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Operas from RAI, Italy
Saturday's at 11 am

In July and August, the 2019 WFMT Radio Network Opera Series continues with more presentations in partnership with the European Broadcasting Union, including three standout broadcasts from across Italy, including performances from the Rossini Opera Festival (Pesaro), Teatro Dell’Opera (Rome) and La Scala (Milan). First, from the Rossini Opera Festival, comes one of the less performed works of Rossini – Adina. Premiered in 1826 at Lisbon’s Teatro São Carlos., this comic one-act opera, set in Baghdad, did not return to the stage until 1963. The broadcast features a performance from August 2018, which enjoyed high praise for the New Orleans-native, soprano Lisette Oropesa, in the title role and her festival debut in Pesaro. Next up, the myth of Orpheus in three acts – Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, from the stage of Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Conductor Gianluca Capuano leads the Rome Opera Orchestra, in this co-production of Italy’s Teatro dell’Opera, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Château de Versailles Spectacles of France and the Canadian Opera Company. In the title roles are two Italian artists, countertenor Carlo Vistoli and Mariangela Sicilia, a “soprano that shines like the Provençal morning sun” (Der Tagesspiegel). Our trio of Italian titles is completed with Verdi’s Attila – a broadcast from the opening night of La Scala’s 2018-19 season. Conductor Riccardo Chailly is at the podium, with sought-after Russian bass, Ildar Abdrazakov, in the title role and Saioa Hernández, a Spanish soprano “with great beauty of tone, almost immaculate security, and limitless power and authority…” (Sydney Morning Herald), in her La Scala debut as Odabella.

  • Jul 20 ROSSINI: Adina
  • Jul 27 GLUCK: Orfeo et Euridice