(828) 526-0173 | [email protected] | Copyright 2024 – All Rights Reserved.
Wagner & Donizetti
Written By: Mary Adair Trumbly - Highlands PAC | Issue: 2019/03 - March
The Highlands Performing Arts Center will present the Met Opera productions of “La Fille Du Régiment” and “Die Walküre” in March, Live via Satellite.
On Saturday, March 2, Donizetti’s “La Fille Du Régiment” will begin at 12:55 P.M. Bel canto stars Pretty Yende and Javier Camarena team up for a feast of vocal fireworks on the Met stage. Baritone Maurizio Muraro is Sergeant Sulplice, with mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as the outlandish Marquise of Berkenfield. Enrique Mazzola conducts. This frothy comedy concerns a young orphan girl raised by an army regiment as their mascot and begins at the moment of her first stirrings of love. Complications (and comedy) ensue when her true identity is discovered. The action is startlingly simple and unencumbered by intricate subplots, allowing the full charm of the characters and their virtuosic music to come across in an uninhibited way.
Wagner’s “Die Walküre” will be screened at noon Saturday, March 30. This production has a run time of 5.5 hours, and sandwiches will be available for purchase. In what is expected to be a Wagnerian event for the ages, soprano Christine Goerke plays Brünnhilde, the willful title warrior maiden, who loses her immortality in opera’s most famous act of filial defiance. Tenor Stuart Skelton and soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek are the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, and bass-baritone Greer Grimsley sings the god Wotan. Philippe Jordan conducts. The second opera in Wagner’s monumental “Ring” cycle, “Die Walküre” has long stood on its own as an evening of extraordinarily powerful theater. Part of this appeal lies in its focus on some of the Ring’s most interesting characters at decisive moments of their lives: Wotan, the leader of the gods; his wife, Fricka; his twin offspring, Siegmund and Sieglinde; and, above all, Wotan’s warrior daughter Brünnhilde. These characters and others follow their destinies to some of Wagner’s most remarkable music.
There will be a pre-opera discussion 30 minutes before each opera. Tickets are available at highlandspac.org or at the door. Highlands PAC is located at 507 Chestnut Street. For more information, call (828) 526-9047.
