Opera For Everyone

On this episode of Opera for Everyone, we welcome special guest Lester Lynch, who is a baritone opera singer performing with some of the world's leading operas. He discusses his album "On My Journey Now" a collection of spirituals and hymns, as well as his experience as an African-American vocalist and musician. This episode is in honor of the life, work and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Mozart & Salieri is an opera in one act by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov set to a Russian libretto taken almost verbatim from a novella of the same name by Alexandr Pushkin. It's based on the oft-disputed legend that Salieri poisoned Mozart out of jealousy for his genius. The novel occurs in a single afternoon and evening with Mozart dropping by Salieri's apartment in Vienna to play his nearly-completed...

On today's episode we listen to Manon by Jules Massenet, an opera in five acts set to a French Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille. The story is based on the 1731 novel "L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut" by the Abbé Prévost. The story begins in 1721 with a party of friends including Guillot Morfontain making merry at an Inn. Manon, escorted by her cousin Lescaut, of...

On today's episode of Opera for Everyone we listen to The Magic Flute, also known as Die Zauberflöte, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It's an opera in two acts, first performed in Vienna in 1791. In this opera the Queen of the Night persuades Prince Tamino to rescue her daughter Pamina from captivity in the Temple of Wisdom under the high priest Sarastro. Tamino is accompanied on his quest to the Temp...

If you’ve never experienced an opera by Antonio Salieri, now is your chance. You may have seen the movie Amadeus, or heard that Salieri was the Austrian court composer whose jealousy was whispered to have played a part in Mozart’s early death. And though that rumor is probably a fiction, who could blame him for being jealous of the wunderkind Mozart? A highly accomplished composer in his own right...

Ep. 16 I Puritani by Bellini broadcast 11.19.17 by Opera for Everyone

Mozart’s comic yet profound look at human nature and one crazy day in a wealthy Spanish household. The Marriage of Figaro, is an opera buffa (comic opera) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. The opera's libretto is based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro ("The Mad Day, or T...

In this episode of Opera for Everyone we listen to Norma, an opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after 'Norma, ou L'infanticide' by Alexandre Soumet. It was first produced at La Scala in Milan on 26 December 1831. The action takes place in ancient Gaul, under Roman occupation, where the Druid priestess Norma has fallen in love with a Roman official named Pollione a...

This episode of Opera for Everyone features Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles - The Pearl Fishers - which debuted in Paris at the Théâtre Lyrique, on September 30, 1863. It's an opera in three acts with a French libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. The opera is a story of how two men's vow of eternal friendship is threatened by their love for the same woman, whose own dilemma is the conflict b...

In this episode of Opera for Everyone we listen to Lakme, an opera in three acts by Léo Delibes to a French libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille. The score, written in 1881-2, was first performed on in 1883 by the Opéra-Comique in Paris. The story is set in British India in the mid-19th century, Lakmé is based on Théodore Pavie's story "Les babouches du Brahamane" and novel "Le Mariage d...

On this episode of Opera for Everyone we listen to Turandot, an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. The opera's version of the story is set in China, and involves Prince Calaf, who falls in love with the cold Princess Turandot. To obtain permission to marry her, a suitor has to solve three riddles; any wrong answer results in death....

On this episode of Opera for Everyone, we listen to Così Fan Tutte - an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and an Italian libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. It is an "opera buffa" - comedic opera - and is one of the three Mozart operas for which da Ponte wrote the libretto. The other two da Ponte-Mozart collaborations were "Le nozze di Figaro" and "Don Giovanni." It debuted in 179...

Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It debuted in Prague in 1787. Its based on the legend of Don Juan, a Spanish lothario who was obsessed with the conquest of women. The opera tells the story of Don Giovanni, his man-servant Leporello, Donna Elvira his scorned lover, Donna Anna and Don Ottavio - a young engaged couple, and the Commendatore - Donna Anna's father who is...

The opera Eugene Onegin is based on a beloved Russian lyric novel of the same name by Pushkin. Pushkin presents a vast overview of old Russian society around 1820, which Tchaikovsky’s original score neatly divides into each of its three acts: from the timeless rituals of country life to the rural gentry with its troubles and pleasures and, finally, the glittering imperial aristocracy of St. Peters...

Carmen is an opera in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet. It is set in Seville, southern Spain, and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. José abandons his childhood sweetheart and deserts from his military duties, yet loses Carmen's love to the glamorous torero Escamillo, after which José kills her in a jealous...

Lohengrin is a Romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself inspired by the epic of Garin le Loherain. It is part of the Knight of the Swan tradition. This show wa...

Tannhauser, by Richard Wagner, debuted in 1845 in Dresden Germany, and was subsequently revised twice - debuting in Paris 1861 and again in Vienna in 1875. The opera is based on two German legends; Tannhäuser, the legendary medieval German Minnesänger and poet, and the tale of the Wartburg Song Contest. The story focuses on the struggle between sacred and profane love, and redemption through love,...