Production shot of Munich Radio Opera’s I Lombardi alla prima crociata. Credit: BR/Markus Konvalin
For cast lists and playlists, please visit the Opera Series Overview.
New to the Opera Series, we welcome Munich Radio Opera, presenting a stellar production of Verdi’s I Lombardi alla prima crociata at the Prinzregententheater, featuring Galeano Salas as Arvino, Andreas Burkhart as Acciano, Nino Machaidze as Giselda, and Réka Kristóf as Viclinda.
With patriotic operas such as “Nabucco”, Giuseppe Verdi captured the spirit of the times in his audience. Depressed by foreign rule, especially by the Habsburgs, the Italians longed for unity and independence in their fatherland. The opera “I Lombardi alla prima crociata” (“The Lombards on the First Crusade”, 1843) also offered room for identification. How Verdi merges the remorse of a murderer and the fate of a religious community into one whole, thanks to haunting solo and choral scenes, still gets under your skin today.
About the Host
Lisa Flynn has been a program host and producer for WFMT since 1991. She presents The New Releases and has hosted many programs for the WFMT Radio Network, including War Letters (which won the 2002 Peter Lisagor Award) and a series of live broadcasts from Salzburg to celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday in 2006. As WFMT’s midday weekday announcer, Lisa hosts live studio performances and interviews guest artists including Renée Fleming, John Adams, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, John Eliot Gardiner, and many others. Before coming to Chicago, Lisa presented classical music at WOSU in Columbus, Ohio, and at WMFE and WUCF in Orlando, Florida. She holds a music degree from the University of Central Florida.
This program is a part of the WFMT Radio Network Opera Series, a series designed to complement the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts to fill out the year with great Opera content. The series begins in June and lasts until December.
