Feature: Opera Streaming Online This Week 4/14/21

On the Los Angeles Opera website, tenor Russell Thomas and collaborative pianist Kyung-Mi Kim present a program of song that includes Schumann's song cycle, Dichterliebe (Poet's Love), Handel's aria "Total Eclipse" from Samson, and love songs by Adolphus Hailstork and Robert Owens that was filmed recently at Spivey Hall in Atlanta, Georgia. Thomas and Kim's recital can be streamed until July 1, 2021.

LINK: https://www.laopera.org/performances/upcoming-digital-performances/signature-recitals/

Returning to the Magic Opera Flying Carpet after Don Pasquale on Saturday evening, a black and white cat ran across the street in front of our bus. We know we do not hit it, but Manon-la-Chat suggests we return to the spot where we saw the kitty to find out if it needs help. We wait on the bus while Manon slips out and meows softly to the other cat. A few minutes later the two are chatting in Meow. Manon said the wild cat, a new mother, is having a hard time finding food and caring for an obstreperous but playful tom-kitten. I tell her to bring "Mamma Lucia" and her kitten, "Turiddu," on the bus. That's why we have two extra passengers for this week's tour.

Tour members, staff, and adult cats watch the LA Opera recital, with Turiddu sleeping soundly. After takeoff for Northern California, we watch San Diego Opera's film on making drive-in opera. A leader in presenting watch-from-your-car performances, San Diego Opera, has made an interesting film about how it's system works. Our tour is watching the film inflight as we head for Northern California.

LINK: San Diego Opera film on drive in

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ1eAWTxdxM

When we land in Novato, our bus is waiting to take us to an outdoor barbecue restaurant in San Jose. We arrive thirsty, and our waiter brings sweet tea and tangy lemonade. Then, we dine on racks of ribs, fried and sauced chicken, pulled pork, chili cheese fries, cornbread, along with fried pickles and peppers. Our meat-eating feline contingent was happy with the pulled pork.

In the evening, Opera San Jose presents the premiere of Love & Secrets: A Domestic Trilogy. Romance so often conjures images of affectionate gestures: flowers, chocolates, initials carved in bark. But what lies hidden in the heart? Love & Secrets: A Domestic Trilogy, explores, in ways comedic and dramatic, three tales of couples contending with the tumult, joys, and heartache of love.

In Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna (The secret of Suzanne), an innocuous secret threatens a young newly-wed couple's chances at happiness. The opera is a drawing room comedy in the nineteenth-century Italian opera buffa tradition. It features soprano Vanessa Becerra, baritone Efraín Solís, and musicians from the Opera San José Orchestra conducted by Joseph Marcheso.

Ned Rorem's Four Dialogues, based on the poetry of Frank O'Hara, is a classic "guy-meets-girl" tale marking one couple's journey from love's first blush to the pangs of its bitter end. Soprano Marnie Breckenridge and tenor Carlos Enrique Santelli portray the lovers accompanied by pianists Maureen Zoltek and Victoria Lington.

The gorgeous harmonies of Tom Cipullo's The Husbands conclude our intimate triptych. This piece stars mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, and baritone Eugene Brancoveanu with Maureen Zoltek, piano; James Blanchard, flute; and Chad Kaltinger, viola. Christopher James Ray conducts. The Husbands is a haunting meditation is based on William Carpenter's prose poem, Rain.

Directed by Tara Branham, Love & Secrets sets fire to the trappings of romantic life, blurring past and present as eternity beckons.

Pay-What-You-Can tickets, now available, are valid for 30 days of viewing access!

LINK: https://operasj.secure.force.com/ticket/?#/instances/a0F5G00000L8UU1UAN

LINK: https://www.operasj.org/love-and-secrets/

After the opera, our chef presented a chocolate seven-layer cake and we opened a few bottles of semi-sweet red wine to celebrate a tour member's birthday. For breakfast on the Magic Opera Flying Carpet, we ate bacon, eggs and biscuits with honey, raspberry jam, and butter. We bed down for the night, Manon with me, Mamma Lucia with Turiddu in an extra seat with a warm blanket. We should arrive in Philadelphia in the wee hours of the morning when there is no traffic. A breakfast of scrapple, eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes with all the trimmings is set to arrive by eight A.M. After breakfast, we bus into town and spend the morning at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

LINK: https://philamuseum.org

We grab some cheese steaks for lunch and bus to the Museum of the American Revolution for the afternoon. When, where, and why did American women lose the right to vote? Millions of American women were granted the right to vote by the 19th Amendment. But more than a century earlier, women and free people of color could legally vote in New Jersey for more than thirty years. In 1807, New Jersey restricted the vote to propertied white men but women's fight for the vote did not end there. LINK: https://www.amrevmuseum.org/exhibits/when-women-lost-the-vote-a-revolutionary-story

At a Lebanese restaurant in town, we ordered grilled rib eye steaks with toum (garlic), hummus (chickpeas, tehina, lemon & garlic), baba ganoush (charred eggplant, tehina, lemon, garlic, smoky urfa biber chili), onion, tomato and pepper. We washed it all down with Arak. Our section of the theater definitely reeked of garlic. I had a package of Lebanese sweets sent back to the Carpet for nightcaps.

Opera Philadelphia presents Verdi's La Traviata. In October 2015, soprano Lisette Oropesa made her debut in the role of Violetta in a new production of Verdi's La Traviata at the Academy of Music, serving notice that this would be one of the definitive roles of her career. The Opera Philadelphia Channel presents the digital premiere of Paul Curran's renowned production, featuring newly remixed audio. Oropesa co-stars with tenor Alek Shrader and baritone Stephen Powell.

The stream purchase includes "La Traviata: Five Years Later," a program with the artists of La Traviata, hosted by Opera Philadelphia Artistic Advisor Lawrence Brownlee, who look back on the five-year anniversary of the production. Available on-demand with a season pass until May 31, 2021 or with a seven-day rental for $20. Titles are in English.

LINK: https://www.operaphila.org/whats-on/2020-2021/

LINK: https://www.operaphila.org/your-visit/streaming-live-tickets/

When tour members arrive back at the Magic Opera Flying Carpet after the opera, we serve the Lebanese sweets with Turkish coffee, real and decaf. I still love the coffee and halvah we used to enjoy in the Arab section of downtown Brooklyn. We go to sleep expecting some very sweet dreams after the Halvah. We wake up in Northern California, but the food has the charm and flavor of the Middle East.

We awake to Kahvalti, a Turkish breakfast that feels like a decadent reward after working all week. Cheese is very important in Turkish Culture. Soft and salty beyaz peynir or Kasseri, a hard cheese made from unpasteurized sheep milk are popular, but Turkish bagels are the real star of the kahvalti buffet. Typically, the bagels are ripped into pieces and dipped into cheeses and sour cherry, apricot, or fig jams. Black olive spread is a popular option for those who like something salty and savory early in the morning. Sucuklu yumurta or eggs with sausage is also a breakfast favorite.The traditional Turkish breakfast may include coffee or black tea.

After a free day in San Francisco, we assemble at the War Memorial Opera House. On April 17-18 San Francisco Opera presents Verdi's Don Carlo. The opera is set in a time when a war of religion rages across Europe. Heretics are burned at the stake and no one is safe, not even the king.

Michael Fabiano stars as Carlo, son of the king of Spain whose love for the princess Elisabetta is dashed when his father claims her as his bride. René Pape stars as King Philip II, Ana María Martínez is the innocent Elisabetta, Nadia Krasteva is the scheming Princess Eboli and Mariusz Kwiecien is the advisor, Rodrigo. See director Emilio Sagi's classic production for one weekend only, starting Saturday, April 17, at 10 A.M. Pacific. Nicola Luisotti conducts.

LINK: www.sfo.com

Photo of San Diego Opera's Drive-in La Boheme by Karli Cadel.