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!