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Opera broadcast to include JPR interview The Shakespeare character behind Verdi's 'Falstaff' will be discussed when the show airs nationally on April 6 By BILL VARBLE Jefferson Public Radio will make history when The Metropolitan Opera's broadcast of Giuseppe Verdi's "Falstaff" airs nationally April 6. On that day, a feature produced by JPR is scheduled to become the first-ever feature done by a member of the Met's radio network to be aired on the long-running show. The piece is called "Shakespeare on Stage." The story goes back to May, when two visitors from the Chevron Texaco Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network were visiting Southern Oregon University-based JPR in Ashland. JPR head Ron Kramer took the two to a showing of "Enter the Guardsman," a musical based on a Molnar farce, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. "You kind of worry, taking somebody from New York City to a musical," Kramer says, "but they loved it." Soon after that, Met officials asked Kramer if the station would be interested in doing a story linked to the Ashland theater scene. Kramer called OSF designer Dick Hay looking for somebody with a background in both the operatic and the dramatic stage. The OSF at the time was gearing up for Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor," with Lillian Groag as guest director. The connection between that play and the Verdi opera is the character of Sir John Falstaff. Kramer approached Groag, who has directed opera and the dramatic stage, about the differences in approaching a character for drama and opera. There is none, Groag said. "She said 'You're a different person today than you were yesterday,' " Kramer remembers. "She said the Falstaff who appeared in Shakespeare's 'Henry IV, Part One' and 'Henry IV, Part Two' and in 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' and in Verdi's 'Falstaff' are just different dimensions of the character." Falstaff is a fat, lecherous, gluttonous braggart generally considered one of the greatest characters in English literature. Verdi's version of him is linked more to the character than to Shakespeare's play. Kramer caught up with Groag in Los Angeles in November and produced a 25-minute interview that's been edited to 11 minutes for the Met. It's scheduled to run during the opera's intermission. "Falstaff" is based loosely on "The Merry Wives of Windsor." Most of the plays credited to William Shakespeare have been made into operas, some of them several times, but "Falstaff," which Verdi wrote in 1893, is widely considered one of the best. Verdi is one of the most important figures in Italian opera, and "Falstaff" (together with his "Otello") is often considered the crowning achievement of his mature years. Groag is back in New York City, where she is working on a production of Handel's "Agrippina" that she is directing for the New York City Opera. The Metropolitan Opera show is the longest-running continual radio broadcast in the United States, dating to 1931. The broadcasts are heard widely around the world. "Falstaff" stars Bryn Terfel singing the title role. Kramer's interview with Groag is scheduled to be aired in the program's first intermission, at about 11:08 a.m. (Medford time) April 8. It's scheduled to follow a preview of an April 13 broadcast of Wolf-Farrari's "Sly." The show can be heard locally on JPR's Classics and News Service stations (KSOR, 90.1 FM, and KSRG, 88.3 FM) at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail bvarble@mailtribune.com |
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