Quintessential Verdi Opera 'Don Carlo' Comes to Met Encores

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Playing the title role, Roberto Alagna sings alongside Ferruccio Furlanetto as King Phillip II in Verdi’s “Don Carlo.”

• Watch a scene from "Don Carlo" with Roberto Alagna and Simon Keenlyside.

POTSDAM, NY (07/21/2011)(readMedia)-- A dream cast came together for the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Giuseppe Verdi's "Don Carlo" last year, to perform what some have called the "quintessential Verdi opera." Local audiences can again experience the drama through the 2011 Summer Encores from The Met: Live in HD.

Love, war, politics and religion combine to tell a story that is epic in scale in Verdi's monumental work. "Don Carlo" will be presented in a five-act Italian version (including the "Fontainebleau Act") at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 1 in Potsdam's Roxy Theater.

The opera will be performed in Italian, with English subtitles. The expected running time is three hours, 36 minutes.

Set in Spain in the mid-1500s, Verdi's grand opera follows conflicts in the life of Prince Carlos of Asturias after his betrothed, Elisabeth of Valois, is married instead to his father, King Philip II of Spain. The Inquisition and the oppression of Flanders roil the stability of the kingdom, while romantic intrigue plagues the royal family from within.

Roberto Alagna sings the conflicted title character, performing the role in Italian for the first time, while Marina Poplavskaya portrays Elisabeth de Valois, torn between duty to her husband and love for his son. Ferruccio Furlanetto sings the tyrannical and tormented King Philip II.

"Don Carlo" was a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet.

The Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live performance transmissions to movie theaters around the world will return to Potsdam this summer through the third season of The Met: Live in HD Summer Encores. The 2011 Summer Encore season will celebrate the masters of Italian opera, with productions of works by Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti and Rossini.

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.

Special summer ticket pricing is discounted: $13 for adults, $11 for senior citizens, $9 for students and $7 for youths aged 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-