opera

We’re staying at the Royal Opera House for this week’s Sunday Opera (8/17 3:00 p.m.) and a double bill of operas by Leonard Bernstein, his 1952 work “Trouble in Tahiti” and the sequel, “A Quiet Place,” written 31 years later in 1983. The story was initially based on the troubled relationship of Bernstein’s parents.

Our second look at the story of Manon Lescaut continues from the Teatro Regio on this week’s Sunday Opera (8/3 3:00 p.m.) with Massanet’s treatment of the story by Antoine Prevost. In this one, Manon doesn’t die in the wilderness or desert of Louisiana, she dies of exhaustion on the road to Le Havre to be deported.

We have the first of three different Manons on this week’s Sunday Opera (7/27 3:00 p.m.) with Daniel Auber’s 1884 treatment of Abbe Prevost’s 1731 novel, “Manon Lescaut.” Auber’s work of the three we’ll be airing (the others by Massenet and Puccini) is probably the loosest adaptation of Prevost, but it still ends tragically for its titular character.

We’re returning to La Scala for this week’s Sunday Opera (7/6 3:00 p.m.) and Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin.” The libretto, based on a verse-novel by Alexander Pushkin about a jaded, cynical, and selfish Onegin whose actions disrupt the lives of just about everyone around him.

It might be difficult for you to get to Milan right now, but this week’s Sunday Opera (6-29 3:00 p.m.) is going to be going there for the beginning of a series of operas from La Scala. We’re beginning with Giuseppe Verdi’s “La forza del destino” (“The Force of Destiny”) in a production starring Anna Netrebko, Ludovic Tezier, and Brian Jagde.

We’re turning to another opera that’s been forgotten although it was quite popular when it premiered in 1920 on this week’s Sunday Opera (6/15 3:00 p.m.), and as a bonus, it’s written in the Basque idiom. It’s Spanish composer Jesus Guridi’s “Amaya.” Guridi (1886 – 1961) played an important role as a Spanish / Basque composer who wrote operas and zarzuelas as well as orchestral, piano, choral, and organ works.

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.

It’s an afternoon of some “interesting” relationships on this week’s Sunday Opera (6/1 3:00 p.m.) with Ivar Hallstrom’s “Duke Magnus and the Mermaid” and Louis Spohr’s treatment of “Beauty and the Beast” (“Azore et Zamire”).

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.

Antal Dorati was best known as a conductor who led performances on over 700 recordings, but on this week’s Sunday Opera (5/4 3:00 p.m.), we’re going to look at Dorati the composer with his only opera, “Der Kunder” (“The Chosen”) and two more of his works.