Seattle Opera Podcast

Are you ready for this weekend (May 23)'s KING FM rebroadcast, the wildest opera by the person many consider opera's greatest composer? Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean introduces Il trovatore, with musical examples from Seattle Opera's archival recordings of Il trovatore: from 1997, with Carol Vaness (Leonora) and Gegam Grigorian (Manrico), and Gordon Hawkins (Count Di Luna), conducted by Antonello Allemandi; and from 2010, with Malgorzata Walewska (Azucena), Antonello Palombi (Manrico), and Gordon Hawkins (Count Di Luna) conducted by Yves Abel.

In this series of podcasts, Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean gives listeners a taste of nine different types of traditional opera. Operetta is a delightful kind of entertainment resembling opera, but different; whereas in opera the music tells the story, in operetta the music decorates a story which is usually little more than a joke—a story that nobody could possibly take seriously. Operetta developed, in the late nineteenth century, just as opera began taking itself perhaps too seriously. Operettas from traditions in Paris (Orphée aux enfers), London (The Pirates of Penzance), Vienna (Die Fledermaus) and New York City (Rose-Marie) typify the genre. And although many operettas remained popular for decades, the golden era of creating operetta turned to silver, then iron and finally steel as the twentieth century turned its energy toward making movies and wars.

Musical examples on this podcast drawn from the 1997 EMI recording of Orphée aux enfers conducted by Mark Minkowski and starring Ewa Podles and Natalie Dessay, EMI recordings conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent of The Pirates of Penzance, 1961, H.M.S. Pinafore, 1958, and Iolanthe, 1959; the EMI Classics recording of Die Lustige Witwe, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst; the 1960 Decca recording of Die Fledermaus, conducted by Herbert von Karajan; excerpts from Rose Marie from a Pearl Historical recording of Oscar Hammerstein—the Legacy; and from the 1955 film of Oklahoma starring Gordon MacRae.

In this series of podcasts, Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean gives listeners a taste of nine different types of traditional opera. Singspiel (that's German for SongPlay) mixes songs, dialogues, choruses, and marvelous orchestral writing with fun and fantasy for a lowbrow, family friendly art form—the ancestor of today's Star Wars movies. Mozart's ever-popular Magic Flute is the perfect introduction to Singspiel, as well as one of the most beloved operas ever written. Another wonderful Singspiel, Weber's Der Freischütz, demonstrates the power of this form to send a wonderfully creepy chill down your spine.

Musical examples on this podcast drawn from Seattle Opera productions of The Magic Flute, 2017, conducted by Julia Jones and starring John Moore, Andrew Stenson, and Christina Poulitsi; Der Freischütz, 1999, conducted by Gerard Schwarz and starring Harry Peeters and Gabor Andrasy; Fidelio, 2003, conducted by Gerard Schwarz and starring Jane Eaglen and Kevin Langan; The Flying Dutchman, 2016, conducted by Sebastian Lang-Lessing; also Marschner's Hans Heiling conducted by Ewald Körner (Marco Polo 1992); Fidelio starring Lucia Popp, Adolf Dallapozza, Gundula Janowitz, and René Kollo and conducted by Leonard Bernstein (Deutsche Gramophon, 1978); Der Stein der Weisen, Jane Giering-De Haan and Kevin Deas conducted by Martin Pearlman (Telarc, 1999); and the 1993 EMI recording of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch.

Stay tuned for one more podcast introducing another kind of opera next week!

In this series of podcasts, Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean gives listeners a taste of nine different types of traditional opera. Opéra comique, a native French form of lower-brow musical theater, features spoken dialogue, catchy tunes with easy-to-sing refrains, and middle-class values. Many of the opéra-comiques still performed today (including Carmen, The Daughter of the Regiment, and Beatrice and Benedict, as well as opéra-comique derivatives such as Faust and The Tales of Hoffmann) deal, sentimentally or ironically, with a way of life and a value system which now belongs mostly to ancient history.

Musical examples on this podcast drawn from Seattle Opera recordings of Carmen, 2019, conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti; Beatrice and Benedict, 2018, conducted by Ludovic Morlot; Les contes d'Hoffmann, 2014, conducted by Yves Abel and starring Leah Partridge, Alfred Walker, and Tichina Vaughn; La fille du régiment starring Spiro Malas, Monica Sinclair, Joan Sutherland, and Luciano Pavarotti and conducted by Richard Bonynge (Decca 1967); Richard Coeur de Lion starring Michel Trempont and conducted by Edgard Doneux (EMI Classics 1956); and Faust, starring Victoria de los Angeles and Boris Christoff, conducted by André Cluytens (EMI 1953).

Stay tuned for another podcast introducing another kind of opera next week!

In this series of podcasts, Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean gives listeners a taste of nine different types of traditional opera. Opera buffa, the beloved old Italian tradition of opera comedy, is what you get by adding music to the even older Italian tradition of improvised (artisanal) comedy, commedia dell'arte. The fools and buffoons of commedia—the sassy wenches, befuddled old professors, suicidal young lovers, dirty old misers, hungry Harlequins, arrogant soldiers, zany servants, and all the rest—found new ways of entertaining us once they began singing gloriously. And with the opera orchestra functioning as a laugh track and adding jokes of its own, opera buffa continues to disarm us and charm us while putting a big grin on our faces. The Barber of Seville and The Elixir of Love are great examples of the genre.

Musical examples on the podcast drawn from Seattle Opera recordings of La Cenerentola, 2013, conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti; The Barber of Seville, 2011, conducted by Dean Williamson and starring José Carbo and Lawrence Brownlee; The Marriage of Figaro, 2009, conducted by Dean Williamson and starring Nicolas Cavallier and Barry Johnson; Così fan tutte, 2006, conducted by Andreas Mitisek; the 1986 Hungaroton recording of La serva padrona, starring Katalin Farkas and Jozsef Gregor, with Capella Savaria conducted by Pal Nemeth; Falstaff, conducted by Karajan and starring Luigi Alva, soloists, and the Philharmonia Orchestra (Columbia 1956); Gianni Schicchi, conducted by Antonio Pappano (EMI 1998); and L'elisir d'amore, Ileana Cotrubas, Geraint Evans, and the orchestra of Covent Garden conducted by John Pritchard (Columbia 1977)

Stay tuned for another podcast introducing another kind of opera next week!

In this series of podcasts, Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean gives listeners a taste of nine different types of traditional opera. Verismo was a late nineteenth-century reaction against the excesses of the great tradition. The aim was immediate, powerful, realistic opera, with post-Wagnerian music of titanic passion setting stories about simple, everyday, relatable characters. The vogue for verismo dominated opera as the older art form gave birth to the cinema. Leoncavallo's masterpiece Pagliacci (1892) serves as a well-known example of verismo; Il tabarro (1918), by Puccini, isn't so well-known but is every bit as great.

Musical examples on the podcast drawn from Seattle Opera recordings of Andrea Chenier, 1996, conducted by Steven Mercurio; La bohème, 2007, conducted by Vjekoslav Sutej and starring Karen Driscoll and Philip Cutlip; Turandot, 2012, conducted by Asher Fisch and starring Antonello Palombi; the 1953 EMI Classics recording of PAGLIACCI conducted by Renato Cellini; and the 1956 EMI recording of Il tabarro conducted by Vincenzo Bellezza and starring Tito Gobbi and Margaret Mas.

Stay tuned for another podcast introducing another kind of opera next week!

Dacia Clay, KING FM Creative Director and host of the Classical Classroom Podcast, chats with Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean about Pushkin, the great Russian poet, novelist, and playwright. Pushkin's brilliant works have almost all been transformed into operas, composed by generations of Russian composers. In Part One, Clay and Dean give an overview of Pushkin's brief and colorful life. In Part Two, they start discussing the operas, focusing on Boris Godunov and Eugene Onegin.

In this series of podcasts, Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean gives listeners a taste of nine different types of traditional opera. Music Drama was the personal solution to the problems of presenting opera in nineteenth-century Europe developed by composer/librettist Richard Wagner, opera's ultimate mad genius. These long, loud, big works challenge artists, audiences, and the art form itself. Their complex music and unique spins on old stories continue to attract, repel, and provoke all who encounter them. Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (1865) serves as an example of the genre, as does the Richard Strauss opera Elektra (1909).

Musical examples on this podcast drawn from Seattle Opera productions of Lohengrin 1994, conducted by Hermann Michael; Parsifal 2003, conducted by Asher Fisch and starring Stephen Milling; Die Walküre, conducted by Robert Spano, 2005 (starring Jane Eaglen) and 2009; Siegfried, 2013, conducted by Asher Fisch; and Tristan und Isolde (1998, conducted by Armin Jordan and starring Jane Eaglen and Ben Heppner; 2010, conducted by Asher Fisch; opening and English horn solo from the 1966 Bayreuth Festival recording conducted by Karl Böhm; conclusion of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Karajan (Deutsche Gramophon 1977); Elektra, Astrid Varnay and Leonie Rysanek with the orchestra of West German Radio conducted by Richard Kraus (Melodram 1953).

Stay tuned for another podcast introducing another kind of opera next week!

Dacia Clay, KING FM Creative Director and host of the Classical Classroom Podcast, chats with Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean about Pushkin, the great Russian poet, novelist, and playwright. Pushkin's brilliant works have almost all been transformed into operas, composed by generations of Russian composers. In Part One, Clay and Dean give an overview of Pushkin's brief and colorful life. In Part Two, they start discussing the operas, focusing on Boris Godunov and Eugene Onegin.

In this series of podcasts, Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean gives listeners a taste of nine different types of traditional opera. Bel Canto Melodrama refers to for serious Italian opera from the first part of the nineteenth century—when opera singing was about dazzling trapeze acts, and opera plots tended toward the wild, far-fetched, and grotesque. Inspired by their newfound obsession with Shakespeare, Europe's Romantic generation created some of opera's most enduringly popular works, including Verdi's Rigoletto and Bellini's Norma.

Musical examples on the podcast drawn from Seattle Opera recordings of Rigoletto: from 1995, conducted by Phil Kelsey and starring Harolyn Blackwell; and from 2019, conducted by Carlo Montanaro and starring Giuseppe Altomare and Yongzhao Yu: and Seattle Opera Normas, both conducted by Edoardo Mueller, from 2003 starring Sally Wolf; and from 1994 starring Jane Eaglen. Also, Verdi's Il trovatore conducted by Tullio Serafin (Deutsche Gramophon, 1962); and Rossini's L'assedio di Corinto, Marilyn Horne conducted by Henry Lewis (Decca, 1973).

Stay tuned for another podcast introducing another kind of opera next week!