“Passione”: John Turturro’s Musical Tribute to Naples

Turturro explains his love for the city and its music.

Madame White Snake

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A new opera will premiere in Boston on Friday. It’s a piece that was written, and developed in the city over the past four years. But its story is over a thousand years old. It’s based on the ancient Chinese legend that has never been brought to a Western audience. Sung in English with projected English and Chinese titles. The World’s Adeline Sire has more. Download MP3

• Opera Boston
• Facebook Madame White Snake: World Premiere
• Madame White Snake’s study guide
• Cutler Majestic Theatre

Japanese Jazz Opera

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The standard view of Japanese popular culture, at least here in the US, is that it’s wacky, chaotic and impossible to fathom. For instance, there’s a video doing the rounds online that features actors dressed up as peasants singing American jazz standards, with Japanese lyrics. The World’s Alex Gallafent finds out what it all means. Download MP3

• Video: “Momotaro: Modern Jazz Opera”
• Subscribe to our Global Hit podcast on iTunes

Boom, Bust and Bertolt Brecht

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

In the late 1920s, American capitalism inspired a German opera about a city built on greed … “Everything is defined by money. Everything can be bought, including human relations” … The opera’s creator decried capitalism. In the wake of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, Brecht wrote about New York. It’s as if he was writing last year. The World’s Alex Gallafent has the story. Download MP3

• Poem: Late Lamented Fame of the Giant City of New York
• Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
• Bertolt Brecht: Poems 1913-1956