There's nothing like singing in an opera chorus. Marc Eliot Stein and Ted Shulman talk about their participation in Regina Opera's production of Verdi's "Rigoletto" in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and the special ways a chorus can illuminate or enliven a classic opera. We chat about "Nabucco", "Turandot", "Parsifal", "Les Contes d'Hoffmann", "Orfeo ed Euridice", "HMS Pinafore" and "Aida", and the conversation also turns to amateur singing, drinking songs, offensive operas, gender of choruses, teamwork, the disastrous 2023 Israel/Gaza war, Lance Loud, reality TV, New York City's 1970s CBGBs punk scene and a mostly (but not completely) forgotten punk band called The Mumps.

In Gilbert and Sullivan’s fairy opera “Iolanthe” empowered magical women crash into toxic privileged masculinity in 19th century London. Marc Eliot Stein interviews New York City singer and actress Casey Keeler about her role as the powerful Fairy Queen in a recent Village Light Opera Group "Iolanthe". We also talk about “Utopia, Limited”, community theater, and how New York City's post-COVID opera subculture is staying together through hard times.

Jacques Offenbach’s masterpiece “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” is an existential psychological comic opera, a morality tale about an aesthete who destroys himself over a fanciful love of three women. In the last episode of Season 3, Marc Eliot Stein talks about Jewish composers in Paris, “Faust”, drinking songs, Mozart, Gilbert and Sullivan, Zarzuela, sex dolls, synaesthesia and the opera novels of late New York City writer Richard P. Brickner.

What should we do with Mozart’s problematic masterpiece “Don Giovanni” in the 21st century? Vicki Zunitch joins Marc Eliot Stein to talk about the moral situations portrayed in the famous story of a sociopathic charmer and rapist brought to justice by a stone statue, with a focus on all the characters caught in his web: Anna, Elvira, Zerlina, Masetto, Ottavio, the Commendatore and the eternal wingman, Leporello. We also talk about Soren Kierkegaard’s “Either/Or”, Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson in "It Happened in Brooklyn", Tirso de Molina’s “The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest”, Moliere’s “Dom Juan”, the idea of "Carmen" as a reverse gender "Don Giovanni" and a stunningly surreal new version of this opera directed by Romeo Castellucci and choreographed by Cindy Van Acker that premiered in 2021 in Salzburg, Austria.

Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana kicked off the verismo craze in Italian opera in 1890. Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci followed two years later. We talk about the ripple effects of the verismo movement in this wide-ranging episode, covering everything from Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese to Anton Chekhov, Konstantin Stanislavski, Stella Adler and Marlon Brando, along with more Marx Brothers, the Ride of the Valkyries and a surprise appearance by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” is one of the most popular operas of all time, and also one of the hardest to follow. What is going on with this crazy plot? There’s a lot under the surface, and it's all spelled out in this explainer by Marc Eliot Stein, who shows how a thrilling but nakedly horrible storyline became an entertainment fit for 19th century operagoers. This fascinating episode ends with a look at the Marx Brothers “A Night at the Opera”, which joyously tears Verdi’s masterpiece to shreds.

Season 3 kicks off with a visit from poet and professor Daniel Nester, librettist for "The Summer King" by Daniel Sonenberg and author of "God Save My Queen". We talk about slam poetry, karaoke and New York City's Bowery Poetry Club, and then attempt a deep dive into the operatic context of the classic rock song "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, and why it may have been inspired by the verismo opera "Cavalleria Rusticana" by Pietro Mascagni.

A discussion of Giuseppe Verdi's breakthrough opera "Nabucco" and its Biblical origin story of Nebuchadnezzar and the neo-Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem. We also talk about Boney M, the Melodians "By the Rivers of Babylon", the Broadway musical "Godspell", Herman Melville's "Moby Dick", and why some of us hate Verdi's "Aida" and "Rigoletto". Season 2 closer of "Lost Music: Exploring Literary Opera".

Vicki Zunitch joins Marc Eliot Stein for a fresh in-depth examination of Puccini's great opera "La Boheme". We talk about the existential choices the characters make, the original comic stories by Henri Murger, the lifestyle of starving artists in 19th Century Paris and today, morning music at the Gate of Hell, affordable healthcare, and what the movie "Moonstruck" starring Cher and Nicolas Cage has to do with it all.

Jules Massenet is best known for "Manon" and "Werther", and his "Don Quichotte" hasn't played at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City for nearly a hundred years. Why not, and was it actually killed in 1926 by a single bad review? Marc Eliot Stein rediscovers this forgotten classic and finds a beautiful surprise. We also talk about "Man of La Mancha", "Sturm und Drung", Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Wagner's "Der Fliegende Hollander", Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte" and the final two shows that played at the Met before it shut down due to the pandemic of 2020.

We continue our look at the two great Figaro operas with a deep dive into Mozart's dark sexual comedy "Le Nozze di Figaro". We talk about Soren Kierkegaard, "Either/Or", trouser roles, gender ambiguity, castratos, Peter Pan, Harpo Marx, Prince's "Purple Rain", Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, Rossini, Strauss, "Der Rosenkavalier", "La Mere Coupable", "Porkys", and Marc Eliot Stein's theory that a Stephen Foster folk song and Leadbelly blues song are inspired by Mozart's operatic masterpiece.