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MET Opera and Bolshoi
Written By: Mary Adair Trumbly - Highlands PAC | Issue: 2016/03 - March
The Highlands Performing Arts Center has earned a reputation for serving as a showcase for world-class performances of theatre, opera and ballet.
At 12:55 P.M. Saturday, March 5, it’ll stage the MET Opera’s presentation of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” Live via satellite from New York City. Few operas have surpassed “Manon” in the depiction of the urgency of young love. This French tale of a beautiful young woman destroyed by her conflicting needs for love and luxury remains as spellbinging as its first performance. Soprano Kristine Opolais and tenor Roberto Alagna join forces in Puccini’s obsessive love story. Opolais sings the title role of the country girl who transforms herself into a Parisian temptress, while Alagna is the dashing student who desperately woos her.
Director Richard Eyre places the action in occupied France in a film noir setting. “Desperate passion” is the phrase Puccini himself used to describe the opera that confirmed his position as the preeminent Italian opera composer of his day. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads the stirring score. Run time is three hours, eight minutes. Beverly Wichman will lead a pre-opera discussion beginning at 12:30 P.M.
On Sunday, March 27, the Bolshoi Ballet will perform “Spartacus,” captured live via satellite from Moscow, beginning at 12:55 P.M. The Bolshoi’s epic recounts the story of a Roman slave’s fight for freedom. Grigorovich’s Spartacus was created at the Bolshoi in 1968 and has since remained the Russian company’s signature ballet, filling the Bolshoi stage with dynamic scenes of tension and conflict, and gives full expression to the virility and strength for which Russia’s male dancers are renowned. “Spartacus” is the ultimate balletic show of force. Spartacus, forced to fight as a gladiator and kill one of his friends, plots an unprecedented upheaval. Principal dancer Mikhail Lobukhin is stunning in the role of the legendary gladiator, along with Svetlana Zakharova as Aegina and Vladislav Lantratov as Crassus. Run time is three hours, 35 minutes
Tickets are available online at www.highlandspac.org, at the door or by calling (828) 526-9047. There is no Charge for students for any Live via Satellite screening. Highlands Performing Arts Center is located at 507 Chestnut Street.
