SUNDAY NOVEMBER 1ST Handel, The Triumph of Time and Truth (1757) This is both Handel's very first and very last work in the genre of oratorio. With his eyesight failing, Handel decided it was easier to rework an Italian language oratorio he had composed long ago at the start of  his career in 1707 at the behest of his onetime patron, the Roman churchman Cardinal Pamfili. Handel had revived it at Covent Garden in 1737, with certain revisions. Handel's longtime collaborator the Anglican cleric Thomas Morell translated the libretto of the 1737 version into English. The master borrowed a few additional numbers from his store of previous vocal works to compliment the lyric allegory, which is a kind of moral debate between the figures of Beauty, Deceit, Counsel or Truth, Pleasure and Time. In the end Truth wins out over Beauty. On Sunday, November 18, 2001 I presented the Opus 111/Naïve CD release of Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, using Cardinal Pamfili's original book. Twice before I have broadcast the 1982 Hyperion recording of The Triumph of Time and Truth. The first time was my very first broadcast employing compact discs, on Sunday, November 1, 1987. I drew upon those same two Hyperion CD's again on Sunday, March 25, 2007. A new recording of this oratorio came out in 2014 through a different UK label, Delphian, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Richard Neville directs Scotland's period instrument ensemble Ludus Baroque and the Ludus Baroque choristers,with five vocal soloists.

 

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 8TH Dvorak,Alfred We normally think of Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) as a Czech nationalist composer of symphonies. Over the years I have broadcast recordings of one or another of Dvorak's ten operas. These are lyric theaterworks normally sung in the Czech language. Dvorak's first opera Alfred (1870) has a German language libretto and expresses the young composer's fascination with Wagner. He was also struggling to come to terms with the dominant German opera composer of the Romantic era. The result in Alfred was what some might dismiss as "Wagner lite," even though the music is delightfully melodious and dramatically self-assured. At a later time Dvorak seems to have been embarrassed by his own work, and neglected to promote it. Alfred seems never to have been produced anywhere in the composer's lifetime. After his death only the overture was ever performed in his concert adaptation. The entire opera had to wait until 1938 for a radio broadcast performance in Prague, on which occasion it was sung in Czech translation. The subject matter of Alfred is quite Teutonic. The story is set in ninth century England, where the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great was struggling against invasion and occupation by Danish Vikings. At long last the world premiere recording of Alfred was made in live concert performance at the Dvorak Hall in Prague. The opera was a component of the 2014 Prague Dvorak Festival. Heiko Mathias Forster directs the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno, with seven solo singers. Sung in the original German. A 2014 release on two CD's through the Czech ArcoDiva label. This is the Sunday when "Sunday Afternoon at the Opera" participates in WWUH's Fall Fundraiser week, so while the broadcast is underway, phone in your pledges of financial support for lyric theater programming.

 

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 15TH Beowulf (?) As of time of writing I don't know for sure whether or not this Sunday's show willbe preempted by broadcast of a women's basketball game. If it is not preempted I have something special planed that lovers of opera singing may not like at all. My broad spectrum definition of "lyric theater" includes spoken word presentations like the plays of Shakespeare. This Sunday's presentation will be a storytelling session: Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon epic poem read in its entirety in an idiomatic modern English translation by Seamus Heaney. Heaney translated the ancient text himself and reads it aloud in a compellingly dramatic yet conversational manner. He is an Irish poet and literary scholar who won the Nobel Prize in literature for 1995. In 2000 he delivered Beowulf in BBC broadcast. The bards of old declaimed their epics accompanying themselves on the harp. You could think of their style of delivery as an ancient form of operatic recitative. Seamus Heaney's voice is totally unaccompanied in the aircheck of the radio broadcast that was released on compact disc in the US through the Highbridge Company. To provide some musical relief and suggest recitative, I will intersperse my broadcast with passages of recorded music of the old traditional Celtic harp, both as formal interludes or subtle soundbed.

 

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 22ND PREEMPTED by broadcast of a University of Hartford women's basketball game.

 

SUNDAY  NOVEMBER 29TH Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin As an opera composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky is known for two outstanding operas, The Queen of Spades (1890) and Eugene Onegin (1879), although he wrote at least seven other lyric stageworks. Tchaikovsky sought to avoid Wagnerian pomposity in composing music for a libretto he prepared himself from the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin about the Byronic Russian aristocrat Onegin. Tchaikovsky even refused to grace his creation with the official title of "opera," fearing his "lyrical scenes" might be interpreted as a grand opera, which would ruin the delicacy of his musical treatment of a psychologically complex love story. The wisdom of his artistic approach has helped to win for Eugene Onegin a place on the periphery of the international operatic repertoire. There is a rather considerable Onegin discography. Way back on Sunday, June 9, 1991 I broadcast the Sony Classical CD issue of a recorded production of Onegin by the Sofia National Opera of Bulgaria. Today you get to hear a German production that Deutsche Grammophon picked up. It was recorded in Dresden in 1987 with the Staatskapelle Dresden orchestra under the baton of that seasoned American opera conductor James Levine. British baritone Thomas Allen portrays Onegin. Opposite him as Tatiana is the Italian soprano Mirella Freni. Heard as Olga is the Swedish mezzo Anne Sofia von Otter. The chorus of Radio Leipzig takes part in the proceedings. The two DGG compact discs were released in 1988. Sung in the original Russian. 

    

SUNDAY DECEMBER 6TH Steffani, Niobe Yet another important but neglected opera composer of the Italian baroque is finally getting his due in recordings. Not one, but two new recordings have appeared in the catalog of Agostino Steffani's Niobe, Regina di Tebe (1688). Born in Italy in 1654, Steffani lived a fairly long life, dying in 1728, but by the dawn of the eighteenth century he had given up writing music entirely to pursue a career in diplomatic service in Central Europe. Niobe was composed for the opera theater of the royal Bavarian court at Munich. (Steffani's Italian operas were particularly popular in Germany; they influenced the development of German baroque opera.) The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden staged Niobe in 2010. The 2015 Opus Arte release lays claim to being the world premiere recording of Niobe. Following hard on its heels is the Erato release of Niobe with Paul Odette leading the singers and players of the Boston Early Music Festival. The Covent Garden production has Thomas Hengelbrock conducting the Baltasar-Neumann-Ensemble of period instrumentalists. Starring in the singing cast in the title role as the Queen of Thebes is the much esteemed French soprano Veronique Gens. It's her voice you will hear today in the Covent Garden/Opus Arte recording on three compact discs.

 

SUNDAY DECEMBER 13THPuccini's La Boheme (1896) is the obvious choice for programming at this time of year, since the action of the opera opens on Christmas Eve and continues through Christmas Day in the first two acts. There's a historic recording of La Boheme that I have broadcast once before long ago on Christmas Eve, 1989. It was recorded live in radio broadcast over the NBC network from New York City on February 3/10, 1946, with Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The recording's historic importance is enhanced by the fact that it was broadcast in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the staged premiere of the opera in Turin. Toscanini knew Puccini personally and made the performance of Puccini's operas a personal cause. It was Toscanini who conducted the world premiere of Turandot after the composer's death. In 1968 RCA Victor Red seal issued the 1946 Toscanini Boheme on LP's in monaural sound. The Metropolitan Opera's resident tenor of the period, Jan Peerce, is heard as the poet Rodolfo, with soprano Licia Albanese as Mimi. The greatest Italian basso buffo of all time, Salvatore Baccaloni, was cast in the role of the landlord Benoit.

 

SUNDAY DECMBER 20TH Hindemith,The Long Christmas Dinner, DiGiacomo, A Journey to Bethlehem  Fond memories of Christmas dinner with family are part of the holiday idyll. What if it was possible to attend a Christmas feast that encompasses ninety years of a family's history? That's what the distinguished American playwright Thornton Wilder had in mind in his one act play The Long Christmas Dinner (1931). German composer Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) approached Wilder about rendering his play into a suitable opera libretto. Wilder took on the challenge and gave Hindemith exactly what he wanted for his last opera Das lange Weihnachtsmahl (1960/61). Hindemith himself translated Wilder's libretto into German and crafted his music so that the opera could be sung in either English or deutsch. On Sunday, December 19,2010 I broadcast the German language version in a 2005 Wergo recording with Marek Janowski conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and vocal soloists. This holiday season you get the opera in its English language production as recorded live in performance at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City, December 14, 2014. (This is presumably the world premiere release of the English version in 2015 on a single Bridge CD.) Leon Botstein conducts the American Symphony Orchestra with a cast of eight American vocal soloists.

    Sometime during Advent I like to program lyric theater pieces in which child singers/actors take part. After all, people say Christmastime is  a special time devoted to the little ones. Frank DiGiacomo (1945-2004) wrote a charming Christmas opera in one act on commission from a high school choral director in an upstate New York school district. A Journey to Bethlehem  (1977) has a libretto by the composer, who based it upon medieval folk tales. DiGiacomo composed other operas for university level productions and for professional groups like Opera Theatre of Syracuse. This one is intended specifically for amateurs,with youngsters performing all the major roles. A Journey to Bethlehem comes to us on two  20th Century Records LP's. I last presented this unique live recording on Sunday, December 23, 1990.

 

SUNDAY DECMBER 27TH Handel,Messiah  Although, like his other oratorios, it was originally intended for performance at Lent, Handel's Messiah (1741) has a now longstanding association with Christmastime. I've broadcast many different recordings of this immortal work on the last Sunday in December or on one of the Advent Sundays, and around Eastertime, too. Most of these recorded versions of Messiah  have employed historically informed baroque performance practice both in singing and with period instruments. The "period" approach to the music has become the norm. The latest "period" Messiah to come into my hands is the 2014 Erato two-CD set. Emmanuelle Haim leads a French "period" ensemble Le Concert D'Astree orchestra. The Concert D'Astree choir and the four solo singers, however, are British. Handel was constantly tinkering with the score of Messiah, altering various numbers for each new performance. Consequently, there is no definitive version of the oratorio, unless you consider the copy Handel bequeathed to the Foundling Hospital near the end of his life to contain his final thoughts on the composition. Le Concert D'Asree has chosen the version performed at Covent Garden Theatre during Holy Week,1752, as edited for publication by musicologist John Tobin. Handel never meant Messiah to be sung in church, but then, of course, it has sometimes been given in church/chapel venues following the master's death.

   The old year rolls around to its conclusion. I think back to all those who have helped me through the course of 2015 to make this opera program possible. Again and again over the years from Rob Meehan I get on loan for broadcast the latest recordings of cutting -edge opera of today. Rob is a specialist collector of 20th and 21st century music on disc, especially in the "alternative" approaches to the audio artform. He's also a former classical deejay here at WWUH. Again and again I keep thanking him for his invaluable contributions. Curiously, this two-month period of programming is one of the very few that does not include anything of his. I did not contribute any recordings of my own.either.  Everything featured in November and December comes out of our station's ever-growing holdings of classical music on disc. Our station's director of classical programming Steve Petke donated his DGG recording of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, so he deserves a shout-out as well. As always, I am beholden to our station's operations director Kevin O'Toole for continuing to mentor me in the preparation of these notes for cyber-publication.