American Idol it aint - we'll have an opera competition anyway - Mozart v Salieri - 10AM EST on What's Opera, Doc, WHFR FM

This must be the longest blog post title ever!
It doesn't quite have the drama of an AI competition, but in 1786 the Emperor Franz Joseph (yes, he of the "too many notes" fame) scheduled a competition - a German singspiel against an Italian opera, which was the pop music of the day.

Italian contender - Salieri's Prima la musica e poi le parole
(First the Music, then the Words)
German contendor - Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor
(the opera house director)

Both operas have roughly the same plot - that of an impresario conducting auditions.

Der Schauspieldirektor version is in Italian, and is a live performance from 1991 featuring Jo, Mei, Bolognesi, Giuranna.
E Poi le Parole is also in Italian and features Harnoncourt, Holl, Hampson, Alexander, Hamari.

An added treat: Mozart's L'oca del Cairo K422/Lo sposo deluso with Dietrich Fischer Diskau, Wiens, Schrier,Johnson and Coburn
Lo sposo features Grant, Palmer, Rolfe Johnson, Robert Tear and Leana Cotrubas.
Both selections have the
Kammerorchester ''Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach'', London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis (cond)
LISTEN LIVE ON WHFR-FM (CLICK ME)
* thanks to Marainne Dubin and Opera-l posse for the additional notes used to prep the show.