Michael Kownacky
Program HostMichael is program host and host of the WWFM Sunday Opera, Sundays at 3 pm, and co-host of The Dress Circle, Sundays at 7 pm.
You can also hear Michael, along with his The Dress Circle co-host, on JazzOn2, every Wednesday evening from 7pm, eastern, for Strike Up the Band, a program celebrating the big bands and dance bands of jazz.
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We're turning to the music of Rameau this week and an excellent recording of the 1744 version of "Dardanus" about the trials of the son of Electra and Jupiter (Zeus) as he expands his empire and wins his love.
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We're covering 114 years of April Broadway openings on this week's program beginning in 1910 with "Molly May" through one of the nine shows opening this year, "Lempicka."
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We're sampling songs from stage and screen musicals regarding clothing and all sorts of things to "wear" for Easter on this week's progarm.
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This is a program of songs from musicals written by women for Women's History Month.
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This week's Sunday Opera feature Thomas' adaptation of Shakespeare's masterwork, but this one has a moderately happy ending. The opera features Thomas Hampson, June Anderson, and Samuel Ramey. After the opera, we'll hear Thomas' String Quartet No. 1 in E.
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This week's program features a variety of songs by and about the Irish beginning in 1906 and running through the 20th and into the 21st century. The "Irish" musicals we'll be featuring are "Juno," "Irene," "Donnybrook," "Finian's Rainbow," and "Eileen."
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This week's wonderful comedy from Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari is based on a play by Italian genius Carlo Goldoni and comes to us from a live 2007 recording made at La Fenice in Venice.
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We've combined a bit of silliness with calendar art for this week's program as we scheduled fifteen marches from a variety of sources (Broadway, Hollywood, television) to celebrate the month of March - even though none of the marches really have anything to do with the month.
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Hans Pfitzner is all but forgotten in the United States, but his operas are still performed in Europe, and you've already heard one of his works on the Sunday Opera during Christmases past - "Das Christ-Elflein." This week, we're looking at his most successful opera, "Palestrina" which is loosely based on the life and musical importance of the 16th century Italian composer who ensured the use of polyphonic music in the Catholic church.