One of the most exciting male roles in all of Puccini's operas is the role of Calaf, the Tartar Prince who comes to China and falls in love with Turandot.  Although Miguel Fleta, who created the role in 1926, did not record anything from the role the tenor whom the composer had in mind all along did.  Take a listen to some of the tenors who made the role famous, find out more about Calaf and hear some beautiful music!

Sure, she's the 'star', and yes, she gets all the great, memorable tunes.  But did you every think that maybe, just possibly, the opera is really about Don Jose?  Musically, at least, I think he's more interesting!  Let's take a listen!

Imagine my surprise when I discovered, not terribly long ago, that there were recordings of members of the very first production of Der Rosenkavalier from Dresden, 1911!  Here's an introduction to the very first soprano to sing the marvelous role of the Marschallin, Margarethe Siems.  Enjoy!

Luckily for us, Puccini's opera Turandot premiered in 1926, well after the invention of sound recording.  So even though we don't have a recording of excerpts from the opera by the two principals (soprano Rosa Raisa and Miguel Fleta), we do have recordings of some of the sopranos who made history in the role.  Let's survey a handful of those sopranos and see if we can get a good sound picture of what Puccini might have expected for the role.

Announcing San Diego Opera's 2011 International Season!  Listen to Dr. Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach introduce Puccini's Turandot, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Gounod's Faust and Bizet's Carmen, operas that will be brilliantly produced and performed at the Civic Theatre.  Join Dr. Reveles for an operatic adventure in listening!

Tenors from Caruso to Domingo have sung and recorded music from Verdi's opera La traviata.  Here's a survey of some of those famous singers and their recordings for your enjoyment, a benefit of which will be to get more familiar with Alfredo's music before you come see our production!

Poor Alfredo's father: he often gets short shrift in discussions of Verdi's masterpiece La Traviata, and he deserves better!  Here's a survey of his role in the opera as well as some wonderful recorded excerpts to help you get to know him better.

Great art is about great choices, and Verdi made great choices in writing operas like Nabucco! I'd like to reflect for a few minutes on just what kinds of choices he made in this exciting opera as we come to the end of this brilliant production!

We all know by now that Verdi's Nabucco is loosely based on the Bible, and the deep background of the story is the Babylonian Captivity, the Exile.  Upon looking more closely at the libretto of the opera, one can find all of the different forms of prayer that one can actually find in the Bible, prayer-forms that are actually recognized by Biblical scholars.  Did Temistocle Solera, the librettist for Verdi's opera, know the Bible that well?  Perhaps, perhaps not.  But listen to the examples you'll find in today's podcast and make up your own mind.