Rasilainen, Michèle Lagrange, David Kuebler, Roland Bracht, Paul Gay, Elena Tsallagova and Hannah Esther Minutillo, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.
• Radio 4 Netherlands, Radio Clasica de Espana & Radio Tre (RAI) - From Teatro Comunale in Bologna, a live performance of Marschner's Der Vampyr, with Harry Peeters, Carmela Remigio, John Osborn, Detlef Roth, Roberto Tagliavini, Manuela Bisceglie, Paolo Cauteruccio, Donata D'Annunzio Lombardi, Thomas Morris, Mario Bolognesi, Gabriele Ribis, Conal Coad, Monica Minarelli, Adrian Sampetrean and Karl Heinz Macek, conducted by Roberto Abbado.
• RTP Antena 2 - From l'Opéra Bastille in Paris, a March 8th performance of Verdi's Luisa Miller, with Ana Maria Martínez, Elisa Cenni, Ramón Vargas, Vincent Morell, Andrzej Dobber, Ildar Abdrazakov and Kwangchul Youn, conducted by Massimo Zanetti.
• WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From Houston Grand Opera, Britten's Billy Budd, with Andrew Kennedy, David Brooks Horn, Tommy Ajai George, Ryan McKinny, Richard Sutliff, Philip Cutlip, Beau Gibson, Chad Freeburg, Rodell Rosel, Liam Bonner, Jeremy Galyon, Phillip Ens, Joseph Evans, Wesley Landry, Daniel Belcher, James J. Kee, Gwynne Howell and David Ziemnicki, conducted by Patrick Summers.
• WQXR - From Houston Grand Opera, Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, with Karen Armstrong, Paul Groves, Andrea Silvestrelli, Heidi Stober, Nicholas Phan and Richard Spuler, conducted by William Lacey.
• XLNC1 - From Houston Grand Opera, Mozart's The Magic Flute, with Rebekah Camm, Eric Cutler, Patrick Carfizzi, Albina Shagimuratova, Raymond Aceto, Jon Kolbet, Alicia Gianni, Chen-Ye Yuan, Tamara Wilson, Maria Markina and Jamie Barton, conducted by Steven Sloane.
• BBC Radio 3 - Live from English National Opera, Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, with Peter Rose, John Graham-Hall, David Stephenson, Brindley Sherratt, Gregory Turay, Yvonne Howard, Jonathan Veira, Anton Rich, Sophie Bevan, Ann Grevelius, Deborah Davison, James Gower, Paul Napier-Burrows, Charles Johnston, Philip Daggett, and Robert Murray, conducted by Edward Gardner.
• Bartok Radio - From Teatro Regio in Turin, an October 9th performance of Cherubini's Medea, with Anna Caterina Antonacci, Cinzia Forte, Sara Mingardo, Giuseppe Filianoti, Giovanni Battista Parodi, Erika Grimaldi, Luisa Francesconi, Diego Matamoros, conducted by Evelino Pido.
• NPR World of Opera - From Washington National Opera, yet another chance to hear Handel's Tamerlano, with Placido Domingo, David Daniels, Sarah Coburn, Patricia Bardon, Claudio Huckle and Andrew Foster Williams, conducted by William Lacey.
• Lyric FM - Live from Opera Ireland, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, with Yunah Lee and Keith Olsen, conducted by Bruno dal Bon.
• NRK Klassisk & NRK P2 - From Opéra Garnier in Paris, Gluck's Iphegenie en Tauride, with Mireille Delunsch, Stéphane Degout, Yann Beuron, Franck Ferrari, Salomé Haller, conducted by Ivor Bolton.
• Radio Oesterreich International - From the Metropolitan Opera, an historic broadcast of Beethoven's Fidelio (January 22, 1966), with Birgit Nilsson, James King, Geraint Evans, Otto Edelmann, Mary Ellen Pracht, Charles Anthony and Sherill Milnes, conducted by Karl Böhm.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - From this past summer's Bayreuth Festival, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
• Espace 2 - From the Metropolitan Opera, an historic broadcast of Verdi's Otello, with Jon Vickers, Kiri Te Kanawa, Thomas Stewart, Jean Kraft, William Lewis, Andrea Velis, Robert Goodloe, Paul Plishka and David Holloway, conducted by James Levine.
• Klara - From Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, an August 29th performance of Strauss's Elektra, with Larisa Gogolevskaya, Elena Vitman, Elena Nebera, Vasily Gorshkov, Eduard Tsanga, Pavel Shmulevich, Ludmila Kanunnikova, Ludmila Kasyanenko, Andrey Popov, Andrey Spekhov, Irina Loskutova, Olga Legkova, Kristina Kapustinskaya, Maria Uvarova, Tatiana Kravtsova and Lia Shevtsova, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Happy listening . . . .

Philadelphia Orchestra Concert - Die Meistersinger 13 November 2008

Sam Shirakawa journeyed to Philadelphia last night to see and hear James Morris in some Die Meistersinger highlights with the Philadelphia Orchestra .... but.....well, read on:

The management of the Philadelphia Orchestra this week found that Friday the 13th fell on Thursday.

Mid-morning on 13 November, baritone and renowned Wagner singer James Morris declared indisposition and cancelled his appearance at that evening's concert in Verizon Hall. A frantic search ultimately led to Myrtle Beach, where a replacement was hastily recruited in the person of Tom Fox.

No announcement of the day's events was made to the audience in attendance until just before Mr. Fox appeared on stage -- possibly because he arrived at the hall after the first half of the concert had begun. Nobody, I guess, was sure if he would show up.

Well, he did show up, and an hour's worth of "bleeding chunks" from Die Meistersinger went off as though Mr. Fox had been originally scheduled. While his performance fell a tad short of commanding, his traversal of the Fliedermonolog, the Wahnmonolog and Hans Sach's final oration was imbued with confidence, a firm line, rhythmic incisiveness and stylistic grace.

It would be churlish to delve further into the performance of any last-minute replacement, especially one that literally had just popped in off the street, so I won't. If his name doesn't ring a bell, you may remember him as Alberich or as Jaroslav Prus [pop quiz: what's the opera?] at the Met. But all that was at least seven years ago, and Mr. Fox has spent the interim years building his sizable repertoire at numerous European venues, notably in Mannheim, where he appeared as Hans Sachs for the first time earlier this month in a new production of Meistersinger directed by Jens-Daniel Herzog and led by Friedemann Layer.

The current string of concerts is being led by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, a popular guest with the Orchestra and possibly one of the five most underrated conductors in the last third of the 20th century. [Pick the other four yourself.] Given the massive truncations necessary in reducing the Meistersinger excerpts to an hour's length and the requisite compromises in accommodating a last-minute stand-in, Frühbeck could only render an inkling of what he might do with a complete performance of Wagner's masterpiece. But it was a tantalizing inkling.

Brief and also tantalizing interjections were provided by Canadian tenor Jeffrey Halili and soprano Jessica Julin, as well as the Philadelphia Singers Chorale.

The only palpable evidence of mishaps occurred in the surtitles flashed above the performing platform. Mechanical failures or human error left the words "ignore them" on the scrim for an inordinately long time during the Fliedermonolog.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the program was the reading of Beethoven's Symphony Nr. 8, which took up the first half of the program. But a website devoted to opera is not the place for a discussion of it.

Whether James Morris will appear at all remains to be heard. He has two more chances: tonight and tomorrow [editor's note: according to the Philadelphia Orchestra website, Mr. Fox was scheduled to sing Friday's and Saturday's concerts]. If Tom Fox continues to replace him, it would be worth hearing how good a fit he makes by Saturday evening.

©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....

Hghlights for Saturday, August 16, 2008

Already underway:

Deutschlandradio Kultur - a rebroadcast of this summer's Tristan und Isolde from Bayreuth, with Robert Dean Smith, Irene theorin, Michelle Breedt, Robert Holl and Jukka Rasilainen, conducted by Peter Schneifer.
Espace Musique (French Radio Canada) - From Pesaro, Rossini's Ermione, with Sonia Ganassi, Maria Pizzolato, Gregory Kunde, Antonino Siragusa, Ferdinand von Bothmer, Nicola Ulivieri, Irina Samoylova, Cristina Faus and Riccardo Botta, conducted by Roberto Abbado.
CBC Two - From the Vienna State Opera, a June 7th performance of Strauss' Capriccio, with Renée Fleming, Bo Skovhus, Michael Schade, Angela Kirschlager, Adrian Eröd and Franz Hawlata, conducted by Philippe Jordan.
Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - from the Liceu in Barcelona, a performance of Wagner's Die Walküre, with Plácido Domingo, René Pape, Alan Held, Waltraud Meier, Evelyn Herlitzius and Jane Henschel, conducted by Sebastian Weigle.
DR P2 - From the Teatro real in Madrid, Martin y Soler's Il Burbero di buon cuore, with Elena de la Merced, Véronique Gens, Juan francisco Gatell and Carlos Chausson, conducted by Christophe Rousset.
KWAX & XLNC1 - from LA Opera (as part of the WFMT Opera Series), a double bill of music by composers suppressed by the Nazis: Ullmann's The Broken Jug (Der zerbrochene Krug) and Zemlinsky based The Dwarf (Der Zwerg). James Conlon conducts a cast that includes James Johnson, Rodrick Dixon, Mary Dunleavy, Steven Humes, Bonaventura Bottone, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Bishop, Melody Moore, Jason Stearns and Richard Cox.
Radio Clasica de Espana & Sveriges Radio P2 - From Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, an April 24, 2008, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitesch, with V. Kazakov, V. Panfilov, T. Monogarova, M. Gubsky, G. Hakobyan, M. Gulordava, G. Floris, M. Kalbus, R. Ferrari, S. Consolini, A. Senes, V. Gilmanov, A. Naumenko, R. Savoia and E. Manistina, conducted by A. Vedernikov.
RTP Antena 2 - From Brussels, a February 2nd performance of Weber's Euryanthe, with Gabriele Fontana, Hendrickje Van Kerckhoven, Jolana Fogasova, Kurt Streit, Robin Tritsschler, Detlef Roth and Jan-Hendrik Rootering, conducted by Kazushi Ono.
WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From LA Opera, a performance of Puccini's La Rondine, with Patricia Racette, Marcus Haddock, Amanda Squitieri, Greg Fedderly, David Pittsinger, Dale Travis, Levi Hernandez, Paul Floyd, Karen Vuong, Silvia Vasquez and Angel Blue, conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson.
Latvia Radio Klasika - From the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, an August 8th performance of Rossini's Maometto II, with Marina Rebeka, Francisco Meli, Daniel Barcelona and Michele Pertusi, conducted by Gustav Kunz.
Bartok Radio - Donizetti's Anna Bolena, with Edita Gruberova, Delores Ziegler, Stefano Palacci and Jose Bros.
BBC Radio 3 - From the Royal Albert Hall, a Proms concert performance of Handels' Belshazzar, with Paul Groves, Rosemary Joshua and Bejun Mehta, conducted by Charles Mackerras.
NPR World of Opera - From Glimmerglass Opera, Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, with Aaron St. Clair, Katharine Goeldner, John Tessier, Eduardo Chama, Daniel Sumegi and Judith Christin, conducted by David Angus.
KBYU - From LA Opera, Verdi's Otello, with Ian Storey, Katherine Goeldner, Elena Evseeva, Mark Delevan, Derek taylor, Ning Liang and Eric Halfvarson, conducted by JAmes Conlon.
Radio Oesterreich International - An historic Met broadcast of Puccini's Tosca from January 7, 1956, with Renata Tebalsdi, Richard Tucker and Leolnard Warren, conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos.
Radio Tre (RAI) - From Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Donizetti's Anna Bolena, with Mariella Devia, Laura Polverelli, Ugo Guagliardo, Fernando Portari, Manuela Custer and Amedeo Moretti, conducted by Marco Guidarini.
WDAV - NPR World of Opera - From Glimmerglass Opera, a double bill of Massenet's Portrait of Manon, with Kristine Winkler, Theodore Baerg, Colin Ainsworth and Bruce Reed, conducted by Andrew Bisantz; and Poulenc's Le Voix Humaine, with Amy Burton, conducted by Stewart Robinson.

Happy listening,