Soprano Stars in Sweet & Sassy Opera 'Don Pasquale' at The Met: Live in HD

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Soprano Anna Netrebko stars in “Don Pasquale” for The Met: Live in HD, which will be broadcast at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 13 at Potsdam’s Roxy Theatre.

POTSDAM, NY (11/04/2010)(readMedia)-- The Met: Live in HD will bring a lighthearted opera to the Roxy Theatre movie screen for the next installment of the 2010-11 season.

Gaetano Donizetti's "Don Pasquale," an opera that's the 19th-century equivalent of a fun-filled romantic comedy, will be broadcast live at the downtown Potsdam theatre at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 13, with an encore screening at 1 p.m. on Nov. 14. The expected running time is three hours and 30 minutes.

Soprano Anna Netrebko will reprise her acclaimed portrayal of the heroine Norina in the live broadcast of the opera. The New York Times recently said Netrebko renders the production a "comic tour de force," as she is at turns seductive, demure and tyrannical.

"Netrebko offered a vivid portrait of Norina, her fluid voice lustrous as she navigated the bel canto hurdles in a performance that was both physically energetic and vocally rich," the New York Times said.

This is the first revival of Otto Schenk's hilarious staging of "Don Pasquale" since its 2006 premiere, with James Levine conducting the opera for the first time at the Met. Netrebko and Mariusz Kwiecien will return from the premiere cast, while Matthew Polenzani will take on a new Met role as Ernesto, and John Del Carlo will sing the title role.

"Don Pasquale" tells the tale of a sassy widow who pretends to be a demure convent girl who turns into a shrew in order to separate a miser from his inheritance. Norina must play the part in order to win the heart of her beloved, Don Pasquale, and join him in marriage.

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 the upcoming fifth season, The Met: Live in HD will expand to 1,500 theaters, and add Egypt, Portugal and Spain to its network of now 46 participating countries.

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 the State University of New York at 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.

-www.potsdam.edu/crane-