WCPE Features: Opera

 

WCPE offers 2 wonderful opportunities each week to hear the best in opera... Thursday nights at 7pm, and Saturday afternoons at 1:30 (when the Met is in season.) The WCPE Opera House has been a regular Thursday night feature at WCPE since April of 1980. On Saturday afternoons during the Met season, tune in for live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera.

On December 4th, 2008, Bob Chapman became only the third host in the history of the WCPE Opera House, succeeding Robert Galbraith. An opera singer himself, Chapman has been the weekend host of Sleepers, Awake! since September 2006.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” says Bob of the show founded and nurtured by the legendary Al Ruocchio, who hosted the Opera House from its inception in April 1980 until his death in February 2007. “Al’s enthusiasm for opera was infectious, and he deserves much of the credit for creating an audience for opera in central North Carolina.” The WCPE Opera House is aimed at two distinctive audiences: those who already know and love the art form, and those who’ve only recently discovered opera and are anxious to learn more about it.

“Al Ruocchio created a format that worked very well, and Robert Galbraith expanded upon it, introducing more contemporary works. We’ll continue to play works from the core Italian, French, German, Czech and Russian repertoires while introducing newer masterpieces by contemporary American and English composers,” says Chapman.

If you wish to email Bob Chapman, please click here!

WCPE Opera House Schedule for Winter 2011/12:

Thursdays at 7pm with host Bob Chapman

December 1 — Donizetti’s Marino Faliero
Elena (Farkasréti), wife of Doge Marino Faliero (Altorjay), falls in love with hubby’s friend Fernando (Albert), while the Doge is executed for conspiring against the Council.

December 8 — Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust
Aged philosopher Faust (Burrows) gives his soul to Méphistophélès (McIntyre) in exchange for another shot at youth, then seduces the beautiful Marguerite (Mathis).

December 15 — Weber’s Euryanthe
Lysiart (Krause), secretly in love with Euryanthe (Norman), makes a bet with her husband Adolar (Gedda) that she’s unfaithful, which he “proves” with a poisoned ring. (From the Ruocchio Archives.)

December 22 — Puccini’s La Bohème
Poet Rodolfo (Alagna) falls in love with sickly seamstress Mimi (Vaduva), while Marcello (Hampson) argues with his flirtatious girlfriend Musetta (Swenson).

December 29 —Lehár’s Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow)
Hanna (Studer) will lose her late husband’s fortune unless she marries a fellow Pontevedrian, but Count Danilo (Skovhus) is still angry over her earlier rebuff.

January 5 — Lully’s Atys
The goddess Cybèle (Laurens) falls in love with Atys (Mey) and makes him a high priest, but he falls in love with his rival’s daughter. When Cybèle finds out, she castrates Atys and turns him into a tree.

January 12 — Wolf-Ferrari’s Sly
While drunk, Sly (Carreras) is duped by a hateful Earl (Milnes) into believing that he’s a nobleman. The Earl’s mistress Dolly (Kabatu) complicates things by falling in love with Sly.

January 19 — Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West
Saloonkeeper Minnie (Tebaldi) falls in love with a stranger, Dick Johnson (Del Monaco), who’s actually the bandit Ramirez and wanted by sheriff Jack Rance (MacNeil). (From the Ruocchio Archives.)

January 26 — Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro
Servants Figaro (Siepi) and Susanna (Peters) outwit their boss, Count Almaviva (Borg), who wants to sleep with the maid. The countess (Amara) tries to save her marriage, despite having an affair with the teenaged page Cherubino (Miller).

February 2 — R. Strauss’s Capriccio
Countess Madeleine (Schwarzkopf) is wooed by composer Flamand (Fischer-Dieskau) and poet Olivier (Wächter), who argue over the primacy of music or poetry in opera.

February 9 — Massenet’s Hérodiade
In this version of the Biblical story, John the Baptist (Heppner) admits to loving Salomé (Studer), who had earlier been sent away by her mother Hérodiade (Denize) when she married Hérode (Hampson).

February 16 — Rossini’s La Cenerentola
Rossini’s version of the Cinderella story stars Cecilia Bartoli in the title role. Cenerentola is magnanimous toward her father, stepmother, and stepsisters after marrying Prince Charming. (From the Ruocchio Archives.)

February 23 — Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera
Boston governor Riccardo (Peerce) is in love with Amelia (Milanov), wife of his best friend Renato (Merrill). Fortune teller Ulrica (Anderson) tells Riccardo he’ll be killed by the next man to shake his hand, who turns out to be….

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