The second opera in the current 2016/17 Met: Live in HD season, filmed for broadcast into cinemas from The Metropolitan Opera in New York, is a new staging of Richard Wagner’s epic tragedy, Tristan und Isolde. This powerful production releases at Cinema Nouveau and select Ster-Kinekor cinemas on Saturday, 03 December, for limited screenings.

Now in its eleventh year, The Met: Live in HD series is screened in cinemas around the world, including exclusive releases at Cinema Nouveau and Ster-Kinekor here in South Africa. The Met’s new season presents ten opulent, full-length operas including five new productions, three of which are new to the series.

All three acts of Tristan und Isolde are originally set, respectively, aboard ship on the Irish Sea, in Cornwall (south-western Britain), and in Brittany (north-western France). The many versions of this story all pay homage to the Celtic ambience and probable origin of the tale. Wagner’s preservation of this context emphasises several key themes associated with ancient Celtic culture: mysticism, knowledge of the magic arts, an evolved warrior code, and a distinctly non-Christian vision of the possibilities of the afterlife.

The opera is conducted by Sir Simon Rattle in his first Live in HD performance, and is directed by Mariusz Treliński. Nina Stemme stars as the world’s pre-eminent Isolde, a touchstone role she has sung with major opera companies around the world. Her Tristan is Australian heldentenor Stuart Skelton, who sang Siegmund in the Met’s Ring cycle in 2013.

The cast also includes Ekaterina Gubanova as Brangäne and Evgeny Nikitin as Kurwenal (both in Met role debuts), with René Pape reprising King Marke, a role he has sung to acclaim in three previous Met seasons. The staging, by Mariusz Treliński (who directed the 2015 Met double bill ofIolanta and Bluebeard’s Castle) is a co-production with the Festival Hall Baden-Baden, Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, and China National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Beijing.

With its world premiere at Munich Court Theater in 1865, Wagner’s breathtaking meditation on love and death holds a unique place in the opera world. Its music has astounded, infuriated, and inspired audiences since it was first heard, and the title roles in Tristan und Isolde are acknowledged as among the most extraordinarily demanding in opera. The vocal challenges, the sumptuous symphonic scale of the orchestral writing, and the mystical nature of the story, with its opportunities for creative visual design, make this awe-inspiring work a phenomenon of the Met repertory.

In addition to the production, cinema audiences are invited behind the scenes with the Met’s stars. Singers serve as hosts for the HD series, conducting live interviews with cast and crew members as well as the production teams. They introduce the popular behind-the-scenes features during the intermissions, giving cinema audiences an unprecedented look at what goes into staging an opera at one of the world’s greatest houses. The series has become a global phenomenon with more than 19 million tickets sold since its inception ten years ago.

The Tristan und Isolde intermission feature includes:

• Peter Gelb previews the 2016-17 HD season
• Live backstage interviews with conductor Sir Simon Rattle and stars Nina Stemme and  Stuart Skelton
• 50th anniversary feature celebrating the Met at Lincoln Centre

The approximate running time is 4hrs 47mins, including two intervals.

Watch a preview of Mariusz Treliński’s new production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, starring Nina Stemme and Stuart Skelton and conducted by Simon Rattle, here:   https://youtu.be/hgFbZpXywS8

View the Met: Live in HD 2016/17 season trailer here: https://youtu.be/cEG9JfPWXs8?list=RDcEG9JfPWXs8

These grand operas, filmed at the iconic Metropolitan Opera House, feature some of the world’s most talented singers, conductors, composers, orchestra musicians, stage directors, designers, visual artists, choreographers and dancers.

With these exclusive productions, Cinema Nouveau continues to give local audiences the opportunity to witness these spectacular ‘live’ opera productions broadcast on the big screen, in full digital projection, at various sites across South Africa. Past productions have received critical acclaim and gained recognition around the world.

For booking information on Don Giovanni as part of The Met: Live in HD season, visit www.cinemanouveau.co.za or https://movies.sterkinekor.co.za. Follow us on Twitter @nouveaubuzz and on Facebook at Cinema Nouveau. For information, call Ticketline on 0861-Movies (668 437).

The Met: Live in HD – 2016-17 Schedule

The season opened on 19 November with Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and is followed by Wagner’s epic tragedy, Tristan und Isolde from 03 December. The season continues in 2017 with the series’ first broadcast of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin (07 January 2017), Verdi’s famous Nabucco (04 February), Charles Gounod’s lush adaptation of Shakespeare’s Roméo et Juliette (11 February), Rusalka by Antonin Dvorak (25 March), Verdi’s favourite La Traviata  (08 April), Idomeneo by Wolfang Amadeus Mozart (24 April), Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (20 May), and finally, Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (10 June).

L’AMOUR DE LOIN – Kaija Saariaho (releases on 07 January 2017)  – Met Premiere

Libretto: Amin Maalouf

Conductor: Susanna Mälkki

Production: Robert Lepage

Set Designer: Michael Curry

Costume Designer: Michael Curry

Lighting Designer: Kevin Adams

Lightscape Image Designer: Lionel Arnould

Cast: Susanna Phillips (Clémence), Tamara Mumford (The Pilgrim), Eric Owens (Jaufré Rudel)

One of the most highly praised operas of recent years, which had its premiere at the Salzburg Festival in 2000, Kaija Saariaho’s yearning medieval romance L’Amour de Loin (“Love From Afar”), has its Met premiere this season. Finnish composer Saariaho’s breakthrough opera, described by theNew York Times as “transfixing…a lushly beautiful score”, has its Metropolitan Opera premiere in a dazzling new production featuring glimmering ribbons of LED lights that extend across the length of the stage and over the orchestra pit. The production is by Robert Lepage, co-produced with L’Opéra de Québec, where it premiered to acclaim last summer, in collaboration with Ex Machina. Debuting Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki leads the performance, which stars Susanna Phillips as Clémence, Eric Owens as Jaufré, and Tamara Mumford as the Pilgrim who carries messages of love between them.

(Running time:  2hrs 33mins, including one interval)