Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Opera in the Park Playlist

Have you visited our Opera in the Park page recently? There's lots of great info on our Prelude Dinner, guest artists, donating, parking, and more, including the repertoire for this year's concert. While the program is still subject to change, I thought it would be fun to assemble a YouTube playlist previewing some of the selections that will be featured in Garner Park on July 16th. Check it out below!



Please note that this doesn't include every piece we're doing, and that these are not performances by Madison Opera artists.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Met operas on Wisconsin Public Television

Wisconsin Public Television is once again broadcasting Great Performances at the Met. This is a fantastic series, offering a look at some very exciting repertoire performed by the best in the world. Apologies for missing the announcement of Don Pasquale, which aired last night, but you can still catch:

René Pape takes on one of the greatest bass roles in a new production by Stephen Wadsworth.Valery Gergiev conducts Mussorgsky’s epic spectacle that captures the suffering and ambition of a nation, with Aleksandrs Antonenko, Vladimir Ognovenko, and Ekaterina Semenchuk leading the huge cast.

The Metropolitan Opera’s much-admired new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo is conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and directed by Nicholas Hytner. Verdi’s grand opera, in which love, war, politics, and religion intertwine against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition, stars Roberto Alagna as the conflicted title character; Marina Poplavskaya as Elisabeth de Valois; Anna Smirnova as the scheming Princess Eboli; Ferruccio Furlanetto as the tormented tyrant Philip II; Simon Keenlyside as the heroic Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa; and Eric Halfvarson as the Grand Inquisitor.

10:30 p.m. Sunday, July 31
Puccini’s wild-west opera, based on David Belasco’s play, made its world premiere in 1910 at the Met. Now, on the occasion of its centennial, all-American diva Deborah Voigt sings the title role of the “girl of the golden west,” opposite Marcello Giordani in this revival of Giancarlo Del Monaco's 1991 production. Lucio Gallo is the villainous sheriff Jack Rance. Nicola Luisotti conducts.