The Met: Live in HD season concludes April 27 with Giulio Cesare

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

Durango, CO – David McVicar’s hit production of Handel’s Baroque classic opera Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) will be screened live in the Vallecito Room of the Fort Lewis College Student Union Saturday, Apr. 27, 2013, 10 a.m. as The Met: Live in HD concludes its 2012-2013 season. The Met: Live in HD is presented locally by the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.

McVicar’s critically acclaimed staging of Handel’s opera, which is based on the romance between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, premiered at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2005. The production uses Baroque theatrical devices, choreography, and highlighted themes of love and war to tell what the director describes as “a semi-comic, semi-tragic adventure story.”

David Daniels (Prospero in last season’s The Enchanted Island) sings the title role of Julius Caesar, in one of his most acclaimed Met portrayals. He performs opposite Natalie Dessay (last season’s La Traviata, 2011’s Lucia di Lammermoor) in her house role debut as the bewitching and legendary Cleopatra.

The cast also includes Alice Coote (Hansel in 2008’s Hansel and Gretel) as Sesto, Patricia Bardon (Erda in last season’s Ring cycle) as Cornelia, and French countertenor Christophe Dumaux (in his first Live in HD appearance) as Tolomeo.

Harry Bicket, renowned for his sensitive interpretations of Baroque music (and conductor of this season’s La Clemenza di Tito), conducts the opera, which is lauded as one of Handel’s most enduring and popular works.
View a video of Dessay performing “Non Disperar” from Giulio Cesare at www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/liveinhd/LiveinHD.aspx.
[*An act-by-act synopsis of Giulio Cesare follows at the end of this release.*]

Staged in three acts, Giulio Cesare runs approximately 4½ hours. Light lunch items will be available for sale at the Student Union during the Met screening.

The Met: Live in HD events deliver performances 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. It has expanded its worldwide distribution to 1,900 theaters in 64 countries, the largest global audience the initiative has ever reached. New countries joining the Live in HD network this season include Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Jamaica, Madagascar, Montenegro, Qatar and Serbia. The Met: Live in HD has sold more than 12 million tickets since its inception in 2006.

The current series kicked off Oct. 13, 2012 and during the 2012-2013 season featured a total of 12 live performances, including seven new Met productions. All productions are screened in Durango on Saturday mornings.

Advance tickets for individual shows – $25 ($23 for seniors, students, children and Met members) – 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. 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.