Sleepers Awake 
Opera House Opera Schedule Opera Websites
Bob began his radio broadcasting career in 2005 as a
volunteer announcer at WCPE, a 24-hour, non-commercial listener-supported classical music station near Raleigh, North Carolina. Impressed by his linguistic skills and knowledge of classical music, the station hired Bob in September 2006.
SLEEPERS AWAKE
Bob was initially hired to be weekend host of Sleepers, Awake!, its six-hour overnight program. Bob hosts this show most Fridays and Saturdays from midnight until 6:00 a.m., WCPE is at 89.7 FM locally
in central North Carolina, and is streamed online at http://www.theclassicalstation.org.
WCPE OPERA HOUSE - Since December 2008, Bob has been the host of the WCPE Opera House, heard every Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. in the Eastern Time Zone. The show features full-length operas and operettas mostly from the station’s extensive collection of CDs. Bob carefully chooses each opera for broadcast, including a recorded encore performance once a month hosted by the late Al Ruocchio, who began and nurtured the program from 1980 until his death in 2007. Visit http://www.theclassicalstation.org/opera.shtml.
With an extensive background in opera performance, music librarianship and European languages, Bob is perfectly suited to hosting the Opera House. He draws upon 40 years’ experience as an opera singer, ten years as a classical music librarian, and seven years living in Germany. Bob also has extensive personal library of CDs, LPs, DVDs, and books about opera and other forms of classical music.
Bob introduces each opera, summarizes the plot, and identifies the characters and their performers. When time permits, he provides complementary performances of arias or scenes from operas by the same or related composers. His versatile approach appeals across the board to opera neophytes and connoisseurs alike.
WCPE OPERA HOUSE SCHEDULE
The complete current Schedule of Opera House presentations, with principal performers and a brief plot summary, is available on the WCPE website at http://www.theclassicalstation.org/opera.shtml.
OPERA WEBSITES
The following opera sites may be useful or interesting:
- All About Opera: Your Gateway to Opera on the Web
http://www.allaboutopera.com/
- Opera Company of North Carolina (Raleigh, NC)
http://www.operanc.com/
- Opera Glass (lots of good info on operas in convenient reference format)
http://opera.stanford.edu/main.html
- The Guide to Light Opera & Operetta
http://musicaltheatreguide.com/menu/introduction.htm
- Important Sources of Libretti in the Internet
http://wwwsys.informatik.fh-wiesbaden.de/weber1/opera/lib.htm
- World of Opera: NPR Music
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=36&agg=1&ps=sa
- Online Opera Scores Prototype
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/scores.html
- Metropolitan Opera
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/
- Prima la Musica (opera blogs)
http://primalamusica.typepad.com/
- Opera Chic: Bewbs (blogs about opera)
http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/bewbs/index.html
Sleepers Awake Opera House Opera Schedule Opera Websites