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There might be one or two reasons you can’t make it to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City right now. But don’t worry, the Newport Performing Arts Center can bring world-class opera to you, with The Met: Live in HD.
The series returns for a 15th season with an award-winning lineup of live cinema transmissions shown in high definition, beginning on Saturday, Oct. 16, with Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov.”
This revival production of Boris Godunov features Sebastian Weigle as conductor, David Butt Philip as Grigory, Maxim Paster as Shuisky, Aleksey Bogdanov as Shchelkalov, René Pape as Boris, Ain Anger as Pimen and Ryan Speedo Green as Varlaam.
Pape reprises his tremendous portrayal of the tortured tsar caught between grasping ambition and crippling paranoia. Weigle leads Mussorgsky’s masterwork, a pillar of the Russian repertoire, in its original 1869 version. Stephen Wadsworth’s affecting production poignantly captures the hope and suffering of the Russian people, as well as the titular ruler himself.
The season continues on Oct. 23 with the historic Met premiere of Grammy Award–winning jazz musician and composer Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” on Oct. 23. The libretto for this adaptation of Charles M. Blow’s moving memoir is by filmmaker Kasi Lemmons.
Featuring Yannick Nézet-Séguin as conductor; Baritone Will Liverman as Charles, and sopranos Angel Blue as Destiny/Loneliness/Greta and Latonia Moore as Billie.
Choreography by Camille A. Brown.
The first opera by a Black composer presented on the Met stage, the opera tells a poignant and profound story about a young man’s journey to overcome a life of trauma and hardship. James Robinson and Camille A. Brown — two of the creators of the recent production of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess — co-direct the staging.
Productions filling the rest of the season are “Eurydice” on Dec. 11, “Cinderella” on Jan. 22, “Rigoletto” on Jan. 29, “Ariadne auf Naxos” on April 2, “Don Carlos” on March 26, “Turandot” on May 14, “Lucia di Lammermoor” on May 21 and “Hamlet” on June 11.
The Met: Live in HD is shown in 5.1 surround with 80 speakers; incomparable clarity with added acoustical support from Meyer Sound’s Constellation system.
The season opener begins at 2 pm. Subscription pricing for all nine transmissions range from $80 to $175 and individual tickets range from $10 to $22. For more information, go to coastarts.org or call 541-265-2787.