(WNY News Now) – FREDONIA – Live at the Met, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live, high definition (HD) opera transmissions to theaters around the world, continues at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center on Sat., Apr. 20, at 1 p.m., with Giacomo Puccini’s La Rondine. Puccini’s bittersweet love story makes a rare Met appearance, with soprano Angel Blue starring as the French courtesan Magda, opposite tenor Jonathan Tetelman in his highly anticipated company debut as Ruggero, an idealistic young man who offers her an alternative to her life of excess.
Maestro Speranza Scappucci conducts Nicolas Joël’s glittering 1920s staging, which transports audiences from the heart of Parisian nightlife to a dreamy vision of the French Riviera. In their Met debuts, soprano Emily Pogorelc
and tenor Bekhzod Davronov complete the sterling cast as Lisette and Prunier.
Initially conceived as an operetta before receiving the full operatic treatment, La Rondine is the least-known work of the mature Giacomo Puccini. It is a fascinating opera – featuring an abundance of exuberant waltzes, a lightness
of tone (particularly in the intoxicating first two acts), and a romantic vision of Paris and the south of France.
Sung in Italian with English subtitles, this production runs two hours, 35 minutes with one intermission.
Live at the Met is part of the Stage On Screen Series, sponsored by Dr. James & Marcia Merrins, and underwritten with support from Daniel S. Kaufman and Timothy W. Beaver.
Individual tickets to each of the operas in the season are $20, ($18 Opera House members, $10 students). Tickets may be purchased in person at the Opera House Box Office or by phone at 716-679-1891, Tuesday-Friday, 12-4:30 p.m. Tickets may be purchased online anytime at http://www.fredopera.org .
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