Front Row Center

If you were to say "Figaro" three times in quick succession, I'm guessing most people would be able to sing it back to you as it is heard in Figaro's entrance aria, "Largo al factotum" in Rossini's The Barber of Seville . The opera has infiltrated popular culture from figure skating routines, to pasta commercials, and, of course, cartoons. It could be that The Barbe...

Donizetti's ebullient bel canto comedy, L'elisir d'amore , is rightfully one of the jewels in the canon with its amusing story, gorgeous melodies that come one after another, and one of the great operatic characters at its center, Nemorino. We'll celebrate this opera by talking with sommelier Massimo Maietto (@6:25) about wine and which wines he would suggest as a love potion. Then...

Step into the world of the demimonde with Verdi's masterpiece La Traviata . In digging into this opera, we’ll look at 19th-century courtesans and Marie Duplessis, the real-life courtesan who tangentially inspired La Traviata . That conversation is with Professor Andrew Lear . Violetta in the opera, famously dies from tuberculosis. I spoke with infectious disease expert Dr. P. J. Brennan about...

Learn more about Daniel Bernard Roumain and Marc Bamuthi Joseph's opera We Shall Not Be Moved and contextual historical elements pivotal to the opera: the 1985 police bombing of MOVE headquarters and the 2011 Pennsylvania education budget crisis which saw the closing of 24 schools within the School District of Philadelphia. Interviews include Philadelphia resident in 1985 Eric Owens, former SD...

Enjoy the view from Front Row Center as host Mike Bolton delves into Osvaldo Golijov's 21st-century masterpiece, Ainadamar , which centers on the life, death, and impact of Spanish poet and playwright, Federico García Lorca. Yale University professor Dr. Noël Valis discusses Lorca's life, death, and impact and her new book Lorca After Life , award-winning costume designer Richard St. Clair...

Enjoy the view from Front Row Center as host Mike Bolton speaks with Dr. Margaret Devinny, Associate Professor of German emerita at Temple University, about the origins of the Lohengrin story; the Philadelphia Zoo’s Curator of Birds Pete Bibeault gives the low down on all things swan related; author and lecturer  William Berger helps us rethink the opera; and Met Opera Chorus member soprano H...

Welcome to the first episode of Front Row Center with host Mike Bolton. For this inaugural podcast, we’ll look at Luigi Cherubini’s Medea. A work rarely staged in the United States, but the spotlight is on this work as the Metropolitan Opera opens its season with it in a new production starring superstar soprano Sondra Radvanovsky. In S1E1 of Front Row Center, we’ll delve into the mythology and Me...