THE MET: LIVE IN HD PRESENTS ROSSINI’S OPERA, LA CENERENTOLA, EXCLUSIVE TO CINEMA NOUVEAU AND SELECT STER-KINEKOR THEATRES
“The Metropolitan Opera has a dazzling, plucky and endearingly poignant Cinderella in the superb American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who triumphed Monday night. She sang with impish glee, dispatching virtuosic runs and turns, leaping from her chesty low register to gleaming high notes. Fabio Luisi drew a crisp and stylish performance from the orchestra.” – The New York Times
The highly successful 2013-14 season Live in HD from The Metropolitan Opera in New York, launched in November last year, comes to a close this week with the final production, La Cenerentola. The season has featured ten magnificent productions, ‘live’ from the Met.
From Saturday, 07 June, for limited shows, the final production in the current Met: Live in HD season will be screened exclusively at Cinema Nouveau and select Ster-Kinekor cinemas.
Rossini’s La Cenerentola is a comic adaptation of the timeless Cinderella story. The ‘live in cinema’ performance features two of the opera world’s leading bel cantostars, with the peerless pairing of Rossini virtuosos. This is a vocal tour de force for mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, in the Cinderella title role, and the high-flying tenor Juan Diego Flórez, as her Prince Charming. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads the cast that also includes Pietro Spagnoli in his Met debut as the servant Dandini, Alessandro Corbelli as Cenerentola’s stepfather Don Magnifico, and Luca Pisaroni as Don Ramiro’s tutor, Alidoro. This production, filmed on the Met stage as part of the Live in HD series, is now seen in more than 2 000 cinemas in 66 countries around the world.
“Joyce DiDonato exuded purity and sweetness in the title role. She sang with casual brilliance and bravado, especially as the ornate line ascended. Fabio Luisi, the Met’s principal conductor, managed to enforce verve and style, even elegance in the pit.” – Financial Times
During the intermission, soprano Deborah Voigt, who hosts this live transmission, will take opera lovers behind the scenes, conducting live backstage interviews with the artists and giving audiences an exclusive preview of the upcoming 2014-15 Live in HD season.
Intermission features will include:
- A live interview with the stars of La Cenerentola, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez. The American mezzo-soprano, who has made a specialty of the opera’s good-hearted title role, will discuss what the character has meant to her over the course of her career; she has said she will retire the role, which she has sung on major stages all over the world, after Saturday’s performance. Flórez, the world’s leading Rossini tenor, will discuss his first Live in HD performance of the charming prince, Don Ramiro, a role he last sang at the Met more than a decade ago.
- Live interviews with rising stars Rachelle Durkin and Patricia Risley, who play Cenerentola’s wicked stepsisters, Clorinda and Tisbe, and with the Italian trio of Alessandro Corbelli (Don Magnifico, Cenerentola’s stepfather), Luca Pisaroni (the mysterious, benevolent Alidoro), and Pietro Spagnoli (Dandini, the prince’s servant).
- A live interview with Fabio Luisi, the Met’s Principal Conductor. La Cenerentola is his first bel canto opera with the company.
- A preview of the 2014-15 season, which will offer Live in HD audiences 10 opera transmissions direct from the Met stage. The season begins with Verdi’s Macbeth, starring Anna Netrebko in her first North American performances in the searing dramatic role of Lady Macbeth, and includes transmissions of six new Met productions, including DiDonato and Flórez in the company premiere of Rossini’s rarely performed bel canto showpiece La Donna del Lago.
The other productions included in the 2014-15 season, all of which Cinema Nouveau will be screening from November this year, include: Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart);Bizet’s Carmen; The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams; Die Meistersinger van Nürnberg (Wagner); Lehár’s The Merry Widow; Les Contes d’Hoffmann from Carl Offenbach; a double bill of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Bluebeard’s Castle by Bartók; and finally, another double feature of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacciby Leoncavallo.
As with La Cenerentola, these grand opera productions are filmed at the magnificent Metropolitan Opera House in New York, home to some of the most talented singers, conductors, composers, orchestra musicians, stage directors, designers, visual artists, choreographers and dancers from around the world. Their past productions have received great acclaim and have gained recognition around the world.
Now, and as it has done since Live in HD began, Cinema Nouveau continues to provide audiences with the exclusive opportunity to witness these spectacular and award-winning near-live broadcasts in South Africa.
This glorious production of La Cenerentola will be screened exclusively at Cinema Nouveau and select Ster-Kinekor theatres countrywide from Saturday, 07 June: Gateway Nouveau, Durban; V&A Nouveau in Cape Town; Somerset Mall, Cape Town; Blue Route Mall, Cape Town; Garden Route Mall, George; Rosebank Nouveau and Bedford Centre in Johannesburg and at Brooklyn Nouveau, Pretoria. Their release onto the big digital cinema screen affords South African lovers of opera the unique opportunity to become an integral part of these ‘near-live’ and breathtaking performances.
The running time of La Cenerentola is 3hrs and 30mins, with one intermission.
To book tickets and for more information, please visit: www.cinemanouveau.co.za| mobi-site: www.sterkinekor.mobi |Ticketline: 082 16789 (VAS rates apply) | Facebook: CinemaNouveau| Follow us on Twitter: @nouveaubuzz. Download theSK App to your smart phone for updates and to make bookings via your mobile phone.
Video clip:
http://metpics.metpics.org/Live-in-HD/1314/Cenerentola-May-10/29914340_KbZD9D#!i=3228880900&k=B2SRbK2
Images for all The Met: Live in HD productions are available on the following site:www.skpictures.co.za
Final production of the current Met: Live in HD season:
La Cenerentola – Rossini (releases on 07 June 2014)
Conductor: Fabio Luisi
Production: Cesare Lievi
Designer: Maurizio Balò
Lighting Designer: Gigi Saccomandi
Choreographer: Daniela Schiavone
Cast: Joyce DiDonato (Angelina), Juan Diego Flórez (Don Ramiro), Pietro Spagnoli (Dandini), Alessandro Corbelli (Don Magnifico), Luca Pisaroni (Alidoro)
Joyce DiDonato sings her first Met performances of the title character in Rossini’s Cinderella story, La Cenerentola, with bel canto master Juan Diego Flórez as her dashing prince. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads a cast that also includes Pietro Spagnoli in his Met debut as the servant Dandini, Alessandro Corbelli as Cenerentola’s stepfather Don Magnifico, and Luca Pisaroni as Don Ramiro’s tutor, Alidoro.
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