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The 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 -- even while Italians are bigger Verdi fans.

Our blog: John Schaefer on Puccini

Video: "Opera at the Gelato Shop" (YouTube)
Video: "Puccini Boutique" (YouTube)

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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 has spent the last decade reinventing the role of his instrument, using arco playing and even drumming to interpret Indian music, flamenco, rock and jazz. In some tracks it’s hard to believe this is a double-bass, but the album Arcoluz includes the proof: a DVD recorded live in Germany, with the man in action.--picked by Gisele Regatao

Sam Champion, "Heavenly Bender" (North St. Records)

Our next CD pick of the week comes from Sam Champion. No, not the New York-area TV weatherman and "Good Morning America" personality. We're talking about the other Sam Champion, the Brooklyn-based indie-rock quartet. On the new album, "Heavenly Bender," the group flies their Pavement and Neil Young flags pretty hard, but ... hey, come on ... it’s Neil Young and Pavement, and there’s no law against rocking this hard. Well, at least yet. --picked by Joel Meyer

Tarik O’Regan, "Threshold of Night" (Conspirare / Craig Hella Johnson & Company of Voices) (Harmonia Mundi)

Tarik O'Regan, Britain's hottest young choral composer, often treads a line between very ancient and very new music. Some of the tracks on his latest album, "Threshold of Night," sound vaguely like Renaissance polyphony but then, they also recall the spiritual, Eastern European branch of minimalism, with its repetitive, ear-pleasing textures. The album features settings of Dickenson, Neruda and in this piece, Edgar Allan Poe. It’s called “The Ecstasies Above,” and it demonstrates Tarik O'Regan’s knack for exploiting the varied sounds of the choir known as Conspirare. --picked by Brian Wise

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