Leap baby Gioachino Rossini is 55!
Rossini was born on February 29, 1792. Of course, there’s a Leap Day only once every four years. I can tell by your furrowed brow that you’re trying to check my math. Before you quibble, you had better have a look at this:
https://www.classicalwcrb.org/post/music-note-rossini-turns-54#stream/0
Then enjoy “Rabbit of Seville”:
Golden Era soprano Mirella Freni has died. A childhood friend of Luciano Pavarotti, the two actually shared the same wet nurse, as both their mothers worked in a cigarette factory. The children even sometimes wore identical clothing. Later, of course, they would be teamed in the opera house and on recordings.
Freni won acclaim early with her radiant singing as Mimi, Micaëla, Nanetta, and Susanna. By the early ‘70s, she began tackling some of the heavier roles, such as Desdemona and Aida. Even so, she was realistic about how much stress her voice could handle, and she selected her roles carefully.
In the early ‘80s, she married Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov, her second husband. He encouraged her to expand her repertoire to include Russian roles. She went on to become a notable Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin.”
Freni was 84 years-old. In an afternoon in which I’ll also remember Leontyne Price and Cesare Siepi on their birthdays (to say nothing of film composer Jerry Goldsmith, on his), I’ll celebrate Freni’s artistry, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Claudio Monteverdi was not the first composer to write opera, but his are the earliest in the standard repertoire.
On today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, the ensemble Vivi Cantando will present “Ohimè!” The title is an allusion to one of Monteverdi’s madrigals, but also featured will be selections from the operas “L’Orfeo,” “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria,” and “L’incoronazione di Poppea.”
The program is another in the Midtown Concerts series, presented in part by Gotham Early Music Scene, or GEMS. These free lunchtime concerts are held on Thursdays at 1:15 p.m. at the Chapel of St. Bartholomew’s Church, 325 Park Avenue, in New York City.
GEMS is a non-profit corporation that supports and promotes Manhattan artists and organizations devoted to Early Music – music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and Early Classical Periods. For more information about concerts at St. Bart’s and other GEMS events, look online at gemsny.org.
Following today’s concert broadcast, for the balance of our time together, we’ll continue with selections celebrating classical music’s most ambitious synthesis of the arts, and three hours of music drawn from the world of opera. There will be an assortment of arias and ensembles, choruses, overtures, ballet music, orchestral excerpts, and transcriptions.
What’s opera, Doc? We’ll get a pretty good idea. Brace yourself for examples from Monteverdi to Robert Moran.
I got a fever, and the only prescription is more opera, from 12 to 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Despite having composed over 100 works, Jaromir Weinberger remains a one-hit wonder. In 1927, his opera, “Schwanda the Bagpiper” became an international sensation. But beyond a couple of orchestral highlights – the polka and fugue – even that “one hit” isn’t terribly well known.
This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” learn more about this rollicking farce, involving a love triangle, a card game with the devil, and the beguiling power of the bagpipes.
There’s still plenty of bounce in this Czech. That’s “Czech in the Balance,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
If you missed both live streams, the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Sunday night performance of the Philip Glass-Robert Moran opera, “The Juniper Tree,” has been add to the first, both now posted to CIM’s Facebook page. You can watch by clicking on the play button below.
I mentioned my concern that the peripheral action on the side balcony would not be visible to a single, stationary camera in the back of the hall, but happily that is not the case. However, I do recommend you read the brief synopsis in the program book before viewing.
Here’s a link to the printed program, with synopsis and introductory comments by Robert Moran:
Aaron Copland (92) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (123) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (187) KWAX (229) Leonard Bernstein (101) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (138) Opera (202) Philadelphia Orchestra (89) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (106) Radio (87) Ralph Vaughan Williams (85) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (103) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)