April 25 season finale for The Met: Live in HD features double bill
Metropolitan Opera offers new productions of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci
Durango, CO – The ninth season of The Met: Live in HD series comes to a close Saturday, April 25, 2015, with an acclaimed new production of opera’s most beloved double bill: Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci. Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni)/Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) 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 10:30 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, 30 minutes. Host behind the scenes is Susan Graham. Sir David McVicar directs this first new Met production of the popular verismo double bill in 45 years, with Argentinean tenor Marcelo Álvarez making his company role debut in both leading tenor parts: the unrepentant seducer Turiddu and the clown Canio.
Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek will sing the role of Santuzza, the abandoned woman atthe heart of Cavalleria Rusticana, and American soprano Patricia Racette will star as Canio’s ill-fated wife Nedda in Pagliacci. George Gagnidze will also star in both operas, singing the principal baritone roles of Alfio in Cavalleria and Tonio in Pagliacci. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads the double bill.
Cavalleria Rusticana is an opera in one act, libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, based on a story and play by Giovanni Verga. The opera Pagliacci is performed in a prologue and two acts, with libretto by the composer Leoncavallo.
While the two pieces – the best-known examples of the verismo operatic genre – have different composers and unrelated storylines, they are almost always paired together in modern performance, a practice that began at the Met in 1893. As noted in the New York Times, “For this new Cav/Pag, the Met recruited a strong cast, featuring Marcelo Álvarez in the lead tenor roles of both works: Turiddu, the peasant returned from the army in Cavalleria, and Canio, the leader of the troupe in Pagliacci, who plays the clown in the traveling show. This double assignment is a formidable challenge, and Mr. Álvarez delivers the most impassioned and commanding singing I have heard from him at the Met. The soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek brings vocal charisma and wrenching vulnerability to Santuzza, the tragic heroine of Cavalleria, a young woman who, having been seduced by Turiddu, now loves him desperately.”
Marcelo Álvarez makes his role debut as Turiddu with this production. He recently sang Canio to acclaim with the Opera de Monte Carlo. He has sung more than 110 Met performances in 12 roles, most recently the title character in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier;
Gustavo III in the new production of Un Ballo in Maschera; Radamès in Verdi’s Aida; Cavaradossi in the new production of Puccini’s Tosca; and Manrico in McVicar’s new production of Il Trovatore. Next season, he will sing his first Met performances of the fearless hero Calàf in Puccini’s Turandot.
Earlier this season, Eva-Maria Westbroek sang the title role in a critically heralded Met revival of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. The Dutch soprano made her Met debut as Sieglinde in the new production of Wagner’s Die Walküre and also starred in a rare revival of Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini. Next season, she will add another role to her company repertory when she sings her first Met performances of Elisabeth in Wagner’s Tannhäuser.
Patricia Racette has sung more than 160 Met performances over the course of her 20-year career with the company, including Nedda in 2005 and 2006. Her recent roles with the company have included Maddalena in Andrea Chénier, opposite Álvarez; Madame Lidoine in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites; the title role in Puccini’s Tosca; and the leading roles in all three operas that comprise Puccini’s Il Trittico: Giorgetta in Il Tabarro, the title character in Suor Angelica, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. Next season, she will reprise one of her most acclaimed roles, Cio-Cio-San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
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 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.
