See ten nights of FREE Metropolitan Opera performances on a giant screen in Lincoln Center Plaza. Operas include favorites The Marriage of Figaro and Othello, and Amadeus, the Academy Award-winning film about composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The Met Opera 2016 Summer HD Festival starts this Friday, Aug. 26th, through Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 5th, featuring productions from the Met’s Live in HD simulcast series.
This is the Met Opera Summer HD Festival’s eighth season, and the third year in a row, the Met is collaborating with the Film Society of Lincoln Center to open the festival with an opera-related Hollywood film. Last year it was West Side Story.
Screenings start between 7:30 and 8pm, depending on the day and the length of the opera. Although there are 3,100 seats available in the Lincoln Center plaza area, they do fill up fast, so the advice is to claim yours no less than 45 minutes before start time. No tickets are required, and there are no rain dates.
The Metropolitan Opera’s 2016 Summer HD Festival schedule of performances:
Friday, August 26, 7:45 pm
Amadeus
Amadeus won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1985, among seven other Oscars that year, including for director Miloš Forman and F. Murray Abraham as Salieri. Based on Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play (with an Oscar-winning screenplay by the playwright himself), Amadeus is famous for its bawdy portrayal of the genius composer, for its ravishing art direction, and for the scene in which Austrian Emperor Joseph II dubiously asserts that one particular Mozart composition had “simply too many notes.” The screening is dedicated to the memory of Shaffer, who died this past June. A co-presentation of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera.
- Approximate running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Saturday, August 27, 7:30 pm
Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
James Levine conducts one of Mozart’s most memorable scores, with an ensemble of rising stars and Met veterans including Amanda Majeski, Marlis Petersen, Isabel Leonard, Peter Mattei, and Ildar Abdrazakov. Director Richard Eyre’s elegant production sets the action in the early 20th century. (Original transmission: October 18, 2014).
- Approximate running time: 3 hours
Sunday, August 28, 8:00 pm
Il Trovatore
Anna Netrebko stars as Leonora in Sir David McVicar’s Goya-inspired production. Dolora Zajick, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Yonghoon Lee complete the quartet of stars in Verdi’s tragedy. (Original transmission: October 3, 2015).
- Approximate running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Monday, August 29, 8:00 pm
Otello
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Verdi’s powerful Shakespeare adaptation in Bartlett Sher’s production. Aleksandrs Antonenko sings the towering title role, opposite Sonya Yoncheva as Desdemona and Željko Lučić as Iago. (Original transmission: October 17, 2015).
- Approximate running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Tuesday, August 30, 8:00 pm
La Fille du Régiment
Vocal fireworks meet slapstick comedy in Donizetti’s lighthearted opera. Bel canto stars Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez lead the cast of the Met’s production. (Original transmission: April 26, 2008).
- Approximate running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Wednesday, August 31, 8:00 pm
Lucia di Lammermoor
Natalie Dessay sings opera’s most famous mad scene as the unhinged bride of Lammermoor, opposite Joseph Calleja as her faithful lover and Ludovic Tézier as her scheming brother. (Original transmission: March 19, 2011).
- Approximate running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Thursday, September 1, 7:45 pm
La Cenerentola
Joyce DiDonato triumphs in the title role of the unlikely heroine, opposite Juan Diego Flórez as her Prince Charming. Fabio Luisi conducts Rossini’s sparkling take on the Cinderella story. (Original transmission: May 10, 2014).
- Approximate running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Friday, September 2, 8:00 pm
Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci
Opera’s most popular double bill stars Marcelo Álvarez in both leading tenor roles, along with Eva-Maria Westbroek, Patricia Racette, and George Gagnidze. Fabio Luisi leads this production. (Original transmission: April 25, 2015).
- Approximate running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Saturday, September 3, 8:00 pm
The Merry Widow
Renée Fleming stars in Lehár’s sumptuous operetta, in a production by Broadway director and choreographer Susan Stroman. Nathan Gunn and Tony Award winner Kelli O’Hara, in her Met debut, complete the principal cast. (Original transmission: January 17, 2015).
- Approximate running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Sunday, September 4, 8:00 pm
Turandot
Puccini’s final opera is seen in Franco Zeffirelli’s spectacular production, a classic of the Met repertoire. Nina Stemme takes on the title role of the ruthless Chinese princess. (Original transmission: January 30, 2016).
- Approximate running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes
Monday, September 5, 8:00 pm
Les Pêcheurs de Perles
Not seen at the Met in a century, Bizet’s opera returned to the stage last winter, with Diana Damrau in the leading role, and Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecien singing the famous duet “Au fond du temple saint.” Gianandrea Noseda conducts. (Original transmission: December 15, 2012).
Approximate running time: 2 hours
The Met: Live in HD is produced in association with WNET and PBS.
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