Aria Code

Aria Code

WQXR & The Metropolitan Opera

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. Each episode dives into one aria — a feature for a single singer — and explores how and why these brief musical moments have imprinted themselves in our collective consciousness and what it takes to stand on the Met stage and sing them. A wealth...

Love and Other Drugs: Gounod's Roméo et Juliette

Love and Other Drugs: Gounod's Roméo et Juliette

Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is the most famous love story in the Western canon. It’s a tale so embedded in our culture — one that has seen so many iterations and retellings — it might feel hard to appreciate its original pathos, and the way it perfectly distills the intersections of young romance, idealism, and rebellion. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and guests take a fresh look at this classic by focusing on the character of Juliet and her pivotal decision to take the friar’s dra

Jan 17, 2024 • 54:14

You Don't Own Me: The Myth and Magic of Bizet's Carmen

You Don't Own Me: The Myth and Magic of Bizet's Carmen

Carmen is maybe the most famous heroine in all of opera. She’s a woman of Romani descent living in 19th century Spain, sensual and self-confident, aware of the power she wields over men — and she enjoys it. In her signature aria, popularly known as the “Habanera,” she describes herself as a bird who can’t be captured. True to her own word, Carmen — and what she represents — is hard to pin down.  When “Carmen” premiered in Paris in 1875, it was deemed wildly immoral. Carmen becomes intrigued by a

Jan 3, 2024 • 53:47

Revisiting Mozart’s Queen of the Night: Outrage Out of This World

Revisiting Mozart’s Queen of the Night: Outrage Out of This World

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 Bach to Chuck Berry, but there was only one opera aria: the rage-fest and coloratura masterpiece from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”As Kathryn Lewek reprises her role as Queen of the Night in this season’s holiday presentation of “The Magic Flute” at The Metropolitan Opera, we’re revisiting this episode. Host Rhiannon Giddens and her

Dec 13, 2023 • 27:11

Love Takes Flight: Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas

Love Takes Flight: Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas

It’s the early 1900s, and the steamship El Dorado makes its way along the Amazon River towards Manaus, a city in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest. Onboard is the world-famous opera singer Florencia Grimaldi. She’s got a gig at the opera house in Manaus, but that’s just a cover. She’s actually hoping for a reunion with her long-lost love, the butterfly catcher Cristóbal.But on the journey, Florencia learns that Cristóbal went missing in the rainforest while in pursuit of a rare butterfly. Fr

Nov 29, 2023 • 52:54

Davis’s X: The Life and Legacy of Malcolm X

Davis’s X: The Life and Legacy of Malcolm X

Malcolm X led many lives within his 39 years: as a bereaved but precocious child; as an imprisoned convict; as a firebrand spokesperson for the Nation of Islam and Black nationalism; and ultimately as one of the most pivotal figures of the Civil Rights movement. Today, he continues to inspire passion and controversy, his legacy as nuanced as the man himself.Anthony Davis’s opera “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” seeks to gather Malcolm X’s many identities and hold them together in the way onl

Nov 15, 2023 • 45:50

Revisiting Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice: Don’t Look Back in Ardor

Revisiting Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice: Don’t Look Back in Ardor

If a loved one were to die, how far would you be willing to go to bring them back? Orpheus, the ancient Greek musician, goes to hell and back to have the love of his life, Eurydice, by his side again. The gods cut a deal with Orpheus: he can bring his love back from hell, but all throughout the journey, she has to follow behind him and he is not allowed to look back at her. Unable to resist, he turns to see her,  and the gods take her for a second time. In a moment of overwhelming grief, Orpheus

Nov 1, 2023 • 32:55

Good Things Come to Those Who Weep: Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore

Good Things Come to Those Who Weep: Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore

“L’Elisir d’Amore” — “The Elixir of Love” — is what’s known as an opera buffa, or comic opera. That means that we’re in for a happy ending.But Donizetti knows that the payoff is only earned through the suffering of his protagonists. In one pivotal moment, our hero Nemorino glimpses his beloved shedding a single tear — and he concludes (crazily, but correctly) that it can only mean that she loves him back. The aria Nemorino delivers here — one of the most famous in the history of opera — expresse

Oct 18, 2023 • 42:09

Death, Faith, and Redemption: Heggie’s Dead Man Walking

Death, Faith, and Redemption: Heggie’s Dead Man Walking

What does redemption mean to a man sentenced to death? Is capital punishment justice or vengeance? Could anyone ever forgive a murderer?These are just some of the questions behind the true story of the nun who became a spiritual adviser to men on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Dead Man Walking was first a 1993 memoir by the Catholic nun and fervent death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean; later, it was adapted into an Oscar-winning movie. Sister Helen’s story inspired a n

Oct 4, 2023 • 44:58

Aria Code Returns for Season 4!

Aria Code Returns for Season 4!

At last! After much anticipation, Aria Code returns! We’re guiding listeners through highlights from the Metropolitan Opera’s 2023-2024 season, pairing beloved classics with investigations into modern masterpieces. So get ready for a night at the opera — from the comfort of your own home. (Or wherever!) Arias from the likes of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X will tackle some of the most complex social and ethical questions head-on, while clas

Sep 28, 2023 • 2:00

P.S. I Love You: Renée Fleming Sings Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin

P.S. I Love You: Renée Fleming Sings Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin

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 you in unexpected ways. In Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, it’s the 16-year-old Tatyana who pins her heart on her sleeve. Young and naive, but also fiercely confident, she pours out her feelings for the visiting Eugene Onegin in one night of impassioned love-letter-making. His answer defines the rest of

Dec 1, 2021 • 50:57

To Be Or Not To Be: Dean's Hamlet

To Be Or Not To Be: Dean's Hamlet

“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’s Hamlet, the troubled Danish prince asks whether this whole life thing is even worth it. But “to be or not to be'' is not the only question we’re asking this week.  When everyone knows this line so well, how do you make it fresh again? How does adapting Shakespeare’s play into an opera change our understanding of the text? In this episode, host Rhi

Nov 17, 2021 • 41:58

Potion, Emotion, Devotion: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

Potion, Emotion, Devotion: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

When we talk about “falling in love,” we talk about it like it is something that just happens. Suddenly the ground opens up and we are falling for somebody, as if there is no choice in the matter. This is everywhere -- in movies, TV shows, novels, and of course, in opera. Take Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde - while Tristan is bringing her across the Irish sea to marry his uncle Marke, King of Cornwall, they both drink a love potion and fall instantly, madly in love with each other. But Isolde is st

Nov 3, 2021 • 39:32

Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A Boy of Peculiar Grace

Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A Boy of Peculiar Grace

This week we’re decoding with the man who wrote the code - Terence Blanchard, composer of Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Not only is it the work that reopened the Met after its 18-month pandemic shutdown, but it’s also the first opera by a Black composer ever to be performed there. Based on the 2014 memoir of the same name by New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow, Fire Shut Up in My Bones is a coming-of-age story about his childhood in a tiny town in northwest Louisiana.  From a young age, Charles

Oct 13, 2021 • 42:45

Verdi's Nabucco: By the Rivers of Babylon

Verdi's Nabucco: By the Rivers of Babylon

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, Broadway, disco, folk and more, but one of the most memorable versions is featured in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco. The opera retells the story of the Babylonian captivity when Nebuchadnezzar (or Nabucco, in Italian) seizes Jerusalem, destroys the temple, and enslaves the Israelites in his kingdom. At the heart of t

Sep 29, 2021 • 44:01

Once More Into the Breeches: Joyce DiDonato Sings Strauss

Once More Into the Breeches: Joyce DiDonato Sings Strauss

The young Composer in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos is one of opera’s great trouser roles -- a female singer playing the part of a young man.  He is set to premiere his new opera at the home of the richest man in Vienna, only to learn moments before the performance that a bawdy comedy troupe will be performing at the same time.  As his plans collapse around him, the Composer falls in love with Zerbinetta, the leader of the commedia dell'arte troupe, and his whole world changes in a flash. In his a

Sep 15, 2021 • 32:25

Breaking Mad: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor

Breaking Mad: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor

People who go to see Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor spend the entire evening waiting for the famous Mad Scene, to hear the soprano’s incredible acrobatics, and to feel her intense emotional changes over the course of the lengthy showstopper. But the Mad Scene is more than a vocal showpiece: it’s a window into what it means to lose touch with reality and the ways women’s real-life challenges can go ignored or, even worse, pathologized as illness. In the opera, Lucia has no control of her

Aug 25, 2021 • 1:04:03

Crisis in the Kremlin: Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov

Crisis in the Kremlin: Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov

Perhaps no opera better reflects the questions and contradictions at the heart of Russian history than Modest Mussorgsky’s historical epic Boris Godunov. Based on the play by Alexander Pushkin (considered by many to be one of Russia’s greatest writers), it’s a meditation on power and legitimacy, and a portrayal of a pivotal period in Russian history -- The Time of Troubles.  When Tsar Ivan the Terrible dies without an heir, Boris Godunov is elected tsar, casting doubt on his legitimacy. He rules

Aug 11, 2021 • 33:43

Only the Good Die Young: Verdi's La Traviata

Only the Good Die Young: Verdi's La Traviata

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, dying of tuberculosis at the age of 23. One of her lovers, Alexandre Dumas fils, was so inspired by her that he wrote a novel and a play about her life called The Lady of the Camellias, which in turn inspired Giuseppe Verdi to compose La Traviata. Verdi immortalized Marie Duplessis in the character of Violetta

Jul 21, 2021 • 37:39

Guys and Dolls: Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann

Guys and Dolls: Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann

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 interactions. But what really separates humans from machines is our ability to love, to dream, and to believe in an illusion.  In Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, the poet Hoffmann thinks he’s finally found love, and he’s so head-over-heels that he doesn’t realize something’s off -- Olympia, the woman of his dre

Jul 7, 2021 • 40:02

Strauss's Elektra: Waltzing With a Vengeance

Strauss's Elektra: Waltzing With a Vengeance

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 wronged. Outcast and distraught, the title character in Richard Strauss’s Elektra is obsessed with avenging the murder of her father. And because the story is based on a Greek myth, and Greek myths are full of dysfunctional families, this means that Elektra is hellbent on killing her own mother. We get our first taste of the darkness i

Jun 23, 2021 • 43:43

Puccini's Tosca: Death is But a Dream

Puccini's Tosca: Death is But a Dream

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 that have meant the most. For the leading man in Puccini’s Tosca, that’s the sweetness and beauty of his beloved.  Caught up in the messy politics of his time, Mario Cavaradossi has been arrested, interrogated, and tortured. And then, he’s sentenced to death. “E lucevan le stelle” finds Cavaradossi in his pris

Jun 9, 2021 • 27:34

Handel's Agrippina: Nice Romans Finish Last

Handel's Agrippina: Nice Romans Finish Last

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 rulers would kill a million people and enslave a million more just to flex their power. This was the Game of Thrones setting that George Frideric Handel chose for Agrippina. The opera's name comes from Empress Agrippina the Younger, a woman of ambition and influence, and this episode focuses on someone who inadvertently stand

May 19, 2021 • 37:24

Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress: I Walk the Line

Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress: I Walk the Line

Almost three hundred years ago, the English artist William Hogarth created a series of paintings called A Rake’s Progress, which tell the tragic story of a man whose life spirals out of control after inheriting an unexpected fortune. He leaves behind a fiancée, and it is her story of devotion that reverberates through Igor Stravinsky’s opera The Rake’s Progress and the aria “No Word from Tom.”  In this episode, you’ll visit with Hogarth’s paintings, hear how Stravinsky captured the undying loyal

May 5, 2021 • 46:08

Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro: Count On a Reckoning

Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro: Count On a Reckoning

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 throws a fit and blames everyone but himself. Sound like your daily news alert? It’s Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, but somehow the world of feudal Spain in the 1700s is still distressingly familiar today.  The aria “Hai già vinta la causa” traces the emotions of the aristocratic and imperious Count Almaviva when

Apr 21, 2021 • 37:16

Rossini's Barber of Seville: On a Wig and a Prayer

Rossini's Barber of Seville: On a Wig and a Prayer

Chances are, you know the overture to The Barber of Seville (maybe from Bugs Bunny?!) but Gioachino Rossini’s most famous opera is more than a comedic romp. Embedded in the topsy-turvy tale of young love and silly disguises, there is a story of forced marriage and a woman’s determination to live a life of her choosing.  We meet the heroine Rosina for the first time in the aria “Una voce poco fa,” in which she declares that while she may seem sweet and innocent, she is really not someone to be me

Apr 7, 2021 • 41:02

Verdi's Aida: There's No Place Like Home

Verdi's Aida: There's No Place Like Home

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. Aida is torn between her love for this man and her love for her home and, because it’s opera, she ultimately chooses the tenor. In “O Patria Mia,” Aida stands on the banks of the Nile and says goodbye to Ethiopia. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore what home means, and what it means

Mar 24, 2021 • 41:29

Puccini's Turandot: Hope Never Sleeps

Puccini's Turandot: Hope Never Sleeps

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 face of adversity, and love triumphing over fear. In other words, it is exactly what the world needs right now.  The aria “Nessun dorma” is Prince Calaf’s declaration of love and resounding victory cry. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and three guests explore what makes this aria so popular even beyond the opera h

Mar 10, 2021 • 32:53

Aria Code Is Back and Bigger Than Ever!

Aria Code Is Back and Bigger Than Ever!

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. Just like a full season at the opera house, the podcast season will cover a staggering range of music, artists, and voices -- from early works by Handel all the way to the contemporary work of American composer and jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard. We'll cover fan favorites by Verdi and Puccini, as well as lesser-known gems by

Mar 3, 2021 • 1:19

Rossini's La Cenerentola: Opera's Cinderella Story

Rossini's La Cenerentola: Opera's Cinderella Story

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 silently suffered the abuse of her stepfather and stepsisters, but in true fairy tale fashion, her fate changes for the better and all is made right by the triumph of goodness over evil.  In the opera’s joyous finale “Nacqui all’affanno… Non più mesta,” Cenerentola looks ahead to a future with no more sa

Feb 5, 2020 • 41:32

Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann: Fool for Love

Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann: Fool for Love

Love is intoxicating, but dating can be hard. In Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, a love-obsessed poet tells fantastical stories of romance gone very, very wrong. Based on the works of 19th-century Gothic horror writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, the opera is a journey through desire and loss – a journey that just might make you feel better about your own dating disasters!  In the aria “Ô Dieu! de quelle ivresse,” the poet-protagonist Hoffmann professes his passionate love to the courtesan Giulie

Jan 29, 2020 • 33:24

Puccini's Turandot: Bewitched, Bothered, And Beheaded

Puccini's Turandot: Bewitched, Bothered, And Beheaded

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 the heads of her suitors. In her first aria, “In questa reggia,” Turandot explains that she will avenge the rape and murder of her ancestress from thousands of years ago, and that she is determined never to be possessed by any man. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the truth at the hea

Jan 22, 2020 • 37:23

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess: Rise Up Singing

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess: Rise Up Singing

The most famous American opera opens with one of the most famous American songs: “Summertime.” The Gershwins’ haunting lullaby from Porgy and Bess is a simple tune with a complex story. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore not just the lyrics and music, but how Porgy and Bess came into being and the way it draws on the culture of the Gullah Geechee, descendants of formerly enslaved people living in and around South Carolina. Decoding two arias – "Summertime" and "I Got P

Jan 15, 2020 • 42:46

Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier featuring Renée Fleming: Here's To You, Mrs. Marschallin

Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier featuring Renée Fleming: Here's To You, Mrs. Marschallin

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 Der Rosenkavalier, she is having an affair with the young Count Octavian, but she quickly comes to realize that she will one day lose him to a woman his own age. Throughout Act I, she reflects on her lost youth, her desire to stop all the clocks, and on the fleeting nature of beauty and love.   In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and

Dec 18, 2019 • 34:41

Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice: Don't Look Back in Ardor

Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice: Don't Look Back in Ardor

If a loved one were ever to die, 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 side again. The gods cut a deal with Orpheus: he can bring his love back from hell, but all throughout the journey, she has to follow behind him and he is not allowed to look back at her. Unable to resist, he turns to see her,  and the gods take her for a second time. In a moment of overwhelming grief, Orph

Dec 11, 2019 • 0:00

Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro: Sleepless in Sevilla

Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro: Sleepless in Sevilla

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? The Countess lives inside Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro in Italian) and her philandering husband, the Count Almaviva, is due for a major comeuppance from his wife and her servant. But the Countess isn’t fixed on vengeance; she’s wondering how she can recapture the romance in her marriage. In this

Dec 4, 2019 • 35:04

Philip Glass’s Akhnaten: I Am Your Sunshine, Your Only Sunshine

Philip Glass’s Akhnaten: I Am Your Sunshine, Your Only Sunshine

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 gods to worshiping just one paved the way for monotheism and the major Judeo-Christian faiths. His desire to remake the world is the subject of Philip Glass's entrancing opera. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests reflect on Akhnaten’s "Hymn to the Sun," an aria drawn from an ancient text of dev

Nov 27, 2019 • 43:10

Puccini's Madama Butterfly: When My Ship Comes In

Puccini's Madama Butterfly: When My Ship Comes In

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. Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton abandoned Cio-Cio-San three years earlier, but she's absolutely sure that one fine day he'll sail over the horizon and return for her and their child.  The aria "Un bel di vedremo" captures Butterfly's unwavering faith in their reunion and her unflagging desire for a better life. In t

Nov 20, 2019 • 31:59

Verdi's Lady Macbeth: Sleepwalk with Me, featuring Anna Netrebko

Verdi's Lady Macbeth: Sleepwalk with Me, featuring Anna Netrebko

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 and her husband have done some really, really bad things in their pursuit of power, but it’s Lady Macbeth whose ambition drives her to midnight rantings about her crimes. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests reflect on Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene – her final appearance in Giuseppe Verdi’

Nov 13, 2019 • 37:17

Aria Code with Rhiannon Giddens is Back!

Aria Code with Rhiannon Giddens is Back!

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 first season, Aria Code became a low-key hit for both longtime opera fans and folks discovering it for the first time. Each episode opens a window into one aria – a feature for a single singer – and explores how and why these brief musical moments have imprinted themselves in our collective consciousness and what it ta

Nov 7, 2019 • 1:30

Floyd's Susannah: Hopeless in New Hope, featuring Renée Fleming

Floyd's Susannah: Hopeless in New Hope, featuring Renée Fleming

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, blame and lust would still resonate today. In this special episode of Aria Code, host Rhiannon Giddens joins soprano Renée Fleming, writer and stage director Thomas Holliday, and feminist writer Leora Tanenbaum to consider the haunting folk aria “The Trees on the Mountains,” and the devastating loss of innocence at the heart of

Jun 21, 2019 • 30:58

Flower Power: Don José and Dangerous Love in Bizet's Carmen

Flower Power: Don José and Dangerous Love in Bizet's Carmen

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 side, too. In the Season 1 finale, host Rhiannon Giddens welcomes tenor Roberto Alagna, critic Anne Midgette and psychologist Andrew G. Marshall to consider the crazy, possessive side of love and the importance of experiencing art that doesn’t have a fairy-tale ending. Then, you’ll hear Alagna sing the role of the passiona

Feb 6, 2019 • 28:17

Massenet's Werther: You've Got Mail!

Massenet's Werther: You've Got Mail!

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. From an opera based on the Goethe novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, this scene finds the tortured heroine Charlotte re-reading the letters of the doomed poet. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens welcomes soprano Isabel Leonard, pianist Mary Dibbern and author Peter Bognanni to explore why the words we write

Jan 30, 2019 • 29:41

Mozart's Queen of the Night: Outrage Out of This World

Mozart's Queen of the Night: Outrage Out of This World

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 Bach to Chuck Berry, but there was only one opera aria: the rage-fest from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens is joined by soprano Kathryn Lewek, musicologist Carolyn Abbate and author Jan Swafford. Together they consider why the Queen of the Night’s big moment – “Der Hölle Rache” – is an out-of-this-

Jan 23, 2019 • 26:12

Verdi's Rigoletto: First Love, Wrong Love

Verdi's Rigoletto: First Love, Wrong Love

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 is that her new love isn’t who he says he is. The worst will come (it’s opera), but for a few brief moments in Act I, Gilda’s innocence sweeps you away. She’s young and head over heels and obsessing over the “caro nome,” the “dear name” of her new love.  In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens is joined by soprano Nadine Sierra, writer Paul

Jan 16, 2019 • 32:30

Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment: Sailing the High Cs

Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment: Sailing the High Cs

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.” Gaetano Donizetti wrote this high-stakes aria for his opera La Fille du Régiment. The young hero Tonio has just enlisted in the army and received permission to marry the girl of his dreams. “Ah, mes amis” is his celebration: Tonio’s bursting with so much joy that the guy sings nine – count ‘em, NINE – high Cs. I

Jan 9, 2019 • 28:29

Saint-Saëns’s Dalila: She's a Femme Fatale

Saint-Saëns’s Dalila: She's a Femme Fatale

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 Saint-Saëns. "My heart opens to your voice,” sings Dalila, "like the flowers open to the kisses of the dawn." It sure sounds like a love song, but just below the surface it’s simmering with seduction and betrayal. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens welcomes mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, writer James Jorden of Parterre Box

Jan 2, 2019 • 29:44

Puccini's Tosca: I Offered Songs to the Stars

Puccini's Tosca: I Offered Songs to the Stars

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? Tosca's despair and the moving way Puccini captures it musically speak so directly to artists, to audiences, to all of us, that "Vissi d'arte" has become one of the most famous arias in opera. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and guests Sondra Radvanovsky, Rufus Wainwright and Vivien Schweitzer consider wh

Dec 26, 2018 • 24:26

Puccini's La Boheme: Is Love at First Sight Really a Thing?

Puccini's La Boheme: Is Love at First Sight Really a Thing?

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 La Bohème? In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests consider what love at first sight is really all about, sharing perspectives on the music, the history and, yes, the brain science. Plus, you'll hear tenor Vittorio Grigolo sing the complete aria "Che gelida manina" from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

Dec 12, 2018 • 25:02

Verdi's La Traviata: Opera's Original 'Pretty Woman'

Verdi's La Traviata: Opera's Original 'Pretty Woman'

Verdi’s La Traviata revolves around the high-class courtesan Violetta, the quintessential "tart with a heart" who falls for Mr. Right but can’t decide whether she really wants to settle down. (Spoiler alert: it’s an opera, so she never gets the chance.) In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests reflect on Violetta’s spectacular Act I finale and its deep inner conflicts around love and freedom. Plus, you'll hear the complete aria sung from the Met Opera stage. The Guests Diana Damrau

Dec 4, 2018 • 33:10

Welcome to Aria Code with Rhiannon Giddens

Welcome to Aria Code with Rhiannon Giddens

Aria Code is a new podcast that pulls back the curtain on the most famous arias in opera history, hosted by Rhiannon Giddens.

Nov 19, 2018 • 2:30

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