The #OperaTrash Podcast

When an opera is based on badly told history, you know Anna and Krista will call bullshit. That's just what they do as they review Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, loosely based on the events arround the French Wars of Religion. They also give you the lowdown on the BSO's 2023-24 season and give some love to the people of East Palestine, Ohio.

Anna and Krista unveil The Met's 2023-24 season both on stage and in HD! New productions, tried and true productions and new faces await you. Pick your faves and save that Live in HD (or Live at Home) money!

Anna and Krista conclude their review of Handel's Orlando trilogy with the eponymous opera, a tale of love and confusion. They also dedicate the episode to the late Richard Belzer, wish Jonas a speedy recovery and read off a list of famous alma mater alumni.

Once again, Anna and Krista venture to Wagner Land as they discuss his first staged opera, Rienzi. Hear why there's no actual score for this meh opera, and why we can add "was in debtor's prison" to the list of Bitch Lasagna's Major Misadventures.

Anna and Krista take you on a last-minute trip to Vienna courtesy of The Wien's production of Aida. Can you say "bad makeup ahoy"? They also go in depth about what they think would be the best operas for beginning opera fans, and it just careens into a lot of subgroups and hilarity.

Join Anna and Krista as they tell you about the weirdness that is Brett Dean's Hamlet. Unsettling makeup, strange staging and a Swedish Chef-style libretto are what you'll find when you watch it. Just think: you were today years old when you learned that Shakespeare was also subject to Ye Olde Bootleg Copies.

Join Anna and Krista as they uncover yet another Handel opera hidden for over two centuries - this time Ariodante. Krista also reviews the Met's Live in HD broadcast of Fedora (complete with porntache) and you get details on a special performance of Aida from The Wien!

To kick off 2023, Anna and Krista decided to wreck themselves and watch the abomination known as Dance of the Vampires, which was utterly ruined thanks to Michael Crawford. As a bonus, they wish Kenny Loggins a Hap Birfmas and learn about the kalimba! May they recover their brains after this!

Just in time for the holidays, Anna and Krista tell you their plans for Christmas: two cartoons, the first opera written for TV in the US and a Muppet Christmas special. Then they get nostalgic and talk about Christmas past that includes vintage candles and a song about Santa's death day. Hap Honk and Murr Crimmas!

When hackers fuck up the Met Opera's website, what do you do? If you're Anna and Krista, they find an alternate plan! And that alternate is The Abduction of Figaro, the most hilarious shit they've seen so far. This opera has everything: a made-up composer, a guy taking his pants off, Cuba, pirate kidnapping, the Maltese Falcon and the best Gilda Radner shoutout ever.

If you've been hoping for more Handel content, Anna and Krista have an episode for you! They talk about Alcina, the long-forgotten opera about a dumbass hero and the sorceress who enchants him. They also dedicate the episode to Sesame Street's Bob McGrath, celebrate the birfmas of Jose Carreras and clear up why Jonas bowed out of a performance of Andrea Chenier over the weekend.

It's Werther x3 this week as Anna and Krista discuss three productions of Massenet's tale of the Emo King that they saw - Paris, the Met and The Wien. There's nature, there's blood and of course there's The Farter Test. Bonus content for both ladies and their respective stints in Horny Jail.

The intentionally funny, the unintentionally funny and the funny and weird shit that goes down on an opera stage are what Anna and Krista talk about this week. From Barber of Seville to the Invisible Soprano Incident, the ladies cover a lot of ground with names you'll recognize.

With props to Andy Taylor and a dedication to Aaron Carter, Anna and Krista dive into Janacek's Jenufa, a beautiful opera about awful people. They also go off on the decision to cut funding to some major opera houses in the UK and give you a sneak peek into the next episode.

Well, well, well... Anna and Krista are back after watching Cherubini's Medea on the Met's new stream, and they are shooketh. They'll give you the lowdown on its performance history and who is the greatest Medea of all time, and they'll even throw in some Jimmy Swaggart jokes and news about ANOTHER version of Jonas' Christmas album!

In honor of Anna's birthday, she and Krista talk about all the good, bad and funny WTF moments and productions they've encountered in their opera learnings. They revisit Munich's production of Yeet the Baby, Coney Island Cosi and of course The Exterminating Angel. So many moments!

Do you want to be confused for a while? We halp! Anna and Krista review Verdi's Ernani, full of WTF and more twists than a bag of pretzels. You also get learnings on Victor Hugo's sex life and some weird Vietnamese religion. Good times.

It's a big week here in #OperaTrash Land - not only are Anna and Krista comparing productions of Rigoletto that the Met has produced, but they let you in on an exciting new thing the Met is doing for opera fans! Of course, due respect is paid to the much loved Coolio and Loretta Lynn first.

It's one-hit wonder time with Ponchielli's La Gioconda, and Anna and Krista get to spend more time trashing their favorite wannabe tenor. Anna also gives us her review of Rusalka at the Pittsburgh Opera, the ladies sing Allan Sherman songs, and they reminisce about board games from their childhoods. In other words, typical Monday night shenanigans.

Anna and Krista are taking a bit of a turn this week! This time, they're discussing specific productions of Verdi's Don Carlo/s (French or Italian, your choice). From the best (anything by Sir David McVicar) to the worst (take a damn guess), the ladies tell you all about their favorite Disaster Bi (Hans Christian Andersen excluded).

Anna and Krista have found a rare Verdi gem in Stiffelio, with its tale of betrayal, redemption and censorship. And of course they couldn't pass up the opportunity to rag on its star (alleged) tenor. They also bring lolz from Bayreuth and the saga of karma from Arena di Verona.

What would an opera by Ol' Slapnuts be without a little controversy? Anna and Krista talk about Idomeneo and the nefarious director who caused a shitstorm over a production of it in Berlin. And then they do what they normally do: go off on their usual brand of shenanigans including future plans for riffing on a not-the-tenor.

What happens when you record a podcast late at night? House of the Dragon gets ruined forever, you learn about baseball-infused Malort and the phrase "the deck where you play cornhole" and you hear a review of Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen. Plot twist: Anna and Krista are sober!

After two weeks without them, Anna and Krista are back with the long-awaited review of Paul Hindemith's Cardillac. There's something interesting about this review, and it's a first for the ladies. Find out what that is as you listen to the story behind the opera, and listen as they talk about their childhood feels being wrung out by their two dedicaitons. Bonus content: advice from a real-life stu...

It's August, and the ladies have taken a couple of weekends off to recharge. In the meantime, they take you back to December 2020, when Anna did her best Drunj Nemorino during their review of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. And who can blame her, because her former and current opera husbands were opposite each other!