Ionarts Gets a New Toy

Santa Claus was good to Ionarts this year, leaving us a pile of hardware for our new Sirius satellite radio service. You may have noticed a lightening of content on the opera blogs over the past couple months. It corresponded more or less to the decision by the Metropolitan Opera to create its own channel on Sirius, with live broadcasts of some performances each week and a tantalizing selection of archival broadcasts. An opera fanatic could use up large portions of his free time on this. I have gotten it to work in the car and in various homes where we have been guests. Yesterday, I spent a lazy afternoon listening to a broadcast of Gounod's Faust (February 26, 1972) with Plácido Domingo in the title role, Giorgio Tozzi as Méphistophélès, and even Frederica von Stade as Siébel. Sirius even has NPR's World of Opera on Sundays. As if I did not already have enough to listen to in my free time.