Opera
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Metropolitan Opera Streamings — week 55
Monday, March 29Bellini’s NormaStarring Sondra Radvanovsky, Joyce DiDonato, Joseph Calleja, and Matthew Rose, conducted by Carlo Rizzi. Production by Sir David McVicar. From October 7, 2017. Tuesday, March 30Strauss’s CapriccioStarring Renée Fleming, Sarah Connolly, Joseph Kaiser, Russell Braun, Morten Frank Larsen, and Peter Rose, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Production by John Cox. From April 23, 2011.…
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Metropolitan Opera Streamings (upcoming)
Friday, March 12Giordano’s FedoraStarring Mirella Freni, Ainhoa Arteta, Plácido Domingo, Dwayne Croft, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, conducted by Roberto Abbado. Production by Beppe De Tomasi. From April 26, 1997. Saturday, March 13Giordano’s Andrea ChénierStarring Maria Guleghina, Wendy White, Stephanie Blythe, Luciano Pavarotti, and Juan Pons, conducted by James Levine. Production by Nicolas Joël. From October 15, 1996. Sunday,…
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Blindness, Incompletion, and Wisdom — Tchaikovsky’s Opera “Iolanta” [Event]
Born blind, Princess Iolanta lives protected from the outside world, while unaware of her impairment — until love reveals her limitations. Join Sila Blume to discuss incompleteness, and wisdom, based on Peter I. Tchaikovsky’s last opera, on Thursday, March 4 2021, at 4:30 pm EST, in Clubhouse. Please, go to https://www.joinclubhouse.com/event/MzapOQZp
![Blindness, Incompletion, and Wisdom — Tchaikovsky’s Opera “Iolanta” [Event]](https://silablume.life/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/img_0323.jpg?w=1024)
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Humor at the Opera / Die Fledermaus
Alfred: Where is my Attorney? Frosh: He probably went to the restroom. Alfred: Will it be long? Frosch: He stutters! Die Fledermaus (The Bat), 1874Operette in three actsby Johann Strauß II (1825-1899)Libretto: Karl Haffner and Richard Genée
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February 13 1883
Around three in the afternoon, one hundred and thirty-eight years ago today, Dr. Friedrich Keppler established that the great master did not survive a heart attack. Friedrich Nietzsche completed the first part of his Thus Spoke Zarathustra in the “sacred hour of Wagner’s death”. After reading the news in the papers the next morning, he…
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Celebration Day — twelve
I am passionate about the drama, music, and dynamics in the world of Opera. As a French pastry, Opera is a milder delight.
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Celebration Day — seven
This is pure celebration, in part because the opera world has been an important source of joy in my life for the last four decades. Magnificent as realm of music composition and theater since the sixteenth century in Italy, it is a school on human condition, with its comedies, tragedies, and transcendental exercises, a school…
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Coffee in the Opera
MIMÌLet me look around.How wonderful it is here.I’ll recover… I will…I feel life here again.You won’t leave me ever… RODOLFOBeloved lips,you speak to me again. MUSETTAWhat is there in the house? MARCELLONothing. MUSETTANo coffee? No wine? MARCELLONothing. Poverty! SCHAUNARDShe’ll be dead within half an hour! “La bohème” (1896)by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)Libretto by Luigi Illica, Giuseppe…
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Today I am in Vienna!
Today I will be in the most magnificent city on this planet. The Metropolitan Opera in New York is playing operas I am not interested in, so I will not be here. Today, mind and ears will be in Vienna. To my wonderful friends in Vienna, do not try to meet me, for I will…
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Words from the Opera — When horror breaks one heart, all hearts are broken
Balstrode:We’ll find him, maybe give a hand. Ellen:We have no power to help him now. Balstrode:We have the power. We have the power.In the black momentWhen your friend suffersUnearthly tormentWe cannot turn our backs.When horror breaks one heartAll hearts are broken. From the opera “Peter Grimes“ op. 33Composer: Benjamin BrittenFrom the poem by George Crabbe
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Truth cannot be known to mortals*
If truth cannot be known to mortals, why is the word in our vocabulary? *The words of Klytämnestra, in “Electra”.Opera in one act, by Richard Strauss (1864–1949).Clytemnestra, in Greek mythology, is a goddess, wife of Agamemnon, and mother of Electra, Chrysothemis, and Orestes
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Anna Bolena — tragically interrupted
Anna Bolena wrapped her long hair in one hand, lifted it above her shoulder, arm stretched, and walked decisively a few steps before an abrupt stop, swinging her black tail frontwards in an arch over her head where it hung before her forehead, as she took a drastic bow that exposed her neck to the…
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Words at the Opera — Hamlet
The wiser among us are the madmen. Hamlet / Grand Opera in five acts (1868) by Ambroise Thomas
Sila Blume 