Audio
2012/13 Season Audio Preview
2012/13 Season
Sir Andrew Davis Lyric's music director, introduces the 2012-13 season, including commentary and musical highlights from all nine operas.
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Backstage at Lyric #110
2011/12 SEASON PREVIEW WITH MUSIC DIRECTOR SIR ANDREW DAVIS
February 4, 2011
Sir Andrew Davis, Lyric's renowned music director, introduces listeners to the 2011-12 season, including commentary and musical highlights from all eight operas.
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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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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
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
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
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
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
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
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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