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DJ Sessions: Opera Greats Past And Present

German opera singer Fritz Wunderlich (1930 - 1966) is pictured circa 1958. (Express Newspapers/Getty Images) and American opera singer Renee Fleming is pictured on, March 2, 2015, in New York. (Evan Agostini/Invision via AP)
German opera singer Fritz Wunderlich (1930 - 1966) is pictured circa 1958. (Express Newspapers/Getty Images) and American opera singer Renee Fleming is pictured on, March 2, 2015, in New York. (Evan Agostini/Invision via AP)

For this week’s installment of the Here & Now DJ Sessions, host Jeremy Hobson sits down with classical DJ and opera singer Peter Van de Graaf, who shares some of his favorite opera music, from the late German tenor Fritz Wunderlich to American singer Renee Fleming.

Note: We have a Spotify playlist for our weekly DJ Sessions segment. The playlist will be updated each week with new songs. Spotify is free to use, but requires a login.

Songs In This Segment

  1. Otto Nicolai, “Horch, die Lerche singt” from “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” sung by Fritz Wunderlich (tenor), with the Bavarian State Orchestra led by Robert Heger
  2. Handel, “Alleluia” from the motet “Saeviat tellus inter rigores,” sung by Julia Lezhneva (soprano) with Il Giardino Armonico led by Giovanni Antonini
  3. Jules Massenet, “Ah, fuyez, douce image” from “Manon,” sung by Jonas Kaufmann (tenor) with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra led by Marco Armiliato
  4. Hermann Raupach, “Hound, open wide your jaw” from “Hercules,” sung by Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo-soprano) with I Barocchisti led by Diego Fasolis
  5. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, “My flowers!” from “Servilia,” sung by Renee Fleming (soprano) with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra led by Valery Gergiev

From the montage at the beginning of this segment:

  1. Gianni Schicchi, “O mio babbino caro” from the opera “Gianni Schicchi”  (Act I, Lauretta)
  2. Georges Bizet, “Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre” (the Toreador Song) from the opera “Carmen”
  3. Giacomo Puccini, “Vissi d’arte” from the opera “Tosca”

Guest

  • Peter Van de Graaff, host of the Beethoven Satellite Network (BSN) overnight classical music service out of WFMT in Chicago. He is also an opera singer.

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