opera

We’ll have an afternoon of Falstaffs on this week’s Sunday Opera (9/27 3:00 p.m.) in a production from LA-Opera of Verdi's opera followed by Gordon Getty's "Plump Jack" based on three plays by Shakespeare, and a piece of programatic music by Hugo Hauk.

We’ve returned to La Scala on this week’s Sunday Opera (9/20 3:00 p.m.) and their recent production of Bizet’s “Carmen.” Initially, the opera was reviled and labeled obscene, but after Bizet’s sudden death at the age of 36 on the night of its 32nd performance, interest grew in the opera, and its initial critics came to see it as the masterpiece that Tchaikovsky declared it to be.

We’ve been moving all around Europe recently, and on this week’s Sunday Opera (9/13 3:00 p.m.), we’re returning to Milan for a recent production of Gaetano Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.” Following "Lucia" will be the world premiere recording of a Donizetti one-act opera, "Aristea."

Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus”? … and it isn’t anywhere near New Year’s Eve! We are, however, going to Vienna for a recent production of this beloved favorite on this week’s Sunday Opera (9/6 3:00 p.m.).

The age-old story of boy gets girl, boy loses girl, and boy poisons girl is featured on this week’s Sunday Opera (8/30 3:00 p.m.) in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Luisa Miller” in a production from the Vienna State Opera.

We’re continuing our summer tour of European opera houses on this week’s Sunday Opera (8/23 3:00 p.m.) with a trip to the Bavarian State Oper and their recent production of Charles Gounod’s 1859 grand opera, “Faust.” The libretto follows an aging scholar who trades his soul to the devil for youth and love. Rejuvenated, Faust seduces and abandons the innocent Marguerite, leading to a tragic spiral of murder, madness, and her ultimate redemption and salvation.

We’re back at La Scala for this week’s Sunday Opera (8/16 3:00 p.m.) and their production of Claude Debussy’s “Pelleas et Melisande” which is based on a play by Maurice Maeterlinck with a symbolic story focusing on the doomed love of the title characters.

Join us at the Glyndebourne Festival this week on the Sunday Opera (8/2 3:00 p.m.) for a perennial favorite, Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” which is subtitled “the Mad Day” or “the Day of Follies.”

We’re back at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden for this week’s Sunday Opera (7/26 3:00 p.m.) and Modest Mussorgsky’s only completed opera “Boris Godunov” which had its world premiere in 1871 after being rejected in 1870 because it had no female roles. Mussorgsky rewrote the opera, and when it was staged, it used the recycled sets and costumes from Pushkin’s play (written in blank verse) which had premiered in 1870.

Jakob Beer is the featured composer on this week’s Sunday Opera (6/7 3:00 p.m.) and his forgotten 1824 work entitled “Il crociato in Egitto” (“The Crusader in Egypt”). Of course, the composer is Giacomo Meyerbeer who penned some 16 operas, and “Egitto” is his twelfth opera, the last of what is labeled his “Italian operas.”