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2002

July

7/20/02
Richard Strauss: Arabella
Houston Grand Opera

Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach conducts the Houston Symphony Orchestra
Cast: Renée Fleming (Arabella); Katherine Ciesinski (Adelaide); József Gregor (Count Waldner); Christine Schäfer (Zdenka); Wolfgang Brendel (Mandryka); Raymond Very (Matteo); Chad Shelton (Count Elmer); Jill Grove (Fortune-teller); Eric Edlund (Welko); Daniel Belcher (Count Dominik); Christopher Scott Feigum (Count Lamoral); Nancy Allen Lundy (the Fiakermilli); James Alba (Djura); Peter Webster (Jankel).

Strauss and von Hoffmansthal strike again. This lushly romantic drama has echoes of Der Rosenkavalier -- and what better opera to emulate. The plot trades on jealousies, intrigues and mistaken identities, but love, naturally, proves the most valuable commodity of all.

07/13/02
Gaetano Donizetti: Maria di Rohan
Grand Theatre of Geneva (Switzerland)

Conductor: Evelino Pido conducts the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Cast: Annick Massis (Maria); Octavio Arevalo (Riccardo); Stephen Salters (Enrico); Ruben Amoretti (Armando); Alexander Vassiliev (De Fiesque)

This one's not heard often, but maybe it should be. With a headstrong heroine who's partial to dangerous liaisons, Donizetti's 1843 hit is driven by a disturbing sense of unavoidable tragedy.

07/06/02
Leo Delibes: Lakme
Grand Hall Concertgebouw (Amsterdam)

Conductor: Patrick Founillier conducts the Netherlands Radio Symphony and Chorus
Cast: Sumi Jo (Lakme); Jianyi Zhang (Gerald); Marina Comparato (Mallika); Angelina Ruzzafante (Rose); Ellen Schuring (Ellen); Chester Patton (Nilakantha)

A seldom heard, yet strikingly beautiful opera, Lakme features one of the most famous duets every composed. We hear it on this program from the superb acoustic of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, in a performance featuring rising star Sumi Jo.

June

6/29/02
Giuseppe Verdi: Otello
Teatro alla Scala (Milan)

Conductor: Riccardo Muti conducts the La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
Cast: Placido Domingo (Otello); Barbara Frittoli (Desdemona); Leo Francesco Nucci (Iago); Antonello Ceron (Rodrigo); Cesare Catani (Cassio); Rossana Rinaldi (Emilia)

Verdi's brilliant adaptation of one of Shakespeare's greatest dramas. Placido Domingo stars, in a production from historic La Scala, in Milan.

2001

November

11/25/01
Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlo

11/18/01
Daniel Catan: Florencia en el Amazonas

11/11/01
Claudio Monteverdi: The Coronation of Poppea

11/04/01
Alexander Borodin: Prince Igor

October

10/27/01
W.A. Mozart: Così fan tutte

10/13/01
Georges Bizet: Carmen

10/06/01
Luigi Cherubini: Anacreon

September

9/29/01
GAETANO DONIZETTI: Maria Stuarda
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor
Cast: Ruth Ann Swenson; Lauren Flanigan; Gregory Kunde; Patrick Carfizzi; Eleni Matos; C. Y. Liao

Have you seen that movie about Elizabeth I? The one with Cate Blanchett? Well, Elizabeth turns up in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda as well, but she's not quite the innocent turned stateswoman we see in the movie. This time Joseph Fiennes, er, that is, the Earl of Leicester, prefers another. So Elizabeth gets mad, and Maria loses her head -- literally.

9/22/01
GIACOMO MEYERBEER: Les Huguenots
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor
Cast: Olga Makrina (Marguerite); Krassimira Stoyanova (Valentine); Maria Zifchak (Urbain); Marcello Giordani (Raoul); Gary Simpson (Count St. Bris); Kamel Boutros (Count Nevers); Luiz Ottavio-Faria (Marcel)

Another French grand opera, this one by a German who adopted Paris as his hometown. Often cited as Meyerbeer's finest opera, Les Huguenots concerns an arranged marriage in which the arrangements go seriously awry.

9/15/01
GAETANO DONIZETTI: La Favorita
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor
Cast: Jennifer Larmore (Leonora); Gregory Kunde (Fernando); Dmitri Hvorostovsky(Alfonso); Vitalij Kowaljow (Baldassare); Barton Green (Don Gasparo); Angela Gilbert (Ines)

A French grand opera, ballets and all, by one of Italy's greatest masters. It's a boy-gets-girl story in which the getting turns out to be so problematic that by opera's end, the boy opts for celibacy instead.

9/8/01
GIUSEPPE VERDI: Macbeth
Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
Orchestra of St. Luke's and The Collegiate Chorale; Robert Bass, conductor
Cast: Juan Pons (Macbeth); Maria Guleghina (Lady Macbeth); Dean Peterson (Banquo); Michael Sylvester (Macduff); Chris Owens (Malcolm)

Of the hundreds of Shakespeare operas, only four or five have stayed in the modern repertory. Of those, Verdi wrote three and his Macbeth displays his unique ability to pare Shakespeare's words down to operatic scale, while retaining all of the original's emotional impact -- and then some -- through his music.

9/1/01
GIOACCHINO ROSSINI: Tancredi
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor
Cast: Vesselina Kasarova, mezzo-soprano (Tancredi); Maureen O'Flynn, soprano (Amenaide); Robert Breault, tenor (Argirio); Kamel Boutros, bass (Orbazzano); Susanna Poretsky, contralto (Isaura); Carla Wood, soprano (Roggiero)

Rossini's first great serious opera, Tacncredi shows us that in the hands of a true master, even the aging opera serial format could still produce both a moving romance and a riveting spectacle.

August

8/25/01
VINCENZO BELLINI: La Sonnambula
Opera Orchestra of New York
Eve Queler, conductor
Cast: Ruth Ann Swenson, soprano (Amina); Gregory Kunde, tenor (Elvino); John Retyea, bass (Count Rodolfo); Carla Wood, mezzo-soprano (Teresa); Lynette Tapia, soprano (Lisa); Patrick Carfizzi, bass (Alessio)

In Bellini's clever comedy, scandal ensues when a beautiful young woman, about to be married, sleepwalks into the wrong man's bedroom. It all works out, of course, but not without a bit of slapstick adventure, a light dose of heartbreak, and a lot of hand wringing.

8/18/01
W. A. MOZART: The Abduction from the Seraglio
Glimmerglass Opera (Cooperstown, New York)
Stewart Robertson, conductor
Cast: Joyce Guyer (Constanze); William Burden (Belmonte); Gustav Andreassen (Osmin); Timothey Swaim (Pedrillo); Anna Christy (Blonde)

This classic "rescue" opera is the piece that the Emperor in the stage play and movie Amadeus said had "too many notes." We think it's got just the right number of notes and so, apparently, did Mozart. As for exactly how many notes that is -- you'll have to tune in and count them yourself!

8/11/01
LOWELL LIEBERMANN: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Florentine Opera Company (Milwaukee)
Stewart Bedford, conductor
Cast: Mark Thomsen (Dorian Gray); Erie Mills (Sibyl Vane); Kelly Anderson (Basil); John Hancock (Lord Henry); Nancy Shade (The Whore); Kristopher Irmiter (James); Brandon Jovanovich (Lord Geoffrey); Matthew Potterton (Gamekeeper)

Liebermann, one of America's foremost composers, gives us a startling musical interpretation of Oscar Wilde's classic story of decadence, art, and murder.

8/4/01
GEORGES BIZET: Carmen
Grand Theatre of Geneva (Geneva, Switzlerand)
Swiss Romande Orchestra; Grand Theatre Chorus;
Alain Lombard, conductor
Cast: Sara Fulgoni (Carmen); Jon Ketilsson (Don Jose); Jorge Lagunes (Escamillo); Rachel Harnish (Micaela); Christine Buffle (Fransquita); Delphine Haidan (Mercedes); Antoine Garcin (Zuniga); David Grousset (Morales)

In this opera, Bizet may have created the most famous "cigarette girl" of all time. No, she doesn't carry them around on a tray like in a '40s nightclub -- she makes them, at least until passion intervenes. A tale of love, betrayal and murder, beautifully orchestrated.

JULY

7/27/01
VERDI: Jerusalem
Lyric Theater of Genoa, Italy

This week's opera has a story that, with a little updating here and there, could easily pass for something you could hear about on the Jerry Springer Show. You don't think so? Well, see for yourself.

7/21/01
RAMEAU: Platée
Grand Theatre of Geneva

Jean-Phillipe Rameau's Platée was composed as entertainment for a royal wedding. How Rameau managed to get away with this apparently inappropriate opera (about an especially ugly bride) is unclear, but the opera was a hit. It could be that the thing is so farfetched - and such beguiling entertainment - that the assembled aristrocrats couldn't help but take it all as good fun.

7/14/01
VERDI: Falstaff
Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus; Zubin Mehta, conductor; National Theater in Munich - the Bayrisher Staatsoper

Of that half-dozen or so successful Shakespeare operas, Verdi wrote three of them -- Macbeth, Otello, and this week's selection, Falstaff.

7/7/01
MOZART: Mitridate
Theatre du Chatelet (Paris, France)
Les Talens Lyriques; Christophe Rousset, conductor

Mitridate is an opera that bears all of the qualities that exemplify Mozart's finest works. As with his Marriage of Figaro, he took a great French play -- in this instance one by Racine -- and turned it into an indelible opera. Adaptations like this have been done by others, but Mozart wrote this at the age of fourteen!

JUNE

6/30/01
VERDI: Il travatore
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus (Milan, Italy); Riccardo Muti, conductor

Depending on whom you talk to, Il trovatore is either one of the greatest and most moving works by one of opera's greatest composers, or a grotesque muddle of unbelievable events and depraved characters.

2000

NOVEMBER

11/11/00
MOZART: Don Giovanni
Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera Chorus, Patrick Summers, conductor

Some have called Don Giovanni the greatest work in the history of western art. That's a pretty bold statement, but here at NPR World of Opera, we're not arguing. Mozart's brilliant combination of stark human tragedy and realistic comedy features music of limitless genius, and a drama that lives up to the score.

11/04/00
VERDI: Nabucco
Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera Chorus, Patrick Summers, conductor

You know the old saying, "Hell hath no fury like two women who both think they've been scorned by the same man." Or something like that. Anway, that's sort of what happens in this "period spectacle" by Verdi, set in ancient Jerusalem and Babylon, during the reign of the fearsome Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco).

OCTOBER

10/28/00
DONIZETTI: The Elixir of Love
Houston Grand Opera: Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus; Patrick Summers, conductor

Stories about love potions range from the sublime to the ridiculous. Like many great comic operas, this tale of a magic elixir, arguably, is both. Donizetti's brilliant score tells the story of a snake-oil salesman whose bogus product accidentally produces exactly the effect he advertises.

10/21/00
ADAMO: Little Women
Houston Grand Opera: Houston Symphony; Christoph Eschenbach, conductor

Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic book, Mark Adamo's score is that rarest of modern operas: a work so popular with its first audiences that it earned a second production by the same company that mounted the premiere. It's that "encore presentation" that we'll hear on this program, from the Cullen Theatre in Houston.

10/14/00
STRAUSS: Elektra
Houston Grand Opera: Houston Symphony; Christoph Eschenbach, conductor

Surely in all of literature, myth and legend -- or for that matter, reality -- there's been no more dysfunctional family than this bunch. Strauss's opera joins them after the murders of daughter Iphiginia (Dad did it) and father Agamemnon (Mom did the honors) just in time for son Orestes to murder mother Clytemnestra, and daughter Elektra to die of what seems to be terminal insanity.

10/7/00
DONZETTI: Adelia
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor

Donizetti probably wrote too many operas for his own good -- so many that some aren't only neglected, they're virtually unheard of, not to mention simply unheard. Adelia falls into that category but unjustly, as you'll hear in this compelling performance by Opera Orchestra of New York.

SEPTEMBER

9/30/00
BELLINI: The Capulets and the Montagues
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor

Bellini's startling, bel canto take on Shakespeare's immortal tragedy. Unlike some operatic versions, this one does end tragically, though Bellini and his longtime literary accomplice, Felice Romani, do play fast and loose with the traditional story.

9/23/00
Gaetano Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor

In this steamy little corker, the title character throws one of the all time great parties, with one of opera's finest drinking scenes. Unfortunately for Lucrezia's unsuspecting guests, she poisons the punch-bowl, and all that drinking leads to tragic consequences. Ms. Borgia's character is loosely based on a real life person -- a Pope's daughter, no less -- and Donizetti's portrayal of her is hardly a flattering one.

9/16/00
VERDI: Ernani
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor

In the early 1840's, Verdi searched Romantic literature for "something completely different" to make into his next opera. He came up with Ernani. In the past, Verdi's operas tended to have political messages. This drama has some politics, but at heart it's pure passion, with the title character choosing to stab himself rather than give up his true love.

9/9/00
GALUPPI: The World Backwards
Italian Swiss Radio (Lugano) Vanitas Ensemble; Diego Fasolis, director

As the title suggests, this one is a tad provocative. It's set on an island where the men are in chains, and obey every whim of the women, who rule all. That is until a boatload of macho types comes along and "sets things right." This superb studio recording was part of the European Broadcasting Union's live worldwide opera season in 1999-2000.

9/2/00
MONTEVERDI: Orfeo
Apollo's Fire (The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra); Jeannette Sorrell, conductor

You say you heard this one once -- or maybe even twice -- last season? Right you are. It's not an accident that Orfeo has been in the "standard rep" longer than any other opera. It's not the first opera ever written -- though it comes close -- but it's certainly the first great opera, and Monteverdi the first composer who truly understood and exploited the genre's powerful potential.

AUGUST

8/26/00
MASSENET: Werther
Grand Theatre of Geneva Swiss Romande Orchestra, Grand Theatre Chorus; Jean-Claude Casadesus, conductor

Turns out teen suicide is hardly a modern phenomenon. Based on a novel by Goethe, this opera tells the tragic story of a lovelorn teenager so vividly that it became a sort of cult classic, and bred even greater tragedies -- real life copycats -- not to mention a macabre cottage industry of Werther-related merchandise.

8/19/00
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: The Snow Maiden
Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) Mariinski Theatre Orchestra; Valery Gergiev, conductor

The tale of a young woman named Snegurochka who seems both literally and figuratively, well, "cold." Eventually she "warms up" to love, but even that can't overcome her true nature and she meets a tragic end. The story is intriguing and, as always, Rimsky's music is brilliant and evocative.

8/12/00
MOZART: The Abduction from the Seraglio
Glimmerglass Opera; Stewart Robertson, conductor

If you believe the story, this classic "rescue" opera is the piece the Emperor said had, "too many notes." We think it's got just the right number of notes and so, apparently, did Mozart.

8/05/00
MONTEVERDI: The Return of Ulyses
Glimmerglass Opera; Jane Glover, conductor

His style may not be as familiar as Verdi's, or Mozart's, but Monteverdi was undeniably one of the greatest of all opera composers, and this is one of his best. It's got everything an operatic potboiler needs: political intrigue, natural disaster, lust, romance, and even a mass murder.

JULY

7/29/00
STRAVINSKY: The Rake's Progress
Aspen Music Festival; Alan Gilbert, conductor

Inspired by a series of 18th-century William Hogarth paintings, Stravinsky's opera is also a brilliant collaboration with W. H. Auden and the crowning work of Stravinsky's neoclassical period. Not heard often, but worth the wait.

7/22/00
MOZART: Cosi fan tutte
Grand Theatre of Geneva Swiss Romande Orchestra; Grand Theatre Chorus Phillipe Jordan, conductor

At first, Mozart's drama seems a silly farce of mistaken identities, and maybe it is. But as usual with Mozart it's also more than that. Underneath, the opera tells a disquieting story of human weakness, betrayal and -- perhaps -- forgiveness.

7/15/00
LEE HOIBY: The Tempest
Dallas Opera; Patrick Summers, conductor

A modern, musical take on Shakespeare's immortal drama, Hoiby's opera is among the most successful new American operas of recent decades -- here in a production by one of the country's leading opera companies.

7/8/00
P. I. TCHAIKOVSKY: The Queen of Spades
Bastille Opera (Paris), Paris National Opera Orchestra; Vladimir Jurovski, conductor

Gambling has gotten lots of folks in trouble, but few more dramatically than the unfortunate Herman of Tchaikovsky's opera. Based on a chilling story by Pushkin, the operatic version is no less disturbing than the original.

7/1/00
BEETHOVEN: Fidelio
La Scala (Milan) La Scala Orchestra and Chorus, Riccardo Muti, conductor

It's surely emblematic of Beethoven's true genius that his only opera is also one of the finest ever composed. A "prison drama" like no other, we hear it here in a production from historic La Scala in Milan.

1999

JUNE

6/26/99
JULES MASSENET: Cendrillon
Grand Theatre of Geneva Orchestre de la Suisse romande; Valentin Reymond, conductor

With apologies to Rossini, this may be the finest operatic representation of the classic fairytale, Cinderella. In any case, it' s the most faithful, and it also boasts one of Massenet' s most appealing scores.

JULY

7/3/99
CARL MARIA VON WEBER: Oberon
Flanders Opera (Belgium), Flanders Opera Orchestra; Marc Minkowski, conductor

One of the original "German Romantic Operas," complete with the original, spoken dialogue. But never fear, Oberon was written for a London premiere, and this performance also uses the opera' s original language, English, albeit with some rather strange accents among the cast members.

7/10/99
MONTEVERDI: Orfeo
Municipal Theatre of Lausanne (Switzerland), Ensemble La Fenice; Veronique Carrot, director

This may not actually be the "first opera," as it' s sometimes called. But it' s almost certainly the first truly great opera. The opera may be small in scale, but the emotional impact of Monteverdi' s music has seldom been equalled during the four centuries of operatic history that began with this work.

7/17/99
CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK: Iphigenie en Tauride
Glimmerglass Opera; Jane Glover, conductor

So, you thought Iphiginia ended as a human sacrifice, doomed by father Agamemnon, mother Clytemnestra, and their classically dysfunctional family? Think again. In this decidedly off-beat drama -- dare we call it kinky? -- she turns up kidnapped by wicked Scythians, forced into labor as a holy priestess, and is lovingly reunited with her matricidal brother, Orestes.

7/24/99
CARLISLE FLOYD: Of Mice and Men
Glimerglass Opera; Stewart Robertson, conductor

Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey has since become a star at The Met and elsewhere. In this production we hear him in one of his first major roles, as the ill-fated Lenny in Floyd' s setting of John Steinbeck' s American classic.

7/31/99

ROSSINI: Tancredi
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor

Rossini' s first great serious opera, Tancredi shows us that in the hands of a true master, even the aging opera seria format could still produce both a moving romance, and a riveting spectacle.

AUGUST

8/7/99
JACK BEESON: Lizzie Borden
Glimmerglass Opera, Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra; Stewart Robertson, conductor

Jack Beeson wrote a number of operas, but this one put him on the operatic map. It's the vivid, musical enactment of a fascinating and lurid episode from late-19th-century America: the famous story of an alleged, patricidal axe-murderess. Beeson called his opera a "family portrait." Some family!

8/14/99
WAGNER: Goetterdaemmerung
La Scala (Milan)
La Scala Orchestra; Riccardo Muti, conductor

The final drama of Wagner' s epic -– to say the least -– Ring cycle, Goetterdaemmerung is a fitting end to a story of greed and lust among supernatural beings. All does NOT turn out for the best, at least where these gods are concerned. But, you know what they say about absolute power.

8/21/99
TCHAIKOVSKY: Mazeppa
La Scala (Milan)
La Scala Orchestra; Mstislav Rostropovich, conductor

Lust among the Cossacks. Or something like that, anyway. Based on an epic poem by Pushkin, the "Russian Shakespeare," Tchaikovsky gives us some operatic historical fiction, with this tragic tale of a woman who loved her father' s murderer, and paid the price with her sanity.

8/28/99
CAVALLI: L‘Ercole Amante (Hercules in Love)
Boston Early Music Festival; Paul O' Dette and Stephen Stubbs, Music Directors

Remember that lurid novel, Damage, later a movie starring Jeremy Irons? You know, a man falls for his son' s fiance, betraying his wife and driving the son to suicide. Substitute Hercules for Irons, and you' ve got Cavalli' s L' Ercole Amante. Except this time it ends happily. Hercules becomes a god! Go figure.

SEPTEMBER

9/4/99
LOWELL LIEBERMANN: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Florentine Opera Company (Milwaukee); Steuart Bedford, conductor

Liebermann, one of America' s foremost composers, gives us a startling musical interpretation of Oscar Wilde' s classic story. Be careful what you wish for...

9/11/99
BELLINI: La Sonnambula
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor

In Bellini' s clever comedy, scandal ensues when a beautiful young woman, about to be married, sleepwalks into the wrong man' s bedroom. It all works out, of course, but not without a bit of slapstick adventure, a light dose of heartbreak, and a lot of handwringing.

9/18/99
VERDI: I masnadieri
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor

Verdi' s rousing yet tragic drama is, literally, highway robbery. Or at least it' s all about highway robbers. Throw in a couple of false death notices, a doomed romance, and a wealthy crook who seems to be getting away with murder -- at least until he stabs his lover and turns himself in -- and you' ve got...Well you' ve got something of a mess, dramatically, though the beauty of Verdi' s music has saved the opera for posterity.

9/25/99
JACQUES-FRANCOIS HALEVY: La Juive
Opera Orchestra of New York; Eve Queler, conductor

A tragic drama of religious persecution, set in motion when a young woman falls in love outside her faith, and then discovers that her lover is a married man, to boot. This being a 19th-century opera, she' s the one who suffers, though she inflicts some pain among her enemies on the way to her execution.

OCTOBER

10/2/99
HECTOR BERLIOZ: Benvenuto Cellini
Amsterdam Concertgebouw
Rotterdam Philharmonic; Valery Gergiev, conductor

Berlioz himself described this opera as, "a variety of ideas, a vitality and zest and brillianace of musical color such as I shall perhaps never find again."” That' s a bit self-congratulatory, perhaps, but it' s right on the money. The opera' s got romance, intrigue, artistic egomania, and a true, Romantic anti-hero. And there' s even a Pope thrown in for good measure.

10/9/99
HAYDN: Armida
Schwetzinger Festival (Germany)
Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble; Thomas Hengelbrock, conductor

You' ve heard the story from Gluck, and from Handel, and now here it is courtesy of Franz Joseph Haydn. It' s the tale of the ultimate "femme fatale," a politically-minded soceress who falls in love with a man she has seduced, then chooses vengeance over love when he abandons her.

10/16/99
STRAUSS: Arabella
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Symphony; Christoph Eschenbach, conductor

Strauss and von Hoffmansthal strike again. This lushly romantic drama has echoes of Der Rosenkavalier -- and what better opera to emulate? The plot trades on jealousies, intrigues and mistaken identities, but love -- naturally -- proves the most valuable commodity of all.

10/23/99
VERDI: Macbeth
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Symphony; Simone Young, conductor

Of the hundreds of Shakespeare operas, only four or five have stayed in the repertory. Of those, Verdi wrote three and his Macbeth displays his unique ability to pare Shakespeare's words down to operatic scale, while through his music retaining all of the original's emotional impact, and then some.

10/30/99
WAGNER: The Flying Dutchman
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Symphony; Dietfried Bernet, conductor

Here's your one and only chance to spend an afternoon with Wagner that doesn't drag on into the evening, as well. Perhaps Wagner' s most tautly constructed drama, the Dutchman may also be Wagner' s ultimate paean to his favorite theme, redemption.

NOVEMBER

11/6/99
MONTEVERDI: Orfeo
Houston Grand Opera/Houston Opera Studio
Houston Grand Opera Orchestra; David Fallis, conductor

OK, so this is the second time around for this one this season. On the other hand, Orfeo is not only the first operatic masterpiece, it' s been in the repertory longer than any other -- and for good reason. Worth another hearing, in our book.

11/13/99
TOD MACHOVER: Resurrection
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Orchestra; Patrick Summers, conductor

Machover' s inventively scored drama is based on Tolstoy' s novel of the same name. It' s a sprawling story of love and betrayal, political repression and soulful redemption all in an icy, Russian setting that rivals the ultimate chill of Dr. Zhivago.

11/20/99
ARRIGO BOITO: Mefistofele
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Symphony; John DeMain, conductor

Boito has such a grand reputation as a librettist that his skills as a composer are often overlooked, and that' s a shame. This vivid score is among the most brilliant and powerful tellings of the immortal Faust legend.

11/27/99
VERDI: La Traviata
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Symphony; Patrick Summers, conductor

In the erstwhile Richard Gere film Pretty Woman, Verdi' s familiar masterpiece nearly made Julia Roberts, um, you know. And you probably remember the line. Short of the " Three Tenors,” La Traviata may be opera' s biggest draw.