Opera on WRTI

Puccini’s final masterpiece opens the San Francisco Opera radio season on WRTI under the baton of Music Director Nicola Luisotti. This passionate tale of a princess, whose cruelty masks her fear of love, features some of the composer’s most glorious music, including the stirring anthem “Nessun dorma.” Performed by an outstanding cast, led by Swedish soprano Iréne Theorin, “the world’s reigning Turandot” (Opera Britannia), Leah Crocetto, and Marco Berti, Turandot is melodically rich and colorfully orchestrated. Join us on Saturday, August 18th, 1 to 4:15 pm.

Academy of Vocal Arts alums, and husband and wife in real life, Ailyn Perez and Stephen Costello star as Mimi and Rodolfo in Puccini's tragic, ultra-romantic opera about struggling young artists and the risks of living life on the edge in Paris around 1830.

Benjamin Britten's comedy Albert Herring takes place in the English countryside where meek mama’s boy Albert (tenor Alek Shrader) reluctantly becomes his village’s first May King when no maidens of sufficient virtue can be found. Soprano Christine Brewer stars as the formidable Lady Billows. Saturday, August 4th, 1 to 4:15 pm

Plácido Domingo sings the title role in Giuseppe Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, a grand-scale study of power and treachery that finds an emotional center in the tender bond between father and daughter. Join us on Saturday, July 28th, 1 to 4:15 pm.

CAST:
Simon Boccanegra: Placido Domingo
Amelia: Ana Maria Martinez
Jacopo Fiesco: Vitalij Kowaljow
Gabriele Adorno: Stefano Secco
Paolo Albiani: Paolo Gavanelli
Pietro: Robert Pomakov
CONDUCTOR:  James Conlon
LA OPERA ORCHESTRA & CHORUS

Soprano Nino Machaidze and tenor Vittorio Grigolo star as the world’s most famous lovers in Charles Gounod's ROMEO ET JULIETTE. An opera in five acts, with a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, it's based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique (Théâtre-Lyrique Impérial du Châtelet) in Paris on April 27th, 1867. The opera is notable for the series of four duets for the main characters and the waltz song "Je veux vivre" for the soprano.

Saturday, July 21st, 1 to 4:15 pm

Mozart’s delightfully comic battle of the sexes comes to life with ravishingly beautiful music and sparkling wit on Saturday, July 14th, from 1 to 4:30 pm.

The cast includes soprano Aleksandra Kurzak and bass-baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo.  An opera buffa (comic opera) in two acts, it was first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte – this is the third in a trilogy of librettos by Da Ponte; the others were for Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.

A young and impassioned country girl, Tatiana (soprano Oksana Dyka), hastily writes a love letter to the brooding aristocrat Onegin (baritone Dalibor Jenis). She unwittingly sets off an unstoppable series of events, leaving Onegin forever regretting the love he so casually spurned.
 Join us on Saturday, July 7th, from 1 to 4:30 pm for our first broadcast of the season from LA Opera.

Impassioned arias, surging choruses, and exhilarating orchestral music show us Verdi at the peak of his powers - masterfully balancing pomp and pageantry with a deeply moving personal tragedy. Don't miss this season's final broadcast from the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

With Jerusalem as the prize, General Goffredo and his chief knight Rinaldo are battling it out with King Argante. But the king’s lover and ally is the sorceress Armida — and she uses every trick in her arsenal to help win the war. Good thing Rinaldo has some supernatural reinforcements of his own!