For those of you who have waited all summer for free full-length opera performances, do not despair. Tonight begins the wondrous high-definition screenings of ten Metropolitan Opera performances in Lincoln Center Plaza for the next ten nights. These video forecasts were filmed from actual live events from the last three seasons. Like many performing arts and non-profit organizations, the Met has had to tighten its fiscal belt. Although these broadcasts have been in theaters and on television, there is a certain magical quality to seeing it outside at Lincoln Center with throngs of people. Obviously, the Met hopes to attract a new audience with this user-friendly venue.
Familiar operas include Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Verdi’s Macbeth, Puccini’s La Bohème, Il Trittico, and Madama Butterfly as well as Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Britten’s Peter Grimes, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.
If you can't make it to Manhattan, be sure to look for these works in the compact disc collection at the Westport Public Library.
