Met Live Closes Season with 'Die Walküre,' Featuring Crane Alumna

Stephanie Blythe '92 is Fricka in Wagner's Epic Opera, Screening in Potsdam on May 14 and 15

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Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, an alumna of SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music, is Fricka alongside Bryn Terfel as Wotan.

POTSDAM, NY (05/05/2011)(readMedia)-- The 2010-11 season of The Met: Live in HD will close with an epic performance of Richard Wagner's "Die Walküre," featuring a stellar cast, including SUNY Potsdam alumna Stephanie Blythe '92. The opera will screen live at Potsdam's Roxy Theater at noon on Saturday, May 14, with an encore transmission at noon on Sunday, May 15.

Metropolitan Opera Music Director James Levine will conduct visionary director Robert Lepage's production of the second opera in Wagner's epic "Der Ring des Nibelungen" cycle, which uses cutting-edge technology to tell the legendary story of the warrior maiden Brünnhilde who sacrifices her immortality to defend love.

The gifted cast of Wagnerians includes Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde; Bryn Terfel as Wotan, tormented king of the gods; Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek as the lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde; Stephanie Blythe as Fricka, the imposing queen of the gods, and Hans-Peter König as the jealous Hunding. World-renowned tenor (and noted Siegmund) Plácido Domingo will co-host the transmission of the much-anticipated production, with Joyce DiDonato, star of this season's Live in HD transmission of "Le Comte Ory."

The New York Times has already said in a review that "as Fricka, the mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe was in typically astonishing voice ... Lepage has Fricka play almost the entire scene sitting on an exotic throne that is rolled out a little shakily. But Ms. Blythe is such a compelling presence and formidable singer that she did not seem confined. Stephanie Blythe rules."

The Crane School of Music graduate, who returned to her alma mater as a guest artist-in-residence this year, also portrayed Fricka, the indomitable wife of Wotan, in "Das Rheingold" to open the Met season.

"Die Walküre" will screen live at noon on Saturday, May 14, with an encore transmission at noon on Sunday, May 15 at Potsdam's Roxy Theater. The expected running time is five hours and 30 minutes, with two intermissions. The opera will be performed in German, with English subtitles.

Sponsored by SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, the series has introduced pre-opera talks for the remainder of the 2010-11 The Met: Live in HD season.

Crane student Vincent Covatto will speak in advance of each performance, including two discussions before the screening of "Die Walküre." One talk will be held at 12:15 p.m. on Friday, May 6 in the Crane Green Room on the SUNY Potsdam campus, and the other will be at 11:30 a.m. directly before the live transmission in Potsdam's Roxy Theater on Saturday, May 14. To learn more about the pre-opera talks, visit metinhid.craneoperaensemble.com.

In the North Country, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music and J.S. Cinemas sponsor the 2010-11 season of The Met: Live in HD. Music-lovers and novices alike can watch the staging live from the Metropolitan stage in New York City, where high-definition cameras capture the action and the dramatic music is presented in surround sound, with English subtitles, through The Met: Live in HD.

The Metropolitan Opera's The Met: Live in HD series has won both Peabody and Emmy Awards, and sold more than 2.2 million tickets worldwide during the 2009-10 season. For this season, the series has expanded to 1,500 theaters.

Ticket prices for the series are the lowest available in the nation: $18 for an adult, $15 for senior citizens, $12 for students and $9 for youth age 18 and under.

Tickets are available by calling the Community Performance Series Box Office at (315) 267-2277, or visiting the Roxy Theater or Northern Music & Video in downtown Potsdam or the CPS Box Office in the lobby of Sara M. Snell Music Theater. You can also reserve tickets online by visiting www.cpspotsdam.org.

For more information on the 2010-11 The Met: Live in HD season, visit the Metropolitan Opera website at www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events_next.aspx.

To learn more about The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

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Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution, and is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2011.

-www.potsdam.edu/crane-