Classical 101 Podcasts

In her album Undersong, Simone Dinnerstein explores what it means to go to the same place again and again and to return home. The recording takes its name from the archaic word for a piece of music with a refrain, a passage of music that periodically repeats amid sections of contrasting music. It features musical works with refrains by Schumann, Couperin, Satie, and Philip Glass.

This year marks the 10 th anniversary of the animated film Up , directed by Pete Docter, produced by Pixar and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Set initially in Ohio, Up unfolds in dazzling visuals the outlandish adventures of an elderly widower and a young boy.

September 2019 marks the 80th anniversary of Hitler's invasion of Poland, which opened the floodgates to World War II. On this occasion, this episode of SoundReels looks at a film set in the later years of the war.

September 1, 2019 is the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the combined Nazi and Soviet invasion of Poland, which marked the start of World War II. This episode of SoundsReels explores producer and director Roman Polanski's 2002 film The Pianist and will take you back to that moment in history and into the harrowing true story of Polish-Jewish concert pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman's struggle to survive the brutal realities of the Polish invasion and the Warsaw Uprising.

Writer, director and producer Wes Anderson’s 2018 stop motion animation film Isle of Dogs was first screened at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival. Anderson won that festival’s Silver Bear award for best director. The film and its musical score, with original music by Alexandre Desplat, also received nominations for Golden Globe, Critic’s Choice and Academy Awards, among others.

Some operas inspire reverence beyond who gets kissed and who gets killed. Francis Poulenc’s The Dialogues of the Carmelites is chief among them.

In 1972, I saw a production of Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Regiment ("The Daughter of the Regiment"), starring Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti. And in 1972, there were no two opera singers more famous, more skilled or greater.

Fifty years ago, a teacher gave me two tickets to see Renata Tebaldi and Franco Corelli in Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur .

Bring on the dancing. The Metropolitan Opera has a hot new production of Camille Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila (Samson and Delilah) complete with bacchanal.

Even if you’ve never seen the 1957 hit musical West Side Story , I'll bet you can hum the tune from "Tonight," "Maria," "America" or any number of the show's signature songs and dance pieces on command.

Lawrence of Arabia is, hands down, one of the classics.

A violin with a past is fated to keep dooming the present.

John Sturges' 1960 Western remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic film Seven Samurai features an intense musical score by one of the great composers of film music, Elmer Bernstein.

Ah, the joys of summer — sunshine, long days, grilling on the patio — and movies.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the mother and mother-in-law. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the music lover. And, thanks to the Notorious R.B.G. blog , Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the unexpected pop-culture icon. Now, Ginsburg, 85, is also the inspiration for, and the subject and dedicatee of, a new recording of art songs — many composed specifically for her and in celebration of the quarter-century mark of her Supreme Court career.

The Metropolitan Opera presents a new production of Jules Massenet's Cendrillon , screened live in HD at movie theaters worldwide at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 28.

The Metropolitan Opera presents Gioachino Rossini's Semiramide , broadcast live from New York in HD to movie theaters worldwide at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 10. Say this title fast three times: Semiramide (She-mir-AH-mee-day).

The Columbus Symphony and Opera Columbus present Giuseppe Verdi's Aida at the Ohio Theatre , at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4. Rossen Milanov conducts. I'm delighted that two fine local artists are playing featured roles: Brian Banion (Ramfis) and Robert Kerr (Pharaoh) — not to mention the superb all-volunteer Columbus Symphony Chorus , conducted by Ronald Jenkins . This production of Aida will be broadcast at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 29 on Classical 101.

Opera Abbreviated is a Classical 101 podcast that previews The Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series of performances beamed into cinemas worldwide . The Met's new production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca , everyone's favorite operatic potboiler, is the next feature, showing at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27. Staged by David McVicar , the production is conducted by Emmanuel Villaume and stars Sonya Yoncheva , Vittorio Grigolo and Zelkjo Lucic .

The Metropolitan Opera's next performance of Mozart's Idomeneo will be seen Live in HD in cinemas all over the world at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 25.