The murderous mysteries of Macbeth. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The romance and splendor of La Boheme. It’s all coming to a theater near you (in Nashville, not Clarksville, but close enough) as New York City’s Metropolitan Opera prepares to launch another season of high definition simulcasts featuring Live from Lincoln Center performances.
Opera fans, mark your calendars: tickets sales for the 2007-08 performances start October 19, with the first performance, Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, conducted by Placido Domingo, to air on December 15.
The inaugural series last year reached 325,000 people worldwide. In the United States, some 200,000 people viewed the performances on 151 screens. Â
In addition to Romeo and Juliet, the coming season includes:
- Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, a new English language production by Richard Jones (January 1)
- Verdi’s Macbeth with Lado Ataneli (January 15)
- Puccini’s Manon Lescault (February 16)
- Brittens’ Peter Grimes, a new production (March 15)
- Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde (March 22)
- Puccini’s La Boheme with Angela Gheorghiou in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic staging (April 5)
- Donizetti’s La Fille De Regiment, a new production (April 26)
Last season, the Met presented a remarkable series that played to packed theaters at Green Hills Mall Theater and Opryland Theater in Nashville. The series was not screened in any Clarksville theaters, so classical and opera fans had to travel the extra miles for these special screenings.Under the leadership of General Manager Peter Gelb and Music director James Levine, the Metropolitan Opera has launched numerous initiatives designed to connect the companies with larger audiences. The Met has made the commitment to present modern masterpieces alongside classic repertory, with highly theatrical production featuring the greatest opera stars in the world.
Building on 76 years of international Saturday radio broadcasts now heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network, the Met recently began using state of the art media distribution and technology platforms to attract new audiences and reach millions of opera fans worldwide. The Met recently launched Metropolitan Opera radio on Sirius, a 24-hour satellite radio channel, broadcasting a mix of live and rare historical performances. With support from RealNetworks, the Met also began free live streaming of performances on its website. For more information, visit www.metopera.org.
Editor’s Note: Can’t think of a better Christmas gift for the music lover in your household than tickets to one or several of these performances.
