Zero Degrees of Separation – Stéphanie d'Oustrac and Thomas Dolie

This audio clip features yesterday's Dido from Calvados and Aneas from Amsterdam as Rosina and Figaro in Bordeaux.

Gratuitous Friday – Joyce DiDonato & Peter Mattei are Rosina & Figaro

How charming are they? SOoooooo Charming!!! After Jonas Kaufmann, the two most visited singers at RnR are Joyce DiDonato and Peter Mattei. In fact, Peter Mattei's Carmina Burana clip is the all time most-visited post here. So in honor of their popularity on my blog, here is a clip that features them both. This is from the 2006 Met Broadcast of The Barber of Seville. I believe JDD was hailed as a "newcomer" in this production. It's hard to imagine she hasn't always been on stage! (Now if we could just get them to switch roles...just once!)

Opera From Sweden – Reimann's Lear: On-Demand Audio for a Week

Rickard Söderberg, Fredrik Zetterström och Karolina Andersson.
Foto: Janne Wieslander/Sveriges Radio

On April 27, 2013 the Malmö Opera gave the Swedish premiere performance of Aribert Reimann’s Lear, which had its world premiere in 1978. Here is a set of brief video excerpts. Below that is the full audio stream, which is available from Sveriges Radio for only seven more days. Apparently you can also download the audio if you are of a mind to download from file-sharing sites.

Fantasy Opera Casting – Part Deux

©2002 Warner Bros., Inc. 

Probably more opera nerds play Fantasy Opera Casting than would care to admit. It’s even happened on this blog. Here’s a twist: 

In her master classes at Julliard this winter, Joyce DiDonato demonstrated a great affinity for the role of Figaro in Barber of Seville. And I thought, gee she would be a good Figaro. 

This got me thinking about how Jesusa Rodriguez recast Don Giovanni a few years back, calling her show Donna Giovanni.