Opera on WRTI

Don Juan, one of fiction's most infamous scoundrels, returns to the opera stage in Philadelphia next week.  As WRTI's Jim Cotter reports, Opera Philadelphia's latest production is also a showcase for singers who learned their craft in the city.

After their powerful pairing in Il Trovatore, Marcelo Álvarez and Patricia Racette reunite in Giordano’s melodramatic story of life in times of revolutionary fervor, a passionate tale of the ill-fated love of a dashing poet and an aristocratic lady, set against the backdrop of the French Revolution. Saturday, April 12, 1 to 4 pm on WRTI.

Synopsis

Giacomo Puccini’s moving story of young love is the most-performed opera in Met history—and with good reason. Anita Hartig stars as the frail Mimì in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production, with Vittorio Grigolo in the role of her passionate lover, Rodolfo. Saturday, April 5, 1 to 4 pm.

 Synopsis

Soprano Anita Hartig made her Metropolitan Opera debut this week as Mimì in Puccini's classic work, La Boheme.  If singing one of opera's most iconic roles at America's foremost opera house is not pressure enough, the Romanian soprano will also be performing for millions in movie theaters around the world in the Met Live in HD series, and on the radio via the Metropolitan Opera's Saturday Matinee B

Figaro, the wily barber of Seville, is portrayed in two great operas - the popular Rossini work that bears his name, and Mozart’s account of his marriage. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Patrick Stearns takes us to Princeton's McCarter Theatre and rehearsals for two of the plays by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais that originated the Figaro character.

German soprano Diana Damrau stars as Amina opposite the rising Mexican tenor and bel canto specialist Javier Camarena as Elvino in Bellini’s sweet love story, with its unforgettable sleepwalking aria for the heroine. Marco Armiliato conducts. Vincenzo Bellini: LA SONNAMBULA (sung in Italian), Saturday, March 29, 1 to 4:30 pm on WRTI 90.1 FM.

WOZZECK's longtime champion James Levine conducts Berg’s gripping score of passion, despair, and murder. Deborah Voigt and Thomas Hampson step into the demanding roles of Marie and the hapless title character for the first time in their remarkable careers.