This weekend, the Metropolitan Opera’s “Live in HD” series continues at the Roxy Theatre in Missoula with “Don Carlo,” by Giuseppe Verdi. While not as well-known as Verdi’s big hits (“Aida,” “Rigoletto,” “La Traviata”), “Don Carlo” follows the script pretty well: It’s full of big tunes, epic drama, war and romance. Since this is the Met’s production, you can also expect a lavish production and some of the best singers in the world. There’s nothing remotely “Christmasy” about it, but for some folks, that’s a plus this time of year. Here’s the press release straight from the Met.
The Met’s New Production Of Verdi’s
Don Carlo
Encore Saturday December 18th 6:00 PM
Tickets on sale online at www.morrisproductions.org
at Rockin’ Rudy’s 237 Blaine St.
and every Thurs. 11:30-1:30 at the Roxy Theater 718 S. Higgins Ave.
or for more info call (406)-322-2589
Nicholas Hytner directs the first new Met production of
Verdi’s grand opera in more than thirty years
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a distinguished cast led by Roberto Alagna,
Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside, and Ferruccio Furlanetto
New York, NY (November 11, 2010) – The Metropolitan Opera will broadcast live its first new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo since 1979 on Saturday Dec. 11th (premiered on Nov. 22nd), with a cast that includes Roberto Alagna, Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside, and Ferruccio Furlanetto. The new production of Verdi’s monumental work, in which love, war, politics, and religion combine to tell a story that is epic in scale, will be directed by Nicholas Hytner, the artistic director of London’s National Theatre, in a staging that “reminds you it is one of the very greatest of all operas” (Guardian). All performances of Don Carlo will be conducted by Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who made a well-regarded Met debut last season with Carmen.
Roberto Alagna will sing the conflicted title character, performing the role in Italian for the first time; Marina Poplavskaya will portray Elisabeth de Valois, torn between duty to her husband and love for his son; Anna Smirnova makes her Met debut as the “fatal beauty” Princess Eboli; Simon Keenlyside is the revolutionary Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa; Ferruccio Furlanetto sings the tyrannical and tormented King Philip II; and Eric Halfvarson is the opera’s ultimate authority figure, the Grand Inquisitor. Five of the six principals are making Met role debuts, while Furlanetto sang the role at the Met in 2005 to excellent reviews. South Korean tenor Yonghoon Lee, who has sung the opera’s title role at Frankfurt Opera, the Palau de les Artes in Valencia, and the Teatro Municipal in Chile, made his Met debut as Don Carlo on November 29, with further performances of the role on December 3, 15, and 18.
Don Carlo, which will be presented in a five-act Italian version (including the “Fontainebleau Act”) with two intermissions, will be transmitted to movie theaters around the globe on Saturday, December 11 at 12:30 p.m. as part of The Met: Live in HD series. The production offers “wonderfully assured acting” (Times of London), “psychological acuity,” and “dazzling coups de thêatre,” creating a “dark world full of extraordinary visions that [feel] uncomfortably modern, now that religion and politics are once more poisonously intertwined” (Independent). A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, Hytner’s Don Carlo premiered in London in 2008.
When conductor Nézet-Séguin led Carmen last season, the Financial Times praised his unique ability to “sustain high-velocity verve without slighting introspection.” Roberto Alagna is a favorite of Met audiences in New York and around the world, having sung ten leading roles in the house and starred in The Met: Live in HD transmissions of Roméo et Juliette, La Rondine, and Carmen. Marina Poplavskaya, also cast as Violetta in the Met’s upcoming new production of La Traviata, was “rich in timbre, subtle in phrasing and lovely to look at, floating gorgeously above the stave and easily dominating the ensembles” (Telegraph) as Elisabeth in the London run of Don Carlo. Russian mezzo-soprano Anna Smirnova, making her Met debut as Eboli, has been a notable Amneris and Azucena in many European houses. Simon Keenlyside, who gave a vocally and theatrically moving interpretation of Thomas’s Hamlet at the Met and live in HD last season, is also reprising his Covent Garden performance of Rodrigo, hailed by critics for its “vibrant passion” (Independent), which “raised the dramatic temperature onstage whenever he appeared” (Guardian). Ferruccio Furlanetto, as the tortured and torturing monarch Philip II, will give a “majestic performance” (Independent) that has been acclaimed by audiences and reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Hytner brings two internationally acclaimed designers to the Met for the first time with Don Carlo. Set and costume designer Bob Crowley is the winner of five Tony awards for his Broadway designs, which include the sets for Hytner’s productions of The History Boys and Carousel. Lighting designer Mark Henderson, also a Tony winner for The History Boys, has received five Olivier Awards for his work on the London stage.
Live Broadcasts Around the World
Don Carlo will be experienced by millions of people around the world this season in movie theaters, on the radio and on the internet, through distribution platforms the Met has established with various media partners.
The December 11 matinee will be transmitted to more than 1,500 movie theaters in more than 40 countries around the world as part of the Met’s rapidly expanding The Met: Live in HD series.
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