Mostly Mezzo Mondays: Panthaki, Costanzo, Bridges, Gerhaher, Alder, Hallenberg, Lindsey, et al.
Mostly Mezzo Mondays: a recurring (though not weekly) feature where, on Monday nights, I blog a list of the upcoming broadcasts that have caught my eye on World Concert Hall. My interests: baroque vocal music, art song recitals, and a list of favorite singers.
It’s that time of year when Handel’s Messiah keeps the jam on vocal soloists’ bread. I’m sure there will be plenty of Messiah broadcasts to choose from between now and the 25th, but here’s a good pick already: Sherezade Panthaki, Daniel Moody, Richard Croft, and Benjamin Bevan are the soloists with the Minnesota Orchestra under Nicholas Kraemer. Live broadcast Friday, December 6 on Classical Minnesota Public Radio. (NOTE: although the live concert broadcast starts at 8:00 p.m. Minneapolis time on the 6th, it is listed in the wee hours of the 7th on World Concert Hall, which uses GMT for all broadcast listings.)
Glass’s Akhnaten has definitely gotten under my skin and into my ear since I saw it in New York last month. I’ve been listening to an old recording that someone put on YouTube, but I look forward to getting the Met cast into my MP3 stash. Personally, I like Anthony Roth Costanzo more in Glass than in Handel, and he seems born to play Akhnaten; J’Nai Bridges and DÃsella Lárusdóttir are mesmerizing as Nefertiti and Queen Tye, respectively. Live broadcast Saturday, December 7 on WQXR.
I don’t know much about Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust but I do know that this cast has a high quotient of noteworthiness: Christian Gerhaher, Christiane Karg, Louise Alder, Ann Hallenberg, Claire Barnett-Jones, Werner Güra, Tareq Nazmi, and Kurt Rydl. John Elliot Gardiner conducts. Live broadcast Sunday, December 8 on NPO Radio 4.
The world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando is up for broadcast from the Wiener Staatsoper, with Kate Lindsey in the title role. Live broadcast Sunday, December 8 on Ö1.Â
