“The Met: Live in HD” will kick off its 12-opera, 2012-13 season on Saturday, October 13, at USCB Center for the Arts, as well as in over 1,700 other theaters around the world. Now in its seventh season, the Peabody and Emmy Award winning series will feature seven new productions, two of which will make their first “Live in HD” appearances.
The series opens with Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” (October 13), starring super soprano Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecien in a new production by Bartlett Sher.
Verdi’s towering masterpiece, “Otello,” (October 27), makes its debut on “Live in HD” with an extraordinary cast led by Johan Botha in the title role, opposite Renee Fleming in one of her greatest roles as Otello’s innocent wife, Desdemona.
The Met premiere of Thomas Ades’s “The Tempest” (November 10), will be conducted by the British composer and has been praised as a modern masterpiece. Robert Lepage’s innovative production recreates the interior of the LaScala opera house as the island home of the shipwrecked Prospero, sung by Simon Keenlyside.
Mozart’s final Italian opera, “La Clemenza di Tito,” (December 1) is conducted by Baroque specialist Harry Bicket, with Giuseppe Filianoti in the title role. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s stylized production is one of the legendary director’s most acclaimed stagings.
A new production of Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” (December 8), is directed by David Alden who returns to the Met for the first time in more than 20 years. Fabio Luisi conducts his first Met performances of the opera which stars Karita Mattila and Marcelo Alvarez.
Verdi’s iconic opera, “Aida,” (December 15), is set in ancient Egypt and stars powerhouse Ukranian soprano
Photo: Nick Heavican/Metropolitan Opera
Liudmyla Monastyrska in her Met debut in the title role. Fabio Luisi conducts.
With last year’s technology upgrades to the USCB Center for the Arts theatre, the larger screen and improved sound will provide an even greater sense of “you are there” to this season’s live performances from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. For more information, go to www.metopera.org/hdlive.
Ticket sales are on sale at the USCB Center for the Arts Box Office at 801 Carteret St. All performances are on Saturday with curtain up at 12:55 p.m. Ticket prices for adults and seniors/$20; Osher Lifelong Learning Institute members/$16; students and youth under 18/$10. All seating is assigned.
For more information, contact Center for the Arts director, Bonnie Hargrove, at 843-521-4145, or hargrov@uscb./edu.
