Thrilling Production of 'Il Trovatore' Returns to The Met: Live in HD

Verdi's Famous Opera to be Performed with Four Leading Contemporary Stars

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The famous “Anvil Chorus” scene from “Il Trovatore” is seen from the Metropolitan Opera’s latest production.

POTSDAM, NY (04/21/2011)(readMedia)-- Four of contemporary opera's leading Verdi stars will perform the lead roles in the composer's thrilling "Il Trovatore," in a fast-paced production set to hit movie theaters across the globe through The Met: Live in HD on April 30.

David McVicar's production, acclaimed by critics for its fluid narrative and psychological acuity, will return to the Metropolitan Opera stage starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Marco Armiliato conducts Verdi's passionate tale of love and revenge, which features some of his most famous music, including the "Anvil Chorus."

SUNY Potsdam alumna Renée Fleming, star of this season's transmission of "Capriccio," will host the screening of "Il Trovatore."

McVicar's production of "Il Trovatore," which is notoriously difficult to stage due to its complex plot, won critical acclaim for its straightforward emotional power when it debuted at the Met in 2009 with Álvarez in the title role. The staging is visually inspired by Francisco Goya's series of prints entitled "The Disasters of War."

"Il Trovatore" will screen live at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 30, with an encore transmission at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 8 at Potsdam's Roxy Theater. The expected running time is two hours, 45 minutes. The opera will be performed in Italian, 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 "Il Trovatore." One talk will be held at 12:15 p.m. on Friday, April 29 in the Crane Green Room on the SUNY Potsdam campus, and the other will be at 12:30 p.m. directly before the live transmission in Potsdam's Roxy Theater on Saturday, April 30. 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-