Peter Fox Smith
CommentatorPeter was part of VPR from 1977, hosting Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and then A Passion For Opera, until VPR's 40th anniversary in 2017.
Opera had always been one of Peter's passions. As a young boy visiting his paternal grandparents, he was treated to impromptu concerts by touring stars of the Metropolitan Opera performing with his grandmother. He is author of A Passion For Opera: Learning To Love It: The Greatest Masters, Their Greatest Music, released in 2004 by Trafalgar Square Publishing.
As a student at Harvard, Peter's doctoral thesis was on Wagner. An appointment at Dartmouth College allowed him to pursue his three passions: athletics, academics and the arts. He coached Dartmouth's women's cross country running team, taught opera courses to freshmen through master candidates and produced an annual arts concert for many years.
Peter passed away on October 5, 2020, and by his longtime audio engineer Sam Sanders.
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Handel's Acis and Galatea was the most frequently performed of that composer's works during his lifetime. We hear excerpts from a recording by The English鈥� -
Two very different operas with similar plot lines are Gounod's Faust and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. Peter Fox Smith leads us in this鈥� -
Wagner's masterpiece Tristan und Isolde can be said to have changed the course of Western classical music. We hear excerpts from recordings both鈥� -
We celebrate the June 3 birthday of American tenor Jan Peerce; the June 3 birthday of the French operetta composer Charles Lecocq; and the June 4 birthday鈥�
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We continue our exploration of Prokofiev's War and Peace with excerpts from Part 2.Listen Saturday, May 27 at 12 noon.
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Peter Fox Smith gives us a splendid introduction to Part One of Prokofiev's masterpiece War and Peace. Included in the casts are Galina Vishnevskaya,鈥� -
This Saturday, May 13, marks the final Metropolitan Opera broadcast performance by Ren茅e Fleming, who will be heard in her signature role of the鈥� -
Love duets in opera do not always lead to happy relationships. We hear a few such duets, from operas as diverse as Manon Lescaut, The Tales of Hoffmann,鈥� -
What is wrong with Verdi's Il corsaro? Excerpts with Montserrat Caball茅, Jessye Norman, and Jos茅 Carreras will provide a happy answer. -
In the 19th century, Donizetti's most popular opera was not Lucia di Lammermoor but rather Lucrezia Borgia. We hear selections from a landmark recording鈥�
