This summer, Italy is celebrating the 150th birthday of composer Giacomo Puccini. Today on Soundcheck, find out how his operas became part of American pop culture, in a live report from the Puccini Festival in Lucca, Italy. Plus: our CD picks of the week. And later: In just two years, the band Ra Ra Riot has drawn critical raves, toured relentlessly and weathered a stark tragedy. They join us to play live in our studio.
Guests:
Ra Ra RiotThe Puccini 'Brand'
Giacomo Puccini's 150th birthday is coming up this December. This summer, his birthplace of Lucca, Italy is celebrating in high style. Today, music writer Fred Plotkin joins us from the composer’s home town, where the Puccini Festival is underway. He’ll tell us why Americans are so obsessed with Puccini -- ...
CD Picks of the Week
Renaud Garcia-Fons Trio, "Arcoluz" (Enja/Justin Time)
Think of an instrument that has strings and is common to jazz, flamenco and Middle Eastern music. No, not the guitar, or lute. In the case of this CD pick it’s the double-bass, but just as played by Renaud Garcia-Fons. This French bassist ...
Think of an instrument that has strings and is common to jazz, flamenco and Middle Eastern music. No, not the guitar, or lute. In the case of this CD pick it’s the double-bass, but just as played by Renaud Garcia-Fons. This French bassist ...
Ra Ra Riot
For a band that’s barely two years old, the chamber-rock group Ra Ra Riot has done a lot of growing up. The Syracuse, N.Y.-based group has earned big buzz during CMJ and South by Southwest appearances and logged long hours on tour. They’ve also endured the loss of a co-founding ...
The Voice of an Emergent Nation
So Giacomo Puccini is the biggest opera composer in the States. That’s no surprise. Fred Plotkin reports from Italy, though, that in Puccini’s home country it is Giuseppe Verdi who is considered to be the superior composer, and apparently by quite a large margin. In a sense, that’s not too ...