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Rene� Fleming and Susan Graham Live at Carnegie

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:21 PM +0000

Carnegie Hall (photo by Jeff Goldberg-Esto, courtesy of Carnegie Hall)

Join two stars of the opera stage for an informal evening of French songs, as Carnegie Hall is transformed into a Parisian salon.

Tune in at 8pm, with hosts Fred Child of APM's Performance Today and Jeff Spurgeon of WQXR.

Screwball Tragedy: Niobe, Regina di Tebe

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:14 AM +0000

French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky as Anfione, the King of Thebes. (Boston Early Music Festival)

Join Classical New England and World of Opera for what you could call a “screwball tragedy,” Agostino Steffani’s 1688 Opera Niobe: Regina di Tebe (“Niobe, Queen of Thebes”), a work that lay forgotten until its revival in 2008, and subsequent North American premiere at the 2011 Boston Early Music Festival.

The opera opens with Anfione, the King of Thebes (sung brilliantly by the emerging French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky), who wants nothing more than to hang up his scepter and immerse himself in metaphysical contemplation of the harmony of the spheres. But Anfione’s celestial ambitions are dashed by a litany of earthly troubles: a foreign invasion, a kidnapping, adultery by enchantment, a dancing bear and some very angry gods.

In Steffani's opera, the King of Thebes is at turns an enlightened demi-god, an enraged, jealous husband and a bellicose warrior-king…and that's just one of many complex characters in this spectacular opera, bringing to life Ovid's timeless tale of love, pride and divided loyalties. We also get Queen-with-attitude, Niobe herself (sung by Boston favorite Amanda Forsythe), the lovesick courtier Clearte (Kevin Skelton), who pines for Niobe, the enemy prince of Thessaly (Matthew White), who also has designs on the haughty Queen; Jose Lemos is the wisecracking nurse Nerea, Colin Balzer and Yulia Van Doren as the young lovers Tibernio and Manto; Charles Robert Stephens as Manto’s father, the blind soothsayer Tiresia; and Jesse Blumberg in a crackling role as the evil magician Poliferno. Stephen Stubbs and Paul O’Dette co-direct the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra in a production recorded by WGBH engineers at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston.

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Niobe, Regina di Tebe Act I

Niobe, Regina di Tebe Act II

Niobe, Regina di Tebe Act III

Download program notes and libretto

Susan Graham Sings Berlioz at Tanglewood

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:32 PM +0000

The American soprano anchors a stellar cast as Charles Dutoit conducts the BSO and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust.

On-demand at Classical New England

Remembering Shirley Verrett

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:53 PM +0000

Host Cathy Fuller pays tribute to a great American soprano, with music by Verdi, Bizet, and more.

On-demand at Classical New England

Evelyn Lear Sings Strauss

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 21:06 PM +0000

Host Cathy Fuller pays tribute to the great American soprano, who passed away on July 1.

On-demand at Classical New England

Echoes of Spain

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:54 PM +0000

The late mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson performs at the 2004 Caramoor Festival with tenor Joseph Kaiser.

On-demand at Classical New England

Boston Lyric Opera's The Inspector

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:53 PM +0000

Sicily or Washington, politics are politics. Boston Lyric Opera’s Music Director David Angus previews John Musto’s witty opera The Inspector.

On-demand at Classical New England

From Russia with Love -- and Laughs: Glinka's 'Ruslan and Lyudmila'

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:29 PM +0000

Host Lisa Simeone presents Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila from one of Russia's most historic musical venues, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Sunday night at 6:30pm on Classical New England.

A scene from Glinka's 'Ruslan and Lyudmila (Courtesy of the Bolshoi Theatre)

WHO'S WHO
Albina Shagimuratova (soprano) ……………… Lyudmila
Mikhail Petrenko (bass) ………………………….. Ruslan
Vladimir Ognovenko (bass) …………………….. Svetozar
Yuri Minenko (countertenor) ... Ratmir
Almas Shvilpa (bass) … Farlaf
Alexandrina Pendachanska (soprano)… Gorislava
Charles Workman (tenor) … Finn/Bayan
Elena Zaremba (mezzo-soprano)... Naina

Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus
Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

What do you think of when someone mentions Russian opera? Most likely, it's something somber and dark, and with good reason. The most famous of Russian operas include Mussorgsky's grim historical epic Boris Godunov, along with Tchaikovsky's pair of bleak psychodramas The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin, operas with an epic quality of their own.

And those three popular dramas have something particular in common with plenty of other Russian operas. All three are based on works by Alexander Pushkin -- not most people's idea of leisurely reading. Yet there is one great Russian opera, also inspired by Pushkin, that occupies a far lighter region of the dramatic spectrum.

Mikhail Glinka is often credited as the founder of the Russian opera tradition. Ruslan and Lyudmila was Glinka's second opera, and also his last. It appeared in 1842, after six years in the making, and it is based on a Pushkin epic. But this one might well be called an epic frolic -- a lush yet lighthearted romp through a world of fantastic adventures and fairytale love. The story sweeps its way across the vast Russian landscape, depicting a furious conflict between good and evil. But when it all shakes out, this epic features far more fun than furor.

Glinka’s opera follows Pushkin's original fairly closely -- the whole plot is there, and then some. The opera may come up short of fully capturing the poem’s astonishing dramatic flow, but that would have been a tall order. Pushkin's epic is a real page turner, with disparate elements of the story tumbling over each other at a breakneck pace. The opera is more a series of related set pieces, and it probably didn’t help that the scenario was reportedly devised, by a buddy of Glinka’s, "in a quarter of an hour while he was drunk." Yet Glinka’s musical contribution is beautiful throughout, conjuring lively characters and vivid theatrical images, even when the action itself occasionally slows to a trot.

On World of Opera, host Lisa Simeone presents Ruslan and Lyudmila from one of Russia's most historic musical venues, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Soprano Albina Shagimuratova and bass Mikhail Petrenko star in the title roles, in a production led by conductor Vladimir Jurowski.

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About Host Lisa Simeone

Elly Ameling at Tanglewood

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:50 PM +0000

The Dutch soprano sings Schubert with pianist Rudolf Jansen at the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

On-demand at Classical New England

Boston Baroque's Les Indes Galantes

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:11 AM +0000

Hear Boston Baroque in Rameau's Les Indes Galantes

Click on "Listen" above. Download program information and see a slideshow from the production below.

In May of 2011, Boston Baroque and music director Martin Pearlman (left), capped off their 38th season with a production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les Indes Galantes at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. Not exactly opera as we think of that term now, but rather an extravagent bringing-together of music, drama, and dance particular to its time, Les Indes Galantes includes lyrical music-making, spectacular tableaux, and infectious, toe-tapping dance.

The prologue sets things in motion: Hébé, goddess of youth, laments seeing the young men of Europe lured by the goddess of war’s promises of glory, and asks Cupid to go abroad, to exotic, faraway lands (“les Indes”), in search of love.

There follow four acts, each a self-contained love story: Le Turc généreux (The Generous Turk), Les Incas du Pérou (The Incas of Peru), Les Fleurs – fête Persane (The Flowers – Persian Festival), and Les Sauvages d’Amerique (The Savages of America). The libretto and music reflect Parisian society’s fascination with the New World and the Near East. For example, two Native Americans from French colonial Louisiana were brought to Paris in 1725 and performed, inspiring Rameau to write a set of harpsichord pieces called Les Sauvages, some of which he adapted here.

Tune in to Classical New England on 99.5 WCRB in Boston or 88.7 WJMF in Providence, or stream the performance here at classicalnewengland.org at 6:30pm on Sunday, Nov. 18. The cast includes sopranos Amanda Forsythe and Nathalie Paulin, tenors Aaron Sheehan and Daniel Auchincloss, and baritones Sumner Thompson and Nathaniel Watson.

Download notes on the production

Download synopsis and cast bios

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