Upcoming and Noteworthy

What has often been regarded in the United States as “hack work,” in England has been accepted as just another aspect of what it means to be a working artist. There is no disgrace in a composer earning a living, and some of the nation’s greatest musicians have contributed finely-crafted scores to its body of cinema.  Take note of music from the documentaries “The People’s Land” (Ralph Vaughan Williams), “The King’s Stamp” (Benjamin Britten), “The Green Girdle” (William Alwyn), and “The Royal Palaces of Britain” (Sir Arthur Bliss), this Saturday at 6 pm.

Host Steven Sametz, artistic director of The Princeton Singers, shares selections from more than three decades of recordings by the ensemble, featuring music ranging from the Renaissance to 20th-century works. Tune in to Sounds Choral Sunday (9/27) at 2 pm.

Hector Armienta’s adaptation of “Bless Me, Ultima” from Opera Southwest is the featured production on this week’s Sunday Opera (9/27 3:00 p.m.).  Mexican-American composer Armienta based his libretto on the award-winning coming-of-age novel by Rudolfo Anaya which deals with Antonio’s spiritual transformation against the changing backdrop of the American Southwest during WW II through his contact with Ultima, a traditional healer who knows both the ways of the Catholic faith into which Antonio was born as well as the indigenous beliefs of the generations of people who came before them.  Through her help, Antonio overcomes the pull between his mother’s faith and the nature-driven faith of Ultima, and Antonio becomes a man who is not one or the other but a better product of both.  

When looking at the Gershwin brothers, the attention is most often focused on George, but on this week’s Dress Circle (9/27 7:00 p.m.), we’ll be sampling the lyrics of Ira in a program we’ve titled “Ira Beyond George.”    Ira became a recluse after George’s death, and he was brought out of his forced retirement by Kurt Weill and Moss Hart who convinced him to work on “Lady in the Dark,” a musical about psychoanalysis.  We’ll be sampling some of these songs as well as songs he wrote with other composers such as Vernon Duke, Burton Lane, Harry Warren, and Jerome Kern.  

Florent Schmitt was one of the most successful French composers of the early 20th century.  However, as fashions changed, his characteristically opulent music became marginalized, only to experience something of a revival, in recent years, mostly on recordings.  We’ll mark the sesquicentenary of Schmitt’s birth (on September 28, 1870) with selections from his incidental music for a production of Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” and his grandiose setting of “Psalm XLVII.”  Bring your appetite for overegged Florentine.  Schmitt happens, this Sunday at 10 pm.

As Houston Grand Opera reimagined its Fall season for a virtual platform, it transformed its Cullen Theater at the Wortham Theater Center into a production studio, recording three opera productions for digital distribution and presenting a recital series. The opera company also invited other arts organizations in the area to use the studio as a possible venue. In addition, HGO is partnering with other opera companies to create a virtual audition process for its Young Artists Program.

The Sunday Opera is headed back to the Royal Opera at Covent Garden this week (9/20 3:00 p.m.) for Beethoven’s only opera, “Fidelio” which was their last mainstage production before closing for the pandemic.  The opera was a difficult task for Beethoven, going through three versions and incorporating music from a previously unfinished opera along the way.  It would take eleven years for the final version to be staged in Vienna in 1814.  The story of personal sacrifice and heroism centers around Leonore (Lise Davidson) who disguises herself as the jailor Fidelio to rescue her husband Florestan (Jonas Kaufmann) from a political prison where he is destined to die in an act of revenge by the cruel prison governor, Don Pizarro (Michael Kupfer-Radecky).   They are joined by Georg Zeppenfeld as the kindly jailor Rocco, Amanda Forsythe as Rocco’s daughter Marzelline, Robin Tritschler as Jaquino, Rocco’s assistant who is in love with Marzelline, and Egils Silins as Don Fernado, the King’s minister.  Antonio Pappano conducts. 

We tend to have tunnel vision when it comes to musicals, thinking mainly of Broadway being the center of all action, but on this week’s Dress Circle (9/20 7:00 p.m.), we’ll remedy that with a look at the lyrics of a major force in the German-language musical scene, Michael Kunze.  His catalogue is truly impressive as he has translated many of the blockbuster musicals that have transferred to Germany, musicals such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “Les Miserables,” “Wicked,” “Cats,” and “Sunset Boulevard.”  

Join us on a trip to the Royal Danish Opera on this week’s Sunday Opera (9/13 3:00 p.m.) and their recent production of Claudio Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” to begin an afternoon of music based on the Orpheus legend.   Marc Mauillon is the legendary singer and Sofie Lund-Tonnesen his beloved Eurydice.  They’re joined in this production by Ellen Larsson, Philippa Cold, Mia Berstrom and Thomas LIchtenecker with Concerto Copenhagen conducted by Lark Ulrik Mortensen.   

Some performers become legends because of their larger-than-life personalities, and we’ll be celebrating one such artist on this week’s Dress Circle (9/13 7:00 p.m.) as we remember Elaine Stritch.   Of course, we’re including the song for which she’s probably best known, “The Ladies Who Lunch” from Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” but we’ll also be looking at her work in two of her forgotten musical outings: Noel Coward’s “Sail Away” (both the New York and London cast recordings) and the Leroy Anderson, Walter & Jean Kerr parody of the silent film era “Goldilocks.”  

Homesick for Homer?  Trace Odysseus’s return to Ithaca, in two works inspired by “The Odyssey”:  Ernst Boehe’s symphonic poem “Departure and Shipwreck,” from the cycle “From Odysseus’ Voyages,” and Benjamin Britten’s radio play “The Rescue of Penelope,” narrated by Dame Janet Baker.  There’s no place like Homer, this Sunday at 10 pm.

A concert version of Verdi’s “Aida” from June of 2019 presented by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is the performance on this week’s Sunday Opera (9/6 3:00 p.m.)   This beloved story of forbidden love and sacrifice features Krassimira Stoyanova as Aida and Frencesco Meli as her Radames.   Anita Rachvelishvili is the vengeful Amneris, Kiril Manolov is Amonasro, and the High Priest Ramfis is sung by Ildar Abdrazakov.   Ricardo Muti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.   

Help us celebrate September, the month of morning glories and chickens, on this week’s Dress Circle (9/6 7:00 p.m.) as we look at a few of the shows covering over 100 years of theatre history that opened in New York this month.  From our earliest opening, Victor Herbert’s popular “The Red Mill” from 1906, we’ll sample songs from shows such as “Rose Marie,” “Fine and Dandy,” “Flying Colors,” “The Boy Friend,” “The Vagabond King,” and “The Student Gypsy or The Prince of Liederkranz” before our latest opening, 2012’s “Chaplin.”   

We stay in Los Angeles on this week’s Sunday Opera (8/30 3:00 p.m.) with their production of Puccini’s “La Boheme” from last season.   The cast for this beloved opera includes Marina Costa-Jackson as Mimi and Samir Pirgu as her Rodolfo.  The tempestuous Musetta is Erica Petrocelli and Marcello, Kihun Yoon, and the final two “Bohemians” are Nicholas Brownlee as Colline, Michael J. Hawk as Schaunard.  James Conlon Conducts.