L.A. Opera broadcasts set to return to classical KUSC-FM

“L.A. Opera on Air” returns to classical music station KUSC-FM (91.5) for its seventh season Saturday, beginning with a broadcast of Verdi’s “The Two Foscari” (I Due Foscari), starring Placido Domingo (the opera company’s general director), Francesco Meli and Marina Poplavskaya.

The series will run for six weeks, airing at 10 a.m. Saturdays. It also will be streamed online at www.kusc.org. Duff Murphy will host.

The series will feature all six operas from the company’s 2012-13 season, including “Don Giovanni,” “Madame Butterfly,” “The Flying Dutchman,” “Cinderella (La Cenerentola)” and “Tosca.” Five of them will subsequently be distributed for broadcast elsewhere in the United States on the WFMT Radio Network.

PHOTOS: LA Opera through the years

“The Two Foscari” was particularly interesting, since it was the opera’s first production in the United States in 40 years. Reviewing it last September, Times Music Critic Mark Swed was mightily impressed. “Musically, this is inimitable, irresistible Verdi,” he wrote. And as for the performers, he found Domingo “impressive still in his 140th role” and Poplavskaya “spectacular.... [She] is quickly becoming the most exciting Verdi soprano on the scene.”

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