The Merola Opera Program
We meet the Executive Director and opera singers from the United States' leading opera training program. They sing several opera selections for us.
The Summer Academy Opera of the Vienna Philharmonic
Those who are more or less familiar with the Vienna Philharmonic know it as the elite orchestra that plays a concert of waltzes on New Year’s Day that is broadcast all over the world. Indeed, as an Austrian cultural institution, the Vienna Philharmonic may be the country’s standard-bearer: it is sent annually to every major political and financial capital on the globe. But there is a side to the Philharmonic that not everyone knows about; it is a training program for aspiring professional musicians called the Summer Academy Opera of the Vienna Philharmonic. The singers who take part in the Summer Academy get to do something quite special: sing a Mozart opera under the tutelage of the Vienna Philharmonic. Our featured guests for this show are sure to have a lot of insight into this extraordinary program. They are the two directors of the Summer Academy Opera, Professor Michael Werba and Professor Niels Muus and three of the Academy’s singers, Risa Matsushima, Anna Tiapkina and Alexander Fritze. Come welcome them to our show and hear Mozart done the Vienna Philharmonic way!