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Opera For Everyone

Opera for Everyone

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Opera for Everyone is a radio show and podcast that makes opera understandable, accessible, and enjoyable for all. Pat Wright hosts the show, inviting guest co-hosts to participate in the mission she and Keely Herron developed after lively discussions of operas they had enjoyed seeing together. Music soars. Epiphanies abound. Hilarity ensues. The show airs Sundays from 9.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. on 89.1 KHOL in Jackson, Wyoming. Cover artwork by illustrator Rosie Brooks (www.rosiebrooks.com)
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Was it only a dream? Baroque composer Henry Purcell was on his way to establishing a national operatic tradition based on the dramatic and musical traditions of the English, when, alas, his life was cut short after just 36 years. Join us as we explore Purcell’s musically and emotionally rich “The Fairy Queen,” a delightful twist on the Bard’s “A Mi…
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Where passion joins with music and poetry we find opera. In this sweet spot, we also find What We Need Is Here, the most recent project by accomplished musician and singer, Lisa Reagan. Lisa joins us to talk about creating an album of songs for classic poems that have been meaningful to her life. Lisa Reagan spent twenty years singing with the Wash…
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Two things never go out of fashion: opera and mystery. In this episode, mystery writer and former opera violinist Erica Miner talks with us about her opera mystery series and Lulu, Berg’s high-body-count melodrama. Lulu, which features prominently in Erica’s new novel, centers on a beautiful young woman whose admirers descend into obsession. Join u…
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In Amahl and the Night Visitors, a young boy and his mother unexpectedly play host to the Magi on their way to meet the infant Jesus. Originally written for television, this opera uniquely bridges the ancient and modern in a heartfelt exploration of the meaning of hospitality. In the second half of this episode, we are joined by Grant to talk about…
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By turns funny, serious, and seriously funny, L’Italiana in Algeri is a fascinating assembly of romantic tropes: a spurned wife, a shipwrecked lover, a pirate king, and a daring escape. At the same time, it deals with serious themes of agency, power, and silence. Set in a world that is both alien and familiar, this opera has something to say to all…
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“The face that launched a thousand ships.” Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, has a problem. Her husband plans to kill her, but she just wants him to fall in love with her again. She may just need a miracle to pull it off, but if anyone can do it, she can. Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal aimed for a light and comic oper…
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One of the top ten most-performed operas in the world, Puccini’s Tosca is considered by some the greatest of operas. A painter provides refuge for an escaped political prisoner, which begins a chain of events that starts with petty jealousy and ends in a death leap. Things spiral further and further out of control in this epic confrontation of tyra…
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Richard Wagner’s style is one of the most distinctive and recognizable in all of opera. But Wagner wasn’t always the Wagner we’ve come to know. The earliest of Wagner’s operas to be performed in his lifetime was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, Das Liebesverbot, where he is still developing his craft and working on his relationsh…
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At once a sweeping story about humanity and a deeply personal look at a married couple with unfulfilled aspirations, Die Frau Ohne Schatten is often considered the magnum opus of the famed partnership between composer Richard Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Moving between lofty, other-worldly, and gritty settings, this opera simultane…
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One of history’s most infamous women, Lucrezia Borgia has inspired artists, dramatists, and TV show writers for centuries. Donizetti’s opera follows the play by Victor Hugo, telling of Lucrezia’s effort to find the kind of love that might change her life. However, it isn’t easy being a powerful woman in Renaissance Italy. Gaetano Donizetti, a proli…
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“Double, double toil and trouble.” Composer Giuseppi Verdi enthusiastically declared that Shakespeare’s Macbeth “is one of the greatest creations of man!” Harnessing this passionate admiration, he went on to craft the first of his three completed operas based on Shakespeare plays. Verdi’s Macbeth is full of powerful choral pieces, arias from a roya…
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One of the world’s most formidable generals and one of history’s most beguiling politicians are joined by two frustrated young men and an irresistible widow in Handel’s Baroque masterpiece, Giulio Cesare in Egitto. Join Pat, Kathleen, and Grant for a journey through history, literature, and myth in exploring the influences and meaning of this endur…
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One of the world’s most beloved operas, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, is not only the focus of this episode, but also the inspiration for Elly Uncomposed: A Novel Opera, a magical realist novel by author and retired opera singer, Valerie Niemerg. Like the opera Figaro, some truly serious and important topics are addressed in Elly Uncomposed, but wit…
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A people yearns for freedom. The power of their prayers, set to Verdi’s incomparable music, have stirred audiences ever since the première of Nabucco in 1842. The impact of this opera may relate to Verdi’s own struggle to overcome personal tragedies preceding the composition the music. It also resonates with the passions of the Italian people of hi…
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Handel’s beloved Messiah, known for its thrilling Hallelujah Chorus, is a long-standing favorite during the Christmas season. Neither an opera, nor Christmas music, this English-language oratorio was composed for the Easter Season and premièred in Dublin in 1842. The magnificent text was crafted from the King James Bible by Handel’s friend, Charles…
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Have you ever asked what might be going on backstage at an opera house? Or wondered about what secrets hide behind those glittering stages? Drawing on 21 years as a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera, Erica Miner guides her readers through a dramatized version of the opera world in her mystery novel, Aria for Murder, the first in the “Julia Kogan …
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Glittering and gloriously tuneful, Die Fledermaus (“The Bat”) is the most enduring operetta of Vienna’s famous “Waltz King,” Johann Strauss II. Its plot features revenge, infidelity, disguised identities, and a glamorous ball at its center, given by a wealthy host who requires his guests to keep the party lively. Toasting “King Champagne,” the char…
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Masks, both literal and figurative, abound in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, “A Masked Ball.” Conspirators feign support of a leader they despise. A noblewoman must veil both her face and her feelings from her husband. The governor must put on a disguise to understand his subjects, and his beloved. The governor’s chief councilor dons a mask to take …
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A beloved king becomes reviled by his family and his people as previously hidden dark deeds come to light. A young woman loses her innocence and freedom through the machinations of the lord of the underworld. The timeless ancient Greek stories of King Oedipus and Persephone captured the imagination of Igor Stravinsky, a composer unafraid to present…
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There is no secular story nearly so important to the Western tradition as the Odyssey, a timeless tale of heroism, achievement, and loss. The subject matter of this epic poem has found its way into many works of art, and likely the earliest opera adaptation was Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, first performed in 1639 in the city of Venic…
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We all know that feeling when we want to marry one rebel leader, but our father wants us to marry the chief rebel leader, but then one day a wandering king disguised as a huntsman starts chatting us up on the moors. With this timeless and relatable set-up (based on a poem by Sir Walter Scott that is credited with starting the Scottish Romantic move…
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Meet Maestro Joseph Rescigno–gentleman, author, and opera conductor extraordinaire. The Maestro joins OFE for this wide-ranging discussion of the how, what, and why of conducting opera. Drawing on material from his book, Conducting Opera: Where Theater Meets Music, and a lifetime of conducting opera around the world, Maestro Rescigno brings a uniqu…
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Leos Janacek’s opera about a clever little fox living in the worlds of both animals and humans has many of the charming and amusing elements expected of traditional children’s stories. However, don’t let this Cunning Little Vixen fool you. Her story, and the story of the forester who pursues her, are richly layered with issues that may glide over t…
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Beatrice and Benedick often steal the show in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing with their sharp-tongued banter, and a romance that is as unlikely as it is inevitable. Composer Hector Berlioz was captivated by these characters, and turned their story into an operatic romantic comedy in his final completed opera, Béatrice et Bénédict. As the musi…
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What does Salvador Dali have in common with opera? Listen to this episode to find out! This episode features special guests soprano Elizaveta Ulakhovich and baritone Perry Sook talking about their work and lives as an operatic couple. Their newest project is a YouTube series that connects their love of opera and their exploration of the visual arts…
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All things must come to an end, but few approach endings with such grace as Marschallin Marie-Therese, the iconic character of Der Rosenkavalier. At once epic and intimate in scope, Strauss’s masterwork resists characterization, at various points telling the story of the end of a romance, the end of adolescence, and the end of an empire. Published …
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Riding high on the tide of their smash success, H.M.S. Pinafore, W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan enjoyed celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic. While engaged in defending the integrity of their work against inferior pirated versions, they hastily completed and premiered a show about a group of inferior pirates. Pirates of Penzance is almost cert…
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This extended version of our William Tell show includes everything from the regular length show, plus more history, more music, more explication, and more fun! Imperial soldiers, determined rebels, a martyred elder, a plucky youth, a noble princess, a cruel oppressor… it’s not Star Wars; it’s Rossini’s final opera, William Tell! First performed in …
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Imperial soldiers, determined rebels, a martyred elder, a plucky youth, a noble princess, a cruel oppressor… it’s not Star Wars; it’s Rossini’s final opera, William Tell! First performed in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Era and inspired by much earlier legends of a medieval Swiss folk hero, this opera is a masterwork of everything we love about o…
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An adventurous Renaissance artist’s action-packed autobiography provided compelling inspiration for Hector Berlioz’s first completed opera, Benvenuto Cellini. Berlioz strongly identified with the notorious Cellini, seeing in him a mirror of his own bravado, skill, and passion… and uses this identification to add to the story. The result is a relent…
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How do you get from The Opera to The Musical? Any answer to that question would have to include the powerhouse Victorian English duo of Gilbert and Sullivan and their ground-breaking form of “light opera.” Hilarious, cheerful, and energetic, they innovated both in opera and satirical comedy. Not only were they beloved by theater-goers of the late n…
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Although only included in some versions of the biblical book of Daniel, the story of “Susanna and the Elders” has long been a favorite artistic subject thanks to its risqué content and virtuous heroine, Susanna. Inspired by this story of lechery, slander, and condemnation, American composer Carlisle Floyd wrote Susannah, a poignant opera about the …
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A beautiful young woman with long golden hair; a charming young prince who lives in a castle in the fantastic land of Allemonde… While these may be the ingredients for a classic fairy-tale, this story subverts all expectations. First performed in the opening decade of the twentieth century, Pelléas et Mélisande is the only opera ever completed by t…
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It’s not just modern interpreters who poke fun at distinguished personages of the mythic past. In the mid-nineteenth century, Jacques Offenbach turned the Orpehus and Euridice story on its head in his smash-hit, Orpheus in the Underworld. This work, in addition to giving us the infamous “Can-Can,” started an international craze for toe-tapping, fun…
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In the palace of the Duke of Mantua in 1607, composer Claudio Monteverdi presented a ground-breaking “musical fable” to a select group. The music may sound Medieval to our ears, but it was truly modern at the time, and proved itself an early Baroque masterpiece. Four centuries later, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo is still in the repertoire, tugging on the h…
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Join Opera for Everyone this holiday season as we explore Hector Berlioz’s unusual take on the Christmas story, L’Enfance du Christ. Instead of telling the familiar story culminating in the adoration of the newborn babe, Berlioz composed both music and text to begin with the immediate challenges that followed the birth of the son who had just arriv…
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In Franz Lehar's operetta The Merry Widow, the men cheerfully complain "the study of women is hard," and the women dance circles around them! Premiered in the early twentieth century, The Merry Widow was an international sensation on an unprecedented scale. Its songs were widely distributed, its action adapted into films, and its costumes imitated …
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To thine own self be true… with the source material, however, you can be more flexible. In the mid-19th century, Ambroise Thomas created a Grand Opera that took on what many consider the greatest play ever written. Travel through a familiar story made all new by a romantic focus and a twist ending! Who will live? Who will die? Who will get herself …
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The young ones in your life may not be ready to sit through the entire Ring Cycle, but we can assure you that the world of opera has many delights available to them. On this episode Keely and Pat are joined by special guest, illustrator and opera aficionado Rosie Brooks. Rosie has combined these two passions, and has been drawing the stories of ope…
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A beautiful diva arrives just in time to shed new light on an inheritance case that is a century old. She doesn’t behave like other women, and somehow she knows exactly where to locate the will that has eluded searchers for generations. The mystery grows more perplexing and incomprehensible, as the characters grow ever more extreme in their behavio…
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The Devil takes center stage in this opera based on the Faust story: a timeless tale of the seductive nature of evil and the redemptive promise of grace. Known primarily for his many successful libretti, Arrigo Boito gave his full poetic, philosophical, and musical talents to this, his only complete opera. This is the third in a series of Opera For…
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A deal with the Devil; a Faustian bargain. When an elderly scholar prays to the Devil in desperation, he learns that it might not be wise to let the Devil answer his prayers. Faust gains only transitory pleasures but causes the pitiful downfall of a naive young woman. This story takes a close look at the relationship between that woman and the scho…
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A beautiful woman encounters a handsome prince near her home. She cannot tell the prince that she loves him, but her passion is so powerful that she chooses to give up her family and voice in order to appear to him and win his love. His wavering commitment, however, dooms them both. Antonin Dvorak’s opera Rusalka soars with vibrant music and invite…
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Faust, an aging scholar, despairs that the world holds no further interest for him. But the crafty devil Mephistopheles appears and invites Faust to pleasures not found in his books. Of course, it is never wise to make a deal with the Devil. The epic tale of the downfall of Faust and the innocent woman he drags with him is sublimely illustrated by …
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These are not Shakespeare’s Montagues and Capulets! Based on the original medieval Italian source material, Bellini’s take on the star-crossed lovers portrays Romeo as a young man who knows his mind and leads an army. Juliet loves Romeo deeply, but must contend with both external and internal impediments to realizing any happiness with her beloved.…
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Young Werther is the embodiment of Romanticism. He swoons for nature, sighs for love, and marvels at the innocence of childhood. These impulses, however, can turn dark when his desires are thwarted. A sensation when it was published, Goethe’s story of a young poet in love, captured the imagination of a generation. Massenet’s riveting opera takes us…
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Rossini’s witty and urbane Le Comte Ory is a comic opera full of mirth and ridiculous disguises. Meet the randy Comte Ory and his merry band of singing knights. While the decent men of the castle are away in the Holy Land, the Comte plays the part of a hermit, a female pilgrim... anything to cozy up to the lovely Countess Adele. Though his plans ar…
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When a young princess's depraved stepfather asks her to dance, she sees a way to satisfy her lust for the imprisoned John (the Baptist). Based on an Oscar Wilde play dramatizing a biblical story, the opera Salome was shocking and enticing for audiences, and a critical success for composer Richard Strauss early in his career.Hosted by Pat, Grant & n…
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In the last of a series of five special episodes, Keely and Pat play some of opera’s great works around a theme of triumph and celebration. Get ready to humm, sing, and dance along to these heart-pumping pieces!โดย Opera for Everyone
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The fourth in a series of five special episodes takes a close look at Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. This powerfully dramatic work was partly inspired by Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony... and partly by one particularly tumultuous year in Tchaikovsky’s own turbulent life. Fortunately, he endured his troubles with the help of one remarkable woman, to who…
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