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World of Opera (Opera)

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Next available on KBIA2 91.3 Columbia, MO in 1 hour 20 minutes
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Host: Lisa Simeone
Listeners compelling performances from top American and international opera companies. World of Opera encompasses the seminal operas of the 17th century. The program goes beyond the traditional, operatic vernacular to showcase opera as anything but an elitist form of art.
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Genres: Opera
Location: Washington, DC
Language: English
Networks: NPR

Last updated 146 days ago Update program info

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Verdi's 'Simon Boccanegra'

Fri, Oct 26

The title character in Simon Boccanegra is among the most complex and poignant that Verdi ever created, and the opera is among his most beautiful. In this production from Houston, Boccanegra is played by the renowned baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

Handel's 'Julius Caesar'

Fri, Oct 19

Countertenor David Daniels takes the brilliant title role in Julius Caesar, Handel's slightly offbeat take on Roman history, from Houston Grand Opera.

Wagner's 'Die Walkuere'

Fri, Oct 12

Legendary tenor Placido Domingo sings the heroic role of Siegmund in Die Walkuere, the second installment in the Washington National Opera's new production of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelungen.

Leos Janacek's 'Jenufa'

Fri, Oct 5

Soprano Patricia Racette stars in the title role of Janacek's devastating, yet stunningly beautiful drama Jenufa, in a production from the Washington National Opera.

Donizetti's 'The Daughter of the Regiment'

Fri, Sep 28

Soprano JiYoung Lee stars as an "army brat" who was adopted by the entire army. The opera is Donizetti's Gallic romp, The Daughter of the Regiment, from the Washington National Opera.

'Bluebeard's Castle' and 'Gianni Schicchi'

Fri, Sep 21

Renowned bass Samuel Ramey stars as a serial murderer in Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, and as the devious title character in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, a comedy with a corpse at the center of the action. It's a deadly double bill from the Washington National Opera.

Puccini's 'Madame Butterfly'

Fri, Sep 14

Legendary tenor Placido Domingo takes to the podium, to conduct Puccini's Madame Butterfly, in a Washington National Opera production starring soprano Xiu Wei Sun as Cio-Cio-San.

Nicholas Maw's 'Sophie's Choice'

Fri, Sep 7

Composer Nicholas Maw has turned William Styron's searing novel Sophie's Choice into a brilliant and moving opera. World of Opera presents the work's American premiere, from the Washington National Opera.

Verdi's 'Macbeth'

Fri, Aug 31

Verdi's Macbeth is one of the rarest things in opera: A successful opera based on Shakespeare. Lado Atanelli and Paoletta Marrocu star in a production from the Washington National Opera.

Jules Massenet's 'Werther'

Fri, Aug 24

Massenet's Werther is thrilling, tuneful, and one of the saddest operas ever composed -- it ends with a suicide on Christmas Eve. Tenor Neil Shicoff stars in the title role, in a recent production at the historic Vienna State Opera.

Puccini's 'The Girl of the Golden West'

Fri, Aug 17

Full-bore, Italian "verismo" meets the American frontier, in Puccini's Girl of the Golden West, from Glimmerglass Opera. Minnie is a golden-hearted woman serving a Deadwood-style mining camp as everyman's sister, teacher, mother and sweetheart -- until a mysterious stranger comes to town, and she falls in love with the wrong guy.

Stephen Hartke's 'The Greater Good'

Fri, Aug 10

Stephen Harke's new opera The Greater Good portrays a clash between the classes -- but it's hard to tell which class is which when high-brow aristrocrats resort to decidedly low-brow behavior. The provocative, world premiere production comes from Glimmerglass Opera.

Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville'

Fri, Aug 3

The Barber of Seville may be the perfect, operatic comedy. On World of Opera it comes to us from the jewel-like theater at Glimmerglass Opera, a perfect venue for the crystalline musical textures and intimate vocal detail of Rossini's masterpiece.

Handel's 'Imeneo'

Fri, Jul 27

In Handel's quirky comedy Imeneo two guys are after the same girl, and she's not sure she wants either one of them. The production is from Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Giacomo Puccini's 'Turandot'

Fri, Jul 20

Turandot, Puccini's extravagant portrayal of ancient China, is home to "Nessun dorma!" -- one of music's most famous numbers -- a soaring tenor aria that's been recorded by performers ranging from Franco Corelli and Placido Domingo, to the Twelve Girls Band and the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra.

Mozart's 'The Marriage of Figaro'

Fri, Jul 13

The brilliant soprano Anna Netrebko stars in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, an opera with a slapstick surface that hides deeply emotional roots. The production is from the Salzburg Festival.

Mussorgsky's 'Boris Godunov'

Fri, Jul 6

Mussorgsky's sprawling drama Boris Godunov is actually an intimate, psychological portrait played out on an epic scale. It comes to us from the Vienna State Opera, with bass Ferruccio Furlanetto in the title role.

Mozart's 'La finta semplice'

Fri, Jun 29

Mozart's La finta semplice tells a sophisticated story of adult love, romantic deception and backstabbing -- and he composed it when he was just 12 years old! It comes to us from the Salzburg Festival.

'Margaret Garner' from Opera Carolina

Fri, Jun 22

The real-life story of Margaret Garner is a chilling chapter in American history. As a fugitive slave, Garner is willing to kill before allowing her family to return to the plantation. Novelist Toni Morrison teams up with composer Richard Danielpour to bring Garner's powerful story to the operatic stage.

Giacomo Puccini's 'Tosca'

Fri, Jun 15

If ever there were an R-rated opera, it's Puccini's lurid potboiler, Tosca. Perhaps not coincidentally, it's also one of the most popular operas of all time -- featured here in a production from Houston Grand Opera starring soprano Maria Guleghina.

Tchaikovsky's 'The Maid of Orleans'

Fri, Jun 8

Not many 70-year-old sopranos could score a box office hit portraying a teenage heroine, but Mirella Freni did it as Joan of Arc, the title character of Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans, at the Washington National Opera.

W. A. Mozart's 'Idomeneo'

Fri, Jun 1

To help celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, the Salzburg Festival presented a starkly beautiful production of Idomeneo -- arguably the composer's first true, operatic masterpiece.

Gaetano Donizetti's 'The Daughter of the Regiment'

Fri, May 25

The Daughter of the Regiment, from the Vienna State opera, features some of the world's finest voices -- both singing, and speaking! Soprano Natalie Dessay sings the title character opposite the brilliant tenor Juan Diego Florez, and renowned soprano Montserrat Caballe makes a surprise appearance in the speaking role of the Duchess of Crackentorp.

Giuseppe Verdi's 'Il Trovatore'

Fri, May 18

Verdi's Il Trovatore has a truly outlandish story, but its music has made it one of the most popular of all the composer's great operas. World of Opera presents it in a production from Houston Grand Opera.

'Lakme,' by Leo Delibes

Fri, May 11

The familiar hit tune from Delibes' Lakme, the "Flower Duet," has turned up everywhere from British Airways TV spots to promos for a family of golf courses, to cell phone ringtones. World of Opera presents Lakme in a production from the Montreal Opera.

Mozart's 'Cosi fan tutte'

Fri, May 4

Mozart's masterpiece Cosi fan tutte is billed as a comedy, but it often leaves romantically inclined listeners feeling just a little bit queasy. It comes to us from the Salzburg Festival, in a production featuring the Vienna Philharmonic.

Giacomo Puccini's 'Manon Lescaut'

Fri, Apr 27

The title character in Puccini's Manon Lescaut is a young woman torn between true love and a life of luxury. The production comes from the Washington National Opera, with stars Veronica Villarroel and Franco Farina, and conductor Placido Domingo.

Giuseppe Verdi's 'Il Corsaro'

Sat, Apr 21

Giuseppe Verdi's Il Corsaro is one of the few operas that evoke the swashbuckling world of seafaring pirates. Opera Orchestra of New York performs the rarely-heard drama in concert at Carnegie Hall.

Gaetano Donizetti's 'Anna Bolena'

Thu, Apr 12

The tragic story of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, provided Gaetano Donizetti with plenty of emotional material for his opera Anna Bolena. The production from Opera Orchestra of New York stars James Morris as Henry and Krassimira Stoyanova as the ill-fated Anne.

Jules Massenet's 'Manon'

Fri, Apr 6

Soprano Anna Netrebko, one of opera's hottest young stars, sings the title role in Massenet's Manon in a production from the Vienna State Opera, with tenor Roberto Alagna as Des Grieux.