Summer season: a guide to a hot roster of performances from home and abroad (and some choice picks for further viewing).

May 12 * Arabella

Richard Strauss

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This new Vienna State Opera production premiered late last year with Adrianne Pieczonka in the title role and Michael Schade as Matteo. Thomas Hampson sings one of Strauss's most engaging baritone roles, Mandryka. Our reviewer had reservations about the staging, but few about the performance, led by Franz Welser-Most

DG 073 005-9

This is a splendid document of one of the Metropolitan Opera's most beautiful productions and stars the peerless Kiri Te Kanawa in one of her most sympathetic Strauss roles. Christian Thielemann conducts.

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May 19 * Manon

Jules Massenet 

This Vienna State Opera staging stars Anna Netrebko in the title role, partnered with some distinction (and without boos) by Roberto Alagna as Des Grieux. Bertrand de Billy, best known in North America for his work at the Met, is on the podium.

TDK: DVUS-OPMANON

American diva Renee Fleming is the reigning Manon of our day. This production from the Paris Opera, costarring Marcelo Alvarez, is a must for all lovers of Massenet and 19th-century French opera.

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May 26 * La sonnambula

Vincenzo Bellini

A third broadcast from Vienna is a second appearance for Netrebko, who has emerged as a major star in the past couple of seasons. Anyone who heard her sing Elvira in the Met's I puritani this season (or saw her on the movie broadcast) will be interested in hearing her Amina in this companion bel canto masterpiece.

VAI DVD 4239

This 1956, black-and-white television production from Italy, while embarrassingly naive and dated by today's standards, captures a radiant Anna Moffo at the very beginning of her career--though clearly before lip-synching became an art.

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June 2 * Macbeth

Giuseppe Verdi

Five Canadian broadcasts begin with Vancouver Opera's account of Shakespeare's dark tale of betrayal and regicide. The acclaimed, Seattle-based, dramatic soprano Jane Eaglen makes her debut as Lady Macbeth, with bass-baritone Greer Grimsley, another Seattle regular but attracting much attention elsewhere for his strength as a singeractor, in the title role.

Image Entertainment

ID9234RADVD 

Verdi's Macbeth is as notoriously difficult to pull off as Shakespeare's play, but under the crisp, intense baton of Giuseppe Sinopoli and his committed cast (Renato Bruson, Mara Zampieri and James Morris), this production from Berlin ranks as one of the best.

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June 9 * Faust

Charles Gounod

The Canadian Opera Company production of a much-loved operatic chestnut is a welcome opportunity to hear the young tenor, David Pomeroy, in the title role, one he repeats this summer for the Met in New York's Central Park. Baritone Brett Polegato makes an all-too-rare Canadian performance as Valentin. Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Artistic Director of Montreal's l'Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montreal and Music Director-designate of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, makes his COC debut on the podium.

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While this idiosyncratic Ken Russell production from Vienna stars Francisco Araiza and Gabriele Benackova as Faust and Marguerite, it's Ruggero Raimondi, as Mephistopheles, who gets to the soul of the matter.

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June 16 * Daphne

Richard Strauss

Pacific Opera Victoria General Director Timothy Vernon prepared a reduced orchestration for this rarely seen Strauss opera, which in this production also received its Canadian stage premiere. Korean-Canadian soprano Sookhyung Park sang the title role to acclaim, our reviewer singling out "her supremely lyrical voice, sailing effortlessly above the swirling orchestral counterpoint...."

Dynamic 33499

While this La Fenice (Venice) production of Strauss's "bucolic tragedy" is bereft of much visual or directorial interest, American soprano June Anderson still manages to make a strong case for the opera and for going green.

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June 23 * Lakme

Leo Delibes

This new Opera de Montreal/Opera Australia co-production here serves as a showcase for the bel canto talents of soprano Aline Kutan, whose Bell Song is a show-stopping tour de force. The all-Canadian cast also features the rising Canadian tenor, Frederic Antoun, as Gerald, who falls in love with Lakme, and baritone James Westman as his friend, Frederic.

Kultur D0038

Even with scrappy orchestral playing and the fact that Joan Sutherland's voice was already in decline when this video was taped in Australia in 1976, the old-fashioned, but picturesque, production has a certain appeal. Richard Bonynge conducts.

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June 30 * Frobisher

John Estacio

Here's a second chance to hear the world premiere broadcast of the second opera Calgary Opera and the Banff Centre for the Arts commissioned from the team of John Estacio and librettist John Murrell. Though the dramatic narrative is not perhaps as compelling as their first collaboration, Filumena, Estacio's vocal writing and orchestration are compelling. The premiere Calgary cast features soprano Laura Whalen, tenor Marc Hervieux, mezzos Kimberly Barber and Elizabeth Turnbull, baritone John Fanning (in the title role) and bass David Bedard.

July 7 * Salome

Richard Strauss

July is Lyric Opera of Chicago month on the Saturday Afternoon broadcasts, leading off with Strauss's lushly scored tale of perverted infatuation. Deborah Voigt is perhaps a little mature for the title role of the teenaged Salome, but there's no denying her mastery of Strauss's music. Listen, too, for Judith Forst, who tears up the stage as Strauss's evil mother figures, Herodias here and Klytemnestra in Elektra. Other Canadians in the cast include tenor Joseph Kaiser as Narraboth and bass Robert Pomakov as the First Nazarene. Sir Andrew Davis conducts.

Decca 074 105-9

Several gripping performances of Salome are currently available on DVD, but this dark, quirky Luc Bondy production from Covent Garden starring Catherine Malfitano, Bryn Terfel, Anja Silja and Kenneth Reigel is one to lose your head over. Christoph von Dohnanyi conducts.

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July 14 * Il trovatore

Verdi

This Verdi favorite needs a strong vocal lineup to pull it off properly and this new Chicago production mostly has one. The Leonora of Canadian-based Sondra Radvanovsky is a strong point, as is the Azucena of Dolora Zajick. Manrico is solidly sung by tenor Walter Fraccaro. Bruno Bartoletti celebrates his 50th anniversary with Lyric Opera with the same opera he conducted for his debut.

Hardy Classic Video

HCD 4006

If you can deal with a black-and-white, monaural telecast from Milan in 1957, this video is well worth seeing since it features four of the greatest Verdi singers of the day: tenor Mario Del Monaco, soprano Leyla Gencer, baritone Ettore Bastianini and mezzo Fedora Barbieri.

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July 21 * Dialogues des Carmelites

Poulenc

Lyric Opera's remount of a production by director Robert Carsen and designer Michael Levine was the first mainstage outing in Chicago for this tale of faith in revolutionary France. The principal vocal interest is soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian's first Blanche de la Force (she sang a concert performance with Toronto's Opera in Concert earlier), though the strong cast also includes Patricia Racette as Madame Lidoine and Felicity Palmer as Madame de Croissy. Tenor Joseph Kaiser is Blanche's brother. Sir Andrew Davis conducts.

Arthaus Musik

100 019 (1 DVD)

Marthe Keller's compelling production from Strasbourg is not to be missed. The cast is outstanding, including Anne-Sophie Schmidt, Nadine Denize and Patricia Petibon, and the austere simplicity of the staging of the final scene is devastating in its emotional impact.

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July 28 * Cosi fan tutte

Mozart

Mozart's wry take on faithfulness concludes the quartet of broadcasts from Chicago's Lyric Opera in a low-key production that, our reviewer said, was particularly notable vocally for the Fiordiligi of Canadian soprano Erin Wall and the Ferrando of American tenor Eric Cutler. The cast is also notable for the inclusion of the veteran British baritone Sir Thomas Allen as Don Alfonso.

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This, the final Mozart opera committed to film by Jean-Pierre Ponelle before his death in 1988, is a splendid achievement. The sound is excellent since all the arias and ensembles were pre-recorded in studio and only the recitatives were recorded live. Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts a starry cast, including Edita Gruberova, Teresa Stratas and Ferruccio Furlanetto.

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Aug 4 * Les Troyens

Hector Berlioz

This production, newly mounted at Paris's Opera Bastille in honor of the late stage director, Herbert Wernicke, stars tenor Jon Villars as Aeneas and dramatic soprano Deborah Polaski as the Trojan prophetess, Cassandra, in Part I and Dido, Queen of Carthage, in Part II. Sylvain Cambreling conducts the five-hour epic.

Opus Arte OA 0900 D

This stunning, prize-winning production by Greek director/designer Yannis Kokkos proves you don't always need to beware Greeks bearing gifts. Taped at the Chatelet in Paris in 2003, the remarkable production stars Susan Graham (Dido) and Anna Caterina Antonacci (Cassandra) and is conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

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Aug 11 * Aida

Giuseppe Verdi

This new Franco Zeffirelli production for La Scala gained the wrong kind of notoriety when tenor Roberta Alagna, after being booed, walked off the stage mid-performance. This is a broadcast of the opening night, however, when Alagna completed his assignment, along with Violetta Urmana as Aida, Ildiko Komlosi as Amneris and Carlo Guelfi as Amonasro. Riccardo Chailly conducts.

DG 073 001-9

Gianni Quaranta's stunning, monolithic sets for this 1989 Metropolitan Opera production always bring a smile to one's face. While Aprile Millo, Placido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes all boost the temperature with their performances, it is the powerhouse performance of Dolora Zajick as Azucena that really heats things up.

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Aug 18 * La fille du regiment

Gaetano Donizetti

Canadian conducor Yves Abel led two productions of this sparking bel canto comedy this season, one for La Scala and this one for the Vienna State Opera. This broadcast features a starry vocal lineup, with soprano Natalie Dessay as Marie, tenor Juan Diego Florez as Tonio and baritone Carlos Alvarez as Sulpice. For the role of the Duchess de Crackentorp, listen for the speaking voice of the great Spanish diva, Montserrrat Caballe.

TDK DVUS-OPLFDR

Franco Zeffirelli abandons his usual excesses in favor of childlike, storybook designs for this delightful La Scala production. Mariella Devia offers a beautifully sung, albeit earnestly acted, Marie, while Ewa Podles, a shockingly good comedienne, is as irrepressible as ever as La Marquise de Berckenfield.

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Aug 25 * Faust

Charles Gounod

Repeat of June 9 program.

Sept. 1 * Luna

For Toronto's inaugural Luminato festival in June, an opera gala concert that brought together almost a dozen Canadian singers in a program of arias, duets and ensembles. The singers include sopranos Adrianne Pieczonka, Sondra Radvanovsky and Joni Henson, tenors Joseph Kaiser and Richard Margison, baritones Russell Braun and Peter Barrett and basses Robert Gleadow and Robert Pomakov. A last-minute addition was soprano Marianne Fiset, the big winner at this years Montreal Singing Competition.

Sept 8 * I vespri siciliani

Giuseppi Verdi

Sondra Radvanovsky makes a third appearance this summer as the Duchess Elena in a Vienna production of an opera Verdi originally wrote for the Paris Opera, but which is usually heard in this later Italian version. The lineup of male protagonists is impressive, with baritone Leo Nucci as Monforte, tenor Francisco Casanova as Arrigo and bass Roberto Scandiuzzi as Jean Procida.

Image Entertainment

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This updated La Scala production may not be to everyone's taste, but it sparks some fine singing from the likes of Cheryl Studer (Elena) and Chris Merritt (Arrigo), and includes the rarely seen Act III "Ballet of the Four Seasons."

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Sept 15 * Boris Godunov

Modest Mussorgsky

A final broadcast from Vienna, conducted by Daniele Gatti, brings the original, seven-scene version of the great historical epic. Feruccio Furlanetto, one of Italy's finest baritones, sings the title role, with Russian mezzo Olga Borodina as Marina, German bass-baritone Falk Struckmann as Rangoni, Dutch bass-baritone Robert Holl as Pimen and American tenor Clifton Forbis, the Siegmund in Canada's Ring cycle, as Grigory.

Philips 075 089-9

Perhaps the best Boris on DVD, this St. Petersburg performance uses the original orchestration and features a largely Russian cast. The notable exception is the great British bass, Robert Lloyd, who reigns supreme in the title role.

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SATURDAY AFTERNOON AT THE OPERA

May 12        Arabella            Strauss     Vienna State Opera
May 19        Manon               Massenet    Vienna State Opera
May 26        La sonnambula       Bellini     Vienna State Opera
June 2        Macbeth             Verdi       Vancouver Opera
June 9        Faust               Gounod      Canadian Opera Company
June 16       Daphne              Strauss     Pacific Opera, Victoria
June 23       Lakme               Delibes     Opera de Montreal
June 30       Frobisher           Estacio     Calgary Opera
July 7        Salome              Strauss     Lyric Opera of Chicago
July 14       Il trovatore        Verdi       Lyric Opera of Chicago
July 21       Dialogues des       Poulenc     Lyric Opera of Chicago
                Carmelites
July 28       Cost fan tutte      Mozart      Lyric Opera of Chicago
August 4      Les Troyens         Berlioz     Opera Bastille, Paris
August 11     Aida                Verdi       La Scala, Milan
August 18     La fille du         Donizetti   Vienna State Opera
                regiment
August 25     Faust               Gounod      Canadian Opera Company
September 1   Luna Opera Gala                 Luminato Festival, Toronto
September 8   I vespri siciliani  Verdi       Vienna State Opera
September 15  Boris Godunov       Mussorgsky  Vienna State Opera

A complete listing of the CBC's opera broadcasts, with casting, is
available online at www.cbc.ca/sato/schedule/index.html. Check local
listings for times of radio broadcasts.