In this week’s OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra introduce you to Franz Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe) which premiered in Vienna in 1905.Redolent of another famous Viennese operetta, Johann Strauss Jr.’s Die Fledermaus, The Merry Widow is a story of balls, flirtations, crude diplomacy and a fan.Tune in Saturday at noon to Houston Public Media Classical for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s broadcast... Read More…

In this week's OCS, Houston Public Media's St.John Flynn introduces excerpts from an interview with former Houston Symphony Music Director Hans Graf and Shepherd School of Music composition professor Anthony Brandt about the Houston Symphony's 2012 semi-staged production of Alban Berg's Wozzeck.Murder, madness, infidelity, suicide...this opera has it all!Tune in Saturday at noon to Houston Public Media's 88.7 HD2 to hear Lyric Opera of Chicago's broadcast of this 20th-century masterpiece.…

In this week's OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Gioachino Rossini’s 1817 comic masterpiece La Cenerentola.Based on the Charles Perrault fairy tale of Cinderella, it’s the story of the kind-hearted young girl, abused by her step-sisters, who meets, falls in love with, and marries the handsome prince. Yes, Cinders does go to the ball!Tune in to Classical 91.7 and HPM Classical Saturday at noon to... Read More…

In this week’s OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of ROCO look at the seemingly recent phenomenon of turning great books into operas (think Moby Dick, Little Women, Thérèse Raquin, and Cold Sassy Tree to name just a few). As they point out, while many of the most successful late 20th- and early 21st-century operas may derive from well-known books, this is by no means something new. In fact, it would be difficult... Read More…

In this OCS Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give a brief introduction to one of Mozart’s greatest creations.Subtitled The Mad Day, The Marriage of Figaro shows the craziness that ensues when the “right of the lord” is not the opposite of the “left of the lord”!Le Nozze di Figaro, to give it its Italian title, was the first of the three great collaborations between Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. Based on... Read More…

In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Richard Strauss’s telling of the story of the children of King Agamemnon who are hell bent on seeking revenge on their mother, Klytemnestra, for her cold-blooded killing of their father. Based on the Sophocles play of the same name, Elektra is a powerful drama in which so many of the characters seem always on the verge of madness.... Read More…

In this OCS Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Giuseppe Verdi’s penultimate opera, Otello, the second of his three Shakespeare adaptations.Otello, great soldier and statesman, manipulated by the evil Iago, is whipped into a jealous rage believing his beloved wife, Desdemona, to be unfaithful. The consequences are supremely tragic.Tune in to Houston Public Media’s Classical 91.7 Saturday, April 23rd at noon to hear the Metropolitan Opera... Read More…

Gaetano Donizetti seems to have had a thing for English Tudor history! He wrote no less than four operas about historical figures from the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.The climactic opera of the “Tudor Queen” trilogy, Roberto Devereux which debuted in Naples in 1837, tells the story of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, an influential member of the court of Elizabeth I (and her supposed lover!), and how her feelings for him impacted her... Read More…

In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra provide their own inimitable introduction to Giacomo Puccini’s 1904 drama based on the play “Madame Butterfly” by David Belasco.Set in Nagasaki, Japan, in the early years of the twentieth century, it’s the story of the young, innocent Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, and her fateful love for the “faithless” American naval lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton.Tune in to Houston Public Media’s... Read More…

In this all-new OCS Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give a brief introduction to one of Mozart’s greatest creations.Subtitled The Mad Day, The Marriage of Figaro shows the craziness that ensues when the “right of the lord” is not the opposite of the “left of the lord”!Le Nozze di Figaro, to give it its Italian title, was the first of the three great collaborations between Mozart and... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet Houston Public Media Arts & Culture Director St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Gaetano Donizetti’s 1832 comic opera L’Elisir d’Amore (The Elixir of Love), the story of Adina and Nemorino and the love they come to share thanks to a bottle of cheap wine!Tune in to Houston Public Media’s Classical 91.7 Saturday at noon to hear the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of L’Elisir d’Amore with... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of ROCO discuss Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, the comic tale of a rich old fool determined to take a pretty young wife and his friends’ plot to thwart him.Tune in to Houston Public Media’s Classical 91.7 Saturday, March 12th, at noon for the Metropolitan Opera’s broadcast of Don Pasquale featuring baritone Ambrogio Maestri in the title role.…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give an overview of Massenet’s…oops, wrong one!…Giacomo Puccini’s take on the Abbé Prévost’s 18th-century novel of the same name.Manon Lescaut is the story of a young girl torn between love and the finer things in life. Which does she choose? You’ll have to listen to find out!And a good way to distinguish the two Manon (Lescaut)... Read More…

Written in the early 1930s, Lulu, Alban Berg’s second opera (after Wozzeck) is the story of an amoral young woman with a knack for dominating, both sexually and emotionally, a range of willing victims, male and female, who fall under her spell. And yet she too is one of society’s victims who dies a brutal death. Tune in to Houston Public Media’s Classical 91.7 Saturday, February 27th, at noon for the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media Arts & Culture Director St.John Flynn talks with superstar American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato who sang the title role in Houston Grand Opera’s 2012 production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda. Based on Friedrich Schiller’s 1800 play Maria Stuart, it’s the story of the rivalry between Mary, Queen of Scots and her cousin Elizabeth I of England. Who said blood is thicker than water? Tune in to Houston... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give their usual open and honest overview of one of Giuseppe Verdi’s most tuneful works. Il Trovatore is a story of nobles, gypsies and singing soldiers, and reminds us of the terrible consequences of seething revenge! Tune in Saturday, February 13th at noon to hear the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Il Trovatore, featuring Angela Meade... Read More…

In this OCS twofer, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give quick intros to Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, late 19th-century one-act operas, often paired on the same program as Cav & Pag, that define the verismo movement.In Cavalleria Rusticana, a young man learns what happens to a guy who sleeps with another man’s wife when his girlfriend is pregnant! Pagliacci is the story... Read More…

In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Giacomo Puccini’s final opera, Turandot, the story of an ancient Chinese princess unwilling to fall in love…until she’s kissed for the first time!You can listen to the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Turandot, featuring Nina Stemme in the title role, Saturday, January 30th, at noon on Houston Public Media’s Classical 91.7.…

In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give their laugh-filled take on Richard Wagner’s tale of a man torn between sacred and profane love.Set in 13th-century Germany, Tannhäuser teaches us that, if you’re going to sleep around, you probably shouldn’t admit it to your friends in front of your girlfriend!Tune in to Houston Public Media Classical 91.7 Saturday, January 23, at noon for the Metropolitan... Read More…

In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give an overview of Georges Bizet’s 1863 opera Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers). Set in ancient Ceylon, it’s a story of love, friendship and a beautiful pearl necklace.Tune in Saturday, January 16th, at noon for the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of The Pearl Fishers on Houston Public Media Classical 91.7.…

In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss the first opera in Donizetti’s “Tudor trilogy.” Based on the tragic story of Henry VIII’s second wife, it’s a tale about the dangers of marrying a serial monogamist!Tune in to Houston Public Media’s Classical 91.7, Saturday, January 9th, at noon, for the Metropolitan Opera’s broadcast of Anna Bolena featuring Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role and HGO... Read More…

In this week’s OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Johann Strauss Jr.’s Viennese romp Die Fledermaus, a paean to champagne and the enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment set in 19th-century Vienna. What happens when Gabriel von Eisenstein goes off to Prince Orlofsky's ball rather than to jail?[The musical excerpts in this OCS are taken from the EMI recording featuring Willi Boskovsky conducting the... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, introduce Rossini’s musical version of the story of the wily barber and his efforts to secure the lovely Rosina’s hand in marriage for the besotted, and disguised, Count Almaviva.Subtitled "The Futile Precaution," Rossini’s great opera buffa consistently ranks among the top 10 operas performed worldwide.[The excerpts heard in this OCS are from the CBS Masterworks recording featuring Riccardo... Read More…

In this week’s Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Rossini’s 1819 masterpiece La Donna del Lago. Based on Sir Walter Scott’s narrative poem The Lady of the Lake, and set in the early 16th century, the opera is a tale of love, loyalty and lochs in the Scottish Highlands.You can hear the Metropolitan Opera’s production of La Donna del Lago, featuring superstar soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role, Saturday, December 19th, at noon... Read More…

In this week’s Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media Arts & Culture Director, St.John Flynn, and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Giuseppe Verdi’s searing 1851 tragedy Rigoletto, the story of Gilda, the beautiful young girl sacrificed on the altar of her father’s malevolence.[The musical excerpts heard in this OCS are taken from the RCA Victor Opera Series recording featuring Georg Solti conducting the RCA Italiano Opera Orchestra & Chorus; Robert Merrill:... Read More…

In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give a quick and humor-filled overview of Bernstein’s 1956 opera Candide, famous for its Overture and songs such as “Glitter and be Gay” and “Make Our Garden Grow.” Based on Voltaire’s 1758 novel of the same name, Candide tells the story of the young man who learns the truth about existence through a bizarre sequence of fantastic events... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra provide a quick overview of Antonio Vivaldi’s dramatization of the final defeat of the Roman Republican army, commanded by Cato, by Julius Caesar and the forces of the emerging Roman Empire in North Africa.Tune in to Houston Public Media’s Classical 91.7 Saturday, November 14th, at noon to hear Glimmerglass Opera’s broadcast of Cato in Utica featuring... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth.First staged in Florence in 1847, Macbeth was Verdi’s tenth opera and his first stab at adapting Shakespeare for the musical theatre stage.A tragedy set in medieval Scotland, Macbeth is a cautionary tale about what can happen to a marriage when three witches dangle the carrot of absolute power in front of you!Tune... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra talk about Hector Berlioz ’s grand opera masterpiece Les Troyens, the story of the Fall of ancient Troy and the Trojans flight from their homeland across the Mediterranean to Carthage as they follow their heroic leader Aeneas whose mission to found Italy is almost derailed by his love for Queen Dido.Tune in to Houston Public Media Classical... Read More…

Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give a quick overview of Giacomo Puccini’s powerful and tragic love story set in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the first half of the nineteenth century.Few people realize that there are actually two operas, written at the same time and both based on the book Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger, titled La bohème. Puccini’s version debuted in Turin... Read More…

In this week’s Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Based on the Perrault fairy tale of Cinderella, it’s the story of the kind-hearted young girl, abused by her step-sisters, who meets, falls in love with, and marries the handsome prince. Yes, Cinders does go to the ball!Tune in to Houston Public Media Classical 91.7 Saturday, October 10th at noon to... Read More…

In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Handel’s 1730 comic opera Partenope. Set in Ancient Naples, Partenope is the story of the Neapolitan queen who is loved by three princes and one princess (!). Who will win the queen’s hand in marriage? Tune in to Houston Public Media’s Classical 91.7 Saturday at noon for San Francisco Opera’s broadcast of Partenope featuring Danielle de Niese... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra talk about Giuseppe Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, the story of the demise of Riccardo, Earl of Warwick and governor of Boston who falls in love with his best friend’s wife and pays a heavy price. Tune in to Classical 91.7 Saturday, September 26th at noon for San Francisco Opera’s broadcast of Un Ballo in Maschera featuring... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, his first major operatic success. Set in Tennessee, and adapted from the story of Susannah and the Elders in the Apocrypha, Susannah is the story of an innocent young woman corrupted and marginalized by the God-fearing, church-going folks of her town and their new preacher. Tune in to hear San Francisco Opera’s... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s Arts & Culture Director St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Vincenzo Bellini’s 1831 “lyric tragedy” Norma. Set in Gaul in the first century B.C., Norma tells a story of love, religion, fidelity and concealment as the Druids strive to fight off the invading Romans.…

In this week’s Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s Arts & Culture Director St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Giacomo Puccini’s 1904 drama Madama Butterfly, based on the play “Madame Butterfly” by David Belasco. Set in Nagasaki, Japan, in the early years of the twentieth century, it’s the story of the young, innocent Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, and her fateful love for the “faithless” American naval lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton.... Read More…

In this week’s Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media Arts & Culture Director, St.John Flynn, and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss Giuseppe Verdi’s searing 1851 tragedy Rigoletto, the story of Gilda, the beautiful young girl sacrificed on the altar of her father’s malevolence. Tune in for San Francisco Opera’s broadcast of Rigoletto, featuring Željko Lu?i? in the title role and Aleksandra Kurzak as Gilda. [The musical excerpts heard in this OCS are taken... Read More…

In this Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra provide a quick, light-hearted intro to Jules Massenet’s Thaïs, a tale full of religious eroticism! Set in the 4th century A.D. in North Africa, Thaïs tells the story of the monk Athanaël who attempts to convert to Christianity the Alexandrian courtesan Thaïs only to discover that he is in love with her. As she renounces her... Read More…

Stage of the Royal Opera of the Palace of Versailles. Image from WikiMedia Commons by user GNUToo. In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give an overview of American composer John Corigliano’s only opera (to date), The Ghosts of Versailles, which he describes as a “grand opera buffa.” Writing in The New York Times on the occasion of the opera’s world première at the Met... Read More…

Aidan Davis and Kate Scally as Figaro and Susanna in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro". Photo by Penn State. Creative Commons. In this OCS Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn talks to bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi, who sang the title role, and conductor James Gaffigan, from the Houston Grand Opera 2011 production of The Marriage of Figaro. Subtitled The Mad Day, the opera shows the craziness that ensues when the “right of the lord” is not the... Read More…

The Meeting of Dido and Aeneas by Nathaniel Dance-Holland. Public domain. In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss what is perhaps the earliest English opera, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Based on the events in Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid, Purcell’s only true opera tells the story of the ill-fated love that develops between Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, a Trojan prince charged... Read More…

The arrival of the entertainers in La traviata, Act II, Scene II. Creative Commons license 3.0. In this OCS, the “opera guys,” Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, discuss Giuseppe Verdi’s magnificent La Traviata, the story of the ill-fated love between the dying courtesan Violetta and the young and besotted Alfredo and what can happen when your dad thinks your girlfriend’s “unsuitable”! Tune in to Houston Public Media... Read More…

Patricia Racette as the title character in the Met’s 2012 production of "Tosca." Photo by Ken Howard. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera. In this week’s Opera Cheat Sheet, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give, in their own inimitable way, a quick intro to Puccini’s beloved Tosca, a story of love, politics, religion and sharp silverware! Set in Rome against a backdrop of national and political turmoil,... Read More…

Porgy and Bess by the New York Harlem Theatre. GNU Free Documentation License. In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra discuss George Gershwin’s 1935 masterpiece, considered by many to be the Great American Opera. Based on DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy, Gershwin’s opera tells the story of the residents of Charleston, South Carolina’s Catfish Row, a tenement inhabited by poor black families, and the love story... Read More…

The set of Weinberg's 'The Passenger' features Auschwitz on the lower level and a passenger ship headed to Brazil in the late 1950s on top. Photo by Robert Kusel. In this OCS, Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn and Eric Skelly of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra give an overview of Mieczysâaw Weinberg’s 1968 opera The Passenger. Set on an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic in the late 1950s and also in the Auschwitz concentration camp... Read More…