Minnesota Opera

Tune in at 11:30 a.m. for a live broadcast of Verdi's Rigoletto from the Metropolitan Opera. Ever since its first performance in Venice in 1851, Rigoletto has been a hit with audiences, and a standard in the opera repertory. Classical MPR's Rex Levang shares some insights about the story and its characters.

There was no one Susa style — there were many. All of them showed his innate ability to spin a melody, lift a phrase and leave listeners feeling that they had just heard something very special.

The Internet and social media offer exciting new opportunities for musicians and artists of all stripes to reach an appreciative audience. Only recently, though, have classical ensembles seem to have started taking full advantage of these tools.

As we acknowledge Veteran's Day and prepare to rebroadcast a moving St. Olaf performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem (November 14, 8:00 p.m.), we're looking at the many ways composers were touched by the conflagration that was known as "the Great War" before being eclipsed just a few decades later by a conflict that was even more terrible.

Soprano Jacquelyn Wagner returns to Minnesota Opera this week for her debut as Arabella, the beautiful woman torn between her desire to marry for love and her family's need for her to marry for money. She and Minnesota Opera President Kevin Ramach came to Classical MPR to talk about the production and to sing an aria from it.

Why, after 200 years, do we still talk about Verdi? In this week's Learning to Listen, Emily Reese and special guest, Dale Johnson of the Minnesota Opera, explore that question while illustrating Verdi's three distinct compositional periods.

Adam Laurence Herskowitz, playing Calaf in the Minnesota Opera's production of Turandot, took the express from Newark to the Metropolitan Opera, with one quick stop — to change his voice!

On both Sunday and Monday at 2 p.m., Copper Street Brass Quintet will perform at the Minnesota State Fair on the stage at the MPR booth, located near the corner of Judson and Nelson. Founded in Albuquerque, N.M., in 2007, the Copper Street Brass Quintet (or CSBQ) relocated to Minneapolis in 2008.

Today at 2 p.m., resident artists from the Minnesota Opera will perform at the Minnesota State Fair at the MPR booth, located near the corner of Judson and Nelson. Classical MPR's Julie Amacher hosts.

Today at 2 p.m., Minnesota Boychoir will perform at the MPR booth at the State Fair, located near the corner of Judson and Nelson. According to its website, the Minnesota Boychoir is the oldest boy choir in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, having been founded in 1962.