Seattle Opera Podcast

Come down to the bassment and enjoy the deep sound of the bass and bass-baritone voices with Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean. Basses play dads, priests, kings, old bearded guys, God, and the Devil; they get to be evil, they get to be funny, and they always sing with great authority. Includes a 4-pack bass sampler from BORIS GODUNOV, a taste test of Hagens from GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, and a buffo bass patter race. Musical examples feature favorite Seattle Opera basses and bass-baritones including Kevin Langan, Richard Best, Peter Rose, Ante Jerkunica, John Relyea, Gabor Andrasy, Nicolas Cavallier, Alexander Anisimov, Arthur Woodley, Eduardo Chama, Shenyang, Ashraf Sewailam, Greer Grimsley, Vladimir Ognovienko, baritone Marius Kwiecien, Alfred Walker, William Wildermann, John Macurdy, Simon Estes, John Del Carlo, Monte Pederson, Kevin Short, and Stephen Milling.

Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean introduces the baritone voice, a sound which celebrates the beauty and power of masculinity. In opera, baritones play clowns and kings, urban sophisticates and unlettered innocents; good, bad, and every shade of grey. They win our hearts, melt our hearts, and break our hearts. Featuring musical examples with sweet lyric baritones, proud heroic baritones, snarly dramatic baritones, and many other varieties, including Seattle Opera favorites John Moore, Dale Duesing, Alfonso Antoniozzi, Mariusz Kwiecien, Gordon Hawkins, Richard Stilwell, Will Liverman, David Adam Moore, Vladimir Chernov, Morgan Smith, Christopher Maltman, Julian Patrick, Malcolm Rivers, Andrew Garland, Richard Paul Fink, and Brett Polegato.

Seattle Opera General Director Christina Scheppelmann spoke with Marketing Director Kristina Murti about the 2017 production of Madama Butterfly as an intermission feature for "Seattle Opera Mornings on KING FM." They discussed the importance of putting historical works in context, something Seattle Opera strove to do at that production by providing audiences with more information about how the opera came to be created, and the powerful and lasting impact created by its images and ideas.

Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean introduces several different types of tenor, from the agile-voiced, graceful and elegant tenori di grazia, to the heroic and powerful tenori di forza, and all points in between. Includes musical examples featuring many favorite Seattle Opera tenors: Antonello Palombi, Edgardo Rocha, Laurence Brownlee, William Burden, Matthew Polenzani, Ben Heppner, James McCracken, Stefan Vinke, Francesco Demuro, Joseph Calleja, Alasdair Elliott, Peter Kazaras, Marcello Giordani, Neil Shicoff, Russell Thomas, Franco Corelli, and Vinson Cole.

Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean investigates two voice types infrequently encountered in opera: trebles (boy sopranos and adolescent female sopranos) and countertenors. Features conversation with Seattle Opera coach-accompanist Jay Rozendaal, and musical examples: TURN OF THE SCREW (Rafi Bellamy Plaice and Forrest Wu), LAKMÉ (Harolyn Blackwell), THE MAGIC FLUTE (Johanna Mergener, Emili Rice, and Isabel Woods), HANSEL & GRETEL (Sasha Cooke and Ashley Emerson), SIEGFRIED (Juls Serger and Julianne Gearhart), FALSTAFF (Peter Rose), Freddie Mercury, Colm Wilkinson, and Will Oakland, I PURITANI (Luciano Pavarotti and Lawrence Brownlee), Alessandro Moreschi, GIULIO CESARE (Bryn Terfel, Milijana Mijanovic, and Jochen Kowalski singing "Va, tacito" and Brian Asawa singing "L'empio, sleale, indegno") and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (Anthony Roth Costanzo).

Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean introduces the mezzo and contralto voices. With their rich, creamy, dark sounds these lower-voiced ladies play opera's most luscious babes, as well as boys, old women, jealous wives, vengeful goddesses, and loving mothers. Featuring musical examples including Seattle Opera favorites Michelle DeYoung, Helene Schneidermann, Sarah Mattox, Rosemary Alvino, Daniela Sindram, Kate Lindsey, Graciela Araya, Laura Polvarelli, Luretta Bybee, Maria Zifchak, Sarah Larsen, Margaret Gawrysiak, Rosalind Plowright, Marvellee Cariaga, Joyce Castle, Stephanie Blythe, Elena Gabouri, Florence Quivar, Ewa Podles, Sheila Nadler, and Geraldine Decker.

Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean leads a tour through the land of soprano, from dazzling coloratura acrobats to fearsome goddesses whose roar sets the opera house aflame. Includes musical examples featuring many favorite Seattle Opera sopranos: Cyndia Sieden, Joan Sutherland, Sarah Coburn, Sally Wolf, Dana Pundt, Jennifer Zetlan, Nuccia Focile, Angel Blue, Alexandra Deshorties, Renee Fleming, Sheri Greenawald, Carol Vaness, Lisa Daltirus, Mary Elizabeth Williams, Marcy Stonikas, Janice Baird and Irmgard Vilsmaier, and Jane Eaglen.

Learn more about this fresh, fascinating, and wholly operatic new work, which will play on www.king.org on Saturday June 13 at 10 am PST. Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean introduces The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, the opera with music by Mason Bates and libretto by Mark Campbell. Musical examples from the new recording of the opera made at Santa Fe Opera, summer 2017, and available from Pentatone records, with Edward Parks (Steve Jobs), Garrett Sorenson (Woz), Jessica E. Jones (Chrisann), Sasha Cooke (Laurene), and Wei Wu (Kōbun), conducted by Michael Christie.

Seattle Opera Mornings on KING FM: coming up June 6, The Marriage of Figaro, performed January 2016. Aidan Lang, then General Director of Seattle Opera, brought his own New Zealand Opera production of one of his favorite works to Seattle. (Lang worked as a freelance stage director for many years before becoming an administrator.) In this podcast (transcribed at www.seattleoperablog.com/2015/12/aida…omes-to.html) Lang shares his thoughts about this extraordinary masterpiece and its beloved characters.

Musical examples recorded at Seattle Opera in 2009: conducted by Dean Williamson, starring Oren Gradus (Figaro), Christine Brandes (Susanna), Marius Kwiecien (Count Almaviva), Twyla Robinson (Countess Almaviva), Daniela Sindram (Cherubino), Leena Chopra (Barbarina), Arthur Woodley (Dr. Bartolo), Joyce Castle (Marcellina), Ted Schmitz (Don Basilio), and Barry Johnson (Antonio).

Tosca, featured on "Seattle Opera Mornings on KING FM" on May 30, is both a great opera for newbies to the art form and a rewarding piece to hear multiple times; it's accessible—a 'thriller' as cinematic as any Hollywood classic—and also stacked with layers of sumptuous artistry to savor. Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean introduces Tosca, with musical examples from Seattle Opera archival recordings of Tosca made in 2001, 2007, and 2015 and featuring Stefano Secco and Frank Porretta, Jr. as Cavaradossi, Greer Grimsley as Scarpia, and Marcy Stonikas, Ausrine Stundyte, Lisa Daltirus, and Carol Vaness as Tosca. The chorus and orchestra of Seattle Opera were conducted by Antonello Allemandi in 2001, Vjekoslav Sutej in 2007, and Julian Kovatchev in 2015.