Met Radio Broadcasts Archived on BBC Radio 3

Opera on 3

I was reminded the other day that BBC Radio 3 transmits the Met Saturday broadcasts. Not only that, they archive each one for about 30 days. This means if you had other things you had to do yesterday and couldn’t set aside six hours to listen to the fabulous performance of Parsifal, that you still have time to do so.

As of this writing, they also have archived recordings of Tosca, Il Trovatore, and L'elisir d'amore. Of course, they also broadcast other opera performances from the UK and Europe. I still find the website a bit difficult to navigate; but perseverance pays off. You can always explore while you’re listening to the archives.

The Met: Live in HD 2018-2019 Season Announced

• Aida 10/06/2018
• Samson et Dalila 10/20/2018
• La Fanciulla del West 10/27/2018
• Marnie 11/10/2018
• La Traviata 12/15/2018 
• Adriana Lecouvreur 01/12/2019
• Carmen 02/02/2019 
• La Fille du Régiment 03/02/2019
• Die Walküre 03/30/2019
• Dialogues des Carmélites 05/11/2019

More information is available at the Met website. 

Also, Parterre Box has a super discussion of the new season and changes at the Met.

Re-Joyce! Another Master Class

This one is from the Royal Opera House; and it just appeared the other day on the tube. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but I wanted to share it right away! I will be tuning in as soon as I post this. Watch, listen, learn, and enjoy!!

Gratuitous Friday – [Fred Plotkin's] Conversation with Luca Pisaroni

Usually these gratuitous posts are videos of a single song or aria. But today, we make an exception for our Luca. Here is an interview he did recently with Fred Plotkin. (Not so much an interview, but more of a lecture with a guest. There's some interesting discussion of Cosi (the blue kool-aid one and the Glyndebourne one), Don Giovanni and a few other operas.)

Opera Fugit (Especially on YewToob)

The fleetingness of opera online is well known—especially on that one video upload website that you and I watch on the tube. However, these selections seem likely to stay around, since they're published by the EuroArts Channel. (They also have a lot of non-opera concert performances as well.) 

Highlights include:

• Alcina from Vienna with Anja Harteros and Vesselina Kassarova
• Carmen directed by Martin Kusej
• Philip Glass' The Perfect American
• Peter Konwitchky's spare Traviata
• The "wild west" L'Elisir with Rolando Villazon and Miah Persson.

Most do not have subtitles, but hey, we're opera fans, we can figure that part out.

So many operas…so little time.

Operas Online (Now and Later) from La Monnaie

This is a quick reminder to myself, as well as to my readers that La Monnaie makes all of its productions available online, for at least a limited period of time—not only on their own website, but on other platforms, too. (For example, Dialogues des Carmelites is no longer on the La Monnaie site, but you can still see it via OperaVision.)

Their productions are always interesting, often provocative, and feature outstanding directors, conductors, and singers.

So many operas...so little time.

Gratuitous Friday – Jakub Józef Orliński, Countertenor

I don't know how this young Polish countertenor snuck onto the scene, but I am glad I stumbled upon him:

I even missed his master class with JDD at Julliard (and oddly, sadly, this video seems to be a trimmed version of his session.)

He's so expressive, even in a casual setting:

Oh, and in his spare time, he like to break dance:

For more about JJO, here's an article/interview with him from about two years ago. Who knows what he's up to these days? Let's Google and find out!

P.S. I just found this interview that's just about a month old. 

P.P.S. A little gratuitous beefcake:

Turandot in Torino – Find the Diva

OK, so imagine you're a diva who can actually sing the role of Turandot. And you get hired for a production. And and the director says, "You'll never be on stage alone. You will be surrounded by the female chorus, and they will all be dressed exactly like you and move exactly like you. And they all be will  lip-synching your part with you. [Ed.: and some will over-act*.]  And, you will lip-synch all the choral parts with them. So most of the audience won't even be able to tell you're the actual diva."

Where's Waldo Turandot?

"Hmmmm," you think in your diva brain, "I am not that egotistical, I can handle that."

And then the director says, "Oh by the way, the opera ends when Liu dies—there's no big final happy ending duet. In fact, you die when Liu dies, and that's it." If you're still on board, then you are an exceptional diva!

So, they ended the performance where Puccini stopped writing, much as Arturo Toscanini did at its premiere almost 100 years ago. Toscanini stopped there because he wasn't pleased with either of Alfano's endings. And although the opera's also been completed by Luciano Berio (!!!), that ending didn't appeal to this director and maestro either. So they decided to follow Toscanini's lead. This shifts the focus away from Turandot's (less than convincing anyway) transformation from ice princess to love diva. And that's where Liu comes back in. She is in love with Calaf simply because he was nice to her. Not because she's bloodthirsty, vengeful, and unavailable. Calaf always seems more interested in "conquering" Turandot than actually loving her (or being in love with her). If he wanted love, Liu is right there for him. He's kind of a Pinkerton to me. But I digress.