Feature: FREE ONLINE OPERA/RECITAL PERFORMANCES at Home Computer Screens

JUNE 12 TO 19

LA OPERA

This week, Los Angeles Opera's website features a wonderful recital by the renowned bass who has portrayed so many great characters in that house, Morris Robinson.

His program includes: Mozart's concert aria, Mentre ti lascio, o figlia; Schubert's Der Doppelgänger; Wolf's Wohl denk ich oft an mein vergangnes Leben, Alles endet, was entsteht; Verdi's "Come dal ciel precipito" from Macbeth; Bernstein's "Greeting" from Arias and Barcarolles; Margaret Bonds' Three Dream Portraits; and two Spirituals, Sweet Jesus, and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. We can expect to hear Robinson live whenever opera houses open up. Meanwhile, it's wonderful to have him in recital on demand.

https://www.laopera.org/discover/laoathome/living-room-recitals/morris-robinson-caren-levine-recitral/

Also to be enjoyed this week on the LA Opera website is a sound-and-still-photo rendition of Mozart's The Clemency of Titus. It's a great choice for music to cook by.

https://www.laopera.org/discover/laoathome/from-the-vault/

On Tuesday, June 16, at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time, composer Kamala Sankaram will be the guest on Karen Slack's FaceBook program, Kiki Conversations. Sankaram has been commissioned by Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, the PROTOTYPE Festival, and Opera Memphis, among others. On Thursday, June 18, at 5:00 p.m. Karen's guest will be soprano Julia Bullock. Bullock currently serves as the 2019-20 Artist-in-Residence at the San Francisco Symphony. Her past positions include a 2018-19 Artist-in-Residency at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

So, finish your Southern California fresh fruit salad. Our Magic Opera Carpet is ready to virtually fly up the state's gorgeous coastline to San Francisco Opera for Puccini's Triptych: Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi on June 13-14.

https://sfopera.com/opera-is-on/streaming/

On June 14, the stewards on our Magic Opera Carpet serve a delicious smoke-flavored barbecued beef as we head east for Wichita, Kansas. Wichita Grand Opera's offering is Puccini's Turandot in a production conceived by Margaret Ann Pence and directed by Shayna Leahy. Martin Mazik conducts a cast consisting of Zvetelina Vassileva as Turandot, Ricardo Tamura as Calaf, Yunnie Park as Liu, and Samuel Ramey as Timur.

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

Continuing our easterly direction, we land at the Princeton Festival in New Jersey which offers Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro beginning June 14. Festival Executive and Artistic Director Richard Tang Yuk conducts and Steven LaCosse directs a cast of excellent young artists including Cassandra Zoe Velasco who is a former LA Opera Young Artist.

https://princetonfestival.org/digital-event/le-nozze-di-figaro/

As we spend a night over the mysterious, boiling North Atlantic on The Magic Opera Flying Carpet, don't look at the monsters that inhabit the blackness below. Instead, listen to the 1940 La Scala recording of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana conducted by the composer himself. Lina Bruna Rasa is Santuzza and Benjamin Gigli is Turiddu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T1XPI8K-5Q

On June 14, Glyndebourne Opera presents Samuel Barber's opera Vanessa in collaboration with OperaVision. The performance is a recording of a 2018 production directed by Keith Warner. Emma Bell sings the title role with Edgaras Montvidas as Anatol and Virginie Verrez as Erika. Jakub Hrůša conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

https://www.glyndebourne.com/events/vanessa/

https://operavision.eu/en/library/performances/operas/skating-rink-garsington-opera?utm_source=OperaVision&utm_campaign=542978e29d-SKATING+MOSES+VANESSA+2020+EN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_be53dc455e-542978e29d-100557090#

Grab a glass of sherry as we leave England for a rendez-vous with Mozart and DaPonte's most seductive opera. The Swedish Radio Symphony is staging Don Giovanni. Daniel Harding will be conducting the orchestra in a performance available at OperaVision beginning June 13 live from Stockholm's Berwaldhallen. Peter Mattei sings the Don, Andrew Staples, who sings Don Ottavio, directs.

https://www.berwaldhallen.se/play/

After a stop at an outdoor smörgåsbord with new rules that accommodate COVID 19 regulations, we Angelinos are ready for stronger sunshine and warmer weather. Franco Zeffirelli's flaming hot La Scala Pagliacci film with the young Placido Domingo as Canio, and the waif-like Teresa Stratas as Nedda should be the perfect solution. Georges Pretre conducts a cast that includes Juan Pons as the fearsome, monstrous Tonio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSURBaT3XF4&list=PLV_nrww2WObgVEcH0fSnIhDaofwQEbwfB&index=7

Photo by Cory Weaver of Patricia Racette and Brandon Jovanovich in Il Tabarro at San Francisco Opera