A picture may paint a thousand words, but nothing compares to the intimacy and immediacy of a handwritten letter. Hearing the "Letter Aria" from Jules Massenet's Werther will prove it. From an opera based on the Goethe novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, this scene finds the tortured heroine Charlotte re-reading the letters of the doomed poet.
In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens welcomes soprano Isabel Leonard, pianist Mary Dibbern and author Peter Bognanni to explore why the words we write to each other have so much power – sometimes even more than the ones we say aloud. They'll reflect on Massenet's talent for showing Charlotte's deep connection to Werther and you'll even get a real-life story about how email brought two people together. Then you'll hear Isabel Leonard sing the complete scene onstage at the Metropolitan Opera.
Puccini's Tosca: Death is But a Dream
Handel's Agrippina: Nice Romans Finish Last
Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress: I Walk the Line
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro: Count On a Reckoning
Rossini's Barber of Seville: On a Wig and a Prayer
Verdi's Aida: There's No Place Like Home
Puccini's Turandot: Hope Never Sleeps
Aria Code Is Back and Bigger Than Ever!
Rossini's La Cenerentola: Opera's Cinderella Story
Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann: Fool for Love
Puccini's Turandot: Bewitched, Bothered, And Beheaded
The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess: Rise Up Singing
Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier featuring Renée Fleming: Here's To You, Mrs. Marschallin
Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice: Don't Look Back in Ardor
Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro: Sleepless in Sevilla
Philip Glass’s Akhnaten: I Am Your Sunshine, Your Only Sunshine
Puccini's Madama Butterfly: When My Ship Comes In
Verdi's Lady Macbeth: Sleepwalk with Me, featuring Anna Netrebko
Aria Code with Rhiannon Giddens is Back!
Floyd's Susannah: Hopeless in New Hope, featuring Renée Fleming
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Immediately Kinfolk
This Next Song‘s About - A Songwriter‘s Podcast
RAISING THE BAR
No Jumper
Brown Bag Mornings