German Opera

Our final production from the Vienna State Opera is the feature on this week’s Sunday Opera (12/14 3:00 p.m.) as we turn to Richard Strauss’ gentle comedy, “Arabella.” The opera is set in Vienna in the 1860s even though it didn’t premiere until 1933.It centers on the Waldner family who are facing bankruptcy because of the father’s (Wolfgang Bankl) gambling. The mother’s (Margaret Plummer) only hope is that one of their daughters, Arabella (Camilla Nylund), will marry a wealthy man.

Germanic paganism mixed with some Early Middle Age Christianity and a splash of Greek tragedy is the recipe for this week’s Sunday Opera (11/30 3:00 p.m.) and the Bayreuth Festival’s production of Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin.”

We’re back at the Bayreuth Festival for the second of three Wagnerian operas on this week’s Sunday Opera (11/23 3:00 p.m.).This time it’s Wagner’s last opera, one that took him 25 years to complete, “Parsifal” which premiered at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882 and will fill this week’s program.

The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden is once again the home for this week’s Sunday Opera (8/31 3:00 p.m.) as we turn to the second of the operas in Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, “Die Walkure" with Christopher Maltman as Wotan and Elisabet Strid as Brunhilde.

Join us for an afternoon of the music of Richard Strauss on this week’s Sunday Opera (3/9 3:00 p.m.) and his opera completed in 1940, “Die Liebe der Danae” (“The Love of Danae”). The opera is in three acts with the final act containing what Strauss considered to be some of his finest music.

Our penultimate opera from Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts for this season on the Sunday Opera (12/01 3:00 p.m.) is their new production of a very popular visiting presentation of Richard Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" from last year.

We're concluding our time at the Royal Opera House with Strauss' revenge tragedy "Elektra" with Ausrine Stundyte in the title role. After the opera, we'll have two more Strauss works: "Ein Heldenleben" and the ballet score, "Schlagobers."

This week's opera comes from London's Royal Opera House and features the first opera in Wagner's "Ring Cycle," "Das Rheingold" featuring Christopher Purves as Alberich and Christopher Maltman as Wotan. The opera, performed in one 150 minute act, will be followed by more music featuring "northern" heroes (and an anti-hero) from Uumo Kalmi, Jean Sibelius, and Edvard Grieg,.

This week's opera comes from Vienna once again and features Strauss' metaphysical opera about the otherworldly Empress who must achieve a shadow (a child) or she will die and her husband will turn to stone.

It took 80 years for Zemlinsky's fairy tale opera to be performed after it was suppressed by an unscrupulous conductor. Gorge is a dreamer who dreams of a better life that comes true for a happy ending.