Over the next six weeks read, listen to, view, and study the scores to at least three Western operas: an earlier Western opera from the 17th or 18th century; a nineteenth century Western opera; and a Western opera from the 20th or 21st century. The operas are to be of your own choosing.

Here are three suggestions from works to be broadcast on Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital, on Saturday afternoons at 1 PM:

August 2, 2008
Opera Garnier, Paris
Christoph Willibald Gluck: Iphigenie en Tauride
Ivor Bolton, conductor

CAST: Mireille Delunsch (Iphigenie); Stephane Degout (Orestes); Yann Beuron (Pylades); Franck Ferrari (Thoas); Salome Haller (Diana)  read more »

Benjamin Britten was born in the house seen in these photos on November 22nd, 1913. The house is 21, Kirkley Cliff Road, Lowestoft in Suffolk. It was Britten's home until 1934, by which time he had composed his Simple Symphony op. 4, based on music written in the house between the ages of nine and twelve.  read more »

Photo by Cory Weaver If you have ever been beholden to a cadre of willful, narrow-minded people, then you will have an instinctual understanding of the situation at the outset of Benjamin Brittens Albert Herring . This comedy, albeit a serious one, depicts the struggle of a young man as he finds his way out of the smothering grip of his widowed mother and the expectations of the uptight, upright community.  read more »

Anthony Dean Griffey Photo: Ken Howard/Met Opera 2008 Monday saw the final performance of the Metropolitan Operas new production of Brittens Peter Grimes , which I caught with some trepidation. I usually dont like seeing the last performance of an opera for many reasons, one being that by this time Ive read everything everyone else has written and it unfairly raises or lowers my expectations. In this case, I had heard a lot of negative things, particularly about John Doyles staging, so I guess its no surprise that I actually really enjoyed the whole thing. Yes the two-dimensional set with its giant wall and the total lack of color doesnt leave one with much to look at. Doyle seems to miss some of the biggest opportunities in Britten's score to wow the audience with stage craft.  read more »

For those of us who have learnt to play the piano over the last half century the name of Alec Rowley will be extremely familiar. Even today when I visit the second hand music shops in Kelvinside and Fishergate in Glasgow and York respectively, I am amazed at the number of volumes of this composer that are always available. I have managed to build a small collection of his easier pieces. I doubt that there is much in print these days, but historically there are reams of miniatures and teaching pieces available to the interested explorer and collector. It was not until about a decade or so ago that I realised that Mr Rowley had a serious side to him - that is until I inherited an album of organ works.  read more »

Another one from the home of Sir Colin Davis's kebab recipe, Adrian Ball's 1971 Food of Love: The Favourite Feasts of World's Music-Makers.The recipes contributed by the long list of musicians vary so much in style and detail that I can only think they were included pretty much as written, with minimal editing.Claudio Arrau, at the time possibly the greatest living pianist, offers an extravagantly concocted Lobster Bisque. At the other end of the scale, a joint contribution from Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears combines the unforgotten proscriptions of rationing with the Englishman's enduring fondness for nursery food.  read more »

Death in Venice. Barcelona Liceu. May 30th, 2008. Production: Willy Decker. Cast: Hans Schpflin (Aschenbach), Scott Hendrick (Traveller etc.), Uli Kirsch (Tadzio - not singing). Sebastian Weigle, conductor. Further information here. Willy Decker, the outstanding German opera director, has been away from the scene since his Netrebko/Villazn Salzburg Traviata in 2005, and due to illness canceled scheduled assignments such as Moses and Aron and Boris Godunov in Vienna. But now he is finally back. And in superb shape, as well.  read more »

Overgrown Path's web logs over the past few days showed little uplift in traffic to my wide range of Herbert von Karajan articles . Most of the increase that happened came either from searches for the conductor's political and sexual predilections or from Japan, which has always had a special love affair with him. This analysis was mirrored in the mainstream media where, despite strong promotion from Deutsche Grammophon and EMI and some unashamed puffery from Simon Rattle , there was little interest in the Karajan anniversary other than tabloid-style trash from Norman Lebrecht and Ivan Hewett . The music industry loves an anniversary and two years ago we celebrated Shostakovich to death . So why did Herbert's birthday party fall so flat?  read more »

Here's my Just Out review of Portland Opera 's production of the Britten chamber opera, Albert Herring : Opera demands space. Whether its the roomy acoustic space needed for opera-sized voices to blossom and bloom, or the required physical space of the theater in which operas oversize emotions can express themselves largely, the art form likes to think big. There are brilliant exceptions Peter Brooks stripped down Tragedie de Carmen is one but executing living room opera is a dangerous gamble.  read more »

The Royal Opera House have released details of their 2008/2009 season. It is full of interesting things, but only a few that make me really go wow.  read more »