Upcoming and Noteworthy

An American opera based on an American original is this week’s Sunday Opera (1/28  3:00 p.m.) as we take a look at Lori Laitman’s 2016 treatment of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.”  Hawthorne’s 1850 novel is a moral allegory centering on Hester Prynne’s affair with the Reverend Dimmesdale, the birth of her illegitimate daughter, Pearl, and her strength and determination to make a life for them in the face of hatred and prejudice.  Laura Claycomb is Hester and Dominic Armstrong is Dimmesdale in this recording featuring the Opera Colorado Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Ari Pelto

Gordon Getty is the featured composer on this week’s Sunday Opera (1/21  3:00 p.m.) in two of his works.  We’ll begin with “Plump Jack,” an adaptation by the composer of “Henry IV” Parts 1 & 2 and “Henry V” of Shakespeare featuring Lester Lynch as Falstaff as he falls from favor with Prince Hal on the death of the prince’s father.  The second opera is based on Oscar Wilde’s first published story, “The Canterville Ghost” about an American family who move into a haunted castle only to drive the poor ghost to despair.  

The Sunday Opera this week (1/14  3:00 p.m.) is turning to the ancient Greeks for the subject of Marc Antoine Charptentier’s “Medee,” the tragedy surrounding the sorceress who helped Jason, the man with whom she fell in love, steal the Golden Fleece.  She betrays her country and king (her father) and kills her brother in order for them to escape only then to be betrayed by Jason, leading to her murdering her children.  

We’ll be traveling to Czechoslovakia for this week’s Sunday opera (1/7  3:00 p.m.) and two works by the Czech master, Leos Janacek.  The first is a story of misplaced love and devotion that results in murder entitled “Jenufa.”  The Jenufa in a recording from 1986 is the wonderful Elisabeth Soderstrom, Peter Dvorsky is Steva, the object of her misplaced love, and Wieslav Ochman is the misunderstood Laca.  The second opera also features Elisabeth Soderstrom in the lead, this time as Emilia Marty, the woman who has lived for over 300 years in “The Makropulos Case.”