You shall go to the ball
Enjoy two classics on the big screen at the Newport Performing Arts Center: “Cinderella,” on Saturday, Jan. 22, and Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” on Saturday, Jan. 29, presented by the Met: Live in HD.
The story of Cinderella dates back nearly 2,000 years with an endless number of retellings and modifications throughout history. This family-friendly adaptation is presented in an abridged 90-minute production.
Laurent Pelly has created a living storybook design, bringing to life the timeless fairy tale in a production The New York Times called “a delight..a boldly stylized staging…elegantly rendered.”
Maestro Emmanuel Villa conducts a stellar cast featuring mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as Cinderella, mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo as Prince Charming, soprano Jessica Pratt as the Fairy Godmother, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and bass-baritone Laurent Naouri as Cinderella’s feuding guardians, Madame de la Haltier and Pandolfe.
Next up is the grand production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” with a brand-new look at this timeless tragedy. It will be played out in front of a backdrop of 1920s European Art Deco under the direction of Tony award-winning director Bartlett Sher and conductor Daniele Rustioni.
Baritone Quinn Kelsey, a commanding artist at the height of his powers, brings his searing portrayal of the title role to the Met for the first time, starring alongside soprano Rosa Feola as Gilda and tenor Piotr Beczała as the Duke of Mantua.
Despite making some concessions to Austrian censors late in the opera’s development, Giuseppe Verdi’s three-act masterpiece triumphantly premiered in 1851.
Inspired by a novel by Victor Hugo, the opera mines the gritty world of a licentious Duke and the hunchbacked Rigoletto, his partner in crime, who is cursed for his role in the Duke’s immoral behavior. However, it is Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda who makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Cinderella begins at 2 pm and Rigoletto at 10 am. Tickets for both performances are from $10 to $22. The Newport Performing Arts Center is located at 777 W. Olive Street. For more information, go to www.coastarts.org or call 541-265-2787.
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The Metropolitan Opera was founded in New York City in 1883 by a group of rich businessmen who wanted an opera house of their own.
Many years later and thanks to a liberal policy and cutting-edge technology, modern Met performances can be viewed by anyone from far and wide, including on the big screen at the Newport Performing Arts Center.
In the company’s early years, the operas were all done in Italian and then all in German, before management finally settled into a policy of performing most works in their original language.
One of opera’s most famous artists, Enrico Caruso, arrived at the Met in 1903, and by the time of his death 18 years later had sung more times there than with all the world’s other opera companies combined.
Almost from the beginning, it was clear that the first opera house, located on Broadway at 39th Street, did not have adequate stage facilities. The new Metropolitan Opera House opened at Lincoln Center in 1966, equipped with the finest technical facilities.
Wanting to share their world-class performances with those without the means or opportunity to go to Lincoln Center, the Met began a regular series of televised productions in 1977 with “La Bohème,” viewed by more than four million people on public television.
In 2006, the company launched “The Met: Live in HD,” and the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts stepped up to give coastal residents and visitors this glorious opportunity to enjoy these special performances.
Each season, the Met stages more than 200 opera performances in New York. More than 800,000 people attend the performances in the opera house during the season.
Thanks to the Met Live in HD, millions more can meet the Met.