The Met: Live in HD opens with Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin Oct. 5

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

Durango, CO – The Met: Live in HD launches its screening of live performances in high definition in the Vallecito Room of the Fort Lewis College Student Union on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013 at 10:55 a.m. with a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, the revered Russian opera and one of the composer’s most sumptuous scores. The Met: Live in HD is presented locally by the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.

In the fateful romance based on the novel in verse by Pushkin, the Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien stars as the dashing and imperious Onegin, a bored aristocrat, with glamorous Russian soprano Anna Netrebko as Tatiana, the bookish young dreamer who impulsively falls in love with Onegin.

Deborah Warner’s new production, directed by Fiona Shaw, is set in the late 19th century and moves episodically from farmhouse to ballroom, with a powerful snowstorm providing the dramatic setting for the finale.

Piotr Beczala is Lenski, Onegin’s friend-turned-rival, and Russian maestro Valery Gergiev conducts. Run time is 4:05 hours.

Of Netrebko, the Associated Press wrote, “The role seams an ideal fit for Netrebko’s large, luscious voice, glamorous looks and luminous stage presence…”
[*An act-by-act synopsis of Eugene Onegin follows at the end of this release.*]

As initiated last year, The Met’s performances will be screened in the Vallecito Room of the FLC Student Union. Equipment installed during the Student Union’s renovation meets The Met’s broadcast standard requirements, enabling the special programming.

The Met: Live in HD series will feature 10 performances over the 2013-2014 season. 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 HD viewers are treated to backstage interviews and other features the “in person” audiences never see.