Tom Huizenga : NPR

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Marches Madness: Rubbing Aladdin's Lamp

March 29, 2013 • Carl Nielsen could have used a little more luck after he composed stunningly original music for a theatrical version of the Aladdin story. The director cut and jumbled the score. But in the end, the Danish composer rescued his music by turning it into a popular suite.

The Good Friday 5: Musical Passion Stories You Must Hear

This 1653 engraving by Rembrandt inspired composer Frank Martin to write his oratorio Golgotha in 1945. Wikimedia Commons hide caption

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Wikimedia Commons

The Good Friday 5: Musical Passion Stories You Must Hear

March 28, 2013 • Before Easter, hear five powerful and diverse musical portrayals of Jesus' last days and crucifixion, from Bach's monumental St. Matthew to Golijov's brilliant Latin American mashup to a dark and terrifying Russian vision from Sofia Gubaidulina.

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Marches Madness: From Trash Can To Flagpole

March 25, 2013 • With its bright beat and direct quote from The Star Spangled Banner, Edwin Bagley's National Emblem march is an American favorite — that almost made the trash bin.

Remembering Risë Stevens, A Star Of Opera And Pop Culture

The late American mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens in her signature role as Carmen. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera hide caption

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Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera

Remembering Risë Stevens, A Star Of Opera And Pop Culture

March 21, 2013 • The mezzo-soprano with the smoky, sultry voice defined Carmen for generations — and earned Hollywood fame at the prime of her career. Stevens died Wednesday at 99.

Marches Madness: Mahler's Twisted Nursery Rhyme

Mahler's ironic funeral march, in his first symphony, was inspired by this woodcut of forest animals bearing the hunter to his grave. wikimedia commons hide caption

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Marches Madness: Mahler's Twisted Nursery Rhyme

March 21, 2013 • The idea of transforming the children's song "Frère Jacques" into a funeral march was both creepy and ingenious, making Gustav Mahler's very first symphony a bold game changer.

Music We Love Now: New Albums Of Bach, Beethoven And Brahms

Lisa Batiashvili plays the Stradivarius used to help birth Brahms' great Violin Concerto in D. Anja Frers/DG hide caption

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Anja Frers/DG

Music We Love Now: New Albums Of Bach, Beethoven And Brahms

March 19, 2013 • New albums of music by the "Three Bs" prove that going back to the basics has its advantages. Hear a sweet-toned violin concerto, an audacious piano sonata and a solo cello suite caressed by a lute.

Marches Madness: Freshly Squeezed Oranges In 4/4 Time

For his zany opera The Love for Three Oranges, Prokofiev wrote a little march that made it big. Alexey Stiop/iStockphoto.com hide caption

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Alexey Stiop/iStockphoto.com

Marches Madness: Freshly Squeezed Oranges In 4/4 Time

March 18, 2013 • If you fell in love with oranges, would you scour the world to find them? Prokofiev's absurdist, citrus-scented opera features zany plot lines, curious characters and one little march that made it big.

In an age when we are hearing more music than ever, are opera and ballet elitist? Carolina K. Smith/iStockphoto.com hide caption

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Carolina K. Smith/iStockphoto.com

Tell Us: Are Ballet And Opera Elitist?

March 12, 2013 • London's Covent Garden opera house hosted a debate Monday about the barriers between opera and ballet and the people. What's your opinion?

Verdi's opera Aida, set in the time of the Pharaohs, is known for its extravagance, yet its "Triumphal March" is surprisingly simple. iStockphoto.com hide caption

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Marches Madness: Walk Like An Egyptian

March 12, 2013 • In an art form notorious for its excesses, Verdi's Aida can take the bigger-is-better approach to nearly laughable extremes. But its grand "Triumphal March" is built on a simple foundation.

First Listen: Simone Dinnerstein & Tift Merritt, 'Night'

Simone Dinnerstein (left) and Tift Merritt's new album, Night, comes out March 19. Lisa-Marie Mazzucco/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Lisa-Marie Mazzucco/Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Simone Dinnerstein & Tift Merritt, 'Night'

March 10, 2013 • Opposites attract in Night, a genre-blurring album that pairs alt-country singer-songwriter Tift Merritt with classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein. There's a solemn intimacy to these songs, and how they're delivered, that speaks one-on-one.

Simone Dinnerstein & Tift Merritt, 'Night'

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In Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, he imagines his own march to the guillotine. Rischgitz/Getty Images hide caption

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Rischgitz/Getty Images

Marches Madness: Off With His Head!

March 7, 2013 • In Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, brass snarl and winds shriek like feral beasts in an opium-fueled dream of passion, murder and execution by guillotine.

Charles Gounod's quirky march about marionettes found new life as the theme music to Alfred Hitchcock's suspense show on TV. iStockphoto.com hide caption

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Marches Madness: Puppets And A Funeral

March 5, 2013 • We can thank Alfred Hitchcock for giving new life to Charles Gounod's quirky little march about dueling puppets, funeral processions and a few refreshing cocktails.

Van Cliburn in concert in 1993. Ron Jenkins hide caption

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Ron Jenkins

Memories Of Van Cliburn From Medalists

March 4, 2013 • Van Cliburn competition winners remember the great pianist, who died last month at age 78. See silver medalist Joyce Yang play for Cliburn — and his unforgettably moving response.

Benedict And Beethoven: The Outgoing Pope's Musical Life

Pope Benedict XVI addresses the audience at Milan's La Scala opera house where he heard a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Daniel Dal Zennaro/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Daniel Dal Zennaro/AFP/Getty Images

Deceptive Cadence

Benedict And Beethoven: The Outgoing Pope's Musical Life

February 27, 2013 • With a reputation for conservative views, the pontiff's musical tastes run, not surprisingly, straight down the center of the meat and potatoes repertoire.

The Operatic Potential Of DSK, A Modern Don Giovanni

Disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves court in Paris Tuesday after attending a hearing regarding his seizure request for a new book by Argentinian-born Marcela Iacub detailing their liason. Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images

Deceptive Cadence

The Operatic Potential Of DSK, A Modern Don Giovanni

February 26, 2013 • Sometimes real-life stories are so operatic you couldn't make them up. Could Dominique Strauss-Kahn's fall from grace make a compelling opera?