Jean Sibelius

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 Sunday Opera begins with Purcell's setting of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as "The Fairy Queen" and is followed by three (and a bit) treatments of Shakespeare's "The Tempest finishing with Paul Moravec's Pulitzer Prize winning Tempest Fantasy.

It’s a perfect April Fool’s on this week’s Sunday Opera (4/1 3:00 p.m.) when we turn to Franz Josef Haydn and his farce “Il Mondo Della Luna.” Based on a…