Met Opera Guild Podcast

In anticipation of the Met’s Live in HD broadcast of Manon Lescaut this Saturday, March 5th, we are happy to bring to you a Manon Lescaut pre-performance lecture that took place not even 24 hours prior to the release of this episode. Today’s lecturer, Nimet Habachy, is known in the New York City area for her more than 25 years as the host of New York at Night on the old WQXR. She now frequently gives lectures at both the Metropolitan Opera Guild as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has even joined the Met Museum as a lecturer on international tours. I hope you enjoy Ms. Habachy’s insights into Puccini’s first great hit, Manon Lescaut.

In today's episode, host Naomi Barrettara is joined by Met Guild Director of School Programs and Community Engagement, Stuart Holt, and Community Engagement Coordinator, Elspeth Davis, to discuss the newly-announced 2016-2017 Met Opera season. In this conversation the trio shares valuable insights and opinions on the new productions, intriguing revivals, and possible "sleeper hits" of the upcoming season, and informs us all on the hot tickets that we need to look out for.

This Friday, February 19 is the Met’s season premiere of Anthony Minghella’s celebrated production of Madama Butterfly. In anticipation of this premiere, we are once again reaching into the Talking About Opera archives to present an enthralling lecture given by the acclaimed playwright, director, and journalist, Albert Innaurato. In this lecture recorded in 1997, Mr. Innaurato explores the inner workings of Butterfly’s complicated characters and navigates through various highlights in the plot and score. I hope you enjoy this presentation on one of opera’s most beloved works.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, this week’s episode is all about LOVE and MARRIAGE in Opera! Our content today is presented by Naomi Barrettara and drawn from a live event that happened at the Cosmopolitan Club in New York City as a pre-Valentine’s day celebration. The audio you are about to hear was taken from a dress rehearsal, so there is no real audience to laugh at the wonderful jokes, but we hope you enjoy them all the same!

In this week’s episode, we are excited to present a talk with a very important member of the Metropolitan Opera staff. Donna Racik plays a role in Met performances that you will never see or hear. Her role is performed from a little black box at the front of the stage known as the prompter’s box. From the prompter’s box Donna conducts, mouths words, gives direction, and sometimes even sings! She does all this to help Met performers be at their very best, especially when they have had little or no rehearsal time. Enjoy fascinating insight into the life of a Met Opera prompter with interesting Q&A at the end of the episode.

Leading up to this weekend’s Met Live in HD broadcast of Puccini’s Turandot, we are happy to present this pre-performance lecture given by Dr. Jeffrey Langford, the Assistant Dean for Doctoral Studies and Music History Chair at the Manhattan School of Music. As you would imagine, this lecture is chalk-full of historical insights and musical analysis that will give you an entirely different perspective on this wildly popular opera. In fact, Dr. Langford included a physical handout of musical examples for the live audience that he references during the lecture. If you would like to download this handout so you can follow along you can do so at www.metguild.org/podcast. Now please enjoy Dr. Langford’s thoughts on Puccini’s Turandot.

Today's episode is taken from our Singers’ Studio series, in which editors from Opera News magazine sit down in conversation with some of today’s elite singers. In these conversations, singers discuss many things from their career origins to future plans, and even their thoughts on the art form as a whole. In today’s episode, we are happy to present one such interview with renowned tenor Piotr Beczala. I hope you’ll enjoy listening in as Mr. Beczala sits down with Opera News Digital Editor Adam Wasserman in the Singers’ Studio.

Today’s episode features a pre-performance lecture on the opera dubbed by the New York Times as the “sleeper hit” of this year’s opera season - Bizet’s "Les Pêcheurs de Perles." The lecture is presented by Dr. Harlow Robinson, an author, lecturer, and Matthews Distinguished University Professor of History at Northeastern University.

This episode, presented by the Met Guild’s Director of School Programs and Community Engagement, Stuart Holt, is all about a rarely-heard operatic version of the Cinderella story - Cendrillon by Jules Massenet. This opera has never appeared on the Met stage, and this lecture was originally given as part of a lecture series called “Unknown Masterworks”.

Today’s episode is recorded from a live pre-performance lecture that was given on December 14th by one of the Guild’s in-house lecturers and artistic consultants, Jane Marsh. Ms. Marsh is a celebrated Soprano who has sung countless opera roles all over the world, and brings a unique wealth of experience and knowledge to each of her lectures. This lecture is one of over 80 live educational events that are hosted at the Met Opera Guild this season, and as a pre-performance lecture it was given immediately prior to a Met performance of Die Fledermaus, where a majority of attendees continued on to the opera afterwards.

Today’s episode corresponds with the Met’s current holiday production of the The Barber of Seville, although it focuses on the original Il Barbiere di Siviglia rather than the Met’s shortened and translated version. Another revival from the Talking About Opera archives, this lecture is presented by Albert Innaurato. Mr. Innaurato has enjoyed a successful career as a playwright, stage director, journalist, and frequent lecturer at the Metropolitan Opera Guild, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center among many others. His play, Gemini, brought to the Broadway stage in the late 1970s was one of the longest continually running non-musical plays with 1,819 performances. His writings have appeared in numerous publications including Opera News, The New York Times, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. Currently, Albert serves as a creative consultant with Center City Opera Theater in Philadelphia, and directs nontraditional productions of classic operas and new works alike. We hope you enjoy Mr. Innaurato’s take on Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, or, The Barber of Seville.

This week’s episode will be the second iteration of our lectures on voice types. Our previous voice types lecture, episode 5 on the soprano voice type, is our most popular episode to date! So by popular demand, we are happy to present this lecture all about tenors.

This episode feature a discussion of Mozart's "The Magic Flute," delving into the interpretation of Masonic elements and symbolism throughout the opera.

Today’s episode features an engaging interview with a mezzo soprano turned soprano who just celebrated the 50th anniversary of her Met debut, Grace Bumbry. In the interview hosted by the Met Guild’s Executive Director of Program Development, Paul Gruber, Ms. Bumbry talks about some of the challenges and triumphs she experienced throughout her career that includes over 200 Met performances and countless operatic appearances and recitals around the world.

Today’s episode draws once more from the archives of the Met Opera Guild’s Talking About Opera series. This particular episode features Bridget Paolucci detailing the musical and dramatic beauty of Puccini’s La Bohème. At the time of this recording in 1991, Bridget was a frequent lecturer at the Met Opera Guild, New York City Opera, and regularly appeared on the Met’s Radio Broadcasts. Though she no longer lectures with the Guild, we are happy to bring you Bridget’s take on one of Puccini’s most popular works - La Bohème.

This session with Maestro Steven Osgood is an extremely valuable resource for those hoping to gain a better understanding of Berg's Lulu and 12-tone musical composition. In it, Maestro Osgood highlights hidden musical elements and plot features that will help you piece together this musical puzzle and further enjoy the compositional genius of Berg.

In this episode, host Naomi Barrettara provides all the information that you need to know about the soprano voice type, including the different types of sopranos, common repertoire, and stylistic tendencies. Part of the Metropolitan Opera Guild's popular Opera Boot Camp series, this session is the first of several Voice Type episodes to come in the future.

In this session, soprano and lecturer Jane Marsh discusses two of Puccini's most beloved heroines, Tosca and Butterfly. Sharing insights from her own international performance experience, Ms. Marsh delves into the motivation behind these characters, and also invites Kelly Griffin, soprano, and Djordje Nesic, pianist, to perform two of their most famous arias.

In this episode, the Metropolitan Opera Guild is excited to present a recorded lecture by the late David Hamilton, in which he shares an abundance of information about Tannhäuser and Wagner's life leading up to its composition. Originally recorder for the Met Guild's "Talking About Opera" series, this lecture is a perfect preparation for those attending the Met's Live in HD presentation of Tannhäuser on October 31, 2015.

This week’s episode of the Metropolitan Opera Guild podcast features an engaging interview with Deborah Voigt that was presented and recorded here at the Guild on October 5th, 2015. In it, Ms. Voigt discusses some of the struggles and triumphs she experienced in her life and storied career,

In the first ever episode of the Met Opera Guild Podcast, Naomi Barrettara dives into the dramatic and musical elements of Verdi's penultimate opera.