Opera For Everyone

Apr 14 2024 1.3k
Opera For Everyone Podcast artwork

Opera for Everyone is a radio show and podcast that makes opera understandable, accessible, and enjoyable for all. Pat Wright hosts the show, inviting guest co-hosts to participate in the mission she and Keely Herron developed after lively discussions of operas they had enjoyed seeing together. Music soars. Epiphanies abound. Hilarity ensues. The show airs Sundays from 9.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. on 89.1 KHOL in Jackson, Wyoming. Cover artwork by illustrator Rosie Brooks (www.rosiebrooks.com)

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Ep. 117 The Fairy Queen by Henry Purcell

Apr 14 2024 118 mins  
Was it only a dream? Baroque composer Henry Purcell was on his way to establishing a national operatic tradition based on the dramatic and musical traditions of the English, when, alas, his life was cut short after just 36 years. Join us as we explore Purcell’s musically and emotionally rich “The Fairy Queen,” a delightful twist on the Bard’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Ep. 116 Verdi's La Forza del Destino & Lisa Reagan's What We Need Is Here

Feb 26 2024 125 mins  
Where passion joins with music and poetry we find opera. In this sweet spot, we also find What We Need Is Here, the most recent project by accomplished musician and singer, Lisa Reagan. Lisa joins us to talk about creating an album of songs for classic poems that have been meaningful to her life. Lisa Reagan spent twenty years singing with the Washington National Opera and her firs

Ep. 115 Berg's Lulu & Erica Miner's Prelude to Murder

Jan 22 2024 118 mins  
Two things never go out of fashion: opera and mystery. In this episode, mystery writer and former opera violinist Erica Miner talks with us about her opera mystery series and Lulu, Berg’s high-body-count melodrama. Lulu, which features prominently in Erica’s new novel, centers on a beautiful young woman whose admirers descend into obsession. Join us for a fascinating discussion

Ep. 114 Amahl and the Night Visitors

Dec 31 2023 118 mins  
In Amahl and the Night Visitors, a young boy and his mother unexpectedly play host to the Magi on their way to meet the infant Jesus. Originally written for television, this opera uniquely bridges the ancient and modern in a heartfelt exploration of the meaning of hospitality. In the second half of this episode, we are joined by Grant to talk about the role of Epiphany in the Chris

Ep. 113 L’Italiana in Algeri by Rossini

Nov 19 2023 118 mins  
By turns funny, serious, and seriously funny, L’Italiana in Algeri is a fascinating assembly of romantic tropes: a spurned wife, a shipwrecked lover, a pirate king, and a daring escape. At the same time, it deals with serious themes of agency, power, and silence. Set in a world that is both alien and familiar, this opera has something to say to all of us. Guest co-host Emily Cohe

Ep. 112 The Egyptian Helen by Richard Strauss

Oct 01 2023 129 mins  
“The face that launched a thousand ships.” Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, has a problem. Her husband plans to kill her, but she just wants him to fall in love with her again. She may just need a miracle to pull it off, but if anyone can do it, she can. Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal aimed for a light and comic operetta with Die Ägyptische Hele

Ep. 111 Tosca by Giacomo Puccini

Aug 26 2023 118 mins  
One of the top ten most-performed operas in the world, Puccini’s Tosca is considered by some the greatest of operas. A painter provides refuge for an escaped political prisoner, which begins a chain of events that starts with petty jealousy and ends in a death leap. Things spiral further and further out of control in this epic confrontation of tyranny and passion, set in the temp

Ep. 110 Das Liebesverbot by Wagner

Jul 31 2023 124 mins  
Richard Wagner’s style is one of the most distinctive and recognizable in all of opera. But Wagner wasn’t always the Wagner we’ve come to know. The earliest of Wagner’s operas to be performed in his lifetime was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, Das Liebesverbot, where he is still developing his craft and working on his relationship to German opera. The

Ep. 109 Die Frau Ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss

Jun 25 2023 118 mins  
At once a sweeping story about humanity and a deeply personal look at a married couple with unfulfilled aspirations, Die Frau Ohne Schatten is often considered the magnum opus of the famed partnership between composer Richard Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Moving between lofty, other-worldly, and gritty settings, this opera simultaneously puzzles and inspires audienc

Ep. 108 Lucrezia Borgia by Donizetti

May 21 2023 120 mins  
One of history’s most infamous women, Lucrezia Borgia has inspired artists, dramatists, and TV show writers for centuries. Donizetti’s opera follows the play by Victor Hugo, telling of Lucrezia’s effort to find the kind of love that might change her life. However, it isn’t easy being a powerful woman in Renaissance Italy. Gaetano Donizetti, a prolific composer in the Bel Ca