Sirius Broadcasts the Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera, after years of declining listeners on FM Radio of its live Saturday Afternoon Broadcasts, has side stepped the problem by signing up with Sirius Satellite Radio where it has an all Met Opera Channel (85). This is complete heaven for those of us who love historic recordings and live performance on radio. The Met is broadcasting (from its extensive archives) many of the Saturday Afternoon Broadcasts of the past 70 years.
Here's a sample of a daily schedule along with the date of the original performance and artists featured.
Metropolitan Opera Radio Performances
Friday, March 16, 2007
- 6:00 AM Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito
1/12/1985 Levine; Riegel, Connell, Troyanos, Robinson, Murray, Cheek
- 9:00 AM Ponchielli: La Gioconda
4/20/1957-Cleva; Milanov, Poggi, Rankin, Warren, Siepi
- 12:00 PM Verdi: I Vespri Siciliani
3/20/1982-Levine; Scotto, Ochman, Elvira, Raimondi
- 3:00 PM Offenbach: Les Contes d'Hoffman
12/3/1955-Monteux; Tucker, Peters, Stevens, Amara, Singher, Miller, De Paolis
- 6:00 PM Puccini: Manon Lescaut
3/23/1968-Molinari-Pradelli; Tebaldi, Alexander, Guarrera, Michalski
- 9:00 PM Verdi: Luisa Miller
3/23/2002- Levine; Frittoli, Shicoff, Frontali, Tian, Ens, Graves
The most exciting aspect of this, however, is that all of the Mets' Current Season Operas are broadcast live on Sirius on opening night and for several other performances. You can hear the entire Met Season, Live, and experience the great voices of today as well as future stars as they develop and grow from the stage of the Met. An added bonus for Californians, is that due to the time difference, most of the broadcasts here begin at 5 p.m., making it a great way to relax and enjoy dinner at home with phenomenal voices and music.
Sirius is very easy to set up, and the cost is reasonable. I purchased my radio at Radio Shack in Sebastopol where they are very knowledgeable and walked me through the installation. Other than the cost of the radio (about $185), a subscription is $12.95/ mo. Sirius presents the MET daily!! HighlyRecommended!!
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The Rialto Brings the Met to Sonoma County
What would we do without the Rialto Cinema in Santa Rosa? Sonoma County's only venue for creative film has scored a coup by snagging the distribution rights to the "Met at the Cinema" series, inaugurated this year by the Met's new general manager, Peter Gelb.
6 Operas are being presented from March through May at the Rialto in a subscription series format. At $18/ticket this is an amazing bargain to see on the big screen and hear in surround sound the great singers of today in some of their most famous roles: Florez as Almaviva in Barber of Seville, Netrebko in her highly acclaimed performance as Elvira in I Puritani and the delicate Puccini one act opera, Suor Angelica ( a solid heartbreaker) with Barbara Frittoli.
The Schedule includes:
- The Magic Flute (Mozart)
- I Puritani (Bellini)
- Eugene Onegin ( Tchaikowsky )
- The First Emperor ( Tan Dun) New opera with Placido Domingo.
- The Barber of Seville (Rossini)
- Il Trittico (Puccini) 3 one act operas including Il Tabbaro, Suor Angelica, & Gianni Schicchi.
Next season the Met will present 8 Operas in its Series.
For more information on this season, times, dates visit:
www.RialtoCinemas.com
Buy your tickets since they are almost all sold out as of this writing. And thank you, RIALTO!!
Answer: They will all be featured in the new Fall Course that I am currently preparing and very excited about. Watch for the announcement and full course description in the next month on this WEBSITE. I hope to see you all there as the 9th year of A Passion for Opera begins.
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"The 20 Greatest Sopranos of All Time"
BBC MUSIC Magazine has compiled their list of the 20 greatest Sopranos of all Time in their April issue.
In Ascending Order (top to bottom) they are:
- 20. Elly Ameling
- 19. Rosa Ponselle
- 18. Renata Tebaldi
- 17. Christine Brewer
- 16. Elisabeth Schumann
- 15. Karita Mattila
- 14. Gundula Janowitz
- 13. Galina Vishnevskaya
- 12. Régine Crespin
- 11. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
- 10. Emma Kirkby
- 9. Kirsten Flagstad
- 8. Margaret Price
- 7. Lucia Popp
- 6. Montserrat Caballé
- 5. Birgit Nilsson
- 4. Leontyne Price
- 3. Victoria de los Angeles
- 2. Joan Sutherland
- 1. Maria Callas
Noticeably missing is Renee Fleming, while Karita Mattila and Christine Brewer (surprise) made the list. I would certainly promote Margaret Price to slot # 6 and move Victoria de los Angeles to slot # 8.
The only crime on this list is the absence of the great Claudia Muzio, who opened San Francisco Opera at the new War Memorial Opera House in 1932 as Tosca. There is a great CD available of this astounding artist titled simiply Muzio on Nimbus records. Callas seemed to respect and listen to only 2 sopranos: Muzio & Ponselle.
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SF Opera Adds 5 Performances of Madama Butterfly to Season
San Francisco Opera has just announced the addition of 5 performances of Puccini's Madama Butterfly to the 2007 Opera Season. Soprano, Patricia Racette will reprise her role as Butterfly (seen here last summer) for 3 of the performances with the other 2 taken by Marie Plette. Tenor, Carlo Ventre will sing Pinkerton. Racette is a major voice and a first class interpreter of the role. If you missed it last summer, here's your chance.
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Metropolitan Opera Alert!
Here are my picks for the hot tickets for the 2007/08 Season at the Met.
- Charles Gounod: Romeo & Juliette
with Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazon.
September/October, 2007
- Giuseppe Verdi: Otello
with Johan Botha & Renee Fleming.
February, 2008
- Gaetano Donizetti: La Fille du Regiment
with Natalie Dessay & Juan Diego Florez.
April, 2008
Single tickets become available 8/19/07 by phone.
If you can't make it to New York, hopefully you can see them at the Rialto in Santa Rosa
shortly after they premier.
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