French Opera

“La Juive,” a tragic tale of religious intolerance by Fromental Halevy, will air on this week’s Sunday Opera (3/2 3:00 p.m.). Eugene Scribe wrote the libretto for this opera which became one of the most popular of the 19th century after its premier in Paris on 23 February 1835. It deals with the plight of Jews in Switzerland in the 15th century, particularly Rachel and her adoptive father Eleazar who are persecuted by the Catholic Church and are arrested after it is found that Rachel’s love Samuel is actually a Christian.

Although you may not know the opera on this week’s Sunday Opera (2/9 3:00 p.m.), we have no doubt you’ll recognize one of the arias as it’s been a mainstay of concert performances for many years. The opera is “Mignon” by Charles Ambroise Thomas, the thirteenth of his twenty-three operas.

We’re back at Aix-en-Provence for this week’s Sunday Opera (11/3 3:00 p.m.) and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Samson” featuring Jarrett Ott in the title role.

We’re featuring one of the most often augmented operas on this week’s Sunday Opera (8/25 3:00 p.m.) when we turn to the La Scala production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Don Carlo.”

We're back in Paris this week for the Orchestre National de Paris' production of "Damnation of Faust" by Hector Berlioz. After the opera, we'll hear two more works by Berlioz, his autobiographical Symphonie Fantastique as well as its "sequel" "Lelio, or The Return to Life."

We're heading off to the Paris Opera for Marc Antoine Charpentier's tragic revenge opera "Medee" featuring Lea Desandre in the title role. We'll follow the opera with the ballet suite "The Sea" by Nikos Skalkottas.

Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt each only wrote one opera, and we're showcasing excellent recordings of each on this week's Sunday Opera. Schumann's "Genoveva" is based on the life of Genevieve of Brabant, and Liszt's "Don Sanche, ou Le chateau de l'amour" ("Don Sanche, or The Castle of Love") was reportedly written by Liszt when he was 13 and features Don Sanche's love for Elzire and how a wizard named Alidor who lives in the "Castle of Love" helps him win hers.

This week's Opera is Berlioz's "Benvenuto Cellini" which has a mostly fictitious libretto even though Berlioz wanted to base it on Cellini's memoirs. The recording comes from the Metropolitan Opera's 2003 production featuring Marcello Giordano in the title Role.

This week's opera is Meyerbeer's 1856 Work that looks at Peter the Great as he tries to win Catherine for his wife and includes all sorts of trials that are overcome for a happy ending.

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.