Iconic operas make PH debut

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An extraordinary lineup of exciting Met opera productions comes to the Philippine cinema through the CCP’s The Met Live in HD starting this March.

Now on its 9th season, the opera program of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) presents seven classic operas – Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi, Carmen by Georges Bizet, X: The Life and All Times of Malcolm X by Anthony Davis, La Forza del Destino by Giuseppe Verdi, La Rondine by Giacomo Puccini, and Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie.

The new season opens on March 5 with Strauss’s most popular opera about a wise woman of the world who is involved with a much younger lover. Forced to accept the laws of time, she gives him up to a pretty young heiress.

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Dead Man Walking

First premiered in 1911, set in an idealized Vienna, the tragic opera is a comic yet nostalgic fantasy drama with striking touches of philosophy and social commentary on its libretto written by Viennese author and poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal and sung with a magnificent score by Strauss.

A dream cast assembles for this grand Viennese comedy, with Soprano Lise Davidsen performing as the aging Marschallin, opposite mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey as her lover Octavian and soprano Erin Morley as Sophie, the beautiful younger woman who steals his heart. Bass Günther Groissböck returns as the churlish Baron Ochs, and Brian Mulligan is Sophie’s wealthy father, Faninal. Maestro Simone Young takes the Met podium to oversee Robert Carsen’s fin-de-sieÌ€cle staging.

Ancient Babylon comes to life in Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco on April 2. In this classic Met staging of biblical proportions, Verdi and Temistocle Solera took some liberties with biblical history and created a stirring drama about the fall of ancient Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco).

Verdi’s third opera, which had a world premiere in Teatro alla Scala, Milan in 1842, is known for its exhilarating chorus “Va, pensiero” and titular aria “Dio di Giuda.”

Baritone George Gagnidze makes his Met role debut as the imperious king Nabucco, performing with soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska who reprises her role as vengeful daughter Abigaille. Mezzo-soprano Maria Barakova and tenor SeokJong Baek, in his company debut, are Fenena and Ismaele, whose love transcends politics, and bass Dmitry Belosselskiy repeats his celebrated portrayal of the high priest Zaccaria. Daniele Callegari conducts.

Premiering on the Philippine big screen on May 7 is Georges Bizet’s Carmen. Acclaimed English director Carrie Cracknell makes her Met debut with Bizet’s masterpiece. First premiered in Paris in 1875, the opera tells about a gypsy seductress who lives by her own rules. At the heart of this tragic romantic tale are gendered violence, abusive labor structures, and the desire to break through societal boundaries – social issues that are still relevant today.

Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking and influential opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, will arrive in the Ayala cinema on June 4. Robert O’Hara, theater luminary and Tony-nominated director of Slave Play, oversees a potent new staging that imagines Malcolm as an Everyman whose story transcends time and space.

Catch Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s masterpiece on Verdi’s grand tale of ill-fated love, deadly vendetta, and family strife, La Forza del Destino, on July 2.

Director Mariusz TreliÅ„ski delivers Met’s first new Forza in nearly 30 years, setting the scene in a contemporary world and making extensive use of the theater’s turntable to represent the unstoppable advance of destiny that drives the opera’s chain of calamitous events.

A gripping tale about Leonora, a beautiful daughter of the wealthy Marquis who has fallen in love with a Peruvian nobleman who is deemed unworthy because of his Incan blood.

Stellar soprano Lise Davidsen triumphs with her portrayal of Leonora, one of the repertory’s most tormented yet thrilling heroines.

Another bittersweet love story makes a rare premiere on August 13. Puccini’s La Rondine follows the plight of Magda who falls in love with a handsome young Ruggero, but her unfounded fears about her checkered past somehow ruin their happy ever after. Soprano Angel Blue and tenor Jonathan Tetelman portray the star-crossed lovers.

The 9th season of CCP’s The Met Live in HD culminates with American composer Jake Heggie’s masterpiece Dead Man Walking on September 3. In the haunting new Met production directed, Heggie and librettist Terrence McNally bring to life Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir about her fight for the soul of a condemned murderer.

All screenings are scheduled at 5:30 p.m. at Ayala Malls Greenbelt 3 Cinema 1 in Makati City. Tickets are priced at P450.00. Students and young professionals get a discounted price of P100.00 upon presentation of a valid ID.

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