Italian Opera

Victor Hugo’s novel “Angelo, the Tyrant of Padua” has been used for several operatic adaptations with Amilcare Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda” probably being the best known, but on this week’s Sunday Opera (6/8 3:00 p.m.), we’re looking at a different treatment by librettist Angelo Zanardini in Alfredo Catalani’s “Dejanice” which had its premiere in 1883.

Giachino Rossini wrote 39 operas, and unfortunately, only a handful are regularly performed. However, we’re going to look at one of those lesser-known works (number 18 of the 39) on this week’s Sunday Opera (5/11 3:00 p.m.). it’s “Ricciardo e Zoraida” which premiered in Naples in 1818 and is considered by many to be a perfect example of bel canto singing.

We’re turning to another often-overlooked composer on this week’s Sunday Opera (2/2 3:00 p.m.). It’s Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, and the only verismo opera he wrote in his catalogue of approximately fifteen: “I gioielli della Madonna” (“The Jewels of the Madonna”). It caused quite a stir after it premiered in 1911 (in Berlin as “Der Schmuck der Madonna”) because of its themes implying criticism of the Catholic Church and love between a brother and his adopted sister.

We’re showcasing another forgotten composer on this week’s Sunday Opera (1/26 3:00 p.m.) with the first opera in Italian to be performed in Portugal, Francisco Antonio de Almeida’s “La Spinalba, ovvero il Vecchio matto” (“Spinalba, or the Mad Old Man").

We’re returning to Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts one more time for this week’s Sunday Opera (12/8 3:00 p.m.) and their production of “Un ballo in Maschera” (“A Masked Ball”) by Giuseppe Verdi. The 1859 opera in three acts with a libretto by Antonio Somma, was based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, “Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué.”

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.”

This week's program features a "dream" cast for Ponchielli's "Gioconda" in a live recording from 1967. Renata Tebaldi is the street singer Giaconda, Carlo Bergonzi is the man she loves, Enzo, Marilyn Horne is the woman who is loved by Enzo, Laura, and Robert Merrill is the treacherous spy for the Inquisition, Barnaba.

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.

This week's program is about two tricksters. The first is from Haydn's forgotten 1777 comedy "The World on the Moon," and the second is the ballet by Sibelius about Scaramouche which has a tragic ending.

As a part of our Fall Membership Campaign, David Osenberg will be joining host Michael Kownacky this week for a live program sampling operas and performances in various languages.