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Curiouser and curiouser

Sempiternal soprano Gwyneth Jones creates a role in a world premiere later today! The veteran singing actress performs the role of the Queen of Hearts in Unsuk Chin‘s opera Alice in Wonderland, to an English-language libretto by David Henry Hwang after the novel by Lewis Carroll.

The production, conducted by Kent Nagano, will be broadcast live from the Bayerische Staatsoper at 1:30 p.m. New York time today over RealPlayer and Windows Media. (As always, La Cieca gets her latest scoops on all things internet radio from the indispensable OperaCast.)

14 comments

  • JF in DC says:

    Would love to hear Gwyneth but Ian Bostridge is appearing in “Death in Venice” at exactly the same time (1:30 p.m. 6/30) on BB3.

  • La Cieca says:

    JF:

    La Cieca’s old, old, old friend MW writes:

    We can listen to Alice in Wonderland today and Death in Venice later!

    Use BBC’s wonderful “Listen Again” feature on its online Radio Player – you can listen to just about everything Radio 3 (or any other BBC radio channel) on demand for 7 days after broadcast.

    (France-Musiques recently installed a similar feature on its website, though it only keeps programs available for 24 hours.)

  • JF in DC says:

    Good to know about BBC’s Playback feature. Thanks for sharing.

  • Daniel says:

    I’m going to commit sacrilege I suppose by saying – he goes to Venice, falls in love with a boy, sings horrible music, the boy isn’t interested, he dies and then we can all go home singing none of the music – give me Dame Gwyneth any day- what a treat that would be! Sorry in advance to those that want to kill me ;0)

  • sugarmezzo says:

    I may have asked this before.
    Can someone explain the disASSter that is Katherine Jenkins, and what the HELL she is doing making so much money when actual, real, REALLY gifted, and often MUCH MORE BEAUTIFUL AND SEXY THAN SHE IS Opera singers WHO CAN ACTUALLY SING AND ACT AND HAVE GOOD DICTION AND ARE GOOD MUSICIANS are working as secretaries or covering little bit parts??????!?! I just saw something completely horrifying on YouTube. It made me throw up a little.
    Please, help me understand the nightmare.

  • Kekszakallu says:

    Ah, yes! The BBC’s “Listen again” feature is so useful … especially to keep up on missed episodes of “The Archers”; one always needs to know who might have fallen into the threshing machine this week.

  • NYCOQ says:

    This has nothing to do with the topic…but has anyone noticed that Ruth Ann Swenson is no longer singing the Agrippina at City Opera this fall? What’s up with that? I hope it’s not health related. But then again I am dying to know why.

  • Baritenor says:

    NYCOQ-
    That’s something of “old News”, as the story broke about a month ago, and her replacement is some Romanian Soprano I, in my ignorance, have never heard of but everyone else on the board seems to love.

  • NYCOQ says:

    I am familiar with Miss Miricou from my Washington Opera/Washington Concert Opera days. I haven’t heard her sing since 1995. She does have a formidible technique – so hopefully the voice is still there.

    I had not heard about the cast change. Just noticed the change today. I was kinda looking forward to seeing what Ms. Swenson was going to do. I think Ms. Miricou will work well in the production. I wasn’t too impressed by the singer during this production’s run a few seasons back. I can’t even remember who sang the Agrippina.

    So what is the reason that Ms. Swenson is bowing out?

  • NYCOQ says:

    Okay – so I went back and read the posts in reference to this. I must apologize for being so behind on this, but I was in Charleston for the Spoleto Festival when this news broke. I make it a point not to go near a computer when I am on vacation if I can help it. I get get enough damned emails on my blackberry as it is. BTW did anybody get a chance to hear Miss Jennifer Check sing the HELL out of the Verdi Requiem at the Spoleto Festival? I loved loved loved her.

    Still no definitive reason on RAS, huh?…I am still dying to know.