Aria Code

Shakespeare?s ?Romeo and Juliet? is the most famous love story in the Western canon. It?s a tale so embedded in our culture ? one that has seen so many iterations and retellings ? it might feel hard to appreciate its original pathos, and the way it perfectly distills the intersections of young romance, idealism, and rebellion. 

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and guests take a fresh look at this classic by focusing on the character of Juliet and her pivotal decision to take the friar?s draught, a concoction that will help her feign death long enough to escape an arranged marriage and run away with Romeo. It?s both an act of tremendous courage and one that sets their tragedy in motion. 

In Charles Gounod?s operatic retelling, the aria Juliet delivers as she wrestles away her fear is so difficult that it?s often cut from productions. But it?s a pivotal moment, and a testament to Juiet?s agency. Soprano Diana Damrau is up to the task, and delivers a rendition of ?Amour, ranime mon courage? ? otherwise known as the ?poison aria? ? from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. 

THE GUESTS 

Soprano Diana Damrau is among the most celebrated opera singers of her generation. She?s graced the stages of opera houses all over the world, and sung the role of Juliette at both The Metropolitan Opera and La Scala. After her debut as Juliette in 2016, it quickly became a favorite. For her, Gounod?s ?Roméo et Juliette? is ?one of the most beautiful operas ever written.? 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin serves as music director for the Met Opera orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Montreal?s Orchestre Metropolitain, among many other appointments and collaborations with esteemed orchestras. In his opinion, ?Roméo et Juliette? beats out ?Faust? as Gounod?s best opera. 

Emma Smith is a Shakespeare scholar and critic at the University of Oxford. Among her publications is the book ?This Is Shakespeare,? which was a Sunday Times bestseller and has been translated into several languages. Smith frequently works with theater companies on their productions of Shakespeare plays and consults for film and television.

Acclaimed British author and theater director Neil Bartlett, whose novels include ?The Disappearance Boy? and ?Address Book,? directed ?Romeo and Juliet? for the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. He says the experience leaves him feeling ?wrung dry with admiration.?

Carmen is maybe the most famous heroine in all of opera. She?s a woman of Romani descent living in 19th century Spain, sensual and self-confident, aware of the power she wields over men ? and she enjoys it. In her signature aria, popularly known as the ?Habanera,? she describes herself as a bird who can?t be captured. True to her own word, Carmen ? and what she represents ? is hard to pin down.  

When ?Carmen? premiered in Paris in 1875, it was deemed wildly immoral. Carmen becomes intrigued by a soldier, Don José, who initially pays her no attention. She seduces him, Don José abandons his fiancée to run away with her, and one thing leads to another (this is opera, after all) ? he winds up murdering Carmen in a fit of jealous rage. One interpretation is that this is the story of a man giving into temptation and meeting his downfall. A more modern view would position Carmen as a proto-feminist. She?s a woman who refuses to be controlled, and that puts her life in danger.

But perhaps Carmen?s greatest irony is that she is both a complex character and a full-blown stereotype of Romani women. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and guests unpack the myth and the magic of Georges Bizet?s "Carmen," and Clémentine Margaine brings it home with a performance of ?L?amour est un oiseau rebelle? from the Met stage.

THE GUESTS

French mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine first performed in ?Carmen? as a member of the children?s chorus. Shortly after graduating from the Paris Conservatory, she joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she sang her first performances in the title role. Since then, she?s performed Carmen at opera houses all over the world. 

Susan McClary is a pioneer in feminist music criticism. She?s a musicologist at Case Western Reserve University whose research focuses on the cultural analysis of music, both the European canon and contemporary popular genres. She?s authored 11 books, including "Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality" and the Cambridge Opera Handbook on ?Carmen.?

Ioanida Costache is an assistant professor of ethnomusicology and an affiliate of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University. She is of Romanian-Roma descent, and her work explores the legacies of historical trauma inscribed in Romani music, sound, and art. Her family likes to pass on the story of the time her great-grandfather performed the cimbalom for President Roosevelt at the 1939 New York World?s Fair. 

Rosamaria Kostic Cisneros wears many hats. She is a professional dancer, dance historian and critic, Romani studies scholar, Flamenco historian, as well as a sociologist, curator and peace activist. A research-artist at Coventry University?s Centre for Dance Research, she works to bring arts and culture to vulnerable groups. She was introduced to flamenco by her Spanish-Roma mother during their frequent trips to Seville.

When the Voyager spacecraft set off to explore the galaxy in 1977, it carried a recording to represent the best of humanity. The ?Golden Record? featured everyone from Bach to Chuck Berry, but there was only one opera aria: the rage-fest and coloratura masterpiece from Mozart?s ?The Magic Flute.?

As Kathryn Lewek reprises her role as Queen of the Night in this season?s holiday presentation of ?The Magic Flute? at The Metropolitan Opera, we?re revisiting this episode. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests consider why the Queen of the Night?s big moment ? ?Der Hölle Rache? ? is an out-of-this-world achievement, how Mozart created a profound fairy tale for adults and what it takes for a soprano to reach the stratosphere. You?ll witness Kathryn Lewek hit all those high notes onstage at the Met Opera and hear from Timothy Ferris, the man who produced NASA?s ?Golden Record.?

The Guests

Soprano Kathryn Lewek describes singing ?Der Hölle Rache? as throwing darts with your eyes closed. But after performing the part more than 200 times, she certainly knows how to hit the bullseye.

Harvard University professor Carolyn Abbate once took her son to see The Magic Flute and he declared it to be ?bad, but not in the way I expected it to be bad.? Her latest book is A History of Opera: The Last Four Hundred Years.

Composer and author Jan Swafford was a graduate student when he spent his last $50 to buy a copy of The Magic Flute and immediately regretted it: He hated the opera. To say he?s warmed to Mozart over the years would be a wild understatement.

Timothy Ferris produced the Golden Record that went up with NASA?s Voyager space probes in 1977. It was the only record he ever produced, but he's written many books including Coming of Age in the Milky Way, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

It?s the early 1900s, and the steamship El Dorado makes its way along the Amazon River towards Manaus, a city in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest. Onboard is the world-famous opera singer Florencia Grimaldi. She?s got a gig at the opera house in Manaus, but that?s just a cover. She?s actually hoping for a reunion with her long-lost love, the butterfly catcher Cristóbal.

But on the journey, Florencia learns that Cristóbal went missing in the rainforest while in pursuit of a rare butterfly. From the deck of the ship ? and now in quarantine due to a cholera outbreak ? she delivers her final aria, calling out to him, the river and the rainforest that surround her: ?Escúchame.? Hear me, listen to me. ?From you my song was born,? she affirms ? and in embracing her love for him, she is released and reborn.

Daniel Catán?s lush and lyrical score has become a staple of contemporary operas, and its staging marks the Metropolitan Opera?s first Spanish-language production in nearly 100 years. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests take us on a journey through natural wonder, transcendent love, and self-discovery.

THE GUESTS 

Soprano Ailyn Pérez makes her Metropolitan Opera debut in her native language of Spanish as Florencia Grimaldi. She identifies with Florencia and the sacrifices that are sometimes necessary to pursue an artistic career.

Andrea Puente-Catán is a harpist, director of development at Ballet Hispánico, and the widow of ?Florencia? composer Daniel Catán. She met Catán when she was 17 years old. Decades later, playing harp in that opera?s production at Palacia de Bellas Artes brought them back together.  

Author, filmmaker, and fearless traveler Alycin Hayes knows a thing or two about Amazonian adventures. When she was 21, she hitchhiked from her home in Canada to South America, where she met up with other roving internationals to paddle along the Amazon River in a dugout canoe. She describes her adventures in her recent memoir "Amazon Hitchhiker."

Paul Rosolie is conservationist, writer, and wildlife filmmaker whose memoir ?Mother of God? details his extensive work in the Amazon. He?s the founder and field director of Junglekeepers, a conservation outfit based in Peru, and he joins the show via a remote interview taped in the jungle.

Malcolm X led many lives within his 39 years: as a bereaved but precocious child; as an imprisoned convict; as a firebrand spokesperson for the Nation of Islam and Black nationalism; and ultimately as one of the most pivotal figures of the Civil Rights movement. Today, he continues to inspire passion and controversy, his legacy as nuanced as the man himself.

Anthony Davis?s opera ?X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X? seeks to gather Malcolm X?s many identities and hold them together in the way only an artistic work can. When the piece was premiered by New York City Opera in 1986, it broke ground not just for its unique melding of jazz and blues idioms with contemporary classical traditions, but also for the choice made by Davis and his cousin, the librettist Thulani Davis, to situate recent history on the operatic stage.

It turns out that a life as dramatic and urgent as Malcolm X?s is ripe for opera. In the aria ?You Want The Story, But You Don?t Want To Know,? Anthony and Thulani Davis take the occasion of a police interrogation to let Malcolm X?s character reflect on the tragedies and injustices that have shaped his life up to that moment ? and, in his refusal to deliver ?easier? narratives, to presage the often tumultuous search for truth and righteousness that would direct his life in years to come. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the drama and the passion of Malcolm X?s life and its inherent musicality upon the Metropolitan Opera?s premiere of this modern classic.

THE GUESTS

It may have taken nearly forty years for composer Anthony Davis to see the Metropolitan Opera stage ?X,? but he?s kept himself busy in the interim. This prolific composer, which The New York Times described as ?the dean of African-American opera composers,? is also known for ?Amistad,? ?Wakonda?s Dream,? and ?The Central Park Five,? the latter of which won him a Pulitzer Prize in 2020. If anyone was born to be a musician, it?s Davis: People tell him that the first time he played the piano was as a baby sitting in the lap of jazz pianist Billy Taylor.   

Grammy Award-winning baritone Will Liverman was described by The Washington Post as a ?voice for this historic moment.? Portraying Malcolm X in the Metropolitan Opera?s production of ?X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X? is only his most recent artistic triumph. Others include his breakout performance as Charles in Terence Blanchard?s ?Fire Shut Up In My Bones? and the premiere of ?The Factotum,? an opera he both starred in and co-created. His hope for ?X? is to help ?kill some of the preconceived notions about who Malcolm X was and find the humanity in him.?

Zaheer Ali is the executive director of the Hutchins Institute for Social Justice at the Lawrenceville School and something of a Malcolm X expert (a Malcolm X-pert?). He served as the project manager of the Malcolm X Project at Columbia University and his work on the Civil Rights icon has been featured in documentaries like Netflix?s ?Who Killed Malcolm X?? and CNN?s ?Witnessed: The Assassination of Malcolm X.? He traces his fascination with Malcolm X back to an assignment given by his eleventh-grade English teacher.

If a loved one were to die, how far would you be willing to go to bring them back? Orpheus, the ancient Greek musician, goes to hell and back to have the love of his life, Eurydice, by his side again. The gods cut a deal with Orpheus: he can bring his love back from hell, but all throughout the journey, she has to follow behind him and he is not allowed to look back at her. Unable to resist, he turns to see her,  and the gods take her for a second time. In a moment of overwhelming grief, Orpheus asks, ?What will I do without Eurydice?? 

Ahead of this season?s production of "Orfeo ed Euridice" by the Metropolitan Opera, we?re revisiting this episode, in which host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests reflect on Christoph Gluck's operatic adaptation of the Orpheus myth and the all-encompassing nature of both grief and love. At the end of the show, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton sings ?Che farò senza Euridice?? from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

The Guests

Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton grew up in a musical family, with days full of bluegrass, classic rock, and music history quizzes about the Beatles. In her role debut as Orfeo, she searches for this hero?s vulnerability, dramatically and vocally, and figures out how to embody a version of this character that?s modeled on Johnny Cash. 

Author Ann Patchett stumbled upon her love for opera while writing her book ?Bel Canto.? But the Orpheus myth has been part of her life ? and has influenced her writing ? for a lot longer.  She?s fairly certain that she would travel to the depths of hell to save her husband of 29 years. 

Jim Walter lost his wife to cancer in 2015. He cared for her through some very difficult years, and kept hope alive even when things looked hopeless. He says that nowadays his grief usually isn?t as immediate and gut-punching as it once was, but he is still sometimes overcome with sadness at unexpected moments.

?L?Elisir d?Amore? ? ?The Elixir of Love? ? is what?s known as an opera buffa, or comic opera. That means that we?re in for a happy ending.

But Donizetti knows that the payoff is only earned through the suffering of his protagonists. In one pivotal moment, our hero Nemorino glimpses his beloved shedding a single tear ? and he concludes (crazily, but correctly) that it can only mean that she loves him back. The aria Nemorino delivers here ? one of the most famous in the history of opera ? expresses the singular moment when the agony of unrequited love shifts to the certainty of a blissful future.

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests unpack the potential for heartbreak that lies within every happy ending and why Donizetti might be one of the most underrated opera composers. Tenor Matthew Polenzani brings it home with a rendition of ?Una furtiva lagrima? from the Met stage.

THE GUESTS

Over the course of a career spanning more than 30 years, tenor Matthew Polenzani has sung the role of Nemorino on opera stages all over the world. He has a family of barbershop quartet singers to thank for his introduction to music.

Fred Plotkin is the author of ?Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera.? As a proud Donizetti fanboy, he believes that the psychological insight Donizetti brings to his characters is nearly unmatched in the work of other composers.

When she?s not teaching French at St. Mary?s College of Maryland, Laine Doggett is brushing up on her medieval lore. As the author of ?Love Cures: Healing and Magic in Old French Romance,? she knows a thing or two about magical elixirs.

Judith Fetterley is a former professor, master gardener, and writer. She?s got a love story of her own that involves elixirs. You might have read it in the New York Times? ?Modern Love? column under the title, Was She Just Another Nicely Packaged Pain Delivery System?

What does redemption mean to a man sentenced to death? Is capital punishment justice or vengeance? Could anyone ever forgive a murderer?

These are just some of the questions behind the true story of the nun who became a spiritual adviser to men on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Dead Man Walking was first a 1993 memoir by the Catholic nun and fervent death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean; later, it was adapted into an Oscar-winning movie. Sister Helen?s story inspired a national conversation around the death penalty ? and the opera duo Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally. Their adaptation of Sister Helen?s story has become one of the most celebrated operas of the 21st century, and, with the last federal execution taking place as recently as 2021, feels as timely as ever.

In her aria ?This Journey,? Sister Helen?s character reflects on her religious calling as she makes her way to the Angola prison for the first time. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests take us deeper into the true story that inspired the opera and the experiences that continue to inform Sister Helen Prejean?s ministry.

The Guests

The Metropolitan Opera?s 2023 production of Dead Man Walking marks the fifth time mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato has sung the role of Sister Helen. She describes the role as one that?s impossible to emerge from without feeling changed. Having embodied Sister Helen so many times, DiDonato feels ?much less comfortable turning a blind eye to things.?

American composer Jake Heggie is best known for Dead Man Walking, the most widely performed new opera of the last 20 years. In addition to 10 other full-length operas and numerous one-acts, Heggie has composed more than 300 art songs, as well as concerti, chamber music, choral, and orchestral works. When librettist Terrence McNally proposed adapting Dead Man Walking into an opera, Heggie?s ?hair stood on end? and he immediately ?felt and heard music.?

Sister Helen Prejean is a Roman Catholic nun, the author of the memoir Dead Man Walking, and a leading voice in the effort to abolish the death penalty. She?s served as a spiritual counselor to numerous convicted inmates on Death Row as well as to families of murder victims and survivors of violent crimes. Despite her wisdom, Sister Helen claims to know ?boo-scat? about opera.

At last! After much anticipation, Aria Code returns! We?re guiding listeners through highlights from the Metropolitan Opera?s 2023-2024 season, pairing beloved classics with investigations into modern masterpieces.

So get ready for a night at the opera ? from the comfort of your own home. (Or wherever!) Arias from the likes of Jake Heggie?s Dead Man Walking and Anthony Davis?s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X will tackle some of the most complex social and ethical questions head-on, while classics like Bizet?s Carmen and Gounod?s Roméo et Juliette plunge us into the thick of opera?s favorite themes of desire, love, and longing.

Hosted by Grammy Award-winner, MacArthur ?Genius? Fellow, and (most recently) Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens, each episode features a signature combination of music and riveting storytelling, paired with Met Opera performances by world-renowned opera stars, including Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani, Will Liverman, Clémentine Margaine, Diana Damrau, and Ailyn Pérez.   

Aria Code is produced by WQXR in partnership with The Metropolitan Opera. This season, we?ll be releasing episodes on a biweekly basis, starting October 4.

Saying ?I love you? for the first time takes courage, especially when you don?t know the response you'll get. But being open with your emotions and putting yourself out there can change you in unexpected ways.

In Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky?s Eugene Onegin, it?s the 16-year-old Tatyana who pins her heart on her sleeve. Young and naive, but also fiercely confident, she pours out her feelings for the visiting Eugene Onegin in one night of impassioned love-letter-making. His answer defines the rest of her life, and the course of the opera. 

Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore Tatyana?s famous Letter Scene and what it tells us about Tchaikovsky, Russian society, and the nearly universal experience of unrequited love.

Soprano Renée Fleming is one of the most acclaimed singers of her generation, singing across genres from classical to Broadway to jazz and more. Of all the roles she?s performed, the shy and soulful Tatyana is the one she relates to best. She loves the Letter Scene because it allows her to act out the intense emotions of a teenager who?s fallen in love for the very first time. 

Dr. Philip Ewell is a professor of music theory at Hunter College of the City University of New York, where he specializes in Russian music, 20th-century music, race studies in music, and more. He trained as a cellist in Russia during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and has spent seven years total living there. He loves to teach Eugene Onegin to his Russian opera seminar through the lens of Avril Lavigne?s ?Sk8er Boi.? (Trust him, it works!) 

Tim Manley is a writer, illustrator, storyteller, and educator. He performed his story ?I Need You To Know? with The Moth in 2015, where he now leads storytelling workshops. He found that opening up about his feelings in front of an audience transformed his life. Tim also created the web series The Feels, which was nominated for an Emmy. He is currently working on a young adult novel.

?To be or not to be, that is the question.? It?s hard to think of a more famous line from a more famous play. In this iconic speech from Shakespeare?s Hamlet, the troubled Danish prince asks whether this whole life thing is even worth it. But ?to be or not to be'' is not the only question we?re asking this week. 

When everyone knows this line so well, how do you make it fresh again? How does adapting Shakespeare?s play into an opera change our understanding of the text? In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore one of the most famous speeches in literature, its transformation into opera, and why Hamlet?s brooding soliloquy continues to intrigue artists and audiences four centuries later.

Tenor Allan Clayton created the role of Hamlet in Brett Dean?s opera at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2017. Dean wrote this vocally and dramatically challenging part specifically for Clayton: he would have him read monologues from Shakespeare?s original in order to get a sense of his voice and once even emailed him changes during an intermission.

Opera dramaturg Cori Ellison worked closely with composer Brett Dean and librettist Matthew Jocelyn throughout the development of Hamlet. She was the staff dramaturg at the Glyndebourne Festival from 2012 through 2017, where Hamlet premiered, and has worked with opera companies around the world, including as a staff dramaturg at New York City Opera and Santa Fe Opera.

Actor and director Samuel West has worked across theater, film, television, and radio, but he was obsessed with Shakespeare's Hamlet. He starred as the Danish prince (whom he describes as ?a floppy-shirted noodle?) for one year and three days with the Royal Shakespeare Company. But who?s counting?!

Jeffrey R. Wilson is a faculty member in the Writing Program at Harvard, where he teaches a course called ?Why Shakespeare?? He feels that Shakespeare is still so popular because of the deep and varied problems his plays present: textual, theatrical, thematic, and ethical problems. He is the author of three books, including Shakespeare and Trump and Shakespeare and Game of Thrones.

When we talk about ?falling in love,? we talk about it like it is something that just happens. Suddenly the ground opens up and we are falling for somebody, as if there is no choice in the matter. This is everywhere -- in movies, TV shows, novels, and of course, in opera. Take Wagner?s Tristan und Isolde - while Tristan is bringing her across the Irish sea to marry his uncle Marke, King of Cornwall, they both drink a love potion and fall instantly, madly in love with each other.

But Isolde is still betrothed to King Marke, who catches them in a passionate night of love, and one of his men stabs Tristan, who later dies from the wound. Standing over his lifeless body, Isolde sings of her love for Tristan in her final climactic aria, the ?Liebestod,? as their love triumphs over even death itself. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore forbidden passion, agonizing desire, and what it means to ?fall? in love.

Soprano Jane Eaglen is known for her portrayals of Wagner?s most commanding heroines, including Brünnhilde and Isolde. She actually met her husband during her first-ever production of Tristan und Isolde at Seattle Opera, and she would find his seat in the audience each night and sing to him from the stage. She is on the voice faculty at the New England Conservatory.

Alex Ross is the music critic for The New Yorker and author of The Rest is Noise and Listen to This. He spent nearly a decade writing his most recent book, Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, which explores Wagner?s wide and complicated influence on art and politics. When he first heard Wagner?s music, he thought it was ?messy, unsteady, and confusing,? but Tristan und Isolde was the opera that changed his mind.

Mandy Len Catron has been studying and writing about romantic love for ten years. She wrote the essay, ?To Fall In Love With Anyone, Do This,? for The New York Times ?Modern Love? column about how she and a friend fell in love by answering 36 questions and staring into each other?s eyes--almost like a modern-day love potion. The essay went viral shortly after its publication in 2015. She has also written the book How To Fall in Love With Anyone: A Memoir In Essays. To spice things up, she?s currently working on a book about loneliness.

This week we?re decoding with the man who wrote the code - Terence Blanchard, composer of Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Not only is it the work that reopened the Met after its 18-month pandemic shutdown, but it?s also the first opera by a Black composer ever to be performed there. Based on the 2014 memoir of the same name by New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow, Fire Shut Up in My Bones is a coming-of-age story about his childhood in a tiny town in northwest Louisiana. 

From a young age, Charles knew he was different, not like his brothers or the other boys. After being sexually assaulted by his older cousin, he was consumed by shame, and especially when he began to feel attraction toward boys as well as girls. The South was not the place to be questioning one?s sexual identity as a Black man in the 1970s and 80s. But in the aria ?Peculiar Grace,? he puts his questions aside and looks forward to a brighter future. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the experience of feeling like an outsider, and the life-changing path toward self-acceptance.

Composer Terence Blanchard is a multiple Grammy-winning composer and jazz trumpeter. Fire Shut Up In My Bones is his second opera, and it premiered at Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2019. He has scored countless films, and is known for his many collaborations with the film director Spike Lee, including most recently Da 5 Bloods and BlacKkKlansman. Each was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. He credits his father for his love of opera, and he has a particular fondness for Puccini?s La bohème.

Baritone Will Liverman is singing the role of Charles in the Met?s production of Fire Shut Up In My Bones. While he was sitting on his couch during the pandemic, wondering if he?d ever get to sing in front of an audience again, he was invited to send an audition tape and landed the role just a few days later. Will has collaborated with D.J. and artist K-Rico to create The Factotum, a contemporary  adaptation of Rossini?s The Barber of Seville for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He is an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Dr. E. Patrick Johnson is an artist, writer, and professor of Performance Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern, where he is also the Dean of the School of Communication. He is the author and editor of several award-winning books, including Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South. His research for the book included dozens of interviews with men who were born, raised, and still live in the South, and he later adapted it into a staged-reading, Pouring Tea, as well as a full-length play and a documentary. He has received multiple awards both for his scholarship and his stage work.

Psalm 137 depicts the ancient Hebrews, enslaved and weeping ?by the rivers of Babylon,? as they remember their homeland, Jerusalem. Those words have inspired songwriters of reggae, Broadway, disco, folk and more, but one of the most memorable versions is featured in Giuseppe Verdi?s opera Nabucco.

The opera retells the story of the Babylonian captivity when Nebuchadnezzar (or Nabucco, in Italian) seizes Jerusalem, destroys the temple, and enslaves the Israelites in his kingdom. At the heart of the opera is ?Va, pensiero,? also known as the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, in which the Israelites yearn for their lost home. 

It?s this yearning for home by those exiled from their homeland, and of refugees trying to build a new identity in a new land, that has helped make Verdi?s first big hit resonate far beyond the opera house since its premiere. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the experience of refugees and immigrants, the significance of memory and community, and the power of 100 voices joined in song.

Donald Palumbo has been the chorus master at the Met Opera for 15 years. He can remember almost every time he has ever performed ?Va, pensiero,? and usually ends up standing in the wings just to listen to it. He previously was the chorus master at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and has taught at Juilliard since 2016. 

Professor Mark Burford is a musicologist at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He specializes in 19th-century Austro-German music, and twentieth century African American music, and is the author of the award-winning book Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field.  He previously taught at the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, Columbia University, and City College of New York.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is the Scholar in Residence at the National Council of Jewish Women. She writes books about the messy business of trying to be a person in the world, and about how spirituality can transform that work. She is the author of seven books, including Nurture the Wow and Surprised by God. She?s been named one of the top 50 most influential women rabbis.

Roya Hakakian is an Iranian Jewish writer and the author of two volumes of poetry in Persian. Her family was exiled from Iran following the 1979 revolution, after which they lived as refugees in Europe for a year before immigrating to the United States. Her most recent book is A Beginner?s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious. 

The young Composer in Strauss?s Ariadne auf Naxos is one of opera?s great trouser roles -- a female singer playing the part of a young man.  He is set to premiere his new opera at the home of the richest man in Vienna, only to learn moments before the performance that a bawdy comedy troupe will be performing at the same time. 

As his plans collapse around him, the Composer falls in love with Zerbinetta, the leader of the commedia dell'arte troupe, and his whole world changes in a flash. In his aria ?Sein wir wieder gut,? he sings about how he now sees everything with new eyes. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the transformational power of love, music and putting on a pair of pants.

The Guests

Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is a multi Grammy Award-winner and a fierce advocate for the arts. She?s also kind of a hero, bringing her talents to classrooms, prisons, and refugee camps, and sharing the transformative power of music. She loves playing trouser roles, and finds singing the Composer in particular to be an experience of discovery and total joy. 

Writer Paul Thomason is a die-hard Strauss fan and is writing a book about the composer. He sees Strauss as the great humanist among composers, because he presents his characters exactly as they are. He studied conducting and worked with maestros Thomas Schippers and Peter Maag. He has also appeared on the Met Opera?s intermission quizzes during their Saturday broadcasts.

Mo B. Dick is a founding father of the drag king movement. He started performing in drag in 1995 and founded Club Cassanova, the first weekly party dedicated to drag kings, and has made appearances in movies and television. He is also one of the cofounders of the website dragkinghistory.com, which archives the history of drag kings and crossdressers dating all the way back to the Tang dynasty.

People who go to see Gaetano Donizetti?s Lucia di Lammermoor spend the entire evening waiting for the famous Mad Scene, to hear the soprano?s incredible acrobatics, and to feel her intense emotional changes over the course of the lengthy showstopper. But the Mad Scene is more than a vocal showpiece: it?s a window into what it means to lose touch with reality and the ways women?s real-life challenges can go ignored or, even worse, pathologized as illness.

In the opera, Lucia has no control of her life; her brother betrays her and forces her to marry a man she doesn?t love. Alone and out of options, Lucia escapes in the only way she can: she murders her new husband and descends into madness. But how do we understand her crimes and hallucinations? And what can Lucia teach us about how we diagnose and treat mental health conditions today? Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests dive into the history of women and madness, as well as the story of a woman living with bipolar disorder today.

Soprano Natalie Dessay had a thriving career as a coloratura soprano before cashing in her opera chips and turning her talents to theater and jazz. When she sang the role of Lucia at the Met in 2011, she approached it a bit like a circus performer, adding physical challenges to match the vocal ones.

Dr. Mary Ann Smart is a professor of music at UC Berkeley. As a grad student, she wrote her dissertation on mad scenes in 19th century opera, and she has since authored multiple books, including Siren Songs: Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Opera. One of the things that she finds most poignant about Lucia?s Mad Scene is the fact that Donizetti spent the end of his life being treated for physical and mental illness. 

Activist and writer Dr. Phyllis Chesler has written more than 20 books, including the seminal work, Women and Madness. Her work deals with freedom of speech and freedom of thought. Her recent books include Requiem for a Female Serial Killer, and her memoir An American Bride in Kabul. She believes writing is most definitely a form of madness.

Author and attorney Melody Moezzi wrote Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life in order to capture her experiences as an Iranian-American Muslim woman with bipolar disorder, and to help others with this condition feel less alone. She is an advocate for destigmatizing mental health conditions, and she believes that sometimes, what looks like madness can actually be a rational response to an irrational world.

Perhaps no opera better reflects the questions and contradictions at the heart of Russian history than Modest Mussorgsky?s historical epic Boris Godunov. Based on the play by Alexander Pushkin (considered by many to be one of Russia?s greatest writers), it?s a meditation on power and legitimacy, and a portrayal of a pivotal period in Russian history -- The Time of Troubles. 

When Tsar Ivan the Terrible dies without an heir, Boris Godunov is elected tsar, casting doubt on his legitimacy. He rules well for a few years, but then all hell breaks loose, with a famine, a revolt, and a pretender claiming to be the real tsar.

As his country?s problems compound, Boris confronts his feelings of powerlessness in the monologue, ?Dostig ja vïsshei vlasti.? Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the nature of power, the question of legitimacy, and how an opera can shine a light on a nation?s past as well as its present.

The Guests

Bass René Pape (A.K.A. ?The Black Diamond Bass?) has been singing the role of Boris Godunov for 15 years. Like many of the kings and rulers he?s played on stage, he sees Boris as someone who has all of the power but none of the joy. In addition to his velvety voice, Pape is also known for his collection of rubber ducks, and even has one in his own image, the PapeDuck.

Dr. Simon Morrison is a professor of music history at Princeton, specializing in Russian and Soviet music. He fell in love with Russian music when he was an undergraduate and wrote his dissertation on the life and work of Sergei Prokofiev. His most recent book is Bolshoi Confidential, a history of the Bolshoi Ballet, and he is currently writing a book on the history of the city of Moscow, which finds him studying 11th century documents written on birchbark.

Dr. Shoshana Keller is a professor of Russian, Soviet, Eurasian, and modern Middle Eastern history at Hamilton College. She first became interested in Russia after getting to know the music of Shostakovich and Stravinsky while playing French horn as a kid, and she was fascinated by pictures of Russian onion domes in a social studies class. She loved the Russian language too, but found the grammar devilishly difficult and immersed herself in its history. She has written multiple books, and is working on an experimental mapping project of the nations in Kazakhstan

One of opera?s great heroines is based on one of history?s extraordinary women. The 19th century French courtesan Marie Duplessis was elegant, successful, famous, and gone before her time, dying of tuberculosis at the age of 23. One of her lovers, Alexandre Dumas fils, was so inspired by her that he wrote a novel and a play about her life called The Lady of the Camellias, which in turn inspired Giuseppe Verdi to compose La Traviata.

Verdi immortalized Marie Duplessis in the character of Violetta Valéry, giving us a woman both at the height of her vitality and success, and on her deathbed. Alone, and having loved and lost a man named Alfredo, she sings ?Addio del passato.? This aria is a farewell to the past and a plea to God for forgiveness. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the brief, vibrant life of Marie Duplessis and how Verdi captured her plaintive farewell in music.

As a child, soprano Lisette Oropesa saw her mother perform the role of Violetta on stage and was heartbroken by the end! Still, she found the courage to eventually take on this great heroine herself. Lisette has enjoyed learning about the strength, smarts, and tenacity of the real-life Marie Duplessis. 

Writer Fred Plotkin is the author of Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera. He has worked in opera since 1972, doing everything but singing, and has written six books on Italian cuisine. Verdi is his hero because he represents all the greatness an artist can achieve both artistically and as a human being.

Writer and journalist Liesl Schillinger translated Alexandre Dumas fils? novel, La Dame aux Camélias, and discovered in Marie Duplessis an extraordinary, generous, and shockingly modern woman. In Dumas fils, she discovered a man who was critical of the constraints and double-standards that constrained women during the 1800s. 

Actor and director John Turturro is known for his roles in over 60 feature films, but perhaps less well-known as a Verdi fan. He sometimes includes operatic music in his films, and he?s even tried his hand at directing Verdi?s Rigoletto. Growing up, he remembers fondly how his dad and uncles would gather around a record player to compare and critique different singers? performances of a single aria.

What makes us human? As artificial intelligence becomes more advanced, technology is becoming even more integrated into the fabric of daily life, and better able to simulate real human interactions. But what really separates humans from machines is our ability to love, to dream, and to believe in an illusion. 

In Offenbach?s The Tales of Hoffmann, the poet Hoffmann thinks he?s finally found love, and he?s so head-over-heels that he doesn?t realize something?s off -- Olympia, the woman of his dreams, isn?t a woman at all. She?s a wind-up doll. But like all of us humans, he can?t help but view his beloved through rose-colored glasses. 

In ?Les oiseaux dans la charmille,? Olympia sings one of the great arias for a coloratura soprano, and it?s music that?s so difficult it seems like only a machine could sing it. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests find the human angle to this doll?s song, exploring the pitfalls and illusions of love in the time of A.I. 

Soprano Erin Morley started singing ?Les oiseaux dans la charmille? in her very first voice lesson at the Eastman School of Music. Since then, she?s been searching for just the right balance of human and robot as she sings up into the stratosphere. 

Conductor Johannes Debus is the music director for the Canadian Opera Company. He loves the kaleidoscopic range of styles in The Tales of Hoffmann, and how Offenbach seems to explore all aspects of humanity with great sympathy.

Machine-learning research Caroline Sinders looks at technology and society through the lens of design and human rights. She is currently a researcher at the Berggruen Institute, and an artist in residence at Ars Electronica, and previously was a design researcher at IBM Watson.

Dr. Robert Epstein is a senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology. He established the first-ever annual Turing Test and is a pro at distinguishing artificial intelligence from human intelligence. But even he is susceptible to wearing rose-colored glasses -- just like Hoffmann, and just like the rest of us. 

Note: This episode includes descriptions of childhood sexual assault.

The drive for revenge can be all-consuming, especially when you or someone you love has been wronged. Outcast and distraught, the title character in Richard Strauss?s Elektra is obsessed with avenging the murder of her father. And because the story is based on a Greek myth, and Greek myths are full of dysfunctional families, this means that Elektra is hellbent on killing her own mother.

We get our first taste of the darkness inside Elektra?s mind, and the trauma at the heart of her rage, in the monologue, ?Allein! Weh, ganz allein.? It's a sort of primal scream accompanied by a huge orchestra, and Elektra plans her revenge in all its gory, graphic glory. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the depths of trauma and the heights of vengeance, both for Elektra and for a man whose own drive for revenge brought him to those very same extremes of elation and despair.

The Guests:

Soprano Nina Stemme thinks there?s some truth to the story that Strauss once told an orchestra to play so loudly that they would drown out the soprano singing Elektra, and she should know -- she?s one of today?s leading interpreters of the role! She invested a lot of herself in shaping this character, and it's one that takes all of her physical and emotional energy to perform.

William Berger is an author and radio commentator. Equal parts opera buff and metalhead, he brings his love of intense storytelling to his work at The Metropolitan Opera, and to his exploration of Elektra. While it's a story of violence and revenge, Berger thinks the real journey is the one of psychological discovery and deep Freudian conflicts bubbling to the surface. 

David Holthouse is a writer and documentary filmmaker who spent three years of his life consumed by the desire for revenge. He meticulously plotted to murder the man who raped him when he was seven years old. He tells his story of childhood sexual assault in his first-person essay ?Stalking the Bogeyman,? and follows up on his story in ?Outing the Bogeyman.?

It?s not easy to talk about death. We associate dying with so much suffering and loss. But for many people, the end of life is full of peaceful remembrance of the moments and relationships that have meant the most. For the leading man in Puccini?s Tosca, that?s the sweetness and beauty of his beloved. 

Caught up in the messy politics of his time, Mario Cavaradossi has been arrested, interrogated, and tortured. And then, he?s sentenced to death. ?E lucevan le stelle? finds Cavaradossi in his prison cell one hour before his execution. He knows his life is over, and what does he do? He gets lost in a daydream about a passionate night spent with Tosca. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the memories and dreams that give us meaning at the end of our lives.

Joseph Calleja, A.K.A. The Maltese Tenor, sees a lot of himself in Cavaradossi - they?re both men of intensity and passion. He says that if the spectrum of human emotion were a harp, Puccini knew exactly the right string to pluck at just the right moment to convey the emotion the character is feeling.

Carolyn Abbate teaches music at Harvard University and writes about opera, including the book A History of Opera. One of the memories that she holds most dear is of an afternoon spent in a meadow with her son when he was young.

Dr. Christopher Kerr is the CEO and Chief Medical Officer at Buffalo Hospice and Palliative Care. Chris recently wrote a book called Death is But a Dream: Finding Hope and Meaning at LIfe?s End, about the dreams and visions that many people experience at the end of their lives. This work was later turned into a film, which became the basis of a Netflix production and a PBS World documentary.  

In order to be a Roman Emperor, you had to be entirely cold-blooded. It was a violent world of infighting, ruthless slander, and take-no-prisoners politics -- a world where rulers would kill a million people and enslave a million more just to flex their power. This was the Game of Thrones setting that George Frideric Handel chose for Agrippina. The opera's name comes from Empress Agrippina the Younger, a woman of ambition and influence, and this episode focuses on someone who inadvertently stands in her way: the hapless Ottone. He doesn?t realize that becoming the heir to the throne has put a target on his back, and that Agrippina is aiming to take him down. Eventually she turns everyone against Ottone, leaving him in total despair. 

Having lost his friends, his future, and the love of his life, Ottone asks ?Why me?? in the aria ?Voi che udite il mio lamento.? Host Rhiannon Giddens and three guests take you on a tour of the cutthroat politics of ancient Rome, a world of murder and mayhem that still has something to teach us today. 

Countertenor Iestyn Davies likes singing the role of Ottone because as the only honest character in the opera, he?s an audience favorite. This was the last role he sang at the Met right before the lockdown, and he knows that his future performances will be deepened by his experience of the pandemic. 

Handel expert Dr. Alison DeSimone is an assistant professor of musicology at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, where she teaches courses in music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. She loves how Handel gets to the emotional depths of all of his characters, making them feel like real people. She recently published a book called The Power of Pastiche about music and culture in 18th-century England.

Historian Dr. Emma Southon is a recovering academic, writer, podcast host, and scholar of the ancient world. She's amused that ancient Romans are presented as paragons of civilization and culture even though their murder and mudslinging is anything but civilized. She wrote her first book, a biography of Agrippina, because she felt the Empress deserved her own book and no one else was stepping up to write it.

Almost three hundred years ago, the English artist William Hogarth created a series of paintings called A Rake?s Progress, which tell the tragic story of a man whose life spirals out of control after inheriting an unexpected fortune. He leaves behind a fiancée, and it is her story of devotion that reverberates through Igor Stravinsky?s opera The Rake?s Progress and the aria ?No Word from Tom.? 

In this episode, you?ll visit with Hogarth?s paintings, hear how Stravinsky captured the undying loyalty of the forgotten lover and get an inside look at how unexpected fortune and fame upended the family of Vivian Liberto and Johnny Cash. Yes, that Johnny Cash. And, yes, in this podcast about Igor Stravinsky. 

And here?s the best part: the incomparable Dawn Upshaw will sing it for you from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.

The Guests:

Soprano Dawn Upshaw has performed The Rake?s Progress many times and says that some of her happiest moments on an opera stage were when she was singing the role of the devoted fiancée, Anne Trulove.

Tara Cash is the youngest daughter of Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto. When she was growing up, everyone always wanted to hear about her father?s life. Now, she welcomes the opportunity to share her mother?s side of the story.  

Joanna Tinworth is Curator (Collections) at Sir John Soane?s Museum in London, where the original paintings, A Rake?s Progress by William Hogarth, have resided for over 200 years. Hogarth?s paintings are among the museum?s most popular exhibits.

Michael Bragg is the Music Planning Associate and Librarian at San Francisco Opera. He gives lectures and talks about opera around the Bay area, and he loves Stravinsky because of the composer?s unique approach to blending old and new styles of music. 

Below is the first painting in Hogarth's series A Rake's Progress, entitled "The Heir." You can see the complete set of paintings here, courtesy of Sir John Soane's Museum.

William Hogarth, "The Heir," from "A Rake's Progress" series, the inspiration for Stravinsky's opera.
(Photo: Sir John Soane's Museum, London)

Maybe you?ve heard this one before: a powerful man abuses his privilege and wealth to exploit the women in his life. When confronted with the fact that they?re not his playthings, he throws a fit and blames everyone but himself. Sound like your daily news alert? It?s Mozart?s The Marriage of Figaro, but somehow the world of feudal Spain in the 1700s is still distressingly familiar today. 

The aria ?Hai già vinta la causa? traces the emotions of the aristocratic and imperious Count Almaviva when he realizes that his wife and servants have been plotting his comeuppance. Filled with rage that they won?t bend to his will, the Count offers up one of the great temper tantrums in opera history. And don?t be surprised if the Count?s anger gives you flashbacks to headline news from the very recent past.

The Guests:

Bass-baritone Gerald Finley spent the first decade of his career playing the wily factotum Figaro, and now he sings the controlling Count Almaviva in opera houses around the world. He loves throwing himself into the fire and fury in this aria, but also holds tight to the belief that the Count is truly repentant in the end.

Professor Sharon Marcus teaches English and comparative literature at Columbia University. When it came to music, her mother insisted that she grow up listening to classical. She first met the Count in The Marriage of Figaro when she was still in grade school.

Laura Bassett is a freelance journalist and an opinion columnist for MSNBC. She originally wanted to be an academic. but the 2008 presidential election convinced her that she needed to be writing stories about the national conversations we're having today. She's written extensively about abuses of power in politics and the instances of sexual harassment that have dominated headlines in recent years.

Chances are, you know the overture to The Barber of Seville (maybe from Bugs Bunny?!) but Gioachino Rossini?s most famous opera is more than a comedic romp. Embedded in the topsy-turvy tale of young love and silly disguises, there is a story of forced marriage and a woman?s determination to live a life of her choosing. 

We meet the heroine Rosina for the first time in the aria ?Una voce poco fa,? in which she declares that while she may seem sweet and innocent, she is really not someone to be messed with. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the courage it takes to live life on your own terms and the way this almost absurd story pulled from a centuries-old novel still resonates today. You?ll hear how one guest has her own escape-from-a-forced-marriage story that uncannily matches Rosina?s.The Guests:

Soprano Pretty Yende first sang the role of Rosina in Norway in 2014, and it?s since become one of her favorite roles. She loves playing Rosina because the character is fun, witty, and unlike so many operatic heroines, she gets to hit all the high notes and live happily ever after.

Conductor James Conlon is Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera. He first heard The Barber of Seville when he was 11 years old and fell in love on the spot. Later that summer, he made his debut as director, producer, and Count Almaviva in his friend?s garage, with a very appreciative audience lined up in the driveway.

Activist Jasvinder Sanghera is a survivor of forced marriage. She has spent the last four decades advocating for women, children, and men silenced by domestic abuse and forced marriages, and founded the award-winning charity Karma Nirvana in 1993. 

They say you can?t go home again, and Giuseppe Verdi?s Aida knows it all too well. Captured from her homeland of Ethiopia and enslaved in Egypt, she falls in love with an Egyptian warrior. Aida is torn between her love for this man and her love for her home and, because it?s opera, she ultimately chooses the tenor.

In ?O Patria Mia,? Aida stands on the banks of the Nile and says goodbye to Ethiopia. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore what home means, and what it means to leave it behind.

The Guests

Soprano Latonia Moore has sung the role of Aida more than a hundred times. She made her Met debut in the role with a day and a half?s notice, and it launched her international career. As a Black soprano, she feels like she has joined the club of great singers who have taken on the role.

Naomi André is a professor of Afro-American and African Studies and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan. She wrote her dissertation on Verdi?s operas and was blown away the first time she saw Aida at the Met. She thinks it?s amazing that a story about ancient Egypt still resonates today, and she still finds something new in the work every time she sees it.

Poet and visual artist Mahtem Shiferraw is from Ethiopia and Eritrea, but now lives in Los Angeles. Coming to the U.S. as an adult, she had to completely rebuild her sense of identity and belonging, and her understanding of home. Growing up in Ethiopia, she went to an Italian school and acted in a non-opera production of Aida.

Sometimes, the only thing that gets us through the darkest moments is knowing that the sun will rise again on a new day. Puccini's final opera, Turandot, is about courage in the face of adversity, and love triumphing over fear. In other words, it is exactly what the world needs right now. 

The aria ?Nessun dorma? is Prince Calaf?s declaration of love and resounding victory cry. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and three guests explore what makes this aria so popular even beyond the opera house, and how it became an anthem of resilience and hope during the COVID-19 pandemic. This episode features Italian tenor Franco Corelli in a Metropolitan Opera performance from the Before Times (a.k.a. 1966).

The Guests:

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin is the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal.  He loves conducting Puccini?s biggest, most majestic opera, but his favorite moments are the intimate arias like ?Nessun dorma.?

Writer Anne Midgette is the former classical music critic for The Washington Post. She first heard the aria on a Book of the Month Club cassette tape in college, and thinks the secret sauce for ?Nessun Dorma? is in its climactic underdog declaration of ?Vincerò? -- ?I will win.?

Dr. Michael Cho is a pulmonary and critical care physician at Brigham and Women?s Hospital in Boston, and has been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. He?s also a violist, and has been playing with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra for more than 15 years. Recently, he joined the National Virtual Medical Orchestra, a group that formed during COVID to give people in the medical field a chance to play together. Watch their performance of "Nessun Dorma" below.

In April of 2020, 700 children across Europe sang a virtual performance of "Nessun dorma" as a message of hope and solidarity, from Europa InCanto. You can meet two of the stars in this episode, and watch their performance below.

The third season of the critically-acclaimed podcast is more expansive than the previous two, with a total of 18 new episodes released bi-weekly, starting March 10, 2021.

Just like a full season at the opera house, the podcast season will cover a staggering range of music, artists, and voices -- from early works by Handel all the way to the contemporary work of American composer and jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard. We'll cover fan favorites by Verdi and Puccini, as well as lesser-known gems by Stravinsky and Mussorgsky. 

Hosted by MacArthur Fellow and Grammy award-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens, and featuring master artists and other guests representing diverse voices and perspectives, the podcast connects opera to the experiences at the center of our humanity and the issues at the center of our lives. NBD.

Aria Code is produced by WQXR in partnership with The Metropolitan Opera.

Gioachino Rossini?s operatic version of the Cinderella story may not have any enchanted mice or pumpkins, but there?s plenty of magic in the music. Cinderella (or La Cenerentola, in Italian) has silently suffered the abuse of her stepfather and stepsisters, but in true fairy tale fashion, her fate changes for the better and all is made right by the triumph of goodness over evil. 

In the opera?s joyous finale ?Nacqui all?affanno? Non più mesta,? Cenerentola looks ahead to a future with no more sadness. In this episode, Rhiannon Giddens and guests explore this universal tale and how it still resonates today. Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato sings the aria onstage at the Metropolitan Opera.   

The Guests

Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato loves the strength and sincerity of this great Rossini heroine. She has performed the title role in La Cenerentola at leading opera houses around the world and believes in its absolute celebration of human goodness.

Writer Fred Plotkin loves opera ? all of it! ? and he shares this love in his book Opera 101: A Guide to Learning and Loving Opera. He has a special connection to Rossini?s music, which he feels is all about the heartbeat.

Maria Tatar is a research professor at Harvard University in the fields of folkore and mythology. She vividly remembers when her sister used to read fairy tales to her as a child, and believes that we have the right and responsibility to keep retelling these stories in a way that?s meaningful to us today.

Mezzo-soprano Alma Salcedo?s mother tells her she?s been singing since she was nine months old. Her personal Cinderella story began in Venezuela and has brought her to Spain, where she has fought to keep her dreams of being a singer alive.  

Love is intoxicating, but dating can be hard. In Jacques Offenbach?s The Tales of Hoffmann, a love-obsessed poet tells fantastical stories of romance gone very, very wrong. Based on the works of 19th-century Gothic horror writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, the opera is a journey through desire and loss ? a journey that just might make you feel better about your own dating disasters! 

In the aria ?Ô Dieu! de quelle ivresse,? the poet-protagonist Hoffmann professes his passionate love to the courtesan Giulietta. In this episode, Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the intoxicating power of romance, and the magically mysterious world created by both E.T.A. Hoffmann and Offenbach. Tenor Matthew Polenzani sings the aria onstage at the Metropolitan Opera. 

The Guests

Tenor Matthew Polenzani has just wrapped up his 22nd season at the Metropolitan Opera, which is one of many places he?s performed the role of Hoffmann. As a happily married man, he can?t quite relate to the poet?s unending heartbreak, but he does believe that all artists should have a touch of crazy in them.

Veronica Chambers is a writer and editor for The New York Times. In 2006, her essay ?Loved and Lost? It?s O.K., Especially if You Win? was published in the Modern Love column, detailing her long list of doomed romances. But, like Hoffmann, she kept her heart wide open to the possibility of love.

Stage director Beth Greenberg directed The Tales of Hoffmann for New York City Opera back in 1996. She counts Jacques Offenbach among the greatest composers, in part because of his extraordinary sense of satire. She likes to think of him as ?the Mel Brooks of the Champs-Élysées.?

Francesca Brittan is an Associate Professor of Music at Case Western Reserve University. Her work focuses on 19th- and 20th-century music, and her 2017 book Music and Fantasy in the Age of Berlioz details her fascination with the fantasy genre in literature and in music. She loves exploring the secret worlds imagined by E.T.A. Hoffmann and writers like him.

The pain and fear of trauma can have a dramatic effect on your desire for love and intimacy.

This is true for Puccini?s Turandot, the titular ice princess who cuts off her feelings? and the heads of her suitors. In her first aria, ?In questa reggia,? Turandot explains that she will avenge the rape and murder of her ancestress from thousands of years ago, and that she is determined never to be possessed by any man.

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the truth at the heart of this aria: that time doesn?t heal all wounds, and that some are played out and recreated with every generation. At the end of the show, Christine Goerke sings ?In questa reggia? from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

The Guests 

Soprano Christine Goerke loves the challenge of playing characters that seem unsympathetic, uncovering their complexity and somehow winning over the audience by the end of the opera. This is one of the many things that draws her to Turandot. 

Actor Anna Chlumsky became an opera fanatic after working on the Broadway show Living on Love with co-star Renée Fleming. Turandot is a particular family favorite, and the former ?Veep? star enjoys watching Puccini?s grand spectacle over breakfast with her daughters. 

Will Berger is the author of Puccini Without Excuses, a funny and informative guide to one of opera?s greatest composers. Berger is equal parts opera buff and metalhead, bringing his love of intense storytelling to his work as a writer and media commentator for The Metropolitan Opera.

The most famous American opera opens with one of the most famous American songs: ?Summertime.? The Gershwins? haunting lullaby from Porgy and Bess is a simple tune with a complex story.

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore not just the lyrics and music, but how Porgy and Bess came into being and the way it draws on the culture of the Gullah Geechee, descendants of formerly enslaved people living in and around South Carolina. Decoding two arias ? "Summertime" and "I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'" ? the show finds uncomfortable contradictions as well as uncanny parallels between the real lives of the Gullah people and the characters onstage. 

The Guests

Soprano Golda Schultz debuted as Clara at the Met earlier this year, her first time singing in the U.S. with a cast full of people of color. She believes that when telling stories from underrepresented groups, they must be told from places of joy and not only areas of pain. 

Naomi André knows better than most about the complicated racial history of Porgy and Bess. Still, the University of Michigan professor and author of Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement believes the show can be timely, relevant and moving.

Victoria Smalls is a Gullah woman who grew up on St. Helena Island off Charleston, South Carolina. She works as the Director of Art, History, and Culture at the Penn Center in South Carolina, an institution dedicated to promoting and preserving African American history and culture. She's also a federal commissioner for the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

Bass-baritone Eric Owens was initially reluctant to start singing Porgy, since so many African American singers have a hard time breaking out of that role. But even while reckoning with some of the controversial aspects of the Gershwins' opera, he has now sung the role for a decade and believes it is some of the most beautiful music written in the 20th century. 

It?s not easy to accept the changes that come with time and age. For Richard Strauss?s Marschallin, the trick is simply learning to let go. When the curtain comes up on Der Rosenkavalier, she is having an affair with the young Count Octavian, but she quickly comes to realize that she will one day lose him to a woman his own age. Throughout Act I, she reflects on her lost youth, her desire to stop all the clocks, and on the fleeting nature of beauty and love.  

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests ruminate on the passage of time as the Marschallin learns to let go of her younger lover, and her younger self. At the end of the show, soprano Renée Fleming sings, ?Da geht er hin? from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

The Guests

Soprano Renée Fleming made the Marschallin one of her signature roles. Over the years, she explored many facets of this complex character, from her youthful impetuousness to her world-weariness. In her final performance of the Marschallin at the Met in 2017, Fleming expected to feel sadness, but instead, she was overcome with joy and gratitude. 

Writer Paul Thomason is currently writing a book on the music of Richard Strauss. He is in love with the music in Der Rosenkavalier, calling it ?deep soul music.? 

Wendy Doniger is a writer and retired professor from the University of Chicago who shared a special love of opera with her mother. In fact, opera was more or less their form of religion, and Der Rosenkavalier was a particular favorite.

Dara Poznar is a life coach with her own story to tell about a relationship with a younger man, as well as her process of coming to terms with their age difference. In writing about this experience, she received an outpouring of camaraderie and support from other women who were also asking themselves the same questions about how their age would affect their relationships.  

When someone you love dies, how far would you be willing to go to bring them back? Orpheus, the ancient Greek musician, goes to hell and back to have a love of his life, Eurydice, by his side again. The gods cut a deal with Orpheus: he can bring his love back from hell, but all throughout the journey, she has to follow behind him and he is not allowed to look back at her. Unable to resist, he turns to see her,  and the gods take her for a second time. In a moment of overwhelming grief, Orpheus asks, ?What will I do without Eurydice.? 

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests reflect on Christoph Gluck's operatic adaptation of the Orpheus myth and how grief can be all-encompassing, but so can love. At the end of the show, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton sings ?Che farò senza Euridice? from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

The Guests

Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton grew up in a musical family, with days full of bluegrass, classic rock, and music history quizzes about the Beatles. In her role debut as Orfeo, she searches for this hero?s vulnerability, dramatically and vocally, and figures out how to embody a version of this character that?s modeled on Johnny Cash. 

Author Ann Patchett stumbled upon her love for opera while writing her book Bel Canto. But the Orpheus myth has been part of her life -- and has influenced her writing -- for quite a lot longer.  She?s fairly certain that she would travel to the depths of hell to save her husband of 25 years. 

Jim Walter lost his wife to cancer in 2015. He cared for her through some very difficult years, and kept hope alive even when things looked hopeless. He says that nowadays, his grief usually isn?t as immediate and gut-punching as it once was, but he is still sometimes overcome with sadness at unexpected moments.

When your spouse cheats, your mind starts racing with a million questions. For the Countess Almaviva, one of them is: What happened to the spark we had and how can we get it back? The Countess lives inside Mozart?s The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro in Italian) and her philandering husband, the Count Almaviva, is due for a major comeuppance from his wife and her servant. But the Countess isn?t fixed on vengeance; she?s wondering how she can recapture the romance in her marriage.

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests offer relationship advice to the heartsick Countess Almaviva. They focus on her aria ?Dove sono,? a quiet moment of reflection when the Countess asks, ?Where are the lovely moments?? You?ll hear how Mozart musically brings you inside the Countess?s thoughts, how hard it is to sing that music and why rekindling a romance is something many of us will face. Plus, you?ll hear Susanna Phillips sing the aria onstage at the Metropolitan Opera.

The Guests

Susanna Phillips has sung the role of the Countess more than any other in her career. She isn?t sure whether the Countess will ever be able to forgive her husband?s dalliances, but she may find out this season when she reprises the role at the Met.

Cori Ellison is a dramaturg and a repeat guest on Aria Code. She believes that Mozart had a special gift both for understanding the human condition and sharing those insights through opera.

Dan Savage is a sex and relationship advice columnist and podcaster. Like Mozart, he believes that infidelity is a real part of the human condition. He?s less optimistic about the Count?s ability to be faithful when the curtain closes.

If you?re interested in going a little deeper on cheating and infidelity, our friends at the podcast Death, Sex, and Money have a whole episode about it! You?ll hear from men and women who?ve cheated and been cheated on, and how it made some of them more honest in their relationships. Subscribe to Death, Sex, and Money wherever you get your podcasts. 

You may not have heard of the Egyptian king Akhnaten, but the young pharaoh helped shape modern religion as we know it. His revolutionary efforts to shift Egypt away from worshiping many gods to worshiping just one paved the way for monotheism and the major Judeo-Christian faiths. His desire to remake the world is the subject of Philip Glass's entrancing opera.

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests reflect on Akhnaten?s "Hymn to the Sun," an aria drawn from an ancient text of devotion. Akhnaten expresses his adoration of the sun and asserts himself as a prophet ? a vision of his own power that eventually led to his downfall. At the end of the show, you'll hear countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo sing the complete ?Hymn to the Sun? from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

The Guests

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo first sang the role of Akhnaten with the LA Opera in 2016 and now stars as the titular pharaoh at the Metropolitan Opera. Even though he has lived with the character for nearly four years, he still hasn't decided whether he sees Akhnaten as a visionary or cult leader. But that doesn't stop him from wearing an Eye of Horus necklace.  

Kara Cooney is a professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at UCLA who spent years as an archaeologist in Egypt. At dig sites and in her research, Cooney has been able to uncover some moments of Akhnaten?s life, which still largely remains a mystery. Even she doesn?t quite understand her journey into Egyptology, she has always understood the world best through the lens of antiquity. 

Karen Kamensek is conducting Akhnaten at the Metropolitan Opera. A self-proclaimed Glass groupie, she is our first guest who's been mentored by a show's original composer. The world-renowned conductor pays it forward by leading a number of youth orchestras. 

John Schaefer is the host of the WNYC radio program New Sounds. For more than 30 years, he has promoted the work of contemporary composers and performers. In 1984, he jumped at the chance to premiere Akhnaten on the radio. 

Special appearance by Rev. Paula Stone Williams, a pastor and LGBTQ advocate. As a transgender woman, Williams uses her experiences to foster more compassion in the world.

Sometimes an illusion is the hardest thing to let go of. For Puccini?s Madama Butterfly, that illusion comes in the form of a distant ship on the horizon, carrying her long lost husband. Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton abandoned Cio-Cio-San three years earlier, but she's absolutely sure that one fine day he'll sail over the horizon and return for her and their child. 

The aria "Un bel di vedremo" captures Butterfly's unwavering faith in their reunion and her unflagging desire for a better life. In this episode, Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the power of hope in Puccini's tragedy, as well as in a real-world Butterfly story. Then, you'll hear Ana María Martínez sing the complete aria onstage at the Metropolitan Opera.

The Guests

Soprano Ana María Martínez understands Butterfly not as a submissive woman-in-waiting, but as a woman of great determination and strength. Born in Puerto Rico, Martínez found some of her own inner strength when she and her parents moved to the mainland and left her extended family behind.

Composer and conductor Huang Ruo grew up in China, following in his father's footsteps by studying composition. A professor told him to go study in the United States, where he fell in love with Puccini. He's currently writing an opera based on David Henry Hwang?s play, M. Butterfly.

Sandra Kumamoto Stanley chairs the Asian American Studies department at California State University. Her interest in Butterfly extends beyond the racialized fantasy within the opera: she has written about how society would have treated Cio-Cio-San?s mixed-race child.

A writer and former psychotherapist, Kyoko Katayama is the child of a Japanese woman and an American soldier stationed in Tokyo after World War II. Like Pinkerton, her biological father shipped out and unwittingly left behind his pregnant lover. Katayama sees a clear parallel between Butterfly?s life and her mother?s.

Special thanks to Kathryn Tolbert and Lucy Craft, whose work on The War Bride Experience was invaluable to this episode.

Sometimes you get up in the middle of the night realizing that what is done can never be undone. For Lady Macbeth, no amount of handwringing (or hand-washing) can clear her conscience. She and her husband have done some really, really bad things in their pursuit of power, but it?s Lady Macbeth whose ambition drives her to midnight rantings about her crimes.

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests reflect on Lady Macbeth?s sleepwalking scene ? her final appearance in Giuseppe Verdi?s opera based on Shakespeare. It?s a rumination on ambition and the dangers of running too hard at the things we desire the most. Or at least the things we think we deserve. At the end of the show, soprano Anna Netrebko sings the complete aria ?Una macchia è qui tuttora? ? Out, damned spot! ? from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

The Guests

Leading soprano Anna Netrebko started her career singing the sweet and innocent Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and now she?s completely at home playing Verdi?s murderous queen. She knows many highly ambitious people, but not one of them has ever killed a king (that she knows of). Netrebko debuted as Lady Macbeth at the Met in 2014. 

Anne Midgette?s lifelong love of Giuseppe Verdi began with Macbeth. As the Washington Post?s classical music critic, she?s written on Verdi and much more over her 11-year tenure. Her husband recently caught her singing Lady Macbeth?s sleepwalking scene in the shower. They are still married.

Tana Wojczuk is a writer and teacher at New York University. She?s the author of the forthcoming Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America's First Celebrity which tells the story of the 19th-century actress who changed how we look at the role of Lady Macbeth.

Special appearance from Dame Judi Dench. A seven-time Academy Award nominee, Dench made a name for herself performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and twice starred as Lady Macbeth.

Aria Code returns for Season 2 with 10 stunning arias and one big theme: desire. Opera singers and experts talk about the things we want the most ? love, power and freedom.

In its first season, Aria Code became a low-key hit for both longtime opera fans and folks discovering it for the first time. Each episode opens a window into one aria ? a feature for a single singer ? and explores how and why these brief musical moments have imprinted themselves in our collective consciousness and what it takes to stand onstage and sing them.

Starting November 13, 2019, the second season will explore the many facets of desire, from pining for an absent lover to killing for power. World-renowned opera stars ? Anna Netrebko, Jamie Barton, Eric Owens and many more ? offer insight into the motivations of their characters and, in turn, our own.

Hosted by Grammy Award-winner and MacArthur ?Genius? Fellow Rhiannon Giddens, Aria Code is produced by WQXR in partnership with The Metropolitan Opera.

When the great American composer Carlisle Floyd wrote his first full-length opera, Susannah, back in the 1950s, he had no way of knowing how the Biblical themes of shame, blame and lust would resonate today.

In this special episode of Aria Code, host Rhiannon Giddens joins soprano Renée Fleming, writer and stage director Thomas Holliday, and feminist writer Leora Tanenbaum to consider the haunting folk aria ?The Trees on the Mountains,? and the devastating loss of innocence at the heart of the story. You?ll hear Fleming?s performance from the Metropolitan Opera?s 1999 production of Susannah, as well as Rhiannon Giddens? version from her new album, there is no Other.

You hear the message over and over in pop culture: love overcomes everything. But when Don José sings ?The Flower Song? in Bizet's Carmen, you're reminded that love has a dark side, too.

In the Season 1 finale, host Rhiannon Giddens welcomes tenor Roberto Alagna, critic Anne Midgette and psychologist Andrew G. Marshall to consider the crazy, possessive side of love and the importance of experiencing art that doesn?t have a fairy-tale ending. Then, you?ll hear Alagna sing the role of the passionate and violent Don José onstage at the Metropolitan Opera.

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.

When the Voyager spacecraft set off to explore the galaxy in 1977, it carried a recording to represent the best of humanity. The ?Golden Record? featured everyone from Bach to Chuck Berry, but there was only one opera aria: the rage-fest from Mozart?s The Magic Flute.

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens is joined by soprano Kathryn Lewek, musicologist Carolyn Abbate and author Jan Swafford. Together they consider why the Queen of the Night?s big moment ? ?Der Hölle Rache? ? is an out-of-this-world achievement, how Mozart created a profound fairy tale for adults and what it takes for a soprano to reach the stratosphere. You?ll hear Kathryn Lewek hit all those high notes onstage at the Metropolitan Opera and talk to Timothy Ferris, the man who produced NASA?s ?Golden Record.?

You?ve probably been there: in love for the first time and enchanted by the very sound of your sweetheart?s name. The problem for Gilda in Verdi?s Rigoletto is that her new love isn?t who he says he is. The worst will come (it?s opera), but for a few brief moments in Act I, Gilda?s innocence sweeps you away. She?s young and head over heels and obsessing over the ?caro nome,? the ?dear name? of her new love. 

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens is joined by soprano Nadine Sierra, writer Paul Thomason and psychologist Carl Pickhardt. Together they consider the dizzying thrill of your first love, Verdi?s brilliant powers of orchestration and why Gilda?s infatuation rings so true even today. You?ll hear Nadine Sierra reminisce about her own formative experiences and then fall in love with the so-called ?Gualtier Maldè? onstage at the Metropolitan Opera.

Singing even one high C can be an event for the tenor and his audience. Everyone in the room knows how easily it could go wrong. Multiply that pressure by nine? You get ?Ah, mes amis.? Gaetano Donizetti wrote this high-stakes aria for his opera La Fille du Régiment. The young hero Tonio has just enlisted in the army and received permission to marry the girl of his dreams. ?Ah, mes amis? is his celebration: Tonio?s bursting with so much joy that the guy sings nine ? count ?em, NINE ? high C's. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens considers the sheer athleticism it takes to pull off ?Ah, mes amis? with a singer, a vocal coach and a former NFL player. And once they've surveyed this Mount Everest of tenor arias, you'll hear tenor Javier Camarena scale its heights from his base camp on the Metropolitan Opera stage.

She seduces, she traps, she destroys. She's a femme fatale and her signature aria is the dangerously alluring ?Mon coeur s?ouvre a ta voix? from Samson et Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns. "My heart opens to your voice,? sings Dalila, "like the flowers open to the kisses of the dawn." It sure sounds like a love song, but just below the surface it?s simmering with seduction and betrayal.

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens welcomes mezzo-soprano El?na Garan?a, writer James Jorden of Parterre Box and scholar Caroline Blyth. Her guests reflect on the Biblical story of Samson and Delilah, the trope of the femme fatale and how Saint-Saëns created this unforgettable moment that sounds as if Dalila?s slowly removing her clothing, one note at a time. Plus, you'll hear Garan?a sing the complete aria from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

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.

Love at first sight is not just a cliché of romantic comedies: more than half of all Americans say they?ve experienced it. Can this explain the timeless appeal of Puccini?s La Bohème? In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests consider what love at first sight is really all about, sharing perspectives on the music, the history and, yes, the brain science. Plus, you'll hear tenor Vittorio Grigolo sing the complete aria "Che gelida manina" from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

What would you give up for true love? Verdi's La Traviata opens a window into a courtesan's heart as she makes the biggest decision of her life. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens welcomes soprano Diana Damrau, dramaturg Cori Ellison and former escort Dr. Brooke Magnanti to reflect on the spectacular Act I finale and its deep inner conflicts around love and freedom. Plus, you'll hear the complete aria sung by Diana Damrau from the Met Opera stage.

Aria Code is a new podcast that pulls back the curtain on the most famous arias in opera history, hosted by Rhiannon Giddens.