ARIA SERIOUS?

Tenors, like sopranos, mezzos and basses, come in all types each with their distinctive characteristics. Today we'll introduce you to the lyric, spinto and dramatic voices within the tenor category who'll grace the stage of San Diego Opera this season: Nemorino, Gustavo and Canio. Education Director Nicolas Reveles does the honors. Enjoy!

Maybe we're kids at heart, but we love our new video study guides for kids coming to see PAGLIACCI. We hope you do too!

On March 20, 2014, San Diego Opera will present Verdi's Requiem with a cast of soloists that would rival any opera or symphonic organization in the world: Stoyanova, Blythe, Beczala and Furlanetto. Massimo Zanetti will conduct the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Opera Chorus plus members of other choral organizations in the city. This is a very special event, but we have audiences wondering: just what is a Requiem? Let Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach fill you in! Enjoy.

Did you know that there are many sub-categories within the standard soprano/mezzo/tenor/baritone/bass voice types? And we have many of them on display this coming season, 2014! Watch and listen as Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera, surveys the women of the season; and watch for the next installment on the men!

Jules Massenet was a master of scene setting. Just as a scenic designer is responsible for coming up with a theatrical set that matches the location, mood and era of the drama, a composer must do much the same thing, using musical elements as his building blocks. Watch Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach describe how this French master 'paints' the story of Don Quixote through his brilliant music.

Gershwin's f am ou s Tin Pan Alley tune, "I've Got R hy th m" came to mind during the production of this podcast, because Verdi's A Masked Ball (Un ballo in maschera) is ALL about rhythm and ho w rhythmic ch o ices help to hone in on the pe r sonalities an d em o tio n s of t he characters in this w onderful opera. Jo i n Nicolas Reveles, t he Geisel Direc t or of E ducation and Out r each for an unusual look at one of the m asterpieces o f the great Giuseppe Verdi, who tur n s 200 this week! Inspired by the real-life assassination of King Gustav III, A Masked Ball is powerful, threatening, da ngerous and romantic. Although the close relationship between Sweden’s King Gustav III and Amelia, wife of his best friend, Count Anckarström, has never crossed the line, jealous y and politics cause Anckarström to join a band of conspirators and ulti ma tely to mu r der the King in front of his wife at a masked ball. As he dies, Gustav reveals the truth, and in o...

Bel canto is a much misunderstood operatic/vocal term. If you're not familiar with the term, you're in luck because today's podcast will help define its meaning. Donizetti, for instance, is considered a bel canto composer; but what does that really mean? Is it just a musical term or does it perhaps have something to do with the text of an opera, it's poetry? Let Dr. Nicolas Reveles, The Geisel Director of Education & Outreach for San Diego Opera, explain it all to you!

San Diego Opera's Nicolas Reveles journeys to Hacienda de las Rosas Winery to discuss Donizetti's sparkling comedy, "The Elixir of Love" ("L'elisir d'amore"), in which a con artist convinces villagers that an ordinary bottle of wine possesses magical qualities and hilarity ensues.

In a podcast focusing on the music of Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo, Nicolas Reveles, The Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera, shows how opera communicates dramatic moments, atmosphere, the emotions of the characters, even the physical environment within which the characters find themselves. A 'must see' for audience members new to opera or those who want to deepen their experience!

San Diego Opera's Nic Reveles guides us through the history and music of Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci." Leoncavallo's popular verismo opera draws upon the Commedia dell'arte tradition to tell its story of fatal jealousy set in the Italian countryside.

How is it that some of the most beautiful and rhythmically infectious 'Spanish' music is by French composers? Think of Bizet's Carmen! Massenet pulls off a similar trick in his beautiful opera Don Quichotte, or Don Quixote. Watch and listen as Nicolas Reveles, Director of Education & Outreach for San Diego Opera, takes you through it. Enjoy!

Verdi is at his best when he's dealing with politics and passion. Throw in a very true historical story (the assassination of Gustav III of Sweden at a masked opera ball in 1792) and you have the makings of terrific opera. Watch and listen as Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education & Outreach for San Diego Opera takes you through the historical background of this great work, A Masked Ball.

The Elixir of Love could well be considered Gaetano Donizetti's ultimate romantic comedy and Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera makes that point (and more!) in this delightful look at San Diego Opera's second offering for the 2014 Season. Enjoy!

Summer is coming to an end, so it is time to for the return of our opera podcast series. Did you miss us? We missed you. This week, we look at Pagliacci , the first opera of our season. Pagliacci is a terrific piece of musical theatre: exciting, dramatic, suspenseful and overpowering. One can make more than a few connections between the verismo style of this opera and the world of cinema, especially the films of Alfred Hitchcock and giallo specialists like Bava and Argento. Let's have a little fun with those connections as Dr. Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera discusses some of his favorite things!

"Homework??", you exclaim, "I didn't sign up for that!" No, you didn't. But Geisel Director of Education and Outreach Nicolas Reveles would like to talk about homework and its place in preparing to see an opera you might not know. Used to be we had to go through all sorts of contortions to go to the opera and understand what we were seeing & hearing because we didn't understand the languages being used. Now, of course, we have the amazing convenience of supertitles. But you can go 'deeper' than simply being able to know what the singers are singing about...

In a kind of expansion of our last episode of Opera 101, let's explore what all those operatic duets (or at least, most of them) are about: Love! Luckily, love is a major theme in all four of the operas that we're presenting in our 2014 Season: The Elixir of (naturally) Love, Pagliacci, A Masked Ball and Don Quixote. Dr. Nicolas Reveles, The Geisel Driector of Education and Outreach, discusses how our four different composers...Leoncavallo, Donizetti, Massenet and Verdi...approach love in four very different ways musically. Enjoy!

The duet may seem to be a pretty simple musical form featured in opera that really doesn't need any explanation, right? But there's a little more to it than just "this person sings, then that person sings, then they sing together!" Dr. Nic Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education & Outreach for San Diego Opera, lets you in on what kinds of duets exist in opera and how they communicate the feelings of the characters using the love duet from Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, A Masked Ball. Enjoy!

...and we've all heard the comment, "I've heard that opera before, seen it many times, I don't need to go again." But it's a different cast, maybe a different production, a different night...that's what is so exciting about live theatre, live opera! Let Dr. Nicolas Reveles, our Director of Education & Outreach set you straight, using as an example the climactic phrases from "Vesti la giubba", Canio's aria in Leoncavallo's opera, Pagliacci. You may start re-thinking how you approach an opera season that may contain one of those 'standard' operas!

Now that our 2014 season has been announced, let's take a look at some of the artists in our 2014 season to see where they are up to right now. Tenor Carlo Ventre who returns  to sing Canio in PAGLIACCI is spending the summer at Arena di Verona singing Radames in AIDA and Manrico in IL TROVATORE.   Soprano Adina Nitescu who will make her Company debut as Nedda in PAGLIACCI just wrapped up performances of Cio-Cio San in MADAMA BUTTERFLY.   Baritone David Adam Moore who returns to us to sing Silvio in PAGLIACCI just finished spending some time at the Lyric Opera of Chicago singing Stanley Kowaliski in A STREET CAR NAMED DESIRE and Jud Fry in OKLAHOMA. While there, he took in a baseball game.   Soprano Tatiana Lisnic will make her American debut when she sings Aidna in THE ELIXIR OF LOVE. She is currently singing Marguerite in FAUST with the Hamburg State Opera. Tenor Giuseppe Filianoti makes his Company debut as Nemorino in...

Continuing our 'summer school series' on opera basics, today we explore the aria, moving very quickly from Monteverdi's L'Orfeo to Verdi's A Masked Ball ( Un ballo in maschera ). Nicolas Reveles, Director of Education & Outreach for San Diego Opera explains it all for you in a fun and informative way. Enjoy!

Continuing our Summer School for Opera Fans, Dr. Nicolas Reveles, the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera, gives us more information on the intimate connection between two of opera's most potent elements...the words and the music! With generous examples from our first opera for the 2014 season, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Dr. Nic tries to help you make the connection between what the characters are communicating through their words and what we actually hear in the music!

At the end of this week we'll be celebrating the beginning of summer, 2013, and we'll begin getting ready for our exciting 2014 International Season! What better way to do that then to have a few podcasts dedicated to a 'refresher' course in opera? Today Nicolas Reveles, our Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera takes a look at the essence of the art form, how composers approach a dramatic idea and "musicalize" it. We'll explore the connection between what we see on the stage and what we hear from the wonderful music that these composers create. Enjoy!

Join the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera, Nicolas Reveles, in a brief exploration of the 2014 from Pagliacci to Don Quixote, The Elixir of Love to A Masked Ball with a dollop of Verdi's Requiem thrown in to the mix. This exciting season has something for everyone, as you'll discover. For each opera Dr. Reveles gives us some of his own personal reasons for looking forward to each of these great masterworks. Enjoy!

San Diego Opera's unofficial official cartoonist, Eric Shanower, was back in the theatre earlier this week to live sketch the dress rehearsal of Aida. We were excited to see what Eric came up with, this opera is already full of comic book colors and costumes, and Eric did not disappoint. Take a look below and then go visit Eric's webpage and buy some comic books . Artwork © copyright 2013 by Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Meet Daniele Callegari, a San Diego Opera debut artist who hails from Milan and lives in Barcelona! He has taken the company by storm with his energy, his enthusiasm for music and opera, as well as his positive presence in rehearsals for Verdi's Aida. Nicolas Reveles, Director of Education and Outreach, has a conversation with him about this wonderful opera and what draws it to him again and again.

We all know and love Verdi's great opera Aida. We thought it might be informative for our podcast audience to hear a different 'take' on our production of this wonderful opera to ask mezzo-soprano Jill Grove, our Amneris, about the current state of the opera business. What's it like for singers out there right now? How is the HD operas-at-the-movies effort effecting regional companies? What's it like to be involved in the opera business today? Jill offers her thoughts on these and other subjects in this interview with Nicolas Reveles, the Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera. Enjoy!

We're welcoming back bass-baritone Mark S. Doss after a rather lengthy hiatus: he was last here as Friar Lawrence in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet in 1998. He has since established himself as one of the most exciting Escamillos (Carmen), Mephistopheles (Faust) and Amonasros (Aida) in the world. Watch and listen as Nicolas Reveles, Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera discusses his career and the role of Amonasro with this wonderful artist.

We have long awaited the arrival of soprano Latonia Moore (pronounced lah-TAH-nee-yah) since her dramatic debut at the Metropolitan Opera a few years back in the role of Aida. Her performance made front page news in the New York Times and was feted throughout the opera world as being one of the most auspicious debuts in recent Met history. She's delightfully open and forthcoming about that exciting moment and about all things vocal and dramatic in her conversation here with Education Director Nicolas Reveles.

We're getting this up a little later than usual but San Diego Opera's official unofficial cartoonist, Eric Shanower, was in the theatre last week to live sketch a rehearsal of Murder in the Cathedral . The fruits of his labor can be found below. Take a look! And then stop by Eric's webpage and check out some of his awesome comics . Artwork © copyright 2013 by Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.