Podcasts by Aria Code
Aria Code is a podcast that pulls back the curtain on some of the most famous arias in opera history, with insight from the biggest voices of our time, including Roberto Alagna, Diana Damrau, Sondra Radvanovsky, and many others. Hosted by Grammy Award-winner and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Rhiannon Giddens, Aria Code is produced in partnership with The Metropolitan Opera.
Further podcasts by WQXR & The Metropolitan Opera
Podcast on the topic Musikinterviews
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P.S. I Love You: Renée Fleming Sings Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin from 2021-12-01T12:00
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 yo...
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To Be Or Not To Be: Dean's Hamlet from 2021-11-17T12:00
“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’sHamlet
Potion, Emotion, Devotion: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde from 2021-11-03T12:00
When we talk about “falling in love,” we talk about it like it is something that justhappens. Suddenly the ground opens up and we are falling for somebod...
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Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A Boy of Peculiar Grace from 2021-10-13T12:00
This week we’re decoding with the man whowrotethe code - Terence Blanchard, composer ofFire Shut Up i...
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October 8: Free Virtual Event with Terence Blanchard from 2021-10-08T12:00
LIVESTREAM EVENT: Friday, October 8 at 12 noon ET
This fall,Terence Blanchard’sListen
Verdi's Nabucco: By the Rivers of Babylon from 2021-09-29T12:00
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, Broadwa...
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Once More Into the Breeches: Joyce DiDonato Sings Strauss from 2021-09-15T12:00
The young Composer in Strauss’sAriadne auf Naxosis one of opera’s great trouser roles -- a female singer playing the part of a young man.
Breaking Mad: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor from 2021-08-25T12:00
People who go to see Gaetano Donizetti’sLucia di Lammermoorspend the entire evening waiting for the famous Mad Scene, to hear the soprano’s incredible ac...
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Crisis in the Kremlin: Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov from 2021-08-11T12:00
Perhaps no opera better reflects the questions and contradictions at the heart of Russian history than Modest Mussorgsky’s historical epicBoris Godunov. ...
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Only the Good Die Young: Verdi's La Traviata from 2021-07-21T12:00
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,...
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Guys and Dolls: Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann from 2021-07-07T12:00
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 int...
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Strauss's Elektra: Waltzing With a Vengeance from 2021-06-23T12:00
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 wro...
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Puccini's Tosca: Death is But a Dream from 2021-06-09T12:00
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...
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Handel's Agrippina: Nice Romans Finish Last from 2021-05-19T12:00
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 ru...
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Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress: I Walk the Line from 2021-05-05T12:00
Almost three hundred years ago, the English artist William Hogarth created a series of paintings calledA Rake’s Progress, which tell the tragic story of a man whose life spirals o...
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Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro: Count On a Reckoning from 2021-04-21T12:00
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 throw...
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Rossini's Barber of Seville: On a Wig and a Prayer from 2021-04-07T12:00
Chances are, you know the overture toThe Barber of Seville(maybe from Bugs Bunny?!) but Gioachino Rossini’s most famous opera is more than a comedic romp...
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Verdi's Aida: There's No Place Like Home from 2021-03-24T12:00
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....
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Puccini's Turandot: Hope Never Sleeps from 2021-03-10T12:00
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 fa...
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Aria Code Is Back and Bigger Than Ever! from 2021-03-03T12:00
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.
...
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Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice: Don't Look Back in Ardor from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 s...
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Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro: Sleepless in Sevilla from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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? T...
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Philip Glass’s Akhnaten: I Am Your Sunshine, Your Only Sunshine from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 g...
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Puccini's Madama Butterfly: When My Ship Comes In from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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. B...
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Verdi's Lady Macbeth: Sleepwalk with Me, featuring Anna Netrebko from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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...
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Aria Code with Rhiannon Giddens is Back! from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 f...
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Floyd's Susannah: Hopeless in New Hope, featuring Renée Fleming from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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, b...
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Flower Power: Don José and Dangerous Love in Bizet's Carmen from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 sid...
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Massenet's Werther: You've Got Mail! from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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. ...
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Mozart's Queen of the Night: Outrage Out of This World from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 ...
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Verdi's Rigoletto: First Love, Wrong Love from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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
Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment: Sailing the High Cs from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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.” Gae...
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Saint-Saëns’s Dalila: She's a Femme Fatale from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 Sai...
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Puccini's Tosca: I Offered Songs to the Stars from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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? Listen
Puccini's La Boheme: Is Love at First Sight Really a Thing? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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
Verdi's La Traviata: Opera's Original 'Pretty Woman' from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 w...
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Welcome to Aria Code with Rhiannon Giddens from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Aria Code is a new podcast that pulls back the curtain on the most famous arias in opera history, hosted by Rhiannon Giddens.
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Rossini's La Cenerentola: Opera's Cinderella Story from 2020-02-05T12:00
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...
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Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann: Fool for Love from 2020-01-29T12:00
Love is intoxicating, but dating can be hard. In Jacques Offenbach’sThe Tales of Hoffmann, a love-obsessed poet tells fantastical stories of romance gone very, very wrong. Based on the ...
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Puccini's Turandot: Bewitched, Bothered, And Beheaded from 2020-01-22T12:00
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 th...
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The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess: Rise Up Singing from 2020-01-15T12:00
The most famous American opera opens with one of the most famous American songs: “Summertime.” The Gershwins’ haunting lullaby fromPorgy and Bessis a simple tune with a complex story. Listen
Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier featuring Renée Fleming: Here's To You, Mrs. Marschallin from 2019-12-18T12:00
It’s not easy to accept the changes that come with time and age. For Strauss’s Marschallin, the trick is simply learning to let go. When the curtain comes up on Listen