opera Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Radio Announces Program Changes for the New Year

West Virginia Public Broadcasting is proud to announce a new program from America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) founder Christopher Kimball, Milk Street Radio. With ATK ceasing production of its radio show (television will continue) at year-end, the timing of Kimball’s new adventure couldn’t be more perfect.

The wide world of food is coming to Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio and in turn, to foodies everywhere. From street food in Thailand to a bakery in a Syrian refugee camp to how one scientist uses state of the art pollen analysis to track the origins of honey (and also to solve crimes), Milk Street Radio goes anywhere and everywhere to ask questions and get answers about cooking, food, culture, wine, farming, restaurants, literature, and the lives and cultures of the people who grow, produce, and create the food we eat.

With a four-star cast of contributors, the long-time public TV and radio host brings Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio to West Virginia Public Broadcasting beginning January 1, 2017. The program will air Sundays at 3pm.

Former West Virginian Bridget Lancaster and other ATK personalities will join Lynne Rossetto Kasper to share practical, hands-on culinary expertise on The Splendid Table, which airs Sundays at 2pm.

On Monday nights, due to its unfortunate mid-season cessation of production and distribution, another program change has occurred with World of Opera.

Director of Programming Kristi George explained, “After we got over the surprise, we learned that the source of live opera performances, the European Broadcasting Union, was no longer able to provide them.”

George added, “We were assured that numerous options for continuing the program were explored, but none had been fruitful.”

WVPB will air holiday specials with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to round out the remaining Mondays in December. Then beginning in January, the BBC World Service will air from 9pm throughout the night.

Be sure to check out our other holiday specials too.

As we move forward, we are heartened by other opportunities for opera fans and invite you to join West Virginia Public Broadcasting in supporting them.

A variety of music options – including opera and classical music – is available to our television audience. Among these are Great Performances and Live from Lincoln Center. Program schedules for the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Television Network and the WV Channel can be found here.

Live statewide events for the Met are being held through May. The Met’s 11^th season of Live in HD is transmitted live in high-definition cinema simulcasts at three area locations: Huntington Mall – Barboursville, Nitro Stadium 12, and Morgantown Stadium 12. The 2016-2017 schedule includes the following:

January 7, 2017 – NABUCCO (Verdi) — Live in HD start time: 12:55 p.m. ET (Encore: January 11 at 6:30 p.m. local time) Approx. runtime: 3:04
January 21 – ROMÉO ET JULIETTE (Gounod) – New Production — Live in HD start time: 12:55 p.m. ET (Encore: January 25 at 6:30 p.m. local time) Approx. runtime: 3:29
February 25 – RUSALKA (Dvořák) – New Production — Live in HD start time: 12:55 p.m. ET (Encore: March 1 at 6:30 p.m. local time) Approx. runtime: 4:05
March 11 – LA TRAVIATA (Verdi) — Live in HD start time: 12:55 p.m. ET (Encore: March 15 at 6:30 p.m. local time) Approx. runtime: 2:54
March 25 – IDOMENEO (Mozart) — Live in HD start time: 12:55 p.m. ET (Encore: March 29 at 6:30 p.m. local time) Approx. runtime: 4:18
April 22 – EUGENE ONEGIN (Tchaikovsky) — Live in HD start time: 12:55 p.m. ET (Encore: April 26 at 6:30 p.m. local time) Approx. runtime: 3:57
May 13 – DER ROSENKAVALIER (R. Strauss) – New Production — Live in HD start time: 12:30 p.m. ET (Encore: May 17 at 6:30 p.m. local time) Approx. runtime: 4:47

Marilyn DiVita, Director of Development and Marketing, states, “Between the quality of the Met’s award-winning HD broadcasts at local cinemas and the playbills provided by the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting at each event, it’s almost like being at the Met in New York City.
“Thanks to the volunteer efforts of the Friends, we are pleased to again offer a limited number of complimentary movie theater passes to the Met event.”

For more information about the operas, including casts, synopses, and videos, visit The Met.

For more details on these changes, please see our FAQs.

Remembering Phyllis Curtin – Opera Singer, West Virginian

Phyllis Curtin died yesterday at the age of ninety-five. You can’t say her death was a surprise, but I’m sad all the same. It’s good though, to remember who she was and what she was to American music.

Phyllis Curtin was an operatic and concert soprano. Summers were spent teaching at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony. She held important faculty positions at Yale, and later directed my alma mater, the School for the Arts at Boston University (sadly for me, after my time).

Phyllis Curtin sang opera in New York, Paris, Vienna, Buenos Aires and all points in between. She was an elegant Mozartean, but her greatest operatic roles came from a later period. That I never saw her in the theater as Richard Strauss’s Salome or in the American opera Susannah by Carlisle Floyd are two of my regrets. What other Salome was such a gorgeous woman offstage, with a voice that easily sliced through the brutal orchestration? What other singing actress turned on a dime to perform the gentle but ultimately tough Susannah Polk?

She may have have denied that Susannah was written expressly for her, but the fact remains that every other soprano sings this role in her shadow. Susannah is a girl from the hills of West Virginia, and that’s where Phyllis Smith was born (Clarksburg, W.Va.) “I never wore shoes until I was twelve years old”, she once said. She gave this writer and extended interview in her home in the Berkshires some years ago. I’ve been checking my notes.

“I graduated from Wellesley. When I began my stage work, my professors told me they were very surprised. ‘We thought you’d end up running the local chapter of the League of Women Voters, or something like that.”

That could have happened. Instead, Curtin sang with the New York City Opera, the Metropolitan, at La Scala in Milan and all over the U.S. She gave the American premiere of Britten’s War Requiem. Not forgetting she was one of the “Nieces” in the first performances of that composer’s Peter Grimes.

Her artistic legacy is not in opera, except for Susannah. It is in the work she did with living composers, Carlisle Floyd, Aaron Copland and Ned Rorem among them. She sang new music. Her voice and her notoriety provided instant audiences for many a premiere and subsequent performances. A Phyllis Curtin performance was about beauty, scrupulous musicianship, class, and communication. She insisted on communication. In whatever language she sang, we in the audience knew what was going on.

I never studied with the lady. I did sneak in to her Tanglewood classes over the years. “Don’t be afraid onstage” she said to one young singer. “Be afraid out there.”

I’ll enjoy listening to he recordings over the next few weeks. She never recorded an opera but there are plenty of “off air recordings”: Don Giovanni from Chicago. Susannah from New Orleans. There’s a Tosca from Los Angeles where she stands up (sings up?) wonderfully to Franco Corelli. Cosi fan tutte and The Love of three Kings from NBC TV. As far as I know, we don’t have Salome or La traviata more’s the pity. But if opera isn’t your thing, any three minute song by Poulenc, Faure, Villa-Lobos, Rorem, Copland, Floyd or any American composer of the last fifty years will do. Like Judy Garland, she sang ’em all.

Christopher Purdy is a classical host on WOSU in Columbus.

Bizet's Carmen in HD

There is no other woman in the world of opera like Carmen, the stunning Spanish gypsy, who is as passionate in her loves as she is for her freedom, totally unfettered by any code.

An operatic tour-de-force, Carmen will be sung in French with English supertitles during the simulcast from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera to theaters around the world this Saturday, November 1, at 12:55pm.

Opera lovers in West Virginia can see the live broadcast in Barboursville, Nitro, and in Granville/Morgantown. An encore will be shown on Wednesday, November 5, at 6:30pm. The approximate running time is three hours and forty minutes. Maestro Heras-Casado will conduct this mesmerizing production by Richard Eyre.

— Find Tickets Here

The music for the opera was written by French composer Georges Bizet (1838-1875) to a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy based on Prosper Merimee’s novel Carmen. This opera in 4 acts premiered at the Opera-Comique in Paris on March 3, 1875.

As famous as the opera is today, Carmen was not received well by all of the patrons at its premiere opening. Its “indecency” shocked the Opera-Comique’s conservative audience and critics at the time described it as “immoral” and “low.”

Set in Seville in 1830, the seductive Carmen, sung by mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, convinces a young corporal, Don Jose, sung by tenor Aleksandrs Antonenlco, to leave his current sweetheart, Micaela, and desert his regiment. She soon tires of Don Jose and leaves him for the flashy and roguish toreador Escamillo, sung by Ildar Abdrazakov. Passions boil to a tragic ending as Carmen tries to join the victorious bullfighter in the arena after her discarded lover fails to convince her to return. It is opera at its core-betrayal, jealousy, metamorphosis from law-abiding soldier to thief, smuggling, even murder.

“Carmen always reacts to the state of mind and character of the other protagonists. Don Jose is a simple soldier caught in a passion beyond his comprehension, and we witness the gradual disintegration of what was once a man of character. Carmen watches the vacillating demoralized man and moves in for the kill at the right moment.” (Paul Henry Lang)

Bizet bestows on this musical score his greatest inventive powers of memorable melodies, colorful harmonies and rich orchestration. He understood how to compose for the human voice. “I have written a work that is all clarity and vivacity, full of color and melody,” he remarked.

Carmen belongs to the tradition of French opera comique, as we can tell both from the spoken dialogue and from the two-verse songs.

If you have never witnessed an opera , Carmen is a special treat. You will leave the theater singing or humming the music you just heard.

Dr. Larry Stickler is professor of music at Marshall University.

West Virginian Uses Opera to Talk Mountaintop Removal Mining, Painkiller Overdoses

Composer and Huntington native Nate May recently finished production on an original two-person music-drama, called Dust in the Bottomland.

When he began studying music at the University of Michigan Nate May decided to write an opera about some of the issues facing Appalachians.

His friend and fellow student at the University, Andrew Munn, collaborated with him to create Dust in the Bottomland, which they performed last year in West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and New York City. The piece uses only one instrument and one vocalist. May plays piano, and Munn sings bass.

“Some people ask, ’Where’s the Appalachian influence in the music?’ And I say, ‘Well, all of it. It’s me, who’s writing it and I grew up in Appalachia,’” said May.

Dust in the Bottomland is about a young man who grew up in West Virginia but moved away. Since he’s been gone, his parents and sister have been displaced from their home, due to mountaintop removal mining. They still live in West Virginia, though they now live down in the valley.

The main character is returning home after 10 years because his sister has overdosed on pain pills. During his return home, the protagonist also visits the site of his family’s home and sees the changes that mining has done to that landscape.

“I think the story hit home to a lot of people because a lot of people, even not from the area, know people affected by addiction,” said May. “The other issue that people were affected by was homecoming. And going away and coming back.”

Album cover for Dust in the Bottomland. Shows Bev’s Flower Store in Oceana, West Virginia.

Nate May and Andrew Munn are now talking about composing a chamber ensemble version of Dust in the Bottomland, which will include more instruments.

Andrew and Nate, during a break from rehearsing at Interlochen Center for the Arts in northern Michigan.

Staging the Auction to Sell the Collection of a Lifetime

More than fifty years of marriage… plus two international performing careers… plus a shared passion for seeking out eclectic and interesting objects… adds up to one remarkable collection. World-famous opera singer Frances Yeend and her husband amassed just such a collection. It’ll be auctioned off starting this weekend at the Sagebrush Roundup near Fairmont.

Frances Yeend in Elektra at the Metropolitan Opera

Frances Yeend spent her twilight years in Morgantown, but earlier her strong soprano voice graced stages and major concert halls around the nation and the world during the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Her husband, James Benner, also traveled far and wide as an accomplished accompanist and voice coach.

In a 2002 interview for West Virginia Public Television’s series Aging With Grace and Dignity, Yeend expressed her love for world travel.

yeendmixdown.mp3

Listen to the audio from the Aging With Grace and Dignity series interview with Frances Yeend and James Benner.

“I love going places,” said Yeend. “I’ve always loved going in different places in the world. Italy and France. Germany. All those places. I’ve been to all the different ones and I’ve enjoyed them very, very much.”

During their travels, she and her husband began to amass an incredible collection of antiques and books. In the late 60’s they gave up living out of suitcases and left New York City to join the music faculty at West Virginia University.

Their collection came with them to Morgantown…and continued to grow.

(Frances Yeend and James Benner perform in a 1988 recital. She was 75.)

Yeend passed away in 2008 and Benner, faced with some health issues, is downsizing into a small apartment. The time has come, he says, to sell the collection.

It's hard to suddenly say it's all going to go. – James Benner

“I’ve tried to make my mind set as rigid about getting rid of things as I was about collecting them, back when I was collecting them, in my pack rat stages so to speak,” says Benner. “But it’s a big emotional upheaval to get rid of all these things which we both loved so much and collected over so many years.”

Benner says his relatives live far away. They’ve had the chance to come and select the things they would like to have. But he didn’t want his family to have to figure out what to do with the rest of it later.

“I had been negotiating somewhat with auction houses in New York for the museum quality stuff,” says Benner. “But it’s so expensive and so difficult to get the things there, and I would still be stuck with everything that’s in the house.”

Enter West Virginia auctioneer Joe R. Pyle, stage left, wearing his trademark cowboy hat.

Yeend and Benner attended many of Pyle’s auctions over the years. He said they were among his best customers. Now his role is to survey the contents of their entire home and prepare the collection for sale.

“When you look at the inventory of this house,” says Pyle. “I mean it’s…they’ve been into lithographs, they’ve been into glassware, Staffordshire, Persian rugs, Asian, ivory, Renaissance furniture, paintings, an unbelievable library of books.”

Pyle says there will be between two and three thousand selling lots, with some lots having as many as 40 or 50 items. He and his crew have been working behind the scenes for months. They’ve spent lots of time with Benner, who says he’s been happy to talk about the items he loves.

“I often do remember the particular circumstances of a purchase,” says Benner. “Especially if it’s a major purchase, because you think a lot before you decide to spend the money on something. And we didn’t usually buy things with an idea that it was a good purchase marketwise or anything like that. We bought things that we loved.”

A screenshot of the auction catalog shows thumbnail photos of just a few of the items up for auction.

Quirky items sometimes caught their eye.

“One of the most unusual things that’s in the sale is a Buddhist manuscript which opens like an accordion kind of, it’s almost a foot long – three feet long. And I remember seeing that in a shop in California and thinking every household needs one.”

Pyle says there won’t be another auction like this around here for many, many years. He says it’ll be fun to watch and there will be something there for everybody.

There will be items that sell for $20. There will be items that sell for $30,000. – Joe R. Pyle

The initial auction will take place this Friday and Saturday…with an additional date of October 2, 2014 that will focus solely on the library. At least one – possibly two more auction days will follow later in October.

So, the stage is set.

“We’re not going to have an opera, we’re going to have an auction,” says Pyle. “So, it’s kind of, you know, leading up to that, we’ve put brochures out the same way they put the poster out in front of the Met, you know. And the advertising piece and let everybody know – get there for the show. So it IS the show.”

James Benner at his apartment in Morgantown. On the wall behind him is a portrait of his late wife, Frances Yeend, as well as a few items he’s keeping from their shared collection.

Cinderella Meets Prince Charming

The story of Cinderella has been passed down from generation to generation in many versions and languages. In the opera “La Cenerentola” by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist JacapoFerretti, there is no fairy godmother, no magic, and no glass slipper. Cenerentola is treated like a housemaid by her blustery stepfather and her sniping stepsisters until the charming prince marries her and changes her life forever.

“La Cenerentola” will be simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera in high definition and surround sound to select theaters around the world this Saturday, May 10, 2014, at 12:55 p.m., as the last simulcast in The Met: Live in HD series for the 2013-2014 series. Opera lovers in West Virginia can see this two-act comic opera at the Cinemark Theater at the Huntington Mall in Barboursville; Regal Nitro Stadium 12; and Hollywood Stadium 12 in Granville/Morgantown, as well as at the Cinemark Theater in Ashland, Kentucky.

With an approximate runtime of three hours and forty minutes, the opera will be sung in Italian with English subtitles. An encore will be shown on Wednesday, May 14, at 6:30 p.m.

Superb American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will take center stage as Angelina (Cenerentola). Baritone Alessandro Corbelli will sing the role of Don Magnifico, Cenerentola’s fool-of-a-father, and soprano Rachelle Durkin and mezzo-soprano Patricia Risley will sing the roles of Clorinda and Tisbe, Cenerentola’s stepsisters.

Dashing tenor Juan Diego Florez will sing the role of the Prince of Salerno; baritone Pietro Spagnoli will sing the role of Dandini, a valet to the prince; and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni will sing the role of Alidoro, former tutor to the prince.

Maestro Fabio Luisi will conduct this opera production by Cesare Lievi and directed by Eric Einhorn. This is a return of the Met production from 1997 which gives this 1817 classic opera a 1930s look.

For the role of Cenerentola, Rossini demands a mezzo-soprano or a contralto able to handle extended coloratura passages (rapid runs, arpeggios, and trills). Listen particularly for Ms. DiDonato’s final showpiece aria (“Non piu mesta”), the music of a joyous young bride singing virtuosic melismas throughout her vocal range from low notes to high notes – bel canto (“beautiful singing”) at its best.

Listen, too, for the Prince’s aria in Act 2 with its dazzling melismas and thrilling high notes.

You will hear the exuberance of Rossini’s music – strong rhythms, richly-colored orchestration, fast tempos, sudden crescendos. Listen for astonishing ensembles as well as florid arias. You will identify a “Rossinian” style in this magnificent music.

Dr. Stickler is professor of music at Marshall University.