Opera Box Score

Oliver and George go ‘Inside the Huddle’ with Alexandra Bork, a gender non-conforming soprano who's just returned to the US after working in the storefront opera scene in the UK... In the ‘Two Minute Drill’, racism in opera once again rears its ugly head... And in ‘Chalk Talk’, Oliver looks back at the life and lyricism of Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé who died last week...

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Baritone John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan go 'Inside the Huddle' with OBS creative consultant Oliver Camacho to discuss their tour of “A Silent Night”, an homage to this year’s centenary of the beginning of World War One... But first, George and Weston 'Crunch the Numbers' on Opernwelt magazine's list of the best in opera from the 2017-2018 season... In the ‘Two Minute Drill’, find out about this week's opera problems that are plaguing New York, Barcelona and Zurich...

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Weston inducts another composer into the OBS Hall of Fame... In ‘Chalk Talk’, the OBS boys celebrate opening night of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2018 season by looking at future programming initiatives from Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin... George pays tribute to David DiChiera, Founding General Director of Michigan Opera Theater, who died last week at age 83... And in the ‘Two Minute Drill’, find out who just spent fifty million quid on opera in London...

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Oliver plays ‘Monday Evening Quarterback’ on Orlando di Lasso’s “Lagrime di San Pietro” seen at Ravinia last week... the OperaWire website reports that soprano Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs was recently fired from Maryland Lyric Opera’s concert performances of Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West” for standing up to abuse from the company’s music director. Our team tries to figure out what happened... In the ‘Two Minute Drill’, Kim Witman at Wolf Trap Opera Company has released her annual stats on what arias are sung first in auditions and WQXR writer Fred Plotkin has given out his biennial list of forty opera singers under forty that are worth looking out for. We’ll go through the lists...

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Tenor and visual artist Luther Lewis goes ‘Inside The Huddle’ with the OBS team. Luther is part of “Illustrations”, a gallery exhibition and concert which celebrates the contributions of African-American singers to opera. You'll get Luther's insights on the genesis of this interdisciplinary project and hear what sorts of obstacles remain for black classical music artists... The infamous ‘Pop Quiz’ segment returns when Oliver drops the needle on important singers you should know... In the ‘Two Minute Drill’, a mezzo sweeps the awards at the Operalia competition, Miss America sings opera and two opera birthdays are celebrated...

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Despite promising to take Labor Day off, the OBS boys can't stay away from the mics... Enjoy a recap of the interview with John von Rhein, who recently retired as the Chicago Tribune’s classical music critic, when he joined the show live via phone ‘Inside the Huddle’ with his highlights and lowlights from over forty years of attending and writing about classical music performances in Chicago... Then catch the replay of the OBS team working through the 2018 World Cup bracket using each country's opera strengths to predict the winners... And, on Monday September 10th at 9 pm CT, it's the kickoff to the fourth season of the OBS!

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The world’s most famous countertenor, David Daniels, and his husband, conductor Scott Walters, have been accused of drugging and violently raping another opera singer. In a ‘Chalk Talk’ double header, the team takes a look at the evidence for the accusation, recent developments in the story, as well as the ways in which other voices in the opera world have responded to these allegations...

[WARNING: While profanity isn't used on our show, some listeners may find the details of the conversation to be graphic.]

In the ‘Two Minute Drill, the OBS guys: guess how many roles Plácido Domingo has sung, argue why atonal music promotes drug abuse, and say farewell to soprano Inge Borkh...

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John von Rhein, who recently retired as the Chicago Tribune’s classical music critic, joins the show live via phone ‘Inside the Huddle’ with his highlights and lowlights from over forty years of attending and writing about classical music performances in Chicago... Then the OBS team takes off on another summer opera festival road trip. This time they head overseas to the Granddaddy of Them All, the Bayreuth Festival in Germany... Plus, in the ‘Two Minute Drill’, tribute is paid to Aretha Franklin's opera voice, and the best way to punish your neighbors with opera is revealed...

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Oliver Camacho returns from a father and son-in-law concert at the Ravinia Festival for a double-header ‘Monday Evening Quarterback’ review... Matt Cummings offers up a family feud style ‘Pop Quiz’ with disastrous results... In the ‘Two Minute Drill’, Anne Midgette follows up on her sexual harassment expose with a classical music primer, "Bel Canto" rears its head again, and Kathleen Battle turns 70...

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An annual report by arts consultant Drew McManus shows that the average compensation for the music directors of sixty four American ensembles has topped $600k for the first time ever. The OBS boys ‘Crunch the Numbers’ to figure out why conductors’ salaries are on the rise... A handful of OBS alums, including Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Justin Kim, and Madison Leonard sang high profile performances last week. The guys play ‘Monday Evening Quarterback’ and review their work... In the 'Two Minute Drill', it's revealed that Orff's "Carmina Burana" actually does have bad words in it...

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