The Met: Live in HD features Rossini’s La Donna del Lago on Mar. 14
Performance transmitted “live” to FLC campus from New York’s Metropolitan Opera
Durango, CO – The Met: Live in HD continues its 2015 season on Saturday, Mar. 14, 2015, 10:55 a.m., with the Met premiere of Gioachino Rossini’s La Donna del Lago.
Bel canto superstars Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez join forces for this Rossini showcase of vocal virtuosity, set in the medieval Scottish highlands and based on a beloved novel by Sir Walter Scott. DiDonato is the “lady of the lake” of the title, and Flórez is the king who relentlessly pursues her, their vocal fireworks embellishing the romantic plot in this production conducted by Michele Mariotti.
Italian mezzo-soprano Daniela Barcellona returns to the Met to sing the bravura role of Elena’s beloved Malcolm, and tenor John Osborn sings the role of the King’s sworn enemy, Rodrigo.
La Donna del Lago will be broadcast live in high definition from New York’s Metropolitan Opera in the Vallecito Room of the Fort Lewis College Student Union beginning at 10:55 a.m. The Met: Live in HD is presented locally by the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.Run time is approximately 3 hours, 10 minutes. Host behind the scenes is Patricia Racette.
La Donna del Lago was the first opera by a major composer to be based on the work of Walter Scott and is a prime example of the fascination that Scottish settings held for the nascent Romantic Movement in Europe. Taking advantage of the early 19th Century craze for Scott’s novel that had swept the continent, Rossini composed La Donna del Lago in 1819 for an ensemble of highly virtuosic singers at Naples’s San Carlo Theatre who inspired some his most dauntingly florid music. The elaborate vocal lines he wrote for the legendary singers Isabella Colbran (his future wife), Giovanni David, and Andrea Nozzari require a total mastery of bel canto technique as well as the ability infuse expression and color once the technical demands are met.
American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is renowned for her performances of bel canto heroines at opera houses around the world. She has previously sung the role of Elena in La Donna del Lago at Milan’s La Scala, the Royal Opera Covent Garden, and at the Santa Fe Festival. In 2012 she sang the title role of in the Met premiere of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, and her Rossini portrayals with the company have included Isolier in Le Comte Ory, the title role of La Cenerentola, and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. DiDonato made her Met debut in 2005 as Cherubino in Mozart’sLe Nozze di Figaro.
Of her current performance, NY Classical Review wrote, “Joyce DiDonato emerges triumphant. It doesn’t take much courage to tell the listening public that DiDonato is among the world’s greatest singing actors of any voice type; on Monday she was beyond perfect… a performance that may ultimately stand as a high point in her already lofty career… her tone was pure honey, her coloratura effortlessly fluttering, her ornamentation fearless.”
Few modern tenors have taken on Rossini’s tenor roles with the mastery of Juan Diego Flórez. The Peruvian tenor has sung Giacomo V (King James V) in La Donna del Lago at La Scala and Covent Garden, and has a been a key figure in the revival of many of Rossini’s rarely done works in opera houses around the world. Flórez made his Met debut in 2002 as Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and has since appeared regularly in numerous leading bel canto roles.
Italian mezzo-soprano Daniela Barcellona regularly sings the bel canto heroines on the world’s major opera stages and has performed the trouser role of Malcolm in La Donna del Lago at La Scala and Covent Garden. Her Met debut in 2001 was as Adalgisa in Norma.
A winner of the Met’s National Council Auditions and former member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, John Osborn has gone on to specialize in bel canto tenor roles including Rodrigo in La Donna del Lago, which he has also sung at La Scala. At the Met, he has sung the role of Goffredo in Rossini’s Armida and Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Italian conductor Michele Mariotti performs a wide ranging repertory of opera and symphonic music, but makes a specialty of bel canto works such as La Donna del Lago, which he has also conducted at the Royal Opera Covent Garden. He made his Met debut leading Bizet’s Carmenin 2012 and returned in 2013 for Rigoletto, in 2014 for I Puritani with his wife, soprano Olga Peretyatko, as Elvira, and earlier this season for Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Link to a variety of videos from La Donna del Lago at http://www.metopera.org/metopera/liveinhd/LiveinHD.aspx.
[*A synopsis of La Donna del Lago follows at the end of this release.*]
The “magic” of The Met: Live in HD events is that they are delivered 100 percent live via satellite. Audiences throughout the world experience the production at the same time as the audience sitting in the Metropolitan Opera itself. Additionally, between acts, The Met: Live in HDviewers are treated to backstage interviews and other features the “in person” audiences never see.
Since the Live in HD series launched in 2006, more than 16 million tickets have been sold to opera lovers worldwide. The Met: Live in HDis now seen in more than 2,000 theaters in 69 countries around the world.
Advance tickets for The Met: Live in HD ($21-$23) are available on-line at www.durangoconcerts.com or by calling 970.247.7657, or at the Ticket Office inside the Durango Welcome Center at 8th St. and Main Ave. in Downtown Durango, Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. All sales final.
Tickets will also be available on the morning of the performance, one hour in advance of show time, at the FLC Student Union.
The final performance in 2014-2015 Live in HD series is Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni)/Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), to be screened Saturday, Apr. 25, 2015, 10:30 a.m.
The Community Concert Hall is a not-for-profit, multi-use performance venue located on the campus of Fort Lewis College. Its ability to bring a diverse spectrum of shows to Southwest Colorado is made possible through a partnership with the college, a state-supported, independent institution of higher education, and financial and in-kind contributions from generous members of the community.
