Washington National Opera on the Radio

Want to hear some of the performances from last year's Washington National Opera season? On the next two Saturdays, NPR's program World of Opera (hosted by Lisa Simeone) will give you the chance:

• September 18: Gioacchino Rossini, La Cenerentola
  
• September 25: André Previn, A Streetcar Named Desire

It is a sad fact that we cannot listen to this show on any public radio station in the Washington area. (If you live here and you like opera, do as I have done and write to one of the local NPR stations to ask that they carry it. Since May alone, we have missed Houston Grand Opera's production of Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men; the world premiere of Libby Larsen's Barnum's Bird; the Covent Garden Faust, with Roberto Alagna, Bryn Terfel, Angela Gheorghiu, and Sophie Koch; Robert Kurka's The Good Soldier Schweik from Glimmerglass Opera; and many other works.)

Fortunately, WETA (90.9 FM) does carry the Met broadcasts here, which don't start until December 11. And I have just learned that they will broadcast the operas from last year's season at the Washington National Opera, at 1:30 pm on Saturdays, leading up to the start of the Met broadcasts:

• October 23: Vincenzo Bellini, Norma
  
• October 30: Johann Strauss, Jr., Die Fledermaus
  
• November 6: Richard Wagner, Die Walküre
  
• November 13: Gioacchino Rossini, La Cenerentola
  
• November 20: André Previn, A Streetcar Named Desire
  
• November 27: Giacomo Puccini, Manon Lescaut
  
• December 4: Giuseppe Verdi, La traviata

Go. Listen.