Met Opera Guild Podcast

This week’s episode is the third installment of our operatic voice types series. Our previous voice type lectures, featured in episodes 5 and 10, discussed the soprano and tenor vocal categories. We are happy to continue our exploration, focusing in this episode on mezzo-sopranos and contraltos.

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra will be performing a program of all Mahler works at Carnegie Hall on May 31st, 2017. For today’s episode, Guild lecturer Naomi Barraterra discusses the life of Gustav Mahler, and the two major works on the concert program: Symphony No. 1 and selections from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn."

DER ROSENKAVALIER, Richard Strauss’s most popular stage work, was first performed in Dresden in 1911, and has come to hold a special place in the repertoire. In a Talking About Opera recording from our archives, Brian Zeger explores musical and dramatic elements that have kept this masterpiece on stage for more than a century.

In 1966, the Metropolitan Opera moved into a glittering, state-of-the-art opera house, and launched a historic season to show off its new home. Today on the Metropolitan Opera Guild Podcast we explore highlights from the Met’s first season at Lincoln Center.

Tempted by a chest of gold, Captain Daland allows his daughter Senta to marry a mysterious Dutchman. Can her vows of faithfulness break the curse that holds the stranger captive? Today on The Metropolitan Opera Guild Podcast, we have a Peter Allen discussing dramatic, musical and stylistic elements of Wagner's DER FLIEGENDE HÖLLANDER.

“Are you my guardian angel? Or a wily devil, a fatal tempter? My heart sinks with shame and terror… to your honor I entrust my destiny!” So writes Tatiana in her famous letter to the man who has captured her heart - Eugene Ongein. She’s puts her heart in his hands, but does he return the sentiment? Today we explore Tchaikovsky’s EUGENE ONEGIN with lecturer Dr. Harlow Robinson, a Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University, and specialist in Soviet and Russian cultural history.

Beethoven's FIDELIO is on the Met stage for the first time in over a decade, now through April 8th, 2017. Here is composer and conductor Victoria Bond exploring the themes of Beethoven’s only opera, in a pre-performance lecture originally recorded on March 20th, 2016.

In Mozart's Idomeneo, a story drawn from Greek antiquity meets musical tradition and the innovative touch of Mozart. In this episode, Naomi Barrettara gives a pre-performance lecture exploring the historic and stylistic elements of this work.

During the highly productive middle period of his career, Verdi created some of his most enduringly popular operas, including what might be his most beloved work: La Traviata. Today we have Peter Allen in a Talking About Opera lecture recorded in from 1989, exploring this tragic love story that has captured the hearts of opera goers for over 150 years.

Since his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1971, James Morris has gone on to create renowned character portrayals and share the stage with virtually every great singer of the past five decades. Here is the legendary bass-baritone in conversation with the Guild’s Executive Director of Program Development, Paul Gruber, sharing stories from across his career.

This episode features a special conversation between Opera News Editor-in-Chief, F. Paul Driscoll, and the Met’s Assistant General Manager for Music Administration John Fisher, providing insight into the Met's 2017-18 season.

Dvořák's Czech masterpiece has opera returned to the Met this season with a new, fantastical production by Mary Zimmerman. Today’s episode features my co-host and Guild lecturer Naomi Barrettara in a pre-performance talk exploring the folklore sources behind the opera plot, as well as the musical fabric that bring this story to life.

Today's episode features an engaging interview with Met Opera chorus master, Donald Palumbo, originally recorded in November 2016. In it, we hear about Maestro Palumbo's path to the Met as well as his approach for preparing one of the world's best opera choruses.

With the Met's new production of Romeo et Juliette coming to theaters around the world this Saturday, January 21st, seasoned stage director Jay Lesenger explores Gounod's operatic adaptation of Shakespeare's most famous play.

In today's episode, a Talking About Opera lecture on Verdi's first big hit, which includes Verdi's path to success and a chorus that became an anthem of the Italian nationalist movement.

In this episode, Guild lecturer Naomi Barrettara takes an in depth look at the musical and dramatic elements of Strauss's Salome, as well as it's scandalous 1907 Met Opera premiere.

Just after it's Met premiere, Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin will be broadcast Live in HD to theaters around the world on Saturday, December 10, 2016. In this episode, we have a pre-performance lecture given by Naomi Barrettara with everything you need to know before seeing this stunning 21st-century opera.

Rossini's final opera, Guillaume Tell, is the grandest of them all. Composer and conductor Victoria Bond talks about the challenges and fireworks incorporated in this work as it comes to the Met stage for the first time in 80 years.

Perhaps Verdi's grandest opera, Aida has been a staple of the opera repertory since its first performance in 1871. Here is Bridget Paolucci talking about the musical and thematic highlights that make this opera an audience favorite.

Composed by Czech nationalist, Leos Janacek, Jenufa incorporates the beauties of Czech music, language, and culture while telling a disturbing story based on true events. Here, Yveta Graff takes us through the opera's plot and music, and the tells the history of its composition and early performances.

Don Giovanni is an ingenious fusion of bumbling comedy and the earnestness of tragedy. Here is former Met radio commentator Father Owen Lee and his Talking About Opera presentation on Mozart's hit.

From the famous opening "Tristan Chord" to the final "Liebstod," Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is considered a revolutionary work. Today, a closer look at the musical and dramatic layers of Wagner's masterpiece.

Tristan und Isolde opens the Met's 2016-17 season in a new production starring Nina Stemme and Stuart Skelton, conducted by Simon Rattle. In this episode, an insider's perspective on Wagner's towering drama, as Opera News Editor-in-Chief, F. Paul Driscoll, sits down with the Met's Assistant General Manager for Music Administration, John Fisher.

For this episode, we are going to dip our toes into the wonderful world of languages with soprano Jane Marsh. Jane is a regular lecturer at the Met Opera Guild, and she is a language enthusiast, fluent in English, German, Italian, French, and Russian. Jane will be our language expert for today’s episode, and she will be guiding us through the pronunciation of composer, opera, and singer names that we have on the roster at the Met this season, focusing on Italian, German, and French. There are also musical examples included throughout the episode to illustrate the flavor of each language as it is sung.

Today’s episode features an exploration of Wagner’s GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, concluding our mini-series of episodes on Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

We are now moving into part three of a four episode series on Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Each episode in this series covers one of the operas in the cycle, so you don’t necessarily have to listen to them in order to follow the content of the lecture, but if you want to get a sense of the chronology of the cycle, then we suggest listening to episodes 43 and 44 before starting this one. Our lecturer is the legendary Met Opera Radio Broadcast Host Peter Allen, and today he will be taking us through Wagner’s SIEGFRIED.

This episode is part two of a Talking About Opera recording on Wagner’s Ring Cycle. This mammoth work is comprised of four operas with interconnected stories that Wagner fashioned by combining various elements of Old Norse mythology. So for this week and next week’s episodes, we are releasing one episode per opera, in a series of lectures featuring former Met Opera Radio Broadcast Host Peter Allen.

The second half of the summer is a special time for German opera fans, as people from all over the world make a pilgrimage to Germany for the annual Bayreuth Festival. This festival is entirely dedicated to the operatic output of Richard Wagner, including performances of the entire Ring Cycle. For the next several episodes, we thought it would be fitting to take a tour through these amazing works via a 4-part Talking About Opera program with former Met Opera Radio Broadcast Host Peter Allen. Episode 43 begins with the first opera in the cycle, DAS RHEINGOLD.

This week we are happy to present our third and final instalment of Memories from the Golden Horseshoe. This series features Met radio commentator Ira Siff, regaling us with his memories of performances he witnessed at the old Metropolitan Opera house in its final years between 1961 and 1966.

Picking up right where we left off in Episode 41, Part 1, this is Part 2 of a Talking About Opera lecture, with Bridget Paolucci discussing Verdi's FALSTAFF.

The topic of today’s episode is Giuseppe Verdi’s last opera, FALSTAFF, which was also his third opera to be adapted from a Shakespeare play. This is a Talking About Opera lecture presented by Bridget Paolucci, split into two parts to ensure the length is manageable without cutting out all the great content. Today we are releasing Part 1, and tomorrow we will release Part 2!

On July 20th, 2016, the Met will be broadcasting the last HD encore opera of the summer to theatres across the globe! The opera is Mozart’s beloved Così fan tutte, and the cast features audience favourites such as Matthew Polenzani, Isabel Leonard, and Danielle de Niese. So to get us all prepared for the broadcast, our episode today features a wonderful Talking About Opera lecture from our archives, with Bridget Paolucci discussing this beloved Mozart work.

Great arias have long been an opportunity for singers to showcase their virtuosity and offer an intimate look at a character’s inner most feelings. In this episode, podcast host Naomi Barrettara takes a deep dive into two different aria forms - the Da Capo aria and the Cabaletta, discussing musical elements of each form, and providing examples by Handel, Rossini, and Verdi.

This is Part 2 of Episode 38, featuring Albert Innaurato giving a Talking About Opera lecture on Verdi's Macbeth. The episode picks up right where Part 1 left off, at the beginning of Act II in the opera.

This week we are continuing our celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with a Talking About Opera lecture devoted to Verdi’s "Macbeth." This particular Talking About Opera recording is somewhat special, as it has never before been released to the public. In an effort to keep our episodes manageable and appealing to a wide audience, we typically try to limit their duration to an hour or less. Seeing as there is so much great information and wonderful musical examples included in this Talking About Opera lecture, we have split it into two parts so that you can experience the full recording.

The second of this summer’s Met Live in HD Encore presentation will be of Donizetti’s "L’Elisir d’Amore," with an exceptional cast starring Anna Netrebko as Adina, Matthew Polenzani as Nemorino, Mariusz Kwiecień as Belcore, and Ambrogio Maestri as the clever Dulcamara. In preparation for the broadcast, the Met Opera Guild’s Kyle Homewood joins Naomi Barrettara in a casual conversation discussing things they love about the opera and musical moments to listen for in one of the most popular operatic comedies of the last two centuries.

With a Met Live in HD Encore presentation of Puccini’s Tosca coming to theatres this Wednesday, June 22, 2016, today's episode once again reaches into the Talking about Opera archives to give you some added insight into one of Puccini’s dramatic works.

The summer of 2016 is in full swing, with festivals and performances in cities across the globe celebrating the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death. This podcast episode explores the operatic adaptation of a beloved Shakespeare work - A Midsummer Night's Dream - with a musical setting composed by Benjamin Britten. This lecture is taken from our Talking About Opera archives, featuring Guild lecturer Harlow Robinson.

Today’s episode is the second installment of our Memories from the Golden Horseshoe series in which Met broadcast commentator Ira Siff speaks about the legendary performances he witnessed at the old Metropolitan Opera house in its final years between 1961 and 1966. In the episode, I hope you will enjoy remembering or perhaps discovering the likes of Leonie Rysanek, John Vickers, Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli, Zinka Milanov, Renata Tebaldi, and several others. This is part two of Memories from the Golden Horseshoe!

Today we are happy to present a very special artist interview that took place in March 2016 as part of our Singers’ Studio series with Opera News. In the interview, tenor Roberto Alagna sits down with Opera News Editor-in-Chief F. Paul Driscoll to talk about his life and career. In case you don’t know or don’t remember, this interview took place just after Alagna’s successful run in the Met’s new production of Manon Lescaut in which he replaced Jonas Kaufmann as Des Grieux with only a few weeks’ notice.

Ever wonder what it's like to be a Met Orchestra musician? In this episode we sit down for an informative and entertaining conversation with members of the Met Orchestra to get an inside look at this elite ensemble and some of its players. For more even more great content and to stay up to date with the Met Orchestra, visit www.metorchestramusicians.org.

Since the 2015-2016 Met season came to an end last week, we're taking a look back at some of its most memorable moments. With fantastic new productions like Otello, Pearl Fishers, and Elektra, as well as an outstanding Tudor Queen trilogy, there is much to look back at and reminisce upon. Make sure you comment on our various social media pages and tell us about your favorite moments of the season!

This week we are excited to have Ira Siff on the Metropolitan Opera Guild podcast for the first time. Ira is currently a commentator on the Met’s Saturday broadcasts but also teaches and coaches opera, and even used to run his own opera spoof company! His love of opera and the Met started in his teenage years as he stood in line for standing room tickets at the Old Met in the early 1960’s. Just in case any of you don’t know, the current Metropolitan Opera House opened in 1966, and before that, the opera company was based out of its original home dubbed the “Golden Horseshoe.” Today’s episode is the first of three lectures in which Ira Siff regales us with his Memories of the Golden Horseshoe, talking about his experiences and and the legendary singers that he saw along the way. And of course we will feature many musical clips from these singers as we take this walk down memory lane. So please enjoy part one of Memories from the Golden Horseshoe!

This week’s episode features a pre-performance lecture on the final new production of the 2015-2016 Met season, Elektra. Presenting today’s lecture is radio commentator and writer, William Berger, whom many of you may recognize from Sirius XM’s Met Opera radio and the famed Met Opera Quiz. The slideshow referenced throughout the lecture is available for download at www.metguild.org/podcast.

This week we are very excited to be bringing back Santa Fe Opera’s Desirée Mays to the Met Opera Guild Podcast! We have already had such a great response to last week’s episode and Desirée’s talk on The Real Madama Butterfly, and today’s episode is equally as engaging and informative as Ms. Mays fills us in on some of the confusing plot points and Donizetti’s blurring of fact and fiction in Roberto Devereux.

This week’s episode is recorded from a live event that took place on March 29th, 2016, featuring Santa Fe Opera’s Desirée Mays as she explores the historical and literary sources that contributed to the story of Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

This Friday the Met Opera will begin an exciting run of one of Verdi’s more obscure operas, Simon Boccanegra, which will feature Maestro James Levine on the podium and legendary tenor/now baritone Plácido Domingo singing the title role. In preparation for this special musical event, today’s episode features Bridget Paolucci’s Talking About Opera lecture on Simon Boccanegra.

Today’s episode is drawn from one of our Opera Boot Camp classes - an introductory tour through Donizetti’s Tudor Queen operas. These operas have garnered a lot of attention this spring and there is a wealth of history connected to these bel canto masterpieces. This episode explores important background information and musical highlights from "Anna Bolena," "Maria Stuarda," and "Roberto Devereux."

Today’s episode is drawn from a Talking about Opera excerpt, featuring Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" with lecturer Bridget Paolucci. At the time this recording was made, Bridget was a frequent lecturer at the Met Opera Guild, New York City Opera, and regularly appeared on the Met’s Radio Broadcasts. In this episode, Bridget takes us through the rich history of this opera, discussing source material, Mozart's collaboration with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, and delving into the layers of musical meaning and style.

Heralded by scholars and opera lovers as the “last great opera buffa,” Donizetti's DON PASQUALE has been a hit with audiences since the night it premiered in Paris in 1843. This episode features playwright and stage director Albert Innaurato as our lecturer, sharing fascinating details about the composer’s life and the musical elements that made this opera such a striking success.