WHRB's Spring Orgy® Period has begun, with the Warhorse Orgy on May 1. At this writing (1:15 p.m., May 2) the Evolution of Dance Orgy has just started and will continue until about 10:00 p.m. and conclude tomorrow, May 3, after the Metropolitan Opera from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
The biggies this year are the C.P.E. Bach 300th Anniversary Orgy, which runs from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m. on May 6 and 7 and then from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on May 8. Apparently it is followed immediately at 1:00 on May 8 by the Dmitri Shostakovich Orgy®, which runs till 10:00 that day. On Friday May 9 it goes from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Then on Saturday May 10 it follows the Metropolitan Opera — from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. It picks up again on Sunday, May 11, and continues through Thursday, May 15, from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m. on each of those day.
Smaller orgies include the Gothic Voices Orgy on Sunday, May 4, from 12:30 to 10:00 p.m. (Gothic Voices is a group that sings mostly mediæval and renaissance music.) May 5 brings the Cinco de Mayo Orgy of Mexican and Mexico-related music from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
After the big orgies, on Friday May 16, they give the Carlos Kleiber Orgy from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m. (Maestro Kleiber died ten years ago.) The final classical music orgy listed in the program is the French Composer Anniversaries Orgy, which will run from3:00 to 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 18.
The WHRB program guide, available via the page linked above, gives a brief description of each orgy, as well as a list of the specific works to be played — subject to change; and all timings are approximate. The station homepage also offers a link to listen on line.
WHRB usually plays classical music on weekdays from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m., rock overnight and jazz from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.. They also broadcast the Metropolitan Opera live on Saturdays during the season (roughly December-May) and outside the orgy periods broadcast operas from 8:00 to midnight on Sundays. The classical playlist is broad, perhaps broader than WCRB's. So the station is worth checking out.
Showing posts with label opera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opera. Show all posts
Friday, May 2, 2014
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Opera Week (Includes BSO 2011/01/06-08)
Last night (Wednesday, January 5) I went to a nearby movie theater for replay of the December 11 HD transmission of "Don Carlo" from the Metropolitan Opera. It was great. The most outstanding of a fine cast was Marina Poplavskaya, as Elisabetta. The basses were great as well, especially Ferruccio Furlanetto as Filippo and the unnamed comprimario who sang the role of the monk who seems to be the supposedly dead Emperor Carlo V. It's a great way to see first rate opera productions without having to travel far or pay opera house prices. Here is a link to a page giving locations outside the United States. For the United States, there are so many locations that you have two options, and then you enter your location to find nearby theaters. This is the page where you begin. And here's a page with the schedule for the rest of the season. They show dates for "encore performances" in the U.S. and Canada. I don't know if they are available in other countries. The live performances are Saturday matinees in New York, which means Saturday evenings in Europe.
I definitely want to see "Nixon in China," "Lucia di Lammermoor," "Il Trovatore," and "Die Walküre." If you aren't already an opera fan, my top recommendation would be "Il Trovatore." It's full of glorious music. I wish I had got to this sooner, because "Don Carlo" is even better, IMO. But both are fine examples of Verdi at his best.
You gotta try it. Even the ticket taker left the door to the theater open so he could hear it and occasionally came in to take a peek at last night's show.
This week the BSO is also doing opera in concert performances: "Oedipus Rex" by Stravinsky and "Bluebeard's Castle" by Bartók. Here's what the BSO website says about it:
And here's a link to their page, for further information. As usual, it can be heard over WCRB's stream at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, with "pre-game" show beginning an hour earlier. The Thursday performance is part of my subscription, so I'll be there. I don't expect it to be as great as "Don Carlo." Less than 60 years separates to dates of composition, but the music of Stravinsky and Bartók is so different from Verdi's as to seem to come from a different world, one in which I am much less at home. But the performances tonight could be exciting and gripping in their own way.
I definitely want to see "Nixon in China," "Lucia di Lammermoor," "Il Trovatore," and "Die Walküre." If you aren't already an opera fan, my top recommendation would be "Il Trovatore." It's full of glorious music. I wish I had got to this sooner, because "Don Carlo" is even better, IMO. But both are fine examples of Verdi at his best.
You gotta try it. Even the ticket taker left the door to the theater open so he could hear it and occasionally came in to take a peek at last night's show.
This week the BSO is also doing opera in concert performances: "Oedipus Rex" by Stravinsky and "Bluebeard's Castle" by Bartók. Here's what the BSO website says about it:
And here's a link to their page, for further information. As usual, it can be heard over WCRB's stream at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, with "pre-game" show beginning an hour earlier. The Thursday performance is part of my subscription, so I'll be there. I don't expect it to be as great as "Don Carlo." Less than 60 years separates to dates of composition, but the music of Stravinsky and Bartók is so different from Verdi's as to seem to come from a different world, one in which I am much less at home. But the performances tonight could be exciting and gripping in their own way.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
BSO — 2010/10/21-26; Fidelio
This week's BSO program includes Samuel Barber's Overture to The School for Scandal, Beethoven's Violin Concerto, and, after intermission, Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony. Here's what the BSO website says about it.
"Opening the program is Samuel Barber's Overture to The School for Scandal, which the American composer wrote in 1931 when he was just 21 years old and a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His first work for full orchestra, the overture was premiered by The Philadelphia Orchestra and did much to advance Barber's reputation. Barber wrote the piece in tribute to Richard Sheridan's play of the same name.
Beethoven wrote his only violin concerto in 1806 for the great Viennese violinist, Franz Clement, who was music director of Vienna's Theater an der Wien. Written around the same time as the composer's Fifth Symphony, the Violin Concerto demonstrates Beethoven's relaxed, lyrical side, in contrast with his “heroic” style. The concerto requires a virtuosity rooted not in fireworks and bravado but in songful expression.
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, like the two symphonies that surround it in number, is one of the Russian composer's most frequently performed pieces due to its immediately gripping and viscerally exciting nature. Based around a single theme that starts the first movement and appears in each of the four, the symphony has a clear sense of continuity and structure. Tchaikovsky's piece is a journey of thematic evolution as a single idea is put through an elaborate series of transformations from a forbidding opening to a wildly triumphant finale."
I had a ticket for the Thursday performance, but then a meeting of the Task Force Against Discrimination was scheduled for that evening, so I exchanged the ticket for Friday afternoon. I thought the conductor conducted well, and the others played well. So I recommend listening on WCRB. The pre-concert features beginning at 7:00 often include interesting interviews, as well as recordings of music by one or more of the evening's composers — music other than what is about to be played in the concert.
The Boston Globe reviewer gave the Thursday performance faint praise.
Friday evening I attended a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio. It was well played and sung, but the director had the idea of making the oppressive force that was persecuting Florestan, the Inquisition. So Pizzaro was dressed like a cardinal, as were several supers and the First Prisoner. That was bad enough, but for the final scene, Fernando was a bishop, and the main action of the scene was the burning of Don Pizzaro (which isn't in the scenario) while everybody is praising Leonore. And there was other foolishness, like having Marzelline take off her outer garments and pose for a portrait in her underwear in the opening scene. But when it was possible to focus on the music and the actual story, it was very enjoyable. Here's an article from the Globe that explains what the director was thinking of.
"Opening the program is Samuel Barber's Overture to The School for Scandal, which the American composer wrote in 1931 when he was just 21 years old and a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His first work for full orchestra, the overture was premiered by The Philadelphia Orchestra and did much to advance Barber's reputation. Barber wrote the piece in tribute to Richard Sheridan's play of the same name.
Beethoven wrote his only violin concerto in 1806 for the great Viennese violinist, Franz Clement, who was music director of Vienna's Theater an der Wien. Written around the same time as the composer's Fifth Symphony, the Violin Concerto demonstrates Beethoven's relaxed, lyrical side, in contrast with his “heroic” style. The concerto requires a virtuosity rooted not in fireworks and bravado but in songful expression.
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, like the two symphonies that surround it in number, is one of the Russian composer's most frequently performed pieces due to its immediately gripping and viscerally exciting nature. Based around a single theme that starts the first movement and appears in each of the four, the symphony has a clear sense of continuity and structure. Tchaikovsky's piece is a journey of thematic evolution as a single idea is put through an elaborate series of transformations from a forbidding opening to a wildly triumphant finale."
I had a ticket for the Thursday performance, but then a meeting of the Task Force Against Discrimination was scheduled for that evening, so I exchanged the ticket for Friday afternoon. I thought the conductor conducted well, and the others played well. So I recommend listening on WCRB. The pre-concert features beginning at 7:00 often include interesting interviews, as well as recordings of music by one or more of the evening's composers — music other than what is about to be played in the concert.
The Boston Globe reviewer gave the Thursday performance faint praise.
Friday evening I attended a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio. It was well played and sung, but the director had the idea of making the oppressive force that was persecuting Florestan, the Inquisition. So Pizzaro was dressed like a cardinal, as were several supers and the First Prisoner. That was bad enough, but for the final scene, Fernando was a bishop, and the main action of the scene was the burning of Don Pizzaro (which isn't in the scenario) while everybody is praising Leonore. And there was other foolishness, like having Marzelline take off her outer garments and pose for a portrait in her underwear in the opening scene. But when it was possible to focus on the music and the actual story, it was very enjoyable. Here's an article from the Globe that explains what the director was thinking of.
Monday, March 2, 2009
The Early Years
Music has been part of my life since childhood.
I have a memory of being in the kitchen as my mother was doing the ironing one day. She was listening to the radio and people were talking about Tannhäuser. It must have been a Met broadcast. I was maybe five or six at the time. But I don't recall the Met broadcasts as a normal feature of Saturday afternoons at our house at that time. But when I was maybe twelve, I was a a friend's house, and we turned on the radio and it was the end of Il Trovatore. My friend wasn't interested, but I insisted on listening, at least sporadically, to the end. From then on I was hooked on opera.
There were a few symphonic broadcasts. But also around the time I was twelve, my folks bought a record player with an automatic changer. I began to listen to the records in the 78rpm collection they had. And we began to buy new records.
So during my high school years, I listened faithfully to the Met broadcasts and to other classical music on the radio. At the same time, I enjoyed much of the popular music of the day. In college, my familiarity with the classical broadened, my love of opera continued, I continued to enjoy popular music, and Joan Baez's records awakened real enjoyment of folk music.
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