Our Own Betsy (pictured) shrieks, “WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE !  A whole afternoon full of really bad bargains with  the King of the Underworld.” 

Our choice of listening/chat material starts out with, “I’d sell my soul if Don Carlo would just break a leg or something.”  LA FORZA DEL DESTINO from Florence with Zubin Mehta conducting. LRT KLASIKA 11:00-2:00

Next — “I’d sell my soul to see this at The Met. — with a cast like this”  The old Bolshoi PRINCE IGOR on YLE KLASINEN, 12:00-3:30.

“I’d sell my soul if those three women on stilts would shut up.”  ARIADNE AUF NAXOS from the Canadian Opera with Adrienne Pieczonka and Richard Margison, Jane Archibald and Alice Coote.  CBC TWO 1:00-5:00

Rossini’s OTELLO From Lyon, Osborne and Antonacci, DEUTSCHLANDRADIO KULTUR, 1:00-4:00.  “I’d sell my soul if there were just one baritone in this damn thing.”

1:00-4:00 DR P2 EUGENE ONEGIN from Munich with Bo Skovhus.  “I’d sell my soul to get just a little more applause than Lenski does.”

“I’d sell my soul for a decent map of Ethiopia.”  AIDA with Radvanovsky and Hendricks from the Canadian Opera, ESPACE MUSIQUE, 1:00-5:00.

“I’d sell my soul for the power to bear children.  Or not. Or whatever.  I’d sell my soul to know what this dang opera is all about anyway.”  DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN, Salzburg, 2011.  FRANCE MUSIQUE 1:00-5:00.

HANSEL AND GRETEL from The Utah Opera, KBYU, 1:00-4:00.  “I’d sell my soul for a tongue about six inches long, and green, and… I’ll be on the verandah.”

1:00-5:00 LATVIA RADIO KLASIKA, LOHENGRIN from Bayretuth with Klaus Florian Vogt.  “I’d sell my soul if Klaus Florian were out on this verandah with me.”

1:00-5:00 SVERIGES P2, CARMEN from Kunglige with Dalayman and Weinius.  “I’d sell my soul to be able to play the castanets.  There’s something about holding two hard things in your hands and going clickety-clickety-clickety.  Stand up a little straighter, Klaus Florian, bitte.”

“I’d sell my soul to be able to wander around Alba, saying ‘I’m Ascanio.  I’m Ascanio.'”  ASCANIO IN ALBA with Rancatore and Prina, NRK KLASSIK, 1:00-4:00

IPHIGENIE EN AULIDE and IPHIGENIE EN TAURIDE, 1:00-5:00 RADIO 4 NETHERLANDS, “I’d sell my soul if Agamemnon had been sterile.”

VPR, WCLV, 1:00-5:00, WERTHER from San Francisco.  “I’d sell my soul if it would make that mopey poet stop hanging around my kitchen.”

1:00-2:30 RADIO CLASICA DE ESPANA.  John Blow’s VENUS AND ADONIS.  “I’d sell my soul if my name didn’t sound like something one could get arrested for.”

RUSALKA from Munich with Opolais and Vogt, RTP ANTENA 2 1:00-5:00.  “I’d sell my soul if I didn’t think of lemon-and-dill sauce every time I kiss you.”

1:00-4:30 WETA.  KAT’A KABANOVA from Vienna.  “I’d sell my soul for a good, heavy-duty vibrator.”

1:00-4:30 NPR World of Opera, various stations.  DON GIOVANNI from the Washington National.  Schrott, Abdrazakov.  “I’d sell my soul to have somebody else in the pit.”

1:00-4:00 WFMT Opera Network.  DAS RHEINGOLD from San Francisco.  “I’d sell my soul to have this instead of ****THE MACHINE.*****”

“I’d sell my soul if my father had married Julia Child.”  THE MAKROPOULOS CASE, San Francisco, with Karita Mattila, WQXR 1:00-4:00

IL MONDO DELLA LUNA, 1:30-4:30 BARTOK RADIO, “I’d sell my soul if Haydn had just been able to carry his ideas a leeet-tle bit further.”

12:45 (1:45?) – until Hell freezes over, who knows.  BBC 3.  FAUST from the ROH with Pape, Gheorghiu, and little Vittorio.  “I’d sell my soul…”  Oh yeah, been there, done that.

DWOJKA POLSKIE 1:30-4:30.  Nowak’s BREAKING NEWS and Nono’s IL CANTO SOSPESE.  “I’d sell my soul if Liane would pop in and tell us WTF these things are.”

DER FREISCHUTZ, John Eliot Gardiner from the Royal Albert Hall.  “I’d sell my soul for three magic bullets  that would end up plunking into a dove and a guy named Casper, when one of them could have gone into that long-winded hermit.”  Who the hell makes this stuff up, anyway?

2:00-5:00 RAI AUDITORIUM is a bunch of commercial stuff.  “I’d sell my soul if I could think of something snarky to say about stuff like this.”

“I’d sell my soul to find out if Theodore Gouvy got through grammer school without being beaten up every day because of a name like that.”  DER CID, ESPACE 2, 2:00-6:00

FIDELIO from Munich with Kaufmann and Kampe, HR2 KULTUR 2:00-5:00.  “I’d sell my soul if Beethoven had put more lesbo action into Act One.”

“I’d sell my soul if Brangaene had fed those two Pepto-Bismal.”  TRISTAN UND ISOLDE from Copenhagen with Stig Andersen and Irene Theorin, LYRIC FM, 2:00-7:00.

2:00-5:00 RADIO SLOVENIA TRETJE, Baldassare’ Galuppi’s SAVRAZNIK SZENA.  “I’d sell my soul to be able to read Slovenian.  I think it’s L’INIMICO DONNE.”

“I’d sell my soul to see this staged, on a double bill with MEFISTOFELE.”  Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. Simon Rattle, Berlin. RBB KULTURRAIO, 2:00-4:00.

2:00-4:30 RADIO STEPHANSDOM, MEFISTOFELE from Palermo with Ferruccio Furlanetto.  “I’d sell my soul if this opera were done as often as the Gounod thing.”

3:30-6:00 NDR KULTUR, Kunzen’s HOLGER DANSKE, with Inge Nielsen, Johann Reuter.  “I’d sell my soul if Inge Nielsen and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson had not …” (boy, talk about ending the day on a downer.)

The elite will meet as usual at La Casa della Cieca.