opera

The source material for this week’s Sunday Opera (3/29 3:00 p.m.) has been used in well over 70 different projects. In the past, we heard one treatment by Giovanni Simone Mayr in his opera “Ginevra di Scozia,” but this time, we’re turning to one of Handel’s “Italian operas” that he wrote for London in 1735, “Ariodante.” Our recording comes from 1978 and features a stellar cast in this opera that is a tale of love, betrayal, and redemption, and it explores themes of jealousy, deception, and the triumph of good over evil.

We’re turning to a 19th century opera from the British Isles, and it’s not by Gilbert and Sullivan, on this week’s Sunday Opera (3/22 3:00 p.m.).This time, it’s by Irish composer William Vincent Wallace, and it’s the story of the water Nymph Lurline and her love for the mortal Count Rupert.

Desire versus reality on this week’s Sunday Opera (3/15 3:00 p.m.) as we look to a 1938 work by Bohuslav Martinu that was based on a French surrealist play by Georges Neveux entitled “Juliette, or the Key of Dreams.” “Julietta” is the object of desire of a travelling bookseller, and he travels to the world of dreams to find her, even though he’s never seen her. He’s just heard her singing.

Some composers, like Paul Dukas, are best known for one or two specific works, and on this week’s Sunday Opera (2/22 3:00 p.m.), we’re going to change that when we look at his only surviving opera “Ariane et Barbe-Bleue.” The extremely self-deprecating Dukas destroyed his other three operas, so we’re lucky to have this delightful version of the Charles Perrault fairytale.

What were you doing when you were 14?If you were Mozart, you were working on a three act opera titled “Mitridate re di Ponto” which is our featured work on this week’s Sunday Opera (2/15 3:00 p.m.) in a recording from 2014.

for this week’s program (2/8 3:00 p.m.), we’re heading back to the 18th century for an opera that takes place around the 12th century BC in Christoph Willibald Gluck’s “Demonfoonte” or “Demofonte” or a variety of other titles. Based on a very popular libretto by Pietro Metastasio, the opera had its premier in Milan in 1743. The story is set in ancient Thrace during a “legendary and mythical” time.

We turn to England for this week’s Sunday Opera (2/1 3:00 p.m.) for the only full-length opera by Sir William Walton, his 1954 treatment of a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer about the doomed love of “Troilus and Cressida." This recording from Opera North features a roster of some of the best-loved voices in British opera.

We’re turning to a 21st century American opera by Joseph Summer on this week’s Sunday Opera (1/18 3:00 p.m.) in his treatment of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” The 2006 work stays very close to the original play (unlike the Ambroise Thomas), and the straightforward treatment of the text by Summer, fits neatly into his three-act structure.

One of the most “edited” operas is featured on this week’s Sunday Opera (1/11 3:00 p.m.) in a recording featuring a dream cast featured in a 1966 recording performing the five-act version that’s missing only the ballet – or is it? It’s a tale of lost love, jealousy, and the Spanish Inquisition with Giuseppe Verdi’s 1867 opera “Don Carlo.”

What happens when a “hometown” commissions an opera about their best known resident? A bit of historical fiction, quite a bit actually, will result, and the output is on this week’s Sunday Opera (1/4 3:00 p.m.) in Alberto Franchetti’s homage to Christopher Columbus to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Columbus’ voyage and the unification of Italy.