Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Thank you to everyone who donated this month and helped us reach our Bach Pot goal of 500 donations. There is still time to get your donation in - make your contribution today!

The Sunday Opera: Giuseppe Verdi's "Macbeth" from London's Royal Opera

Our final production from London’s Royal Opera House is featured on this week’s Sunday Opera (8/7 3:00 p.m.) with Giuseppe Verdi’s treatment of Shakespeare’s tale of unbridled ambition, “Macbeth.” The cast includes Simon Keenleyside in the title role and Anna Pirozzi as his Lady. Other members of the cast include Gunther Groissbock, David Junghoon Kim, April Koyejo-Audiger, Egor Zhuravskii, and Blaise Malaba. Daniele Rustioni conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

Since Macbeth deals with “the Fates” and challenging the heavens, Michael Kownacky will be looking to the stars for inspiration and music following the opera.

“The music of the spheres” is the subject of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Serenade to Music” based on a dialogue from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” and featuring a “chorus” of sixteen of Britain’s finest singers. Also included is the overture to Offenbach’s “Le Voyage Dans la Lune” (“Voyage to the Moon”) and a ballet suite from Patric Stanford’s “Celestial Fire.”

We’ll round the evening out with some film music, the wonderfully atmospheric “Stella by Starlight” from the film score to “The Uninvited” by Victor Young, and one of Michael’s favorites that, although not really celestial, always conjured up images of celestial goings on including comets, meteors, and galaxies forming, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major.

It looks as though it’ll be another hot Sunday, so stay inside, and join us for an afternoon of excellent music and performances!

Michael 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.
Related Content
  • Enjoy world-class productions from the world of opera featuring the great singers past and present performing in the world's great opera houses.Paul Moravec & Mark Campbell's "Light Shall Lift Us"Here is the link to the video presentation of "Light Shall Lift Us: Opera Singers Unite in Song" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8A8fIGbYyY.