MET OPERA 2022, Ethels Cinema, Café & Bar - Akaroa
MET OPERA 2022
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Ethels Cinema Akaroa is pleased to announce Metropolitan Opera Live, a series of live opera performances from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The 2022 season features ten spectacular productions, including exciting company premieres, new productions, and classic repertory favourites. |
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Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov 10:30am Ethels Bass René Pape, the world’s reigning Boris, reprises his tremendous portrayal of the tortured tsar caught between grasping ambition and crippling paranoia, kicking off the highly anticipated 2021–22 Live in HD season. Conductor Sebastian Weigle leads Mussorgsky’s masterwork, a pillar of the Russian repertoire, in its original 1869 version. Stephen Wadsworth’s affecting production poignantly captures the hope and suffering of the Russian people ,as well as the title ruler himself. |
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Fire Shut Up in My Bones Thursday 26th & Sunday 29th May 2022 Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Grammy Award–winning jazz musician and composer Terence Blanchard’s adaptation of Charles M. Blow’s moving memoir. The first opera by a Black composer presented on the Met stage and featuring a libretto by filmmaker Kasi Lemmons, the opera tells a poignant and profound story about a young man’s journey to overcome a life of trauma and hardship. James Robinson and Camille A. Brown—two of the creators of the recent production of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess—co-direct this new staging, live in cinemas on October 23. Baritone Will Liverman, one of opera’s most exciting young artists, stars as Charles, alongside sopranos Angel Blue as Destiny/Loneliness/Greta and Latonia Moore as Billie. |
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Eurydice 10:30am Ethels The ancient Greek myth of Orpheus, who attempts to harness the power of music to rescue his beloved Eurydice from the underworld, has inspired composers since opera’s earliest days. Rising American composer Matthew Aucoin now carries that tradition into the 21st century with a captivating new take on the story. With a libretto by MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Sarah Ruhl, adapted from her acclaimed 2003 play, the opera reimagines the familiar tale from Eurydice’s point of view. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium, leading Aucoin’s evocative music and an immersive new staging by Mary Zimmerman. Soprano Erin Morley sings the title role, opposite baritone Joshua Hopkins as Orpheus and countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński as his otherworldly alter ego. |
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Cinderella 10:30am Ethels Laurent Pelly’s storybook staging of Massenet’s Cendrillonis presented with an all-new English translation in an abridged 90-minuteadaptation, with mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as its rags-to-riches princess. Maestro Emmanuel Villaume leads a delightful cast, which includes mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo as Cinderella’s Prince Charming, soprano Jessica Pratt as her Fairy Godmother, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and bass-baritone Laurent Naouri as her feuding guardians. |
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Rigoletto 10:30am Ethels Tony Award–winning director Bartlett Sher creates a bold new take on Verdi’s timeless tragedy, resetting the opera’s action in 1920s Europe, with Art Deco sets by Michael Yeargan and elegant costumes by Catherine Zuber. Baritone Quinn Kelsey, a commanding artist at the height of his powers, brings his searing portrayal of the title role to the Met for the first time, starring alongside soprano Rosa Feola as Gilda and tenor Piotr Beczała as the Duke of Mantua, with leading maestro Daniele Rustioni on the podium. |
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Ariadne auf Naxos 10:30am Ethels The exhilarating soprano Lise Davidsen makes her Live in HD debut in one of her signature roles, the mythological Greek heroine of Strauss’s enchanting masterpiece. The outstanding cast also features mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as the Composer of the opera-within-an-opera around which the plot revolves, with soprano Brenda Rae as the spirited Zerbinetta and tenor Brandon Jovanovich as Ariadne’s lover, the god Bacchus. Marek Janowski conducts. |
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Don Carlos 10:30am Ethels For the first time in company history, the Met presents the original five-act French version of Verdi’s epic opera of doomed love among royalty, set against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a starry cast, including tenor Matthew Polenzani in the title role, soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Élisabeth de Valois, and mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča as Eboli. Bass Günther Groissböck and bass-baritone John Relyea are Philippe II and the Grand Inquisitor, and baritone Étienne Dupuis rounds out the principal cast as Rodrigue. Verdi’s masterpiece receives a monumental new staging by David McVicar that marks his 11th Met production, placing him among the most prolific and popular directors in recent Met memory. |
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Turandot 10:30am Ethels Superstar soprano Anna Netrebko makes her long-awaited Met role debut as Puccini’sicy princess—live in cinemas on May 7. Tenor Yonghoon Lee is the bold prince determined to win Turandot’s love, alongside soprano Ermonela Jaho as the devoted servant Liù and legendary bass Ferruccio Furlanetto as the blind king Timur. Marco Armiliato conducts Puccini’s stirring opera, which takes the stage in the company’s dazzling, ever-popular production by Franco Zeffirelli. |
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Lucia Di Lammermoor 10:30am Ethels Soprano Nadine Sierra takes on one of the repertory’s most formidable and storied roles, the haunted heroine of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, in an electrifying new staging by Australian theater and film director Simon Stone, conducted by Riccardo Frizza. Tenor Javier Camarena adds to the bel canto fireworks as Lucia’s beloved, Edgardo, with baritone Artur Ruciński as her overbearing brother, Enrico, and bass Matthew Rose as her tutor, Raimondo. |
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Hamlet 10:30am Ethels When Australian composer Brett Dean’s Hamlet had its world premiere at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2017, The Guardian declared, “New opera doesn’t often get to sound this good … Shakespeare offers a gauntlet to composers that shouldn’t always be picked up, but Dean’s Hamlet rises to the challenge.” Now, this riveting contemporary masterpiece arrives at the Met, with Neil Armfield, who directed the work’s premiere, bringing his acclaimed staging to New York. Many of the original cast members have followed, including tenor Allan Clayton in the title role. Nicholas Carter makes his Met debut conducting a remarkable ensemble, which also features soprano Brenda Rae as Ophelia, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly as Gertrude, baritone Rod Gilfry as Claudius, and legendary bass John Tomlinson as the ghost of Hamlet’s father. |