Audio
Backstage at Lyric #123
Rinaldo Discovery Series
Rinaldo is a tale filled with magic, sorcery, and vocal fireworks. Contralto Sonia Prina and soprano Elza van den Heever certainly know about vocal fireworks; conductor Harry Bicket and director Francisco Negrin add insights in the music and the staging.
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2011/12 Discovery Series
Show Boat Symposium
Show Boat details the struggles of Americans, both white and black, from the age of steam and riverboats to the year of Lindbergh's transatlantic crossing. Panelists: Ashley Brown (Magnolia), Alyson Cambridge (Julie), Nathan Gunn (Ravenal), Morris Robinson (Joe), Northwestern University's David Bell (director of music theater), and Harvey Young (associate professor; theater, performance studies, African-American studies, and radio/television/film). You’ll hear Northwestern music students sing selections from the various versions of the work’s history!
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Backstage at Lyric #120
Aida Discovery Series
Listen as Verdi soprano supreme Sondra Radvanovsky and the always-incendiary Jill Grove discuss the late Verdi favorite, Aida with Lyric Opera dramaturg Roger Pines.
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Backstage at Lyric #119
The Magic Flute Discovery Series
Join our all-star panel Lyric's own Nicole Cabell (Pamina), Charles Castronovo (Tamino), Stéphane Degout (Papageno), and Sir Andrew Davis to get the what's what on Mozart's final opera, a story of love, friendship, and the ideals of the Enlightenment.
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Backstage at Lyric #118
Ariadne auf Naxos Discovery Series
Come along to the world of Straussian delights with Amber Wagner (Prima Donna/Ariadne), Brandon Jovanovich (Bacchus), Anna Christy (Zerbinetta), Alice Coote (The Composer), and Stage Director John Cox for an exploration of this masterful take on high art and low comedy.
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Backstage at Lyric #117
Boris Godunov Discovery Series
Bass Ferruccio Furlanetto (Boris), stage director Julia Pevzner, and Lyric music director Sir Andrew Davis offer lively discourse on Mussorgsky's dark portrait of a tormented ruler and his long-suffering subjects.
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Backstage at Lyric #116
Lucia di Lammermoor Discovery Series
Bel canto means beautiful singing, and Lucia is full of it. Join Lyric's Lucia (Susanna Phillips), Edgardo (Giuseppe Filianoti), and Maestro Massimo Zanetti in this Discovery Series discussion of Donizetti's bel canto rendering of murder and madness in 17th-century Scotland.
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Backstage at Lyric #115
The Tales of Hoffmann Discovery Series
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Hear the poet himself - Lyric fave Matthew Polenzani - and the production's musical architect, conductor Emmanuel Villaume, discuss The Tales of Hoffmann in this Discovery Series session, part of the Backstage at Lyric podcasts.
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Audio
Sir Andrew Davis Previews
Rinaldo
July 29, 2011
Handel wanted to make it big in England, and he did it in spades with Rinaldo! For the first time he specified sorcery and magic in the plot — hiring an illustrious producer to bring it off, and booking a megastar for the lead.
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Sir Andrew Davis Previews
Show Boat
July 29, 2011
Jerome Kern’s Show Boat, with book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, is one of those stunning cultural achievements that transcends its genre. Based on Edna Ferber’s novel, this is the musical that changed everything. It details the struggles of Americans, both white and black, from the age of steam and riverboats to the year of Lindbergh’s transatlantic crossing.
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Sir Andrew Davis Previews
Aida
July 29, 2011
The granddaddy of grand-opera spectacle -- complete with pyramids and potentates, priestesses and dancing girls, plus armies of soldiers and slaves! At its heart, a treacherous love triangle and a relationship that was never meant to be. Aida, the enslaved Ethiopian princess, and Radames, leader of the Egyptian army that conquered her homeland, long to be together forever. But someone else wants Radames, too — it’s Amneris, the jealous daughter of the Pharaoh himself!
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Sir Andrew Davis Previews
The Magic Flute
July 29, 2011
Although it’s filled with sublime music, The Magic Flute can be a puzzling array of characters and scenes. Hear Sir Andrew Davis share the ‘what’s what’ on Mozart’s final opera, a story of love, friendship, and the ideals of the Enlightenment.
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Sir Andrew Davis Previews
Ariadne auf Naxos
July 29, 2011
Vienna’s richest man is planning an incredible party. First, guests will enjoy a serious opera (the Prima Donna plays Ariadne, who’s ready to die on the island of Naxos because her lover’s jilted her). Then comes a ribald comedy, starring saucy Zerbinetta. And, finally -- there’s to be a pyrotechnic display! But the host suddenly decides both productions must take place simultaneously so the fireworks can start promptly at nine!
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Sir Andrew Davis Previews
Boris Godunov
July 29, 2011
The score radiates all the grief and grandeur that was Czarist Russia, with thrilling music for the huge chorus. But this masterwork is extraordinary in its intimacy, too -- revealing Boris as both the public and the private man, as it peels open the psyche of a tormented ruler who succumbs to his own guilty conscience.
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Sir Andrew Davis Previews
Lucia di Lammermoor
July 22, 2011
Donizetti based Lucia di Lammermoor on a popular novel by Sir Walter Scott, and every minute crackles with drama. It’s Scotland in the late 17th century, where Lucia and Edgardo are breathlessly, desperately in love. But their two clans are bitter rivals, so Lucia’s villainous brother Enrico sets out to kill his young sister’s romance. Lucia is mentally crushed and destroyed, driven to madness and murder before she dies of a broken heart.
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Sir Andrew Davis Previews
The Tales of Hoffmann
July 22, 2011
Offenbach’s tale of a hapless poet continually thwarted in his pursuit of love is a stunning coupling of flamboyant theatricality and beguiling music.
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