The Met: Live in HD continues Mar. 1 with Borodin’s Prince Igor

Performance transmitted “live” to FLC campus from New York’s Metropolitan Opera

Durango, CO – The Met: Live in HD continues at Fort Lewis College, Saturday, Mar. 1, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. with Borodin’s defining Russian epic, Prince Igor.
Dmitri Tcherniakov’s new production, the first return of Prince Igor to the Met in nearly 100 years, is called a brilliant psychological journey through the mind of its conflicted hero, with the founding of the Russian nation as the backdrop. Star bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov takes on the monumental title role.
Prince Igor will be broadcast in high definition in the Vallecito Room of the Fort Lewis College Student Union. The Met: Live in HD is presented locally by the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. Run time is approximately 4.5 hours.

Gianandrea Noseda, a specialist in Russian music, conducts this new edition of the opera – left unfinished by Borodin at the time of his sudden death in 1887. The cast also includes Ukrainian soprano Oksana Dyka in her Met debut as Igor’s wife, Yaroslavna; Anita Rachvelishvili as the fiery Polovtsian princess Konchakovna; Russian tenor Sergey Semishkur in his Met debut as Igor’s son, Vladimir Igorevich; Mikhail Petrenko as Yaroslavna’s brother, Prince Galitsky; and Štefan Kocán as Khan Konchak, leader of the Polovtsian forces.

“The Met has returned a long-absent marvel to its rightful place in the repertoire,” writes New York Magazine. “The Metropolitan Opera mounted its own imperial Russian spectacular…[with a score that] bubbles with irresistible tunes and gaudy contrasts, with the exotic Poloytsians moving in sinuous oriental dances while Russians answer with thick-soled marches and honest folk songs.”

Prince Igor was performed at the Met just 10 times between 1915 and 1917, always in an Italian translation. The opera then fell out of the company’s repertory, though it continued to be performed regularly elsewhere, particularly in Russia, where it is part of the standard operatic repertory.
In 1953, Robert Wright and George Forrest adapted parts of the score, as well as other Borodin compositions, into the Broadway musical Kismet, best-known for the standard “Stranger in Paradise,” which is set to the music of one of Prince Igor’s Polovtsian Dances. For the new Met production, Noseda and Tcherniakov have used recent research that incorporates all the known music and orchestration by Borodin.

All productions are screened in Durango on Saturday mornings. Since the Live in HD series launched in 2006, more than 13 million tickets have been sold to opera lovers worldwide. The Met: Live in HD is now seen in more than 2,000 theaters in 64 countries around the world.

Advance tickets for individual shows are $24 ($22 for seniors, students, children and Met members) and 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. All sales final.

Tickets will also be available on the morning of each performance, one hour in advance of show time, at the FLC Student Union.

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.