When things go from bad to worse for Tosca, Puccini’s tragic heroine, she turns inward and prays. “I lived for art,” she tells God, “I lived for love.” What did I do to deserve all this? Tosca's despair and the moving way Puccini captures it musically speak so directly to artists, to audiences, to all of us, that "Vissi d'arte" has become one of the most famous arias in opera. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and guests Sondra Radvanovsky, Rufus Wainwright and Vivien Schweitzer consider what it means to "live for art" and how Tosca's lament has given them much needed strength, whether facing personal struggles, the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic or the persistent sexual harassment that sparked the #MeToo movement. Plus, you'll hear Sondra Radvanovksy sing the complete aria from the Metropolitan Opera stage.
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
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