Aria Code

Jan 17 2024 50 ep. 35 mins 5k
Aria Code Podcast artwork

Aria Code is a podcast that pulls back the curtain on some of the most famous arias in opera history, with insight from the biggest voices of our time, including Roberto Alagna, Diana Damrau, Sondra Radvanovsky, and many others. Hosted by Grammy Award-winner and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Rhiannon Giddens, Aria Code is produced in partnership with The Metropolitan Opera. Each episode dives into one aria — a feature for a single singer — and explores how and why these brief musical moments have imprinted themselves in our collective consciousness and what it takes to stand on the Met stage and sing them. A wealth of guests—from artists like Rufus Wainwright and Ruben Santiago-Hudson to non-musicians like Dame Judi Dench and Dr. Brooke Magnanti, author of The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl—join Rhiannon and the Met Opera’s singers to understand why these arias touch us at such a human level, well over a century after they were written. Each episode ends with the aria, uninterrupted and in full, recorded from the Met Opera stage. Aria Code is produced in partnership with WQXR, The Metropolitan Opera and WNYC Studios.

  Music  Arts
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


Love and Other Drugs: Gounod's Roméo et Juliette

Jan 17 2024 54 mins  
Gounod’s “poison aria” is so difficult, it’s often cut from productions. But it’s a pivotal moment in the opera — and a testament to Juliette’s courage.

You Don't Own Me: The Myth and Magic of Bizet's Carmen

Jan 03 2024 53 mins  
Carmen is perhaps the most famous heroine in all of opera: an icon of sensuality and self-determination — and a full-blown stereotype of Romani culture.

Revisiting Mozart’s Queen of the Night: Outrage Out of This World

Dec 13 2023 27 mins  
When the Voyager spacecraft set off to explore the galaxy, it carried recordings to represent the best of humanity. There was only one aria: the rage-fest from Mozart's The Magic Flute.

Love Takes Flight: Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas

Nov 29 2023 52 mins  
It’s the early 1900s, and the steamship El Dorado makes its way along the Amazon River towards Manaus, a city in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest. Onboard is the world-famous opera singer Florencia Grimaldi. She’s got a gig at the opera house in Manaus, but that’s just a cover. She’s actually hoping for a reunion with her long-lost love, the butterfly catcher Cristóba

Davis’s X: The Life and Legacy of Malcolm X

Nov 15 2023 45 mins  
Malcolm X means many things to many people. In Anthony Davis’s opera, his humanity comes first.

Revisiting Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice: Don’t Look Back in Ardor

Nov 01 2023 32 mins  
When someone you love dies, how far would you be willing to go to bring them back? The mythical Orpheus goes to hell and back, but even that isn’t enough to save his love Eurydice.

Good Things Come to Those Who Weep: Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore

Oct 18 2023 42 mins  
Sometimes, a single tear can launch a lifetime of happiness.

Death, Faith, and Redemption: Heggie’s Dead Man Walking

Oct 03 2023 44 mins  
The true story of a man on death row and the nun who accompanied him to the execution chamber.

Aria Code Returns for Season 4!

Sep 27 2023 2 mins  
​​Aria Code is back! At long last, Rhiannon Giddens returns to guide listeners through highlights from the Met’s ‘23-’24 season. Our first episode drops October 4th. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts!

P.S. I Love You: Renée Fleming Sings Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin

Dec 01 2021 51 mins  
Saying “I love you” for the first time takes courage, especially when you don’t know the response you'll get. But being open with your emotions and putting yourself out there can change you in unexpected ways. In Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, it’s the 16-year-old Tatyana who pins her heart on her sleeve. Young and naive, but also fiercely confident, she pours