Drama and trills via podcasts

With the first four “Behind the Curtain at the LA Opera” podcasts drawing more than five times as many listeners as there are seats in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles Opera says it will produce 14 more episodes, extending the series through the remainder of the 2006-07 season.

The podcasts, roughly 15-minute interviews with the artists in rehearsal, will continue with such productions as “Hansel and Gretel,” “The Coronation of Poppea,” “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny,” “Tannhauser, “The Merry Widow,” “Porgy and Bess” and “Luisa Fernanda,” among others. The previous four episodes will remain available.

The series is available at www.laopera.com as well as www.behindthecurtainpodcast.com. Listeners can download and play the podcasts on computer or MP3 player, or subscribe to the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed to receive new episodes automatically as soon as they are released.