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5 opera scenes to sweep you off your feet

Opera singers (left to right) Elīna Garanča, Helen Donath and Tamar Iveri perform in Mozart's opera Così fan tutte at the Salzburg Opera Festival. Andreas Schaad/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Andreas Schaad/AFP via Getty Images

Deceptive Cadence

5 opera scenes to sweep you off your feet

For World Opera Day, watch scenes that will make you fall in love with the art form — from a crazy day at Mozart's diner to a trippy trip to China with Richard Nixon.

Leontyne Price At 90: The Voice We Still Love To Talk About

Leontyne Price as Leonore in a Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi's La forza del destino, 1977. James Heffernan/Metropolitan Opera Archives hide caption

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James Heffernan/Metropolitan Opera Archives

Deceptive Cadence

Leontyne Price At 90: The Voice We Still Love To Talk About

Sherrill Milnes calls it "an avalanche of sound." Jessye Norman says it's "a cloud filled with silver." Singers and critics talk about the amazing voice of Leontyne Price on her 90th birthday.

Joseph Calleja: Tiny Desk Concert

Joseph Calleja performed a Tiny Desk Concert November 26. Abbey Oldham/Abbey Oldham/NPR hide caption

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Abbey Oldham/Abbey Oldham/NPR

Tiny Desk

Joseph Calleja: Tiny Desk Concert

He's a young tenor with an old-school style and all the world's top opera houses want him. Calleja's expressive shading and dynamic control hearken back to an earlier era — and he's funny.

Joseph Calleja: Tiny Desk Concert

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Note To 'Downton Abbey' Viewers: Nellie Melba Was A Big Deal

Opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, circa 1900. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Deceptive Cadence

Note To 'Downton Abbey' Viewers: Nellie Melba Was A Big Deal

One diva brought another to the screen in this week's episode of the celebrated drama. New Zealand native Dame Kiri Te Kanawa appeared as her predecessor Dame Nellie Melba, an Australian singer in high demand in the years before and After World War I. Hear the real Melba in a signature role.

Licia Albanese: An Opera Diva Hits 100

Soprano Licia Albanese sang the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly 72 times at the Metropolitan Opera. The Metropolitan Opera Archives hide caption

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The Metropolitan Opera Archives

Deceptive Cadence

Licia Albanese: An Opera Diva Hits 100

The beloved star of the Metropolitan Opera is revered for her portrayals of Puccini heroines, especially Madama Butterfly. Her service to opera includes creating the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, which supports emerging singers.

Desperate For Divas? Met, Sony Release Historic Broadcasts

Leontyne Price, at the peak of her career, is captured in a live Met broadcast of Puccini's Tosca, from 1962. Courtesy of Sony Classical hide caption

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Courtesy of Sony Classical

Review

Deceptive Cadence

Desperate For Divas? Met, Sony Release Historic Broadcasts

If you have a thing for old time Metropolitan opera broadcasts, hearing a few favorite historic singers, like Lily Pons, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Franco Corelli, recorded live on the Met stage just got a little easier.

Tosca: Act 3 duet 'O dolci mani' (Leontyne Price, Tosca; Franco Corelli, Cavaradossi)

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Simple Feelings, Powerful Drama: Puccini's 'La Boheme'

When Mimi (Krassimira Stoyanova) comes upstairs to borrow a candle from Rodolfo (Stephen Costello), they are immediately attracted to each other. Michael Poehn/Wiener Staatsoper hide caption

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Michael Poehn/Wiener Staatsoper

Concerts

Simple Feelings, Powerful Drama: Puccini's 'La Boheme'

Puccini's talent lay in creating realistic characters who deal with universal problems such as love, envy, and loss. Hear selections from the Vienna State Opera's opening night performance of his popular romantic tragedy.

Hear An Introduction To The Opera

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A Shocker In Real Time: Puccini's 'Tosca'

Tosca (Catherine Naglestad) with her politically subversive lover, the painter Caravadossi (Roberto Alagna). Photo Grand Angle Orange hide caption

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Photo Grand Angle Orange

10 Operas You Need To Know From World Of Opera

A Shocker In Real Time: Puccini's 'Tosca'

Execution, extortion, and exploitation. No, it's not an episode of Showtime's Dexter. It's Puccini's operatic thriller Tosca, which takes a surprisingly realistic approach to the passage of dramatic time with scenes of physical and psychological torture.

Hear An Introduction To 'Tosca'

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Music

Unlikely Alliance: Bluebeard and Gianni Schicchi

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.

An Audio Introduction to the Operas

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Puccini's 'La Boheme' At Its Best

Set Design by Reginald Gray for the Opera La Boheme. Wikimedia Commons hide caption

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Wikimedia Commons

The NPR Classical 50

Puccini's 'La Boheme' At Its Best

The composer's imaginative treatment of character and situation, his sure instinct for dramatic and comic effects, and above all his radiant, supremely expressive musical portraiture have made La Boheme one of the world's most popular operas.

Ted Libbey And Fred Child Recommend Puccini's 'La Boheme'

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Music

Cultural Collision: Puccini's 'Madame Butterfly'

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.

An Introduction to 'Madame Butterfly,' with Placido Domingo

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