Met Live in HD at the Clark
Also at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington
By: Charles Giuliano - Aug 30, 2010
Since its launch two seasons ago the global broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD have been an enormous success. They have enormously expanded the audience for opera by providing affordable local access to superb productions.
The series was introduced in the Berkshires to the Mahaiwe Peforming Arts Center in Great Barrington. Those events quickly sold out.
Now a second venue has been added for Northern Berkshire audiences. Surely the series of performances broadcast at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown will also prove to have enormous appeal to music lovers. The series goes on sale soon and you are advised to act quickly in order not to be disappointed.
There is nothing like the thrill of attending a Met opera but this is as good as it gets in simulating that experience. Particularly as the HD format virtually allows a front row seat and intimate views of the performers.
The press release from the Clark and schedule of events appears below.
The Met: Live in HD comes to the Clark this fall with extraordinary stars, breathtaking music, and visionary interpretations by today’s most celebrated directors. This Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning series features 12 live transmissions in the Clark’s auditorium, beginning October 9 with Das Rheingold and continuing with Boris Godunov (October 23), Don Pasquale (November 13), Don Carlo (December 11), La Fanciulla del West (January 8), Nixon in China (February 12), Iphigénie en Tauride (February 26), Lucia di Lammermoor (March 19), Le Comte Ory (April 9), Capriccio (April 23), Il Trovatore (April 30), and Die Walküre (May 14).
Tickets may be ordered at 413 458 0MET (458 0638); tickets go on sale August 27 to Met Guild Members and Clark Society Members, September 3 to Friends of the Clark, and September 7 for general admission. Tickets are $25 ($18 for students); there is a limit of 4 tickets per event. Full series subscriptions are available for the 12-performance season.
Performances include:
Wagner’s Das Rheingold
October 9, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Two unparalleled artists join forces to create a groundbreaking new Ring for the Met: Maestro James Levine and director Robert Lepage. The cycle launches with Das Rheingold, the prologue to Wagner’s epic drama. “The Ring is not just a story or a series of operas, it’s a cosmos,” says Lepage, who brings cutting-edge technology and his own visionary imagination to the world’s greatest theatrical journey. Bryn Terfel sings the leading role of Wotan for the first time with the company, heading an extraordinary cast.
Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov
October 23, 2010 at 12:00 pm
René Pape takes on one of the greatest bass roles in a new production by Stephen Wadsworth. Valery Gergiev conducts Mussorgsky’s epic spectacle that captures the suffering and ambition of a nation, with Aleksandrs Antonenko, Vladimir Ognovenko, and Ekaterina Semenchuk leading the huge cast.
Donizetti’s Don Pasquale
November 13, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Anna Netrebko revives her sensational turn in this sophisticated bel canto comedy, opposite Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, and John Del Carlo in the title role. Music Director James Levine conducts. When Otto Schenk’s production premiered in 2006, the New York Times called it “brilliant” and “wonderful.”
Verdi’s Don Carlo – New Production
December 11, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Director Nicholas Hytner makes his Met debut with this new production of Verdi’s profound, beautiful, and most ambitious opera. Roberto Alagna leads the cast, and Ferruccio Furlanetto, Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, and Simon Keenlyside also star. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, back after his triumphant debut leading Carmen, conducts. “I think Don Carlo is the quintessential Verdi opera,” Hytner says. “Right through this opera there is, on the one hand, an implacable expression of impending doom and, on the other hand, a succession of the most gloriously open-throated arias, the most fantastically determined music.”
Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West
January 8, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Puccini’s wild-west opera had its world premiere in 1910 at the Met. Now, on the occasion of its centennial, all-American diva Deborah Voigt sings the title role of the “girl of the golden west,” starring opposite Marcello Giordani. Nicola Luisotti conducts.
Adams’s Nixon in China
February 12, 2011 at 1:00 pm
“All of my operas have dealt on deep psychological levels with our American mythology,” says composer John Adams, who conducts the Met premiere of his most famous opera. “The meeting of Nixon and Mao is a mythological moment in world history, particularly American history.” Acclaimed director and longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars makes his Met debut with this groundbreaking 1987 work, an exploration of the human truths beyond the headlines surrounding President Nixon’s 1972 encounter with Communist China. Baritone James Maddalena stars in the title role.
Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride
February 26, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo reprise their starring roles in Gluck’s nuanced and elegant interpretation of this primal Greek myth. Tenor Paul Groves also returns to Stephen Wadsworth’s insightful production, first seen in 2007. Patrick Summers conducts.
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
March 19, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Natalie Dessay triumphed as the fragile heroine of Donizetti’s masterpiece on opening night of the 2007–08 season in Mary Zimmerman’s hit production. Now she returns to the role of the innocent young woman driven to madness, opposite Joseph Calleja, who sings her lover Edgardo.
Rossini’s Le Comte Ory
April 9, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Rossini’s vocally dazzling comedy stars bel canto sensation Juan Diego Flórez in the title role of this Met premiere production. He vies with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, in the trouser role of Isolier, for the love of the lonely Countess Adèle, sung by soprano Diana Damrau. Bartlett Sher, director of the Met’s hit productions of The Barber of Seville and The Tales of Hoffmann, describes the world of the opera as, “a place where love is dangerous. People get hurt. That can be very funny and very painful. Rossini captures both—with the most beautiful love music Rossini ever wrote.”
Strauss’s Capriccio
April 23, 2011 at 1:00 pm
On opening night of the 2008–09 season, Renée Fleming dazzled audiences when she sang the final scene of Strauss’s wise and worldly meditation on art and life. Now she performs the entire work, in which the composer explores the essence of opera itself. Matthew Polenzani and Sarah Connolly also star, and Andrew Davis conducts.
Verdi’s Il Trovatore
April 30, 2011 at 1:00 pm
David McVicar’s stirring production of Verdi’s intense drama premiered in the 2008–09 season. James Levine leads this revival, starring four extraordinary singers—Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky—in what might be the composer’s most melodically rich score.
Wagner’s Die Walküre
May 14, 2011 at 12:00 pm
A stellar cast comes together for this second installment of Robert Lepage’s new production of the Ring cycle, conducted by James Levine. Bryn Terfel is Wotan, lord of the gods. Deborah Voigt adds the part of Brünnhilde to her extensive Wagnerian repertoire at the Met. Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek star as the twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde, and Stephanie Blythe is Fricka.