One of the things that attracts us all to Bizet's Carmen is his use of the orchestra, especially in those wonderful entr'actes the he places prior to each act.  Let's explore and have a listen to them as we look forward to our 2011 International Season!

In olden days (!), Gounod's opera Faust was performed in its entirety.  That makes for a very long evening.  Having recently caught a Met broadcast on Sirius radio from 1972 with Domingo, Zylis-Gara and Tozzi (as a marvelous Mephistopheles!), I can attest that it took forever, however gorgeous the performance was!  The scene that is normally dropped for both time and dramatic reasons is the Walpurgis Night Scene.  Let's take a listen to some of the music from that scene.

Did you ever wonder exactly why Richard Strauss uses the waltz throughout his comic opera Der Rosenkavalier?  Considering that the story takes place in mid-18th century Vienna (a time when the waltz had not quite developed yet) it seems a bit anachronistic.  And yet, Strauss makes it work so well!  Listen to a theory proposed by the great conductor Georg Solti and a few choice examples from the score!