© 2025 WGCU News
PBS and NPR for Southwest Florida
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

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

By Miles Hoffman
Published November 22, 2012 at 3:50 AM EST
President Nixon pardons a turkey in 1969. There's quite a celebratory banquet scene in the John Adams opera, <em>Nixon in China</em>.
Nixon White House Photographs Series
/
The U.S. National Archives via Flickr
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.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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
Trusted by over 30,000 local subscribers

Local News, Right Sized for Your Morning

Quick briefs when you are busy, deeper explainers when it matters, delivered early morning and curated by WGCU editors.

  • Environment
  • Local politics
  • Health
  • And more

Free and local. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

More from WGCU
  • Environment
    Halloween and the wild things that make it a spooky holiday
    Dr. Jerry Jackson
    Halloween is a holiday that brings to mind creatures of the night such as bats and many spiders. These nocturnal creatures are ones we have some unease about because we rarely see them, encounter them by surprise in the dark, and often have little understanding of their role in nature. We often misinterpret their behavior and they sometimes leave us with a sense of fear of what they might do to us. Yes, tropical American vampire bats drink blood and in doing so can transmit disease to its victims. North American and most other bats are insect eaters that provide an important service in consuming mosquitos that can transmit diseases to the animals they bite. Most bats also consume large numbers of moths and other insects that feed on plants that our livestock or we depend on.
  • Gasparilla Island
    Government & Politics
    Virginia Watkins appointed to Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority
    WGCU Staff
    Virginia “Ginger” Watkins has been appointed to the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority by Governor Ron DeSantis.
  • Education
    Content of Lee teachers' social media posts made public
    Dayna Harpster
    Lee County school teachers' posts following the death of Charlie Kirk are made public by the school system after a records request.