By Metropolitan Opera Guild
Podcast by Metropolitan Opera Guild
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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
“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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...