Inside Opera (Cincinnati Opera)
Explore every episode of Inside Opera
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jun 2017 | Hair & Make-up Design with James Geier | 00:55:23 | |
Soprano Anna Netrebko Milacron “Cyrano de Bergerac” is an opera by Franco Alfano. Michigan Opera Theatre’s David DiChiera also wrote an opera titled “Cyrano” that premiered in 2007. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company Cincinnati Ballet Pittsburgh Opera Correction: The plantation referred to was Maplewood plantation in Boone County, Kentucky. Margaret Garner, an enslaved African-American woman whose story inspired the opera “Margaret Garner,” was born and lived in servitude on this plantation. | |||
| 27 Jun 2017 | Stage Management with Connie Grubbs | 00:58:00 | |
Frida CCM - The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Unions Supernumeraries Raptor in Aida Aronoff Center for the Arts Stage management jobs in opera Music scores (see image above) Makes Marcus cringe: Director of Artistic Operations Fellow Travelers Ensemble Theatre Desperate Landscapes on HGTV Oakley Zone bar Handmaid’s Tale Game of Thrones, Scandal, West Wing Bakersfield La Mexicana in Newport Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young System of a Down Crossfit "I’m a duck, so things roll off my back, and I'm always calm on the surface (even though my feet might be going a mile a minute underneath)" Sue Ellen Childs | |||
| 27 Jun 2017 | Thomas Hase's Life in Lighting | 01:03:54 | |
Hase was Lighting Designer at Giessen State Theater (Stadttheater Giessen) Hase was Lighting Designer for open-air ballet called The Shadow of Gobustan in front of Gobustan Mountains in Azerbaijan Hase mentions that stage lights range from 750-5000W Hase pioneered programmable moving lights in opera Each light uses a 20A circuit (household breaker boxes use 15-20A) History & literature degrees; Masters in Aesthetics (from the Institute of Theater & Design in Cologne, Germany) King Louis Tosca La Boheme A Doll’s House at the Abbey Theater in Dublin A gobo is a dark plate or screen used to shield a lens from light. Bonn, Germany Fulbright Grant Die Meistersinger Cologne State Theater Opera Cologne Meredith Monk World Premiere of Waiting for the Barbarians by Philip Glass Erfort, Germany Tony Award-winning Company at Playhouse in the Park in Cincinnati Frida Triumphant march in Aida The Demon (opera) in Barcelona 1,200 lighting units for Cincinnati Opera’s 2018 season, avg. 800-900 lights/season Giessen State Theater Single-source lighting Lighting cues Moving lights Wash lights CAD = Computer-aided design/drafting software LED = light-emitting diode Tungsten lights HID (high-intensity discharge) lamps are used in moving lights Aronoff Center for the Arts The Magic Flute Hase wants to work on The Rake’s Progress and Wozzeck again, as well as The Flying Dutchman La Boheme at San Francisco Opera Ice (opera based on the Lundberg novel) Cincinnati Opera Brat Fry: invented by Hase; Miesfeld’s brats flown in from Sheboygan, Wisconsin for staff, cast, and crew Gary Kidney (technical director) In the Garden of the Beast Sherlock The Bridge NextFlight app Arnold’s Bar (Cincinnati) Frank Rich Hase mentioned Gilbert Hemsley and Hans Tolstead as two of his mentors | |||
| 29 May 2018 | Exploring Early Music with Annalisa Pappano | 00:59:34 | |
Annalisa mentions Suzuki training for string players. Interlochen Center for the Arts is an arts education organization in northwest Michigan. www.interlochen.org The viola da gamba is the instrument Annalisa plays. Annalisa’s ensemble is the Catacoustic Consort. The OED is the Oxford English Dictionary. Catacoustic Consort includes Elizabeth Motter (baroque harp), Melissa Harvey (soprano), Joanna Blendulf (viola da gamba), David Walker (theorbo), and Michael Leopold (theorbo). The term Early Music refers roughly to art music of the 16th to 18th centuries. Catacoustic premiered the opera “La Fete du Ruel” by Marc-Antoine Charpentier on June 4, 2016. Cincinnati Opera presented “La Calisto” as part of its 2014 season and will present Monteverdi’s “The Coronation of Poppea” in 2018. Annalisa mentioned two composers whose operas she’d like to produce: Jean-Philippe Rameau and Francesca Caccini. Evans mentioned two others: Lully and Grétry. The recording Annalisa mentions is titled Lamentarium; it’s by the group Atalante. http://www.atalante.co.uk/lamentarium.htm The video associated with the album is available here. The book by Alison Crum that Annalisa refers to is titled The Viol Rules. Here’s a link: https://www.amazon.com/Viol-Rules-Alison-Crum/dp/0952822040 The restaurant O Pie O is located on Madison Road in Cincinnati. www.opieo.com Cory Henry is a jazz and gospel organist. Learn more at www.coryhenry.com. Annalisa mentions the instruments pardessus de viole and lirone. | |||
| 18 Jul 2018 | Cori Ellison: Opera Guru | 00:59:53 | |
Rufus Wainwright Hadrian Mario Lanza Supertitles Lotfi Mansouri Beverly Sills Il Trovatore The Coronation of Poppea Cosi Fan Tutte Hamlet by Brett Dean Breaking the Waves by Missy Mazzoli L’Amour de Loin by Kaija Saariaho Dead Man Walking Margaret Garner “Porgi Amor” is an aria from The Marriage of Figaro CCM is the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music Fage yogurt The Twelve Caesars One Dharma Google maps app Graeter’s Ice Cream | |||
| 22 May 2018 | Rufus Wainwright: Between Two Worlds | 01:00:48 | |
Show Notes Wainwright’s opera Hadrian is being premiered by the Canadian Opera Company and was workshopped by Opera Fusion: New Works Glenn Gould Luciano Pavarotti Beniamino Gigli vs. Vera Lynn Piano composers: Chopin, Satie, Beethoven Herbert von Karajan – conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Quebec sovereignty movement “Liberty Cabbage” is a song composed by Wainwright when he was 16, and he continues to perform it Georg Solti conducting Salome with Birgit Nilsson Verdi’s Don Carlo with Placido Domingo and Shirley Verret The film Diva Prima Donna was Wainwright’s first opera Maurice Ravel’s ballet piece Bolero Maria Callas Memoirs of Hadrian, the novel that inspired Wainwright’s opera Hadrian Manchester Festival | |||
| 21 Jun 2017 | Maestro Louis Langrée on Life, Love, and La Bohème | 01:15:00 | |
La Bohème “Che gelida manina” Arturo Toscanini Fidelio “Sono andate” aria Georges Pretre Winterreise Seymon Bychkov and John Eliot Gardiner were two mentors Louis mentioned. Glyndeborne Opera Mostly Mozart Festival Simon Rattle spoke about importance of understanding a community. "Musetta’s Waltz" (aka Quando me’n vo’) with its 25 tempo changes Maestro Langrée mentions the Bayreuth Festival and sitting in the pit to watch Peter Schneider conduct. YouTube link to Kleiber Pavarotti Paul Valéry's Cahiers—short notebooks Smartphone metronome apps Jean Robert de Cavel is a Cincinnati-based chef. “Essere non videre” – be yourself Helen Merrill Bruckner 7 cond Miles Davis Libretto of La Boheme | |||
| 12 Jun 2018 | The Life of a Star with Norah Amsellem | 00:48:30 | |
La Traviata is based on the novel La Dame aux Camélias Amsellem was in the children's chorus for the 1984 film version of Carmen, dir. Francesco Rosi, with Plácido Domingo Amsellem studied with Lorraine Newbauer & Dalton Baldwin As a teenager, Amsellem sang "Casta Diva" in a short film about Maria Callas Amsellem attended Westminister Choir College Amsellem is currently reading A Nervous Splendor Two of Amsellem's favorite singers are Ella Fitzgerald and Eileen Farrell | |||
| 27 Jun 2018 | Performing Opera Old and New with Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo | 00:59:53 | |
James Ivory is a film director, producer, and screenwriter (known for the 2017 film Call Me By Your Name) Michael Chekov was a Russian-American actor, director, author, and theatre practitioner. Costanzo's first operatic role was Miles in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw, which is based on a Henry James novella by the same name. The Baroque opera Giulio Cesare by George Frideric Handel Costanzo performed in Jimmy López's Bel Canto Evans mentions contemporary composer Jake Heggie's Great Scott Kabuki is a traditional style of Japanese dance-drama Costanzo was the Executive Director of a dance company with Karole Armitage Costanzo works with the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), a collective dedicated to creating new works Costanzo recently hosted a Metropolitan Opera Live in HD performance of Luisa Miller by Giuseppe Verdi Costanzo has been reading the novel Less and the plays God's Ear and Eurydice | |||
| 18 Jul 2018 | Conversation with a Chorus Master | 01:02:47 | |
Show Notes Roberto Devereux is an opera by Gaetano Donizetti Beverly Sills University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) Franco Corelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Martina Arroyo, Grace Bumbry, Joan Sutherland Elijah is an oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn Sarah Bernhardt Evans and Henri briefly discuss Cincinnati Opera’s 2018 production of La Traviata, which featured soprano Norah Amsellem as Violetta. Pagliacci is a one-act opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo Cincinnati Opera produced Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman in 2018 Henri mentioned that these were the most rewarding operas he has worked on: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Nixon in China, Elektra, Salome, and Fidelio Norma and Ariadne auf Naxos Lady Gaga The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World Google Maps | |||
| 23 Jul 2018 | Charles Parsons: A Retrospective | 00:55:27 | |
Show notes: Aida, Madama Butterfly, The Barber of Seville were featured in the 1952 season Parsons references Samson et Delilah with Claramae Turner & Kurt Baum Parsons tells a legend involving Kurt Baum in a Metropolitan Opera production of Il Trovatore Parsons references Act II of Tosca (“Quanto?”) Fausto Cleva was the conductor of Cincinnati Summer Opera for 29 years at the Zoo Lucia di Lammermoor was performed in Cincinnati Opera’s 1954 season Parsons mentions The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti Alms Hotel is a historic Cincinnati hotel (and now a residential apartment building) Parsons mentions the Vienna State Opera Ballet performing Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin with the Cincinnati Symphony during the Opera’s season at the Cincinnati Zoo Sherrill Milnes, baritone The tenor Parsons criticizes is named Eddy Ruhl Sea Thorn by Henry Humphreys is based on the story of Phaedra Parson quotes a section from George Santayana’s A Sense of Beauty Nell Rankin, mezzo-soprano Anthony Stivenelo provided costumes for many Opera productions in the Zoo days The Magic Flute at the Zoo featured sets from Indiana University L'amore dei tre re ("The Love of the Three Kings") is an opera by Italo Montemezzi Parsons’ recommended operas: Best opera to start: Carmen Best opera for its simplicity: Madama Butterfly Best opera to portray everyday life: La Bohème Parsons is currently rereading the complete works of T.S. Eliot Parsons enjoys watching the National Geographic, SyFy and Food Network channels Parsons enjoys Thanksgiving at The Golden Lamb in Lebanon, OH Cleo Laine’s recording of “Send in the Clowns” Parsons enjoyed learning Gregorian chant at CCM (University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music) | |||
| 27 Jul 2018 | Laura Kaminsky on Opera's Future | 01:05:00 | |
Kaminksy’s father grew up during the Great Depression, her mother experienced the London Blitz when she was young Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York State Theater (now the David H. Koch Theater) The High School of Music & Art (now Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & the Arts) Women composers of the 20th century: Lili Boulanger, Florence Price, Amy Beach Kaminsky received an undergraduate degree in psychology from Oberlin College Mirageas served as the Senior Vice President of Artists and Repertoire at Decca Records in London The Fulbright Program, Peace Corps And Trouble Came is a piece Kaminsky composed for narrator, viola, cello, and piano in 1993 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 20th century eastern European composers: Krzysztof Penderecki, Dmitri Shostakovich, Henryk Górecki Ludwig Beethoven, Leoš Janáček As One is Kaminsky’s first opera Kimberly Reed is a filmmaker and created films for As One Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano), Kelly Markgraf (baritone) were the premiere cast for As One Kaminsky’s favorite place in Cincinnati is Maplewood Kitchen Today it Rains is a new chamber opera by Kaminsky Kaminsky’s opera Some Light Emerges participated in Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music’s Opera Fusion: New Works workshop in 2016 Kaminsky was the Associate Director of Humanities at the 92nd Street Y Kaminsky was in awe when she met Chick Corea | |||
| 07 Aug 2018 | Lineman to La Scala: Morris Robinson | 00:54:11 | |
Robinson sang the bass solo parts for Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s The Creation in high school Robinson attended New England Conservatory of Music’s weekend program: the School of Continuing Education Norman Scribner founded the Choral Arts Society of Washington Satanella is a rarely performed opera by Michael William Balfe Sharon Daniels, Boston Conservatory Atlanta Boy Choir The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina Robinson lists the following bass roles he’s sung: Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo, Zacharia in Nabucco, Zarastro in The Magic Flute, Night Watchman in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Robinson mentions the role of Old Man River in the musical Show Boat Teatro alla Scala Crown is another character in George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Robinson sang Porgy in Porgy and Bess with Lester Lynch as Crown Robinson sang in Don Carlo with James Morris as Philip II Bonaldo Giaiotti Ferruccio Furlanetto “Il lacerato spirito” from Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra Bass-baritone Samuel Ramey German bass Kurt Moll Musician Prince Singer Rachelle Ferrell T.I., Usher Tracy Wilson created Opera Goes to Church, which started at Allen Temple AME YouTube, iTunes, Apple Music Renée Fleming, Karita Mattila Lawrence Brownlee, Christain Lewis, John Holiday Jack & Jill Divine Nine Robinson frequents Cincinnati's Hathaway’s Diner Robinson enjoys the TV shows Snapped and The First 48, as well as the channel HGTV Robinson frequently uses Apple Music Robinson cites Stephen Lord, Ken Noda, James Levine, and Evans Mirageas as four of his career mentors | |||
| 25 Jun 2019 | Reflections With Nicole Cabell | 01:08:18 | |
Mozart’s Requiem is a requiem mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart David Robertson guest conductor The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center “Roger Norrington”, Sir Roger Arthur Caver Norrington is a British conductor. Elvira is a character in the opera Don Giovanni Musetta and Mimi are characters in the opera La Bohème DePaul University Music Department Nicole mentioned her education at the Chautauqua Institution run by Marlena Kleinman Malas in upstate New York as well as the influence of the late Richard Pearlman who was an American theatre and opera director. Stacey Tappan is an American coloratura soprano. Erin Wall is a Canadian soprano acclaimed for her performances of Strauss, Mozart, Mahler and contemporary opera. Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly. Cats is a sung-through musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. Joni Mitchell, The Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Sting PBS: Public Broadcasting Service Both Nicole Cabell and Renée Fleming attended the Eastman School of Music for their undergraduate educations. Benton Hess, the founder and Artistic Director of “Si parla, si canta” also attended Eastman. Oberlin College and Conservatory Frédéric Antoun was originally cast as Romeo but due to unforeseen circumstances had to cancel. Romeo was played by Matthew White. “Je veux vivre” is an Aria from Charles Gounod’s opera Roméo et Juliette and is Juliette’s first area. La Traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. Marguerite is a character in Gounod’s opera Faust “The Poison Aria” is an Aria from Charles Gounod’s opera Roméo et Juliette “Je dis que rien ne ne m'épouvante” is an Aria sung by the character Micaëla in Carmen, an opera by French composer Georges Bizet. Mirella Freni is an Italian soprano whose repertoire includes Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Porgy and Bess is an opera by the American composer George Gershwin. Rosalinda is a character in the opera Die Fledermaus Fiordiligi is a character in the opera buffa Così fan tutte by Mozart Rusalka is an opera ('lyric fairy tale') by Antonín Dvořák. Falstaff is a comic opera in three acts by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi Simon Boccanegra is an opera by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi Dame Joan Alston Sutherland was an Australian-born coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. | |||
| 10 Jul 2019 | Opera Rap: Naomi André and Morris Robinson | 01:14:42 | |
Naomi Andre attended Westtown School Eric Mitchko is the General Director for the North Carolina Opera. Barnard College, Columbia University The Magic Flute is an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera by Richard Strauss. Tatiana Troyanos was an American mezzo-soprano of Greek and German descent, remembered as "one of the defining singers of her generation" (Boston Globe). Dame Gwyneth Jones is a Welsh operatic dramatic soprano. Kathleen Battle is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Khovanshchina is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky. Dialogues des Carmélites is an opera, divided into twelve scenes with linking orchestral interludes, by Francis Poulenc. Manon Lescaut is an opera by Giacomo Puccini. Jessye Norman is an American opera singer and recitalist. Sieglinde is a character in Die Walküre, the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Leona Mitchell is an American operatic soprano and an Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame inductee. Mimi is a character in the opera La bohème, composed by Giacomo Puccini. Martina Arroyo is an American operatic soprano who had a major international opera career from the 1960s through the 1980s. She was part of the first generation of black opera singers of Puerto Rican descent to achieve wide success, and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who helped break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world. Aida is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a New Zealand soprano. The Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. Nabucco is an Italian-language opera composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi. Samuel Ramey is an American operatic bass. Andrea Gruber is an American dramatic soprano particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Puccini, Verdi, and Wagner. James Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is primarily known for his tenure as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, a position he held for 40 years. Alfred Walker is an American operatic bass-baritone. Michèle Crider is an American lirico spinto operatic soprano. Mark Rucker, baritone, serves as professor of voice at MSU's College of Music. Porgy and Bess is an English-language opera by the American composer George Gershwin. Fidelio is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. Marian Anderson was an American contralto singer, one of the most celebrated of the twentieth century. Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, dubbed "The Black Swan" (a play on Jenny Lind's sobriquet, "The Swedish Nightingale”, was an African-American singer considered the best-known black concert artist of her time. James Alan Bland, also known as Jimmy Bland, was an African-American musician and song writer. Thomas Dartmouth Rice, known professionally as Daddy Rice, was an American performer and playwright who performed blackface and used African American vernacular speech, song and dance to become one of the most popular minstrel show entertainers of his time. "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" is a popular song commonly sung by blackface performers in the 19th century. Prada S.p.A. is an Italian luxury fashion house, specializing in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, perfumes and other fashion accessories, founded in 1913 by Mario Prada. Gucci is an Italian luxury brand of fashion and leather goods. Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci in Florence, Tuscany, in 1921. Ralph Shearer Northam is an American politician and physician serving as the Governor of Virginia. Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, known as Sissieretta Jones, was an American soprano. She sometimes was called "The Black Patti", a reference to Italian opera singer Adelina Patti. The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political figure, diplomat and activist, and served as First Lady of the United States. Rosa Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. Mattiwilda Dobbs was an African-American coloratura soprano and one of the first black singers to enjoy a major international career in opera. Lillian Evanti was an African-American opera singer. Mary Lucinda Cardwell Dawson was an African-American musician and teacher and the founding director of the National Negro Opera Company. Theodore Drury, born in Kentucky, was a singer and music promoter. Dr. Kristen Turner’s work has been published in the Journal of the Society for American Music, and the Journal of Musicological Research. Her research interests are in 19th century opera, 19th and 20th century American musical culture, African American music, music and politics, and music and gender. Sir Rudolf Bing, KBE was an Austrian-born opera impresario who worked in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably as General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1950 to 1972. Ulrica is a character in the opera Un ballo in maschera, an opera by Giuseppe Verdi. RCA Studio B is a music recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee built in 1956. Originally known simply by the name “RCA Studios”, it became known in the 1960s for being an essential factor to the development of the production style and technique known as the Nashville Sound. “O don fatale” is an aria from the opera Les Troyens, a French grand opera by Hector Berlioz. Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal is a French grand opera by Gaetano Donizetti. Leontyne Price is an American soprano. She rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was the first African American to become a leading performer, or prima donna, at the Metropolitan Opera, and one of the most popular American classical singers of her generation. William Warfield was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor. Alice Ford is a character in the opera Falstaff. Donna Anna is a character in the opera Don Giovanni. Franco Corelli was an Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976. Il Trovatore is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi. Madame Butterfly is an opera by Giacomo Puccini. Liù is a character in the opera Turandot by Giacomo Puccini. The Messa da Requiem is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass (Requiem) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra by Giuseppe Verdi. Joe is a character in the musical Show Boat by Jerome Kern. La Scala is an opera house in Milan, Italy. Otello is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi. Russell Thomas is an American operatic tenor. Robert Spano is an American conductor and pianist. The Gershwin Initiative at the University of Michigan Francesca Zambello is an American opera and theatre director. She serves as General Director of The Glimmerglass Festival and Artistic Director of the Washington National Opera. The Neil Simon Theatre, formerly the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway venue built in 1927. Götterdämmerung is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen. Treemonisha is an opera by African-American composer Scott Joplin, who is most noted for his ragtime piano works. Harry Lawrence Freeman was a United States opera composer, conductor, impresario and teacher. He was the first African-American to write an opera (Epthalia, 1891) that was successfully produced. Voodoo is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Harry Lawrence Freeman. William Menefield is a Cincinnati-born composer. How work Fierce will be premiered by the Cincinnati Opera in 2020. Sheila Williams is the author of Dancing on the Edge of the Roof, On the Right Side of a Dream, The Shade of My Own Tree and Girls Most Likely. | |||
| 12 Jul 2019 | An Interview With Omer Ben Seadia | 00:59:32 | |
Tel Aviv is the most populous city in the largest metropolitan area of Israel. The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The Second Intifada was a period of intensified Israeli–Palestinian violence. Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. In May of 1809, eager to protect his precious hearing during the heavy bombardment of the Siege of Vienna, composer Ludwig von Beethoven hid in his brother’s basement with pillows covering his ears. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) are the military forces of the State of Israel. The Staatsoper, the Vienna State Opera, is an Austrian opera house and opera company based in Vienna. "Largo al factotum" is an aria from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini. The Israeli Opera is the principal opera company of Israel. Robin Guarino is an opera and film director.She is a Professor of Opera at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). The Marriage of Figaro is an opera buffa (comic opera) composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Pierre Beaumarchais was a French polymath. At various times in his life, he was a watchmaker, inventor, playwright, musician, diplomat, spy, publisher, horticulturist, arms dealer, satirist, financier, and revolutionary (both French and American). Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss. Powel Crosley Jr. was an American inventor, industrialist, and entrepreneur. He was also a pioneer in radio broadcasting, and a former owner of the Cincinnati Reds major league baseball team Hugo Hofmannsthal was an Austrian prodigy, a novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist. Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano. She was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, model, and singer. Omer mentions the following as pieces she would love to direct: Der Rosenkavalier, Strauss and Hofmannstha, The Rake’s Progress, Carmen, Don Giovanni. The Magic Flute is an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Beyoncé is an American singer, songwriter and actress. | |||
| 31 Jul 2019 | Amor de la Vida: An Interview with Ramon Tebar | 01:15:22 | |
Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition Renata Scotto is an Italian soprano and opera director. Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti València is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-largest city in Spain. Montserrat Caballé was a Spanish operatic soprano. Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era. Robert Schumann a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. The Spoleto Festival (Festival dei Due Mondi) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. Opera Idol was an annual opera competition for amateur singers run by Cincinnati Opera. Ainadamar is the first opera by Argentinian composer Osval do Golijov. Carmen is an opera by French composer Georges Bizet. The Marriage of Figaro is an opera buffa (comic opera) composed in 1786 by Mozart. Don Carlos is a grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Diego Velázquez was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV, and one of the most important painters of the Spanish Golden Age. Manuel de Falla was a Spanish composer. Francisco Albéniz was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. Reynaldo Hahn was a Venezuelan, naturalized French, composer, conductor, music critic, diarist, theatre director, and salon singer. Enrique Granados was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. Franz Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. Tomás Luis de Victoria was the most famous composer in 16th-century Spain, and was one of the most important composers of the Counter-Reformation, along with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso. Antonio de Cabezón was a Spanish Renaissance composer and organist. Martín y Soler was a Spanish composer of opera and ballet. Although relatively obscure now, in his own day he was compared favorably with his contemporary, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as a composer of opera buffa. Luigi Boccherini was an Italian composer and cellist of the Classical era whose music retained a courtly and galante style even while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer. Farinelli was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, a celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. The Vienna State Opera is an Austrian opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. Otto Klemperer was a Jewish German-born conductor and composer, described as "the last of the few really great conductors of his generation." Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 35 years. The Spanish National Youth Orchestra is a Spanish youth orchestra. Teresa Berganza is a Spanish mezzo-soprano. Sir Georg Solti was a Hungarian-born orchestral and operatic conductor, best known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Luisa Miller is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi. Lorin Maazel was an American conductor, violinist, and composer. Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of Western and Eastern classical music. He is currently music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and Conductor Emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Carlo Maria Giulini was an Italian conductor. The Symphony No. 5 is Beethoven’s 5th symphony and is one of the best-known compositions in classical music and one of the most frequently played symphonies. The Goldberg Variations is a musical composition for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. La Traviata is an opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Roméo et Juliette (Romeo and Juliet) is an opera by Charles Gounod. Giacomo Puccini was an Italian opera composer who has been called "the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi."(Ravenni & Girardi n.d., Introduction.) Richard Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Johannes Brahms was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the Romantic period. Nikolaus Harnoncourt was an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier. Pablo Casals was a cellist, composer, and conductor from Catalonia. La 1 (La Uno, The One), is the flagship television channel of Spanish public broadcaster Radio televisión Española (RTVE). La 2 (La Dos, The Two) is Spain's second state-owned television channel for the public broadcasting service. Senegal is a country in West Africa. José Plácido Domingo is a Spanish opera, conductor, and arts administrator. Otello is an opera by Verdi. Franco Ferrara was an Italian conductor. Guido Cantelli was an Italian orchestral conductor. "Fritz" Reiner was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. Alicia de Larrocha was a Spanish pianist and composer. She was considered one of the great piano legends of the 20th century. The Tudors is a historical fiction television series set primarily in 16th-century England Medici is an Italian-British historical drama Spotify Technology S.A. is a Swedish media-services provider founded in 2006. | |||
| 24 Jul 2019 | Susanna Phillips: Balance | 00:57:46 | |
Jessye Norman is an American opera singer and recitalist. Susanna is from Huntsville, Alabama where she attended Randolph School. She received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School. After completing her master's degree in 2004, she became a member of Santa Fe Opera's Apprentice Program for Singers. Madame Butterfly is an opera by Giacomo Puccini. Leave It to Beaver is a late 1950s black-and-white American television sitcom about an inquisitive and often naïve boy. Susanna originally wanted to attend the following higher education institutions: Northwestern University, Vanderbilt University, Samford University, and Furman University. The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived. New York Philharmonic Orchestra(NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is an orchestra based in New York City. Carnegie Hall is a concert venue located in Manhattan in New York City. Operalia, The World Opera Competition is an annual international competition for young opera singers. Founded in 1993 by Plácido Domingo, the competition has helped launch the careers of several important artists. The Music Academy of the West is a summer music conservatory located in Montecito, California. Participation is merit-based and tuition free. Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. Matthew Epstein is the Director of Vocal Divisions at Columbia Artists Management, Inc. Cynthia Hoffmann is a member of the voice faculties of Manhattan School of Music, where she also teaches a class in Vocal Performance, and of the Juilliard School, where she served as Chair from 1995 to 2006. Matthew A. Horner is the Executive Vice President - Global Head of Vocal for IMG Artists, New York. Lyric Opera of Chicago Young Artists Program Countess Rosina Almaviva is a character in The Marriage of Figaro, an opera buffa composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Birdie is a character in Regina, an opera by Marc Blitzstein. Musetta is a character in La bohème, an opera by Giacomo Puccini. Fiordiligi is a character in Così fan tutte an opera by Mozart. Agrippina is a character in an opera of the same name by George Frideric Handel. Don Giovanni is an opera by Mozart. Donna Anna, Don Giovanni’s daughter, and Donna Elvira, a lady of Burgos abandoned by Don Giovanni, are characters in the opera. Arabella and Der Rosenkavalier are comic operas by Richard Strauss Daphne is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss. Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) is an American summer opera festival held in St. Louis, Missouri. Kaija Saariaho is a Finnish composer based in Paris, France. Renée Fleming is an American soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. Julian Bream is an English virtuoso classical guitarist and lutenist. One of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century, he played a significant role in improving the public perception of the classical guitar as a respectable instrument. Natalie Dessay is a French singer and actress who had a highly acclaimed career as an operatic coloratura soprano before leaving the opera stage on 15 October 2013. She is married to the bass-baritone Laurent Naouri. Violetta is a character in the opera La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi. Cleopatra is a character in the opera Antony and Cleopatra, an opera by American composer Samuel Barber. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is a 2013 novel by the American writer Karen Joy Fowler. Fresh Air is a podcast hosted by Terry Gross, the show features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries. White Lies is an NPR podcast. More information can be found here. The Eagle OTR and Salazar are restaurants in Cincinnati. Dolly Parton is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actress, author, businesswoman, and humanitarian, known primarily for her work in country music. | |||
| 23 Jul 2019 | Janai Brugger: Hurry Slowly | 00:57:16 | |
Kathleen Battle is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Luciano Pavarotti an Italian operatic tenor who also crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time. Plácido Domingo is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a New Zealand soprano. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era. Shirley Verrett was an African-American operatic mezzo-soprano who successfully transitioned into soprano roles, i.e. soprano sfogato. Don Carlos is a grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Pomona is a German-language opera by Reinhard Keiser. Susanna is the countess Almaviva’s maid in The Marriage of Figaro. Clara is a character in the opera Porgy and Bess, by the American composer George Gershwin. Susanne Mentzer is an American operatic mezzo-soprano. She is best known for singing trouser roles, such as Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo, Octavian in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier and the composer in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, as well as other music of Mozart, Strauss, Rossini, Berlioz and Mahler. The Chicago Opera Theater (COT) is an American opera company based in Chicago, Illinois. Renée Fleming is an American soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. Leontyne Price is an American soprano. She rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was the first African American to become a leading performer, or prima donna, at the Metropolitan Opera, and one of the most popular American classical singers of her generation. In music performance and notation, legato indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. Tatyana and Eugene Onegin are character is the opera Eugene Onegin composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The Magic Flute is an opera by Mozart. Così fan tutte is an Italian-language opera buffa by Mozart. Victoria Okafor is an American opera soprano. Barbarina is a character in in The Marriage of Figaro. Operalia, The World Opera Competition, founded in 1993 by Plácido Domingo, is an annual international competition for young opera singers. Liù is a character in the opera Turandot by Giacomo Puccini. Deborah Birnbaum is an internationally established voice teacher. The Gershwin Initiative at the University of Michigan. "Summertime" is an aria composed in 1934 by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. Morris Robinson is an American bass opera singer and former All-American college football player who has performed with the Metropolitan Opera at Carnegie Hall, at La Scala in Milan, Italy, at the Sydney Opera House and in numerous other Opera Houses throughout the United States and internationally. He was the first African-American artist to sign with a major classical record label. Mimì is a character in the opera La bohème. Countess Rosina Almaviva is a character in the opera The Marriage of Figaro. Micaëla is a character in the opera Carmen. Carmen is an opera by French composer Georges Bizet. Cendrillon (Cinderella) is an opera—described as a "fairy tale"—by Jules Massenet. Castor and Patience will premiere during Cincinnati Opera's 100th anniversary season in 2020. Me Before You is a romance novel written by Jojo Moyes. Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels, the first of which is A Game of Thrones. Breaking Bad is an American neo-Western crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Instacart is an American technology company that operates as a same-day grocery delivery and pick-up service in the U.S. and Canada. The Eagle OTR and Salazar are restaurants in Cincinnati. Beyoncé is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Drake is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. Radiohead are an English rock band. The band consists of Thom Yorke, brothers Jonny Greenwood and Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, and Philip Selway. Muse are an English rock band. The band consists of Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme, and Dominic Howard. Teletubbies is a British pre-school children's television series. | |||
| 24 Jul 2019 | Matthew Ozawa: Collaborative Origami | 00:59:36 | |
Carmen is an opera by French composer Georges Bizet. The San Diego Opera Association (SDO) is a professional opera company located in the city of San Diego, California. La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini. Rusalka is an opera ('lyric fairy tale') by Antonín Dvořák. Eugene Onegin is an opera composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Oberlin College and Conservatory Seiji Ozawa is a Japanese conductor known for his advocacy of modern composers and for his work with the San Francisco Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center was one of ten concentration camps used for the internment of Japanese Americans evicted from the West Coast Exclusion Zone during World War II by executive order from President Franklin Roosevelt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The Holocaust was the World War II genocide of the European Jews. An American Dream is an opera by Jack Perla, a composer and pianist. Everything Is Illuminated is a 2005 biographical comedy-drama film, written and directed by Liev Schreiber and starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer. Marie Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant and author. Boris Goldovsky was a Russian-born conductor and broadcast commentator, active in the United States. He has been called an important "popularizer" of opera in America. Roméo et Juliette (Romeo and Juliet) is an opera by Charles Gounod. The Marriage of Figaro is an opera buffa (comic opera) composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. La bohème is an opera composed by Giacomo Puccini. Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nicole Cabell is an American operatic soprano. She recently played Juliet in Cincinnati Opera’s production of Romeo and Juliet. Matthew White recently played Romeo in Cincinnati Opera’s production of Romeo and Juliet. Traditional Japanese theatre includes Kabuki, Noh(and its comic accompaniment, Kyōgen) and the puppet theatre, Bunraku. Jennifer Good is the Managing Director of Production at the San Francisco Opera. Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company. Rupert Hemmings is the Vice President of Artistic Planning at the LA Opera. Paul Moser is an American philosopher who writes on epistemology and the philosophy of religion. He is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago and past editor of the American Philosophical Quarterly. Houston Ballet, operated by Houston Ballet Foundation, is the fourth-largest professional ballet company in the United States, based in Houston, Texas. William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. Mozawa is a performing arts company that, through hybridity and fusion, aims to break down the barriers that exist between differing artistic media and cultures. Nabucco is an Italian-language opera by Giuseppe Verdi. Franco Zeffirelli was an Italian director and producer of operas, films and television. Origami is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture. Don Carlos is a (historical) tragedy in five acts by Friedrich Schiller. Sir Derek Jacobi is an English actor and stage director. Madame Butterfly is an opera by Giacomo Puccini. Ana Martínez is a Puerto Rican soprano. Kelly Kaduce is an American soprano. Robert Wilson is an American experimental theater stage director and playwright who has been described by the media as "[America]'s – or even the world's – foremost vanguard 'theater artist'". The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow) is an opera by Richard Strauss. The Turn of the Screw is a 20th-century English chamber opera composed by Benjamin Britten. The Rake's Progress is an English-language opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. Marco Polo is an opera by the Chinese-born composer Tan Dun. Carousel is the second musical by the team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics). My Fair Lady is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. Stephen Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist known for more than a half-century of contributions to musical theatre. A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Isaac Mizrahi is an American fashion designer, TV presenter, and Chief Designer of the Isaac Mizrahi brand for Xcel Brands. Houston Grand Opera (HGO), located in Houston, Texas, was founded in 1955 by German-born impresario Walter Herbert. Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) is an American summer opera festival held in St. Louis, Missouri. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1979 musical thriller with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. American Gods (2001) is a fantasy novel by British author Neil Gaiman. Dark is a German science fiction thriller web television series. Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation network company offering services that include peer-to-peer ridesharing, ride service hailing, food delivery, and a bicycle-sharing system. The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, originally known as the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge spans the Ohio River between Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky. The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge in New York City. Matthew mentions Beyoncé as one of his favorite artists outside of the opera world. | |||
| 25 Jul 2019 | In Conversation With Stephen Lawless | 01:07:02 | |
Stephen grew up in the town of Warrington, England. Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District, in the county of Warwickshire, England. The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon. Sir Trevor Nunn is an English theatre director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Richard II is a history play by William Shakespeare. John Barton was a British theatre director and (with Peter Hall) a co-founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Twelfth Night is a comedy by William Shakespeare. Dame Judi Dench is an English actress. John Copley is a British theatre and opera producer and director. The Times is a British daily (Monday to Saturday) national newspaper based in London. Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End. The London Opera Centre, a school for the training of opera singers and other opera professionals, existed in England between 1963 and 1977.Glineborn Benjamin Britten was an English composer, conductor and pianist. Sir Peter Pears was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years. Joan Cross was an English soprano, closely associated with the operas of Benjamin Britten. Aldborough is a village in the civil parish of Boroughbridge in the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. La bohème is an opera composed by Giacomo Puccini. Paul Bunyan is an operetta in two acts and a prologue composed by Benjamin Britten to a libretto by W. H. Auden, designed for performance by semi-professional groups. Malcolm Fraser was an opera director. The Magic Flute is an opera by Mozart. Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland. Sir David Pountney is a British and Polish theatre and opera director and librettist internationally known for his productions of rarely performed operas and new productions of classic works. “Four Sea Interludes” are from the opera Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten Peter Hemmings was an English opera administrator, impresario and singer. John Cox is an English opera director. The Marriage of Figaro is an opera buffa (comic opera) composed in 1786 by Mozart. Così fan tutte an opera by Mozart. Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. Don Giovanni is an opera by Mozart. Glyndebourne is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Falstaff is a comic opera by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss. Un ballo in maschera is an opera by Verdi. English Touring Opera (ETO) is an opera company in the United Kingdom founded in 1979 under the name Opera 80 by the then-existing Arts Council of Great Britain. The Barber of Seville is an opera by Gioachino Rossini Sir Thomas Allen is an English operatic baritone. Dame Janet Baker is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer. Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Serenade to Music is a work by Ralph Vaughan Williams Robert Lloyd Danielle de Niese is an Australian-American lyric soprano. Jules Massenet was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892). Sir Roger Norrington is a British conductor. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington and his brother is Humphrey Thomas Norrington. Elijah Moshinsky is an Australian opera director, theatre director and television director who has worked at the Royal Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal National Theatre, BBC Television and numerous other venues. The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK. The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Valery Gergiev is a Soviet and Russian conductor and opera company director of Ossetian origin. Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera by Richard Strauss Carol Vaness is an American lirico-spinto soprano. Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition Count Almaviva is a character in the Marriage of Figaro Theresa May is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party. Don Carlos is a grand opera composed by Verdi. Simon Boccanegra is an opera by Verdi. Madame Butterfly is an opera by Giacomo Puccini. Der Freischütz is a German opera with spoken dialogue by Carl Maria von Weber. Washington Irving was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. Glenn Platt is Cincinnati Opera’s Director of Production Giorgio Strehler was an Italian opera and theatre director. Killing Eve is a British spy thriller television series, produced in the United Kingdom by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America. Breaking Bad is an American neo-Western crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden is the second-oldest zoo in the United States. Amy Winehouse was an English singer and songwriter. René Jacobs is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor but in recent years has become renowned as a conductor of Baroque and early Classical opera. Carmen is an opera by French composer Georges Bizet. Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company. Lorenzo Da Ponte was an Italian, later American opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. | |||
| 29 Jul 2019 | Kelley O'Connor: Pushing the Limits | 00:57:16 | |
Kelley sang the role of Federico Lorca in the original version of Osvaldo Golijov’s opera Ainadamar. Kelley earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California and her master's degree in Music from the University of California, Los Angeles. John Adams is an American composer, clarinetist, and conductor of classical music and opera, with strong roots in minimalism. Suzuki is a character in the opera Madame Butterfly, an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini. Roberto De Candia is an Italian operatic baritone. Maria Luigia Borsi is an Italian opera singer. Hadleigh Adams is an operatic baritone from Palmerston North, New Zealand. Hadleigh recently played Mercutio in Cincinnati Opera’s performance of Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet. Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II. A breeches role (also pants role or trouser role) is a role in which an actress appears in male clothing. Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Requiem Canticles is a 15-minute composition by Igor Stravinsky, for contralto and bass soli, chorus, and orchestra. Cherubino is a character in The Marriage of Figaro, an opera buffa (comic opera composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. "The Composer" is a character in Richard Strauss's opera Ariadne auf Naxos. Das Lied von der Erde ("The Song of the Earth") is a composition for two voices and orchestra written by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler. Cecilia Bartoli is an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. “Voi Che Sapete” is an aria from The Marriage of Figaro. Renée Fleming is an American soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. Leontyne Price is an American soprano. She rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was the first African American to become a leading performer, or prima donna, at the Metropolitan Opera, and one of the most popular American classical singers of her generation. Robert Spano is an American conductor and pianist. The Gospel According to the Other Mary is an opera/oratorio by John Adams. Peter Sellars is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary staging of classical and contemporary operas and plays. El Niño is an opera-oratorio by John Adams. Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. El Salón México is a symphonic composition in one movement by Aaron Copland, which uses Mexican folk music extensively. Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. Kelley grew up in Clovis, California. Audra McDonald is an American actress and singer. Primarily known for her work on the Broadway stage, she has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and is the only person to win all four acting categories. McDonald was raised in Fresno, California. La Cenerentola is an operatic dramma giocoso by Gioachino Rossini. The Turn of the Screw is a 20th-century English chamber opera composed by Benjamin Britten. Claude Debussy was a French composer. Phyllis Curtin was an American classical soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. Donald Runnicles is a Scottish conductor. Louis Langrée is the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Evans mentions the following Mahler works: Symphony No. 2 (known as the Resurrection Symphony), Symphony No. 3, Symphony No.8, Rückert-Lieder, and Kindertotenlieder. The songs of Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn) by Gustav Mahler are voice-and-piano and orchestral settings of German folk poems chosen from a collection of the same name. The Rape of Lucretia is an opera by Benjamin Britten. Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The Neruda Songs are a cycle of five songs composed for mezzo-soprano soloist and orchestra by the American composer Peter Lieberson for his wife, singer Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Lieberson chose O'Connor as the first mezzo-soprano to sing his composition Neruda Songs live in concert after the death of his wife. Bernard Haitink is a Dutch conductor. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is an American orchestra based in Atlanta, Georgia. Robert Spano has been its music director since 2001. Agustín Barrios was a Paraguayan virtuoso classical guitarist and composer, largely regarded as one of the greatest performers and most prolific composers for the guitar. Carmen is an opera by French composer Georges Bizet. The Dream of Gerontius is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. Wesendonck Lieder is the common name of a set of five songs for female voice and piano Wagner, Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme (Five Poems for a Female Voice). Hans Werner Henze was a German composer. Sea Pictures is a song cycle by Elgar consisting of five songs written by various poets. Jascha Heifetz was a Russian-American violinist. Kelley cites Dawn Upshaw, an American soprano, as her most important mentor. The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a 1984 novel by Milan Kundera, about two women, two men, a dog and their lives in the 1968 Prague Spring period of Czechoslovak history. Tidying Up with Marie Kondo is a reality television series developed for Netflix and released on January 1, 2019. Kelley mentions Here’s the Thing and Fresh Air as some of her favorite podcasts. Zero, aptly named for the amount of food you eat during a fast, is a simple tracker that helps users sync a fast with their biological clock. Spotify Technology S.A. is a Swedish media-services provider founded in 2006 with an app of the same name. Pandora is a music application. Jessica Rivera is an American soprano of Peruvian-American ancestry. Kelley cites Nina Simone as one of her favorite musicians outside of classical music. | |||
| 31 Jul 2019 | David Charles Abell: Storytelling | 01:07:02 | |
Abell was raised in the Philadelphia and Chicago areas. David sang in the 1971 world premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the Berkshire Boy Choir. Abell enrolled at Yale University, where his teachers included John Mauceri and Rob Kapilow. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and Robert D. Levin at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau before returning to Yale to complete his B.A. in 1981. Abell made his professional debut conducting Bernstein's Mass at Berlin's Deutschlandhalle in 1982. Abell mentions the following three operas by Gaetano Donizetti that were his introduction to opera: La Favorite, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Lucie de Lammermoor. The Makropulos Affair is a Czech opera with music and libretto by Leoš Janáček. Don Giovanni is an opera by Mozart. Mefistofele is the only completed opera with music by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito The Symphony No. 2 in D-flat major was written by Howard Hanson on commission from Serge Koussevitsky for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930. Interlochen Center for the Arts The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. Members were: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Giacomo Puccini was an Italian opera composer who has been called "the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi". Oscar Hammerstein was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) theatre director of musicals for almost 40 years. The Marriage of Figaro is an opera buffa (comic opera) composed in 1786 by Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Evans mentions the following schools as notable music schools: Juilliard School, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, University of Michigan School of Music. Abell continued his postgraduate training from 1983 to 1985 at the Juilliard School, under Jorge Mester and Sixten Ehrling. Eroica Symphony, byname of Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, is a symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, known as the Eroica Symphony for its supposed heroic nature. Natalia Makarova is a Soviet-Russian-born prima ballerina and choreographer. Abell deputized at short notice for John Mauceri conducting Britten's The Turn of the Screw at Washington National Opera. On Your Toes is a musical with a book by Richard Rodgers, George Abbott, and Lorenz Hart. Gian Carlo Menotti gave David the advice to “never conduct Broadway. Never do it you will regret it.” Les Misérables, colloquially known in English-speaking countries as Les Mis is a musical adapted from French poet and novelist Victor Hugo's 1862 novel of the same name by Claude Schönberg. Porgy and Bess is an English-language opera by the American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. Miss Saigon is a musical by Schönberg. Abell subsequently conducted the 25th anniversary concert of Les Misérables at the O2 Arena. Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composed by George Gershwin. Trevor Nunn is an English theatre director. Harold Prince was an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the 20th century. Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The Voice of Firestone is a long-running radio and television program of classical music. Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, model, and singer. Dorothy Kirsten was an American operatic soprano. John Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. Williams has composed for many critically acclaimed and popular movies, including the Star Wars series, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and the first three Harry Potter films. Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks is a tone poem written in 1894–95 by Strauss. Along with pianist and musicologist Seann Alderking, Abell edited a complete edition of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, published in 2014. The Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. The New York Public Library is a public library system in New York City. Gioachino Rossini was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. Phillip Gossett was an American musicologist and historian, and Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor of Music at the University of Chicago. Tancredi is a melodramma eroico in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball) is an 1859 opera by Verdi. Powel Crosley Jr. was an American inventor, industrialist, and entrepreneur. He was also a pioneer in radio broadcasting, and a former owner of the Cincinnati Reds major league baseball team. Alfred Drake was an American actor and singer. Robert Russell Bennett was an American composer and arranger, best known for his orchestration of many well-known Broadway and Hollywood musicals by other composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers. Don Walker is an Australian musician, songwriter and author. Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Handel. Francesca Zambello is an American opera and theatre director. She serves as director of Glimmerglass Festival and the Washington National Opera. Chandos Records is a British independent classical music recording company based in Colchester. Peter Morris is an American playwright, television writer and critic, best known for his work in British theatre. "Something's Gotta Give" is a song that was written for and first performed by Fred Astaire in the 1955 musical film Daddy Long Legs. "A Wonderful Guy" is a show tune from the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. Abell cites Evans Mirageas as one of his greatest mentors. Abell cites his niece’s podcast, The Bright Sessions, as one of his current favorites. Abell mentions Dark Sky as one of his favorite apps Carousel is the second musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Alfred “Alfie” Boe is an English tenor and actor, notably performing in musical theatre. | |||
| 12 Jun 2020 | Daniela Candillari: Across the Musical Globe | 00:57:33 | |
The Prototype Festival is a contemporary opera festival in New York City The New Opera Showcase is a contemporary opera showcase sponsored by Opera America and Trinity Wall Street Cathedral Candillari studied piano in Graz, Austria Olivier Messiaen is a 20th-century French composer Candillari’s grandmother performed the titular role in Georges Bizet’s Carmen at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad, former Yugoslavia. Candillari was also born in this city, which is the second-largest city in present-day Serbia. La Traviata is a grand opera by Giuseppe Verdi Candillari studied jazz at Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN A Hochschule is an institution of higher education within German-speaking countries At age six, she became “obsessed” with the operetta Die Csárdásfürstin by Hungarian composer Emmerich Kálmán Franz Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow takes place in the fictional state of Pontevedro, a thinly veiled reference to the real-life principality of Montenegro. David Baker was the Director of Jazz Studies at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music Evans references a concert he saw at Symphony Hall Boston with jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton & Handel and Hayden Society Carnegie Hall (New York) and Wigmore Hall (London) are two well-known classical music venues Candillari became the Head Coach at the Slovene National Theatre in Maribor, Slovenia Così fan tutte is an opera buffa (a kind of comedic opera) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Recitative is a musical style primarily used in baroque and classical vocal music (namely opera and oratorio) that highlights narrative storytelling. Candillari’s husband, Nick Schwartz, is the bass trombonist of the New York City Ballet. Rusalka is an opera by Antonín Dvořák and was programmed as part of Cincinnati Opera’s 2020 season. Evans also references his Symphony No. 7 which was inspired by composer Johannes Brahms. Contemporary opera Fellow Travelers by Gregory Spears references the music of French troubadours of the Middle Ages Musical Composition: Craft and Art is a book by Alan Belkin Mind Over Finger is a podcast about music performance. W1A is a British comedy TV show Arthur Rubinstein once famously noted, “Don’t practice too much.” Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the adult animated TV series Family Guy, is also a jazz singer. | |||
| 06 Jul 2020 | Vita Tzykun: On Design | 01:02:29 | |
Tzykun designed the set for Cincinnati Opera’s world premiere of Fellow Travelers by Gregory Spears in 2016. That production was directed by Kevin Newberry. Dramaturgy is the research involved to better understand a theatrical work before it is produced. While dramaturgy may be practiced by a professional dramaturg, often directors, designers, and performers participate in their own research to better inform their artistic decisions. Tzykun designed a production of Franz Schubert’s Winterreise (Winter Journey, 1828), a set of German art songs for voice and piano. The singer in this production was baritone David Adam Moore, Tzykun’s partner. The two are set to record a film version of this production at Austin Opera in the coming weeks. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Tzykun had designed the world premiere production of Edward Tulane at Minnesota Opera. Moore was performing in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at the Hungarian State Opera at this time. However, like many live performing arts, these productions were cancelled in order to promote social distancing and reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Tzykun and Moore founded an New York City-based art collective called GLMMR. Tzykun will design the set for Cincinnati Opera’s 2021 premiere of Castor and Patience. Tzykun often reads Israeli author and “macro-historian” Yuval Noah Harari who wrote Sapiens, Homo Deus, and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Recently, Tzykun has watched the television miniseries Unorthodox on Netflix which revolves around a Hasidic Jewish community in New York City. She listens to the podcast Artificial Intelligence by Lex Fridman about the connections between technology and humanity. Tzykun notes that the following non-Classical artists are influential to her: film composer Nina Rota, Brazilian folk artist Cesária Évora, American singer-songwriter Erykah Badu, American hip-hop artist Lauryn Hill, Swedish electronic group iamamiwhoami, Canadian pop artist Grimes, Icelandic art pop artist Björk, and Early Music composers Claudio Monteverdi, Hildegard von Bingen, and Johannes Ockeghem. | |||
| 27 Jul 2020 | David Effron: Cincinnati's Own Conducting Legend | 01:11:36 | |
Cincinnati Opera, at the time known as Cincinnati Summer Opera, performed at the Cincinnati Zoo for its first 51 seasons (1920-1972). Effron recalls a memory of seeing Giacomo Puccini’s grand opera La bohème with Licia Albanese at the Cincinnati Zoo. Italian-born American conductor Fausto Cleva was the Musical Director of the Cincinnati Summer Opera from 1934 until 1963. He was also Effron’s “first hero.” Sigmund Effron, David Effron’s father, was the concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 1946 to 1973. George Szell, Music Director and Conductor of the The Cleveland Orchestra, tried to recruit Sigmund Effron to join his symphony. After a performance of Charles Gonoud’s Faust at Cincinnati Summer Opera, American tenor Eugene Conley honored Sigmund Effron by allowing him to bow by himself (a “solo bow”) due to the skill with which he played the work’s notable violin solo. Sigmund Effron studied with Robert Perutz, a renowned Polish violinist who was based in Cincinnati. James Levine is a conductor and accompanist from Cincinnati. He served as the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera until he was notably terminated in 2018 over sexual assault allegations that he denies. Josef Blatt was a professor of conducting at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Famed conductor Tibor Kozma allowed David Effron to conduct operas during his graduate study at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Effron tells the story of one unfortunate performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto at New York City Opera featuring soprano Gianna Rolandi, mezzo-soprano Jane Shalos, baritone Richard Fredricks, and an unnamed tenor. A Hochschule is an institution of higher education within German-speaking countries. Effron served as the assistant to German conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch at Cologne Opera. Hugh Thompson and Tito Capobianco were both notable opera directors, though Thompson was better known as a lyric baritone with 238 performances at the Metropolitan Opera. Beverly Sills, Plácido Domingo, and Norman Treigle all performed in a production of Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman at New York City Opera. Hamilton: An American Musical is a Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda about the life, career, and death of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. Musically, it pulls from genres as varied as hip hop, R&B, pop, soul, and traditional show tunes. Benita Valente is a renowned American soprano from California. WhatsApp is a mobile application popularly used for text messaging and calling in countries outside of the US. | |||
| 03 Aug 2020 | Talise Trevigne: Baseball Mom and Opera Star | 01:06:52 | |
Marie Kondo, an organizing consultant and author most famous for her Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, uses a methodical approach to help people clean and organize their spaces. She is most known for asking people if an item “sparks joy” in their life. Martha Graham was a choreographer and American modern dancer whose technique is still taught around the world. Soprano Adele Addison was an early voice teacher for Trevigne at the Manhattan School of Music. Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Ned Rorem occasionally observed Trevigne’s lessons with Adele Addison. Tenor George Shirley and mezzo-soprano Hilda Harris were other early mentors for Trevigne. Choral conductor Robert Shaw is notable for bringing black vocalists, like soprano Adele Addison and tenor Seth McCoy, to the spotlight from the 1940s through the 1970s. During her senior year of high school, Trevigne sang the soprano solo in one of Gabriel Fauré’s most notable works Requiem. James Gandre, the former Dean of Admissions at the Manhattan School of Music, is now the President of the School. Early in her career, Trevigne sang under notable American conductor Julius Rudel. Adele Addison gave Trevigne original manuscripts of the French composer, conductor, and pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. George Szell, the former Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra once famously noted: “The Cleveland Orchestra plays seven concerts a week, and admits the public to the final two. We do some of our best playing in rehearsals.” Trevigne has worked closely with contemporary American composer Jake Heggie. She starred as Pip in Heggie’s operatic rendition of Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick. A sitzprobe (German for “seated rehearsal”) is an opera or musical theatre rehearsal in which the vocalists sing with the orchestra—usually for the first time. concert:nova is a contemporary music ensemble based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Trevigne will perform the role of Patience in Cincinnati Opera’s world premiere production of Castor and Patience in the summer of 2021. Trevigne frequently watches the English television dramas Grantchester and Father Brown. Trevigne finds the following mobile applications useful: Gamechanger (for keeping tabs on her son’s baseball games), Beachbody (for exercising), and Stash (for investing). Trevigne enjoys eating at Conscious Kitchen in Cincinnati because they accommodate her alkaline vegan diet—a diet which does not allow any animal products, processed foods, coffee, and most grains. Outside of classical music, Trevigne listens to hip-hop (she mentions the artist Drake) and country music. | |||
| 10 Aug 2020 | Marie-France Lefebvre: Working with the Coach | 01:04:09 | |
Conductor Mark Gibson, the current Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), invited Lefebvre to participate in a CCM summer program in Luca, Italy. Gustav Meier was a Swiss conductor and professor of orchestral conducting at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Elisabeth Schwartzkopf was a German-born soprano and is considered one of the top singers of the 20th century. In her performing career, she specialized in German-language art song (lieder) and Viennese operetta; later in life, she became an international renowned voice teacher. Nana Mouskouri is a popular Greek singer whose extensive discography includes over 200 albums in at least twelve different languages. English-Italian conductor Annuzio Mantovani led his own orchestra (the Mantovani Orchestra) in the mid-20th century and became famous in the “light music” style. Mario Bernardi was a Canadian conductor and pianist. Dale Bartlett was a Canadian pianist, educator, and collaborative pianist. Vladimir Horowitz was a renowned Russian-born classical pianist who spent most of his life in the U.S. “Il mio tesoro” is a famous tenor aria from W.A. Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. Beverly Sills was one of the most notable sopranos of the 20th century and, after retiring from singing, became the General Manager of the New York City Opera and later the Metropolitan Opera. Renée Fleming is an actively performing American operatic soprano and the current Creative Consultant at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Franco Zeffirelli was an Italian director and producer of opera, films, and television. Many of his opera productions are still in use today around the world. Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a Canadian conductor and pianist. Currently, he is the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Orchestre Métropolitain in Montréal. Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt set three sonnets by Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch to music in the collection “Tre sonetti di Petrarch” (“Three Petrarch Sonnets”). The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts center based in Brooklyn, New York. Françoise Frenkel’s memoir A Bookshop in Berlin follows her escape from the rise of fascism in Germany and, later, her evasion from Nazi occupation in war-torn France. Grey’s Anatomy is an American medical drama television series. Kanopy is an online film streaming service specializing in classic, independent, and foreign films. Duolingo is a Google-owned mobile application and website for studying foreign languages. WhatsApp is a Facebook-owned mobile application for messaging and calling over the Internet. Lefebvre enjoys eating at restaurant Red Feather Kitchen in Cincinnati. Nico Castel was a tenor and notable language and diction coach. Oscar Peterson was a famous Canadian jazz pianist and composer. | |||
| 17 Aug 2020 | Isabel Leonard: Constructing a Character | 01:11:06 | |
The Damnation of Faust (La damnation de Faust) is a work by 19th-century French composer Hector Berlioz for four solo voices, chorus, children’s chorus, and orchestra based on German Romantic poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust. Santiago del Estero is a province and city in northern Argentina. Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru. Carlos Gardel was a French Argentine singer notable for his tango compositions and hundreds of recordings of tango pieces. Loons are aquatic birds found in North America and northern Eurasia. The Peruvian panpipe (Andean panpipe or siku) is a traditional flute-like instrument associated with music from the Qullasuyu region of the Andean Mountains of South America. Ella Fitzgerald was one of the best-known American jazz singers of the 20th century. Frank Sinatra was an American singer and actor who is one of the best-selling musicians of all time. Fred Astaire was an American dancer, singer, actor, and choreographer most noted for work in film and television. Gene Kelly was an American actor, dancer, and director known for his lead roles in Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris. Located near Lincoln Center in New York City, LaGuardia High School is a public magnet high school focusing in the visual and performing arts. Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano and music pedagogue. Matthew Epstein is a prominent artistic advisor and artist manager within the opera community. Der Rosenkavalier is a frequently performed comic opera by German composer Richard Strauss. A pants role (or trouser role) is a character which is performed by a woman in traditionally masculine clothing. Some examples of these roles include Cherubino from W.A. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Count Ottavio from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Dorabella is a principle soprano role from W.A. Mozart’s comic opera Così fan tutte. Marnie is an opera by contemporary American composer Nico Muhly based on Winston Graham’s 1961 novel by the same name. Notably, Alfred Hitchcock directed a film adaptation of the same novel. Leonard performed the title role in the U.S. premiere of the operatic adaptation at the Metropolitan Opera in 2018. Coal Mountain is an opera by contemporary American composer Jennifer Higdon surrounding the American Civil War. The Fach system is a method of categorizing singers’ voices into specific “types.” Not all musicians agree with every aspect of the system, however it is a commonly used tool for understanding the range, weight, and color of a singer’s voice. Rosina is a principle soprano role in Gioachino Rossini’s comic opera The Barber of Seville. Leonard will perform this role in Cincinnati Opera’s 2021 Summer Festival. Edith Bers was a member of the voice faculty at The Julliard School. White Fragility is a book by Robin DiAngelo about systemic racism in the United States. Trevor Noah is a South African comedian and political commentator known for being the current host of the satirical The Daily Show. The Hardy Boys is a series of mystery novels for children written under the name Franklin W. Dixon. Schitt’s Creek is an acclaimed Canadian television sitcom. | |||
| 24 Aug 2020 | Gregory Spears: Modern Masterpieces | 01:07:39 | |
The American Opera Project is an opera company in Brooklyn, New York dedicated to developing new operatic and musical theatre works. Fugues are a musical composition technique in which a melody is blended with other melodies, usually in complex ways. German Baroque composer J.S. Bach is notable for having written many collections of fugues. Early in his life, Spears studied music theory and composition with prolific American composer and educator Adolphus Hailstork. Pietà (Pity) is a statue by Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti currently housed in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. Anton Webern was an Austrian avant-garde composer of the early 20th century. Tracy K. Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet and former Poet Laureate of the U.S. Charles Jarden was the former General Director of The American Opera Project. Troubadours were composers and singers of lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (12th to 14th centuries). The Requiem in D Minor is an unfinished work by W.A. Mozart who passed away before it was completed. Plainchant (sometimes called “Gregorian chant”) is a liturgical musical style used historically in the Western Church (and now mainly in the Catholic Church) for singing texts to a congregation. In this style, the text is sung on one unaccompanied melody. Hot yoga is a modern yoga-inspired exercise where typical yoga sequences are performed under hot and humid conditions. Joan Panetti is a pianist, composer, and Professor of Music at the Yale School of Music. Ta-Nehesi Coates is an American author and essayist who generally focuses on the subject of race relations in the United States. One of his best-known essays is The Case for Reparations. Seeing the Body is a book by poet and photographer Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Revolutions is a podcast which explores political revolutions throughout history. The Criterion Collection is an American video distribution company focusing on “important classic and contemporary films.” Stevie Wonder is a 25 Grammy Award-winning American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer known for tracks such as his 1970 “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” and his 1972 “Superstition.” Brian Eno is an English musician and visual artist known for his ambient musical style and collaborations to rock, pop, and electronic music as well. Arthur Russell was an American avant-garde cellist and composer. Liz Wright is an American jazz and gospel singer. | |||
| 02 Sep 2020 | Robin Guarino: Directing as Activism | 01:01:37 | |
Birgit Nillson was a 20th-century Swedish dramatic soprano famous for her renditions of the works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Rudolph Bing was an Austrian opera impresario (producer) who worked around the world. He notably served as the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The first (old) Metropolitan Opera House in New York was located on Broadway but was demolished in 1967. The current (new) Metropolitan Opera House is located in Lincoln Center in the Upper West Side. La fanciulla del West (1910) is an opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (Hamburg College for Music and Theatre) is a large public university of music in Hamburg, Germany. Rolf Liebermann was a Swiss composer and music administrator who served as the Artistic Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Paris Opera. Judith Blegen is an American operatic soprano. La voix humaine (1959) is a one-act opera by 20th-century French composer Francis Poulenc. In July 1980, a 30-year-old violinist named Helen Mintiks was murdered during the intermission of a performance at the Metropolitan Opera. Read more here. Guarino refers to “Jimmy,” or James Levine, a Cincinnati-born opera conductor who became the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera. He was notably terminated from this position in 2018 over sexual assault allegations that he denies. John Dexter was an English theatre, opera, and film director. Guarino mentions his production of French composer Francis Poulenc’s opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1956). Franco Zeffirelli was an Italian director and producer of opera, films, and television. Many of his opera productions are still in use today around the world. Margarete Wallmann was a German ballerina, choreographer, set designer, and opera director. Rhoda Levine is an American opera director, choreographer, and professor. Francesca Zambello is an American opera and theatre director who currently serves as director of the Glimmerglass Festival and Washington National Opera. Ricky Ian Gordon is a contemporary American composer. Fiora Contino was an American opera conductor and teacher. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle was a 20th-century French opera director and scenic designer. Dawn Upshaw is an American operatic soprano. Robert Wilson is an American experimental theatre director and playwright. The 19th-century Viennese composer W.A. Mozart frequently collaborated with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, such as for their opera The Marriage of Figaro (1786). Blind Injustice was an opera by composer *** and librettist *** which premiered at Cincinnati Opera in 2019. Patricia (“Patty”) K. Beggs was the General Director of Cincinnati Opera from 1997 to 2019. Opera Fusion: New Works (OF:NW) is a partnership between Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music focused on fostering contemporary American opera. In 2011, Doubt by composer Douglas J Cuomo and librettist John Patrick Shirley became the first project workshopped by OF:NW. The opera premiered at Minnesota Opera in 2013. Fellow Travelers by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Gregory Pierce is another opera that participated in OF:NW in 2013. Cincinnati Opera premiered the work in 2015. Hear Fellow Travelers composer Gregory Spears talk about the work on a previous episode of Inside Opera. Castor and Patience by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Tracy K. Smith participated in OF:NW in 2019. Cincinnati Opera will premiere the work as part of its 2021 Summer Festival. Hear Castor and Patience composer Gregory Spears talk about the work on a previous episode of Inside Opera. Rachel Maddow is an American television program host and political commentator, known for the nightly Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. Joni Mitchell is a critically acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter. Bob Dylan is a Nobel Prize-winning American singer-songwriter. | |||