"LA OPERA ON AIR"

KUSC FM 91.5 and LA Opera have teamed up to produce "LA Opera on Air," a radio program that will begin broadcasting the 2007/08 Season on KUSC FM 91.5 beginning Saturday, May 17 at 10:30am and nationally on WFMT Radio Network beginning Saturday, July 5. Introduced by Plácido Domingo and hosted by Duff Murphy "LA Opera on Air" will include commentaries and interviews with Music Director James Conlon, singers, directors and conductors. Click here for additional program information.

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Broadcast Schedule on Classical KUSC 91.5 FM and the WFMT Radio Network*
*Broadcast dates and times on WFMT Radio Network vary in differing national media markets; check local listings Click here to locate your local radio station!

KUSC: Saturday, May 17, 10:30am WFMT: Saturday, July 5* Fidelio Music Director James Conlon conducts Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio, a celebration of humanity's desire for justice and the triumph of true love. Unjustly incarcerated by a ruthless oppressor, Florestan languishes in a secret prison, held without charge or trial. In desperation, his wife Leonore disguises herself as a young man, Fidelio, and becomes the jailer's assistant, hoping to free her beloved husband. Starring Anja Kampe, Klaus Florian Vogt, Matti Salminen, Eike Wilm Schulte, Oleg Bryjak, Rebekah Camm and Greg Fedderly. Learn more

KUSC: Saturday, May 24, 10:30am Verdi Requiem Intensely dramatic in nature, Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem is a heartfelt rumination on life and death, filled with breathtaking beauty and thrilling suspense. Plácido Domingo conducts the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and Chorus, with soprano Adrianne Pieczonka, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz and bass René Pape. Learn more

KUSC: Saturday, May 31, 10:30am WFMT: Saturday, July 12* Jenufa Nowhere in opera is reality more raw and uncensored than in Jenufa, an intense and deeply moving drama by the great Czech composer Leoš Janácek. The innocent peasant girl Jenufa loves the town's feckless playboy too passionately, and the devoted Laca loves her too jealously. Meanwhile, her self-righteous stepmother's misguided style of tough love leads to tragic results. Conducted by James Conlon, starring Karita Mattila, Eva Urbanová, Kim Begley, Jorma Silvasti, Elizabeth Bishop and Jason Stearns. Learn more

KUSC: Saturday, June 7, 10:30am WFMT: Saturday, July 19* Don Giovanni Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's brilliant comic drama deftly unfolds an intriguing series of escalating calamities when those whom opera's greatest Lothario has seduced seek their revenge against him. And when the Don disdainfully invites a vengeful ghost to dinner, all hell breaks loose. Conducted by Hartmut Haenchen, starring Erwin Schrott, Kyle Ketelsen, Alexandra Deshorties, Maria Kanyova, Charles Castronovo, Lauren McNeese, James Creswell and Kangliang Peng. Learn more

KUSC: Saturday, June 14, 10:30am La Bohème Against the festive holiday backdrop of 19th-century Paris on Christmas Eve, starving artists in the Latin Quarter engage in high jinks, high spirits and high romance. A chance meeting between the young poet Rodolfo and his neighbor Mimi leads to love while that other bohemian Marcello and his coquettish amour Musetta find that breaking up is hard to do. Giacomo Puccini's beloved opera is conducted by Hartmut Haenchen, starring Maija Kovalevska, Massimo Giordano, Laquita Mitchell, Luca Sali, Oren Gradus, Brian Leerhuber and Philip Cokorinos. Learn more

KUSC: Saturday, June 21, 10:30am WFMT: Saturday, July 26* Tristan und Isolde Richard Wagner's drama of fatal attraction and forbidden love charts new operatic territory from the intense longing of the opening orchestral prelude all the way through to Isolde's final aria. James Conlon conducts, with Linda Watson and John Treleaven in the leading roles, joined by Lioba Braun, Juha Uusitalo, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Gregory Warren, Brian Mulligan and Matthew Moore. Learn more

KUSC: Saturday, June 28, 10:30am WFMT: Saturday, August 2* Otello From the opening tempest scene to the spine tingling finish, Giuseppe Verdi's operatic transformation of Shakespeare's play crackles with theatrical electricity and incandescent intensity. When the evil Iago cleverly exploits Otello's obsessive jealousy, the Moor's innocent wife Desdemona is blindsided in the explosive dramatic friction. Conductor James Conlon leads a cast including Ian Storey, Elena Evseeva, Mark Delavan, Derek Taylor and Ning Liang. Learn more

KUSC: Saturday, July 5, 10:30am WFMT: Saturday, August 9* The Broken Jug / The Dwarf LA Opera continues its celebrated exploration of music by composers suppressed by the Nazis with two exceptional one-act operas. Viktor Ullmann's The Broken Jug (Der zerbrochene Krug) is taken from a farcical play by the Romantic German poet Heinrich von Kleist. Alexander Zemlinsky based The Dwarf (Der Zwerg) on Oscar Wilde's tragic The Birthday of the Infanta. Vivid imagery, supercharged emotions, and rich late-Romantic orchestral textures characterize these operas. James Conlon conducts a cast that includes James Johnson, Rodrick Dixon, Mary Dunleavy, Steven Humes, Bonaventura Bottone, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Bishop, Melody Moore, Jason Stearns and Richard Cox. Learn more

KUSC: Saturday, July 12, 10:30am Tosca Political power and its abuse intensify the tragic love triangle between the fiery diva Floria Tosca, the handsome painter Mario Cavaradossi, and the sadistic police chief Baron Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's action-packed psychological thriller. Obsessed with the tempestuous singer, the villainous Baron plays a cruel cat-and-mouse game with her and her lover. Tosca strikes a bargain with the diabolical Scarpia only to experience horrifying consequences. Sir Richard Armstrong conducts a cast that includes Adrianne Pieczonka, Neil Shicoff, Juan Pons and Dale Travis. Learn more

KUSC: Saturday, July 19, 10:30am WFMT: Saturday, August 16* La Rondine La Rondine is a little known treasure-trove featuring some of Giacomo Puccini's most rhapsodic music. Magda, the glamorous mistress of a wealthy Parisian banker, is the titular rondine ("swallow"), a kept woman ready to flit from one rich man's nest to another. When she decides on a whim to spend an evening out disguised as a working class girl, she meets the love of her life, who is enchanted by the innocent girl she pretends to be. But when he proposes marriage, the memory of her sullied past threatens to tear Magda from the man she loves. Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts, and the cast includes Patricia Racette, Marcus Haddock, Amanda Squitieri, Greg Fedderly and David Pittsinger. Learn more

Additional Program Information

“LA Opera on Air” is a program of live recordings of the 2007/08 Season's productions, which were presented at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, that organically interweaves pre-taped interviews and commentaries with select cast members, directors and conductors into the productions’ intermissions. Produced by LA Opera with KUSC FM 91.5, “LA Opera on Air” begins an 10 episode run locally on KUSC on May 17 and an seven episode run nationally on WFMT, Chicago, on July 5 with Fidelio starring Anja Kampe and Klaus Florian Vogt. The seven shows of “LA Opera on Air” that will be aired on the WFMT Radio Network are part of the landmark series of 30 broadcast performances recorded live by four major U.S. opera companies – LA Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera. "LA Opera on Air" will also be available online for streaming at www.kusc.org.

“LA Opera on Air" is hosted by Duff Murphy and produced by Gail Eichenthal. Duff Murphy is host of the current Saturday morning KUSC program “Opera Show.” He is also regularly speaks about LA Opera’s productions at the Company’s pre-performance lectures at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Gail Eichenthal has been the Director of Arts Programming for KUSC since 2005. She has more than 20 years experience working in radio. The producing team also includes KUSC recording engineer Fred Vogler and KUSC post-production engineer Mark Hatwan and LA Opera coordinating producer Gary Murphy.

“LA Opera on Air” was made possible by generous grants from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, spearheaded by the efforts of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

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