Radio Betty – episode 12

I got all excited when I saw Susanna Phillips was singing in Boston Lyric Opera’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was this close to her backstage at the Met. We… you know…. hung out.

Except she was in the middle of singing La Bohème so we didn’t get to chat much.

And then I was talking to my new best friend at Modern Day Mozartian, and she asked me about cross-overs, which made me think of Renée Fleming and Matt Haimovitz. Matt doesn’t play opera, but I didn’t let that stop me from throwing him into the fray. I also wanted to get some Wynton Marsalis in and lo and behold I have him on a track with Kathleen Battle. Which absolutely counts. Here’s the playlist:

  • “O Sole Mio” Redneck Tenors, 3 Redneck Tenors – A New Musical Adventure
  • “Sunday Songs: I. Oriole” Susanna Phillips, Wheeler: Wasting the Night: Songs
  • “Isolde!/Tristan! Geliebter!” Wagner: Tristan und Isolde – Placido Domingo/Nina Stemme/René Pape/Mihoko Fujimura/Olaf Bär/Jared Holt/Matthew Rose/Rolando Villazon/Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden/Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden/Antonio Pappano
  • “Mild und leise wie er lächelt” Wagner: Tristan und Isolde –  Dame Joan SutherlandLa Stupenda – The Supreme Joan Sutherland
  • “Soul Meets Body” Renée Fleming Dark Hope
  • “You Are A Tourist” Death Cab for Cutie Codes and Keys
  • “Figlude” Matt Haimovitz Figment
  • “Baboon Tribe” Stewart Copeland Orchestralli
  • “Let The Bright Seraphim” Handel: Samson,  Wynton Marsalis, Kathleen Battle, Anthony Newman, John Nelson; Orchestra Of St. Luke’s
  • “Quando Men Vo” Puccini – La Bohème – Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti, Karajan

I was on a Tristan und Isolde kick because I just finished The Metropolis Case by Matthew Gallaway. There’s a lot of sex in it, so don’t read it if you’re my mother. There’s a lot of opera, too (and opera sex). AND there’s a lot about the Velvet Underground and My Bloody Valentine and Hüsker Dü and heaps of other bands I like.

See, honey? It’s not just me.

Huge thanks to Sonic Trout for gluing it all together and sprinkling it with fairy dust and sequins. And hugest thanks to WOMR for airing it every month. You can listen live online at www.womr.org on the second Sunday of every month at the stroke of noon.

Wear your pajamas. I do.