Host Steven Sametz, artistic director of The Princeton Singers, shares selections from more than three decades of recordings by the ensemble, featuring music ranging from the Renaissance to 20th-century works. Tune in to Sounds Choral Sunday (9/27) at 2 pm.

Hector Armienta’s adaptation of “Bless Me, Ultima” from Opera Southwest is the featured production on this week’s Sunday Opera (9/27 3:00 p.m.).  Mexican-American composer Armienta based his libretto on the award-winning coming-of-age novel by Rudolfo Anaya which deals with Antonio’s spiritual transformation against the changing backdrop of the American Southwest during WW II through his contact with Ultima, a traditional healer who knows both the ways of the Catholic faith into which Antonio was born as well as the indigenous beliefs of the generations of people who came before them.  Through her help, Antonio overcomes the pull between his mother’s faith and the nature-driven faith of Ultima, and Antonio becomes a man who is not one or the other but a better product of both.  

When looking at the Gershwin brothers, the attention is most often focused on George, but on this week’s Dress Circle (9/27 7:00 p.m.), we’ll be sampling the lyrics of Ira in a program we’ve titled “Ira Beyond George.”    Ira became a recluse after George’s death, and he was brought out of his forced retirement by Kurt Weill and Moss Hart who convinced him to work on “Lady in the Dark,” a musical about psychoanalysis.  We’ll be sampling some of these songs as well as songs he wrote with other composers such as Vernon Duke, Burton Lane, Harry Warren, and Jerome Kern.