San Diego Opera Podcast

In this audio-only and very special podcast, we offer an interview with the creators of Moby Dick, composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer. They reflect on their work together and on the sometimes daunting task of taking an 800 page book and simmering it down into a piece for musical theatre, a stirring opera that's been exciting audiences since its premiere in 2010. Listen in as Nicolas Reveles, Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera, questions them about their stunning work.

Among the unique features of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's opera Moby-Dick is the use of an all-male chorus. That's to be expected, of course, since the story is set entirely at sea on the Pequod, a whaling ship out of Nantucket. The only female voice in the opera is the role of Pip, the cabin boy, which is sung by a soprano. It turns out that there's an interesting tradition of the use of the male chorus in opera. Listen in as our Director of Education, Nicolas Reveles, explores this interesting vocal 'color' in Moby-Dick and other great works.

Tenor Salvatore Licitra died this past weekend at the age of 43 from complications due to a motorscooter accident as well as a possible cerebral hemorrhage. The opera world mourns his passing, as do we here at San Diego Opera where he was due to make his role debut as Don Jose in Bizet's Carmen (a contract he had to cancel due to a back injury) and his appearance as Radames in our 2013 season closer, Aida by Giuseppe Verdi. Join Nicolas Reveles, Geisel Director of Education and Outreach, for a collection of excerpts from some of his wonderful opera recordings.

What do you have to keep in mind if you're and opera director and you're considering a soprano for the role of Salome? Well, quite a bit actually, according to Geisel Director of Education and Outreach Nicolas Reveles. Listen in as we discuss the role's musical and physical demands, and hear the final monologue of Strauss's opera with Cheryl Studer in the title role, Giuseppe Sinopoli conducting the Deutsche Oper Berlin Orchestra. 

Last week this podcast reviewed some of the commedia roots of Donizetti's Don Pasquale. This week Education Director Nicolas Reveles does the same thing for Rossini's Barber of Seville, the quintessential opera buffa or comic opera. Enjoy!

We finish our 2012 International Season with two wonderful Italian comic operas, The Barber of Seville by Rossini and Don Pasquale by Donizetti. Let's spend a couple of weeks looking at the influences that created the form we call opera buffa and spend some time with their comic characters. Today, Norina, the star of Don Pasquale, and her delightful entrance aria.

You've got to be sure that one of the first things Jake Heggie did when he sat down to compose Moby-Dick to Gene Scheer's wonderful libretto was that he had to decide what voice-type Captain Ahab was. The choice he made? Heldentenor! You might find that to be an odd choice, or a fortuitous one. You decide, but after you listen to Dr. Nicolas Reveles's podcast this week!

The orchestra is a very active participant in Strauss's Salome, detailing the stage action at every moment in the drama. Just what is it that makes this work so well in the operas of Strauss? Take a listen to Dr. Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera, as he analyzes three important characters in the opera: Jokanaan (John the Baptist), Herod and Salome herself.

There are 30 to 40 recordings of Rossini's great opera, The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia). How does one choose? Let Dr. Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera give you a few suggestions. Along the way you'll hear some of the more significant excerpts from this delightful comic opera!

Dr. Nicolas Reveles, Geisel Director of Education and Outreach, chooses three recordings of Donizetti's comic masterpiece Don Pasquale to help you get to know the opera (with a little help from Beverly Sills, Alfredo Kraus, Gabriel Bacquier and Fernando Corena!)

One of the most exciting things to happen on the cultural landscape of San Diego next season is the West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's opera Moby-Dick. In this podcast hosted by Nicolas Reveles we'll experience some of the earlier music of composer Heggie, including a couple of art songs and excerpts from Dead Man Walking, his first opera, commissioned by San Francisco Opera. You'll easily hear that this composer's music is readily accessible and melodic, with a dramatic & theatrical sense that attracts audiences of all ages!

Great Recordings of Salome: From Birgit Nilsson to Inge Nielson, from Georg Solti to Giuseppe Sinopoli, there have been terrific recordings of Richard Strauss's thrilling opera based on the play by Oscar Wilde. Let's explore a few of them; maybe there's one that will capture your interest during this survey that you'll want to download to your MP3 player or order from your favorite online store.

It's that time again: the announcement of our new season! This special podcast includes audio clips from the operas Salome by Richard Strauss, Moby-Dick by Jake Heggie, Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti and The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini. With commentary by Dr. Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera, this hour-long podcast will fill you in on some of the music and the great singing that we have to look forward to next year. Enjoy!

One of the most poignant moments in the score of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier comes towards the end of Act I, the Marschallin's Monologue, "Da geht er hin". Let's explore what makes this monologue so reflective of the experience of being human, aging against our will, and having to watch it happen day by day in our bathroom mirrors. Strauss gets it!

The leitmotifs or "leading motives" in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier are explored by our Education Director, Nicolas Reveles, in a podcast first posted on August 16, 2010. After defining the leitmotif and its use by Richard Wagner, we'll listen to those used by Strauss to help tell the story of this wonderful opera.

Luckily for us, Puccini's opera Turandot premiered in 1926, well after the invention of sound recording.  So even though we don't have a recording of excerpts from the opera by the two principals (soprano Rosa Raisa and Miguel Fleta), we do have recordings of some of the sopranos who made history in the role.  Let's survey a handful of those sopranos and see if we can get a good sound picture of what Puccini might have expected for the role. Take a listen to this repeat of a popular podcast from June 14, 2010.

Listen in to a revealing interview with soprano Ermonela Jaho who will be singing the role of Liu in Turandot. The Albanian singer made her debut with San Diego Opera in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, standing in for an ailing colleague on opening night. Now she's back, singing the entire run of course, and delighted to be in San Diego!

Dr. Nic spends some time with the wonderful and lovely young soprano Lise Lindstrom who will make her San Diego Opera debut in the challenging role of Turandot. The conversation traverses her recent triumph in the role at the Metropolitan opera as a last-minute replacement and a discussion of the vocal challenges in the aria "In questa reggia".  Listen in!

And so we begin with a new element in our San Diego Opera podcasts: interviews with some of the personalities involved with our 2011 productions.  Let's begin with a chat with tenor Carlo Ventre, who will be singing the role of Calaf in Puccini's Turandot, opening January 29.  In this interview with Nicolas Reveles, Ventre reveals the challenges of the role as well as the physical sensation he experiences in performing great tenor roles like Calaf on stage in front of a large audience.

Well, folks, it's here: 2011, and we open our season in four weeks!  Let's take some time to survey the wonderful musical and vocal pleasures that we're about to enjoy in Puccini's Turandot, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Gounod's Faust and Bizet's Carmen.