In touch with the world ... at home on the High Plains

Donate

Play Live Radio

Next Up:

0:00

0:00 0:00

Available On Air Stations

KJJP-FM 105.7 is currently operating at 15% of power, limiting its signal strength and range in the Amarillo-Canyon area. This due to complicated problems with its very old transmitter. Local engineers are continuing to work on the transmitter and are consulting with the manufacturer to diagnose and fix the problems. We apologize for this disruption and service as we work as quickly as possible to restore KJPFM to full power. In the mean time you can always stream either the HPPR Mix service or HPPR Connect service using the player above or the HPPR app.

'Don Giovanni' To 'Nixon In China': Holiday Feasts In Opera

By Miles Hoffman

Published November 22, 2012 at 2:50 AM CST

President Nixon pardons a turkey in 1969. There's quite a celebratory banquet scene in the John Adams opera, <em>Nixon in China</em>. — President Nixon pardons a turkey in 1969. There's quite a celebratory banquet scene in the John Adams opera, *Nixon in China*.

As you prepare to feast upon cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and your choice of entree this Thanksgiving, there's also an operatic feast to be had. Classical commentator Miles Hoffman joins NPR's Renee Montagne to take us through a five-course musical meal, from the insatiable hunger of a starving trio during "Musetta's Waltz" in Puccini's La Bohème to the fiery dinner scene in Mozart's Don Giovanni to the joyous state banquet heard in John Adams' Nixon in China.

Tags

NPR Top Stories

Miles Hoffman

Morning Edition music commentator Miles Hoffman is the author of The NPR Classical Music Companion, now in its tenth printing from the Houghton Mifflin Company. Before joining Morning Edition in 2002, Hoffman entertained and enlightened the nationwide audience of NPR's Performance Today every week for 13 years with his musical commentary, "Coming to Terms," a listener-friendly tour through the many foreign words and technical terms peculiar to the world of classical music.

See stories by Miles Hoffman

Judges block Louisiana's congressional map. A Supreme Court appeal is likely

Hansi Lo Wang

A federal court has blocked Louisiana's new congressional map in a case that could determine the balance of power in the next Congress and set up another Supreme Court test of the Voting Rights Act.
Top companies are on students' divest list. But does it really work?

Rafael Nam

Campus protesters want administrators to sell off investments in companies with ties to Israel. Here's a look at what divestment means — and why universities are saying no.
Trump may get another chance to be president. He's planning an aggressive second term

Stephen Fowler

In a new interview with TIME Magazine, Trump promises to prosecute President Biden, unleash the National Guard on immigrants and says it's "irrelevant" if he's comfortable criminalizing abortions.
The Biden administration is moving to reclassify marijuana. Here's what that means

Deepa Shivaram

The Justice Department is expected to propose a new, lower classification for marijuana that would lessen restrictions on the drug. But there's another review process to come.
Eight newspapers sue OpenAI, Microsoft for copyright infringement

Bobby Allyn

The New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and others contend that the tech companies illegally copied their work without seeking permission or ever paying the publishers.