Met Live Returns with 'Rusalka,' Featuring Renée Fleming in Starring Role

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Crane School of Music alumna Renée Fleming plays the title role in “Rusalka,” playing through The Met: Live in HD on Feb. 8.

• Renée Fleming performs the beloved “Song to the Moon” in the Dvorak opera.
• Tenor Piotr Beczala is the Prince in “Rusalka,” debuting on The Met: Live in HD on Feb. 8.

POTSDAM, NY (01/24/2014)(readMedia)-- Less than a week after performing for millions at the Super Bowl, superstar soprano Renée Fleming, a 1981 graduate of SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, will take to the Metropolitan Opera stage.

Fleming will return to one of her signature roles, singing the title role in "Rusalka," Antonín Dvo?ák's soulful fairy-tale opera. "Rusalka" will screen to movie theaters across the world through The Met: Live in HD, including at Potsdam's Roxy Theater, on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 12:55 p.m.

As Rusalka, Fleming portrays a water nymph who longs to become human after falling in love with a prince. The tragic romance is inspired by several folklore sources, including Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid."

Fleming first came to national prominence when she won the Met's National Council Auditions 25 years ago, singing the forlorn mermaid's famous aria, "Song to the Moon." She has sung the role of Rusalka more than any other artist in Met history.

Tenor Piotr Beczala co-stars as the Prince, Dolora Zajick is Ježibaba, and dynamic young maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin is on the podium.

Dvorák's "Rusalka" will screen live from the Metropolitan Opera stage at 12:55 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8 at Potsdam's Roxy Theater. There will be an encore screening at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 2.

The opera will be performed in Czech, with English subtitles. The approximate running time is four hours, including intermission.

The 2013-14 season of The Met: Live in HD is sponsored in the North Country by SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music and J.S. Cinemas.

All productions will be shown live worldwide on Saturdays. There will also be encore presentations offered on Sundays locally. Doors open a half-hour before show time, and there is immediate seating for advance ticket holders.

In The Met: Live in HD, robotic cameras, strategically placed around and behind the stage, capture the beauty and power of live performance from striking angles, and heighten attention to both performance and production. Intermission features and English subtitles bring the stories to life.

Tickets prices 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 or www2.potsdam.edu/cps/eventpgs/methd.html.

For more information on the 2013-14 The Met: Live in HD season, visit the Metropolitan Opera website at www.metopera.org/hdlive.

To learn more about SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music and its award-winning opera program, visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

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.

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