The Met: Live in HD Enters Sixth Season, Returns to Roxy in Potsdam

SUNY Potsdam Crane School of Music Alumnae Renée Fleming '81 and Stephanie Blythe '92 Among Stars of Metropolitan Opera Season

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SUNY Potsdam alumnae Stephanie Blythe, top, and Renée Fleming will perform alongside each other in the Metropolitan Opera’s “Rodelinda,” screening live on Dec. 3.

POTSDAM, NY (09/28/2011)(readMedia)-- The Met: Live in HD will return to Potsdam in 2011-12, with screenings at the Roxy Theater sponsored once again by SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music. Now in its sixth season, the Metropolitan Opera series has expanded its worldwide distribution to 1,600 theaters in 54 countries, the largest global audience the initiative has ever reached.

SUNY Potsdam and its Crane School of Music are proud to announce that two of its accomplished alumnae will share the stage together this year in a Metropolitan Opera production featured on The Met: Live in HD. Superstar soprano Renée Fleming '81 and internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe '92 will perform alongside each other in the Met production of Handel's "Rodelinda," with Fleming in the title role and Blythe as Eduige. North Country audiences can take in the performance in a live broadcast on Dec. 3.

The 2011-12 Live in HD season features 10 transmissions, which include a Met premiere, a world premiere, three new productions of repertory favorites, and the final two installments of a new Ring cycle. All productions will be shown live worldwide on Saturdays. There will also be encore presentations held on Sundays locally. For complete information on locations and tickets, visit www.metopera.org/hdlive.

All performances will be screened at the downtown Roxy Theater, in startling high-definition with digital surround sound. Robotic cameras, strategically placed around and behind the stage, will capture the beauty and power of live performance from striking angles, and heighten attention to both performance and production.

Mark your calendars now! Here is the 2011-12 The Met: Live in HD season schedule:

  • Donizetti's "Anna Bolena": Live at 1 p.m. on Oct. 15; Encore on Oct. 23
  • Mozart's "Don Giovanni": Live at 1 p.m. on Oct. 29; Encore on Nov. 6
  • Wagner's "Siegfried": Live at noon on Nov. 5
  • Glass' "Satyagraha": Live at 1 p.m. on Nov. 19; Encore on Feb. 19
  • Handel's "Rodelinda": Live at 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 3; Encore on Dec. 11
  • Gounod's "Faust": Live at 1 p.m. on Dec. 10; Encore on Feb. 5
  • "The Enchanted Island," with music from Handel, Vivaldi and Rameau: Live at 1 p.m. on Jan. 21; Encore on Jan. 29
  • Wagner's "Götterdämmerung": Live at noon on Feb. 11
  • Manon's "Massenet": Live at noon on April 7; Encore on April 15
  • Verdi's "La Traviata": Live at 1 p.m. on April 14; Encore on April 29

Intermission features and English subtitles will once again bring the stories to life. For those who can't make the live performance transmission, encore presentations will also be presented. Experience the depth and raw energy of world-class opera without going all the way to New York City.

The sixth season of live transmissions begins Oct. 15 with the Met premiere production of Donizetti's "Anna Bolena," featuring Anna Netrebko in the title role. She stars in the first transmission to be shown in her native country, joined by Russian colleagues Ekaterina Gubanova as Jane Seymour and Ildar Abdrazakov as Enrico (Henry VIII). The opera, directed by David McVicar and conducted by Marco Armiliato, is based on the final, tragic days of Anne Boleyn and has been a dramatic and vocal showcase for some of the greatest sopranos in operatic history.

In addition to Netrebko, the 2011-12 Live in HD season features many of the opera world's most prominent stars, including Stephanie Blythe, David Daniels, Natalie Dessay, Joyce DiDonato, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Jonas Kaufmann, Mariusz Kwiecien, René Pape, Marina Poplavskaya, Bryn Terfel and Deborah Voigt.

Joyce DiDonato, David Daniels, Plácido Domingo, Danielle de Niese, and Luca Pisaroni are among the stars of "The Enchanted Island" (Jan. 21), a world premiere work inspired by the musical pastiches and masques of the 18th century. Devised and written by Jeremy Sams with a story drawn from Shakespeare, "The Enchanted Island" showcases arias and ensembles by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau and others.

Tony Award-winning directors Michael Grandage and Des McAnuff will make their respective Met debuts with new productions of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" (Oct. 29) and Gounod's "Faust "(Dec. 10). Netrebko will sing her second title role this season in the new production of Massenet's "Manon" (April 7.

Robert Lepage's groundbreaking new staging of Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" reaches its spectacular conclusion with new productions of "Siegfried" (Nov. 5) conducted by Luisi, and "Götterdämmerung" (Feb. 11), conducted by Levine.

Other highlights of the Live in HD season include Philip Glass's "Satyagraha," based on the life of Gandhi in an inspiring production that stars Richard Croft (Nov. 19); Verdi's "Ernani," starring rising soprano Angela Meade (Feb. 25), and Natalie Dessay in her Met role debut as Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata."

Natalie Dessay, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Eric Owens, Patricia Racette and Deborah Voigt will serve as hosts for the Live in HD presentations this season, conducting live interviews with cast, crew and production teams, and introducing the popular behind-the-scenes interviews and features. Altogether, the worldwide HD audience will be given an unprecedented look at what goes into the staging of an opera at one of the world's great houses.

The Metropolitan Opera's The Met: Live in HD series has won both Peabody and Emmy Awards, and sold more than 2.6 million tickets worldwide during the 2010-11 season. For the upcoming sixth season, The Met: Live in HD will expand to 1,600 theaters in 54 countries, now including Russia, Israel, China, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Morocco, Slovenia and the territory of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Tickets are on sale now. 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 2011-12 The Met: Live in HD season, visit the Metropolitan Opera website at www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/liveinhd/LiveinHD.aspx.

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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-