The WFMT Radio Network Opera Series debuts its sixth season on 98.7 DZFE! The weekend matinée broadcasts (Sat 1300) will take us up to the cusp of the Advent season.
Productions from Santa Fe, France, Salzburg, England, Boston, Vienna, and Italy are slated for the part of the season, which began with Mason Bates’ (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at the Santa Fe Opera.
Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, always an audience favorite, comes to us from the Opéra de Paris with a stellar cast, including Luca Pisaroni in the title role, and led by the inimitable Gustavo Dudamel.
The Salzburg Festival’s production of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust , features Charles Castronovo as the romantic and tortured title character.
The Royal Opera House offers a set of four productions spanning Vivaldi to Verdi. Handel’s gripping Theodora features Joyce DiDonato, Julia Bullock, and Jakub Józef Orliński in a stunning production by Baroque specialist Harry Bicket. Listeners can take in the rarely-heard Vivaldi opera Bajazet in which “powerful men and strong women negotiate their relationships as desires of the heart clash with rank and duty”. Verdi’s exceptional Macbeth has Simon Keenlyside reprising the role of Macbeth, with Anna Pirozzi by his side as Lady Macbeth. Closing out Royal Opera’s suite of productions is Camille Saint-Saëns’s grand opera Samson et Delila, directed by multi-Olivier Award winner Richard Jones.
The series returns to the United States for two exquisite broadcasts from Boston Early Music Festival, beginning with an incredible quadruple bill: two performances of music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and two of music by Michel-Richard de Lalande—Les Plaisirs de Versailles and Les Arts Florissants by Charpentier, succeeded by Lalande’s Les Fontaines de Versailles and Le Concert d’Esculape. Handel’s Almira shines in a period performance underscored by the Boston Early Music Orchestra led by Music Directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs.
From the Vienna State Opera come two operas. Mussorgsky’s masterpiece Boris Godunov based on the play of the same name by Pushkin, is a story full of intrigue, war, and assassination in Tsarist Russia. Alexander Tsymbalyuk sings the title role, with Vitalij Kowaljow as Pimen, Dmitry Golovnin as Grigory, led by conductor Sebastian Wiegle. Next, story of love and loss, Manon Lescaut, with Asmik Grigorian as Manon.
Rounding out the first segment of the opera series are a pair of Italian productions. The illustrious La Scala presents Ponchielli’s grand La Gioconda, set in a dark and mysterious Venice. Bellini’s I Puritani is presented by the Teatro dell’Opera Rome with a stellar cast including Jessica Pratt as Lady Elvira Valton and John Osborn as Lord Arturo Talbot.
