The M.V. Film Center has brought the Metropolitan Opera to the screen for years now, and the 2022–23 season still packs plenty of punch, with Giordano’s drama “Fedora” returning to the Met for the first time in 25 years. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva stars as the 19th century princess who falls in love with her fiancé’s murderer, Count Loris, sung by tenor Piotr Beczała. Marco Armiliato conducts David McVicar’s detailed production, with a fixed set that unfolds to reveal a palace in St. Petersburg, a fashionable Parisian salon, and a picturesque villa in the Swiss Alps. That production screens Saturday, Jan. 14, at 12:55 pm. (All performances are Saturday matinees, and are transmitted live in high definition from the Met stage.)
The 2022–23 season also featured the world premiere staging of “The Hours,” as well as the company premieres of “Champion” and “Medea.” According to the Film Center’s website, “The Met: Live in HD is the largest provider of alternative cinema content in the world, with more than 24 million tickets sold since the inception of the series in 2006. The series brings live Met performances to more than 2,200 movie theaters and performing arts centers in more than 70 countries.”
Film Center founder and executive director Richard Paradise said that bringing Met Opera Live in was a goal of his from early on.
“When we opened the Film Center in 2012, one of my early goals was to be able to bring the Met Opera Live program to the Film Center for our Island community. I felt there was a demand for live opera and other simulcast performance events,” Paradise told us in an email. “Unfortunately, the organization that licenses the Met was not that enthused at first to add us to their network — so I kept asking for three years, and finally broke through in 2015 with a little help from former Film Society supporter Carol Craven, who knew someone on the Met board. Carol also helped arrange for a donor to anonymously donate $7,500 to purchase and install the satellite equipment to receive the broadcasts. So in autumn 2015, we launched the program to great fanfare.”
The Island’s opera buffs enjoy all the scenes captured by the 22 cameras the Met employs to showcase its cinema program, Paradise wrote. “You can see the actors and staging much better in a theater than actually being in the Met — close-ups, overheads, and more are amplified by the many camera angles. They also love the audio quality that the Film Center outputs — it’s a big sound, perfect for operatic performances.”
Another aspect that makes Met Opera Live special is the interviews with actors, conductors, and directors during the opera intermissions. It’s an added experience that New York City Met audiences do not get in those live performances. If you love the Met Opera, there are upcoming performances you’re sure to enjoy.
‘Lohengrin’
On Saturday, March 18, at 12 pm, Wagner’s “Lohengrin” returns to the Met stage for the first time in 17 years, staged by François Girard. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a cast led by tenor Piotr Beczała in the lead role of the mysterious swan knight. Sopranos Tamara Wilson and Elena Stikhina, as the virtuous duchess Elsa falsely accused of murder, encounter soprano Christine Goerke as the cunning sorceress Ortrud. Bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin is Ortrud’s power-hungry husband, Telramund, and bass Günther Groissböck is King Heinrich.
‘Falstaff’
Verdi’s classic Shakespearean comedy features an ensemble cast in Robert Carsen’s celebrated staging screened aptly on Saturday, April 1, at 12:30 pm. Baritone Michael Volle sings his first Verdi role at the Met as the caddish knight Falstaff, tormented by a trio of clever women who deliver exactly what he deserves. Reuniting after their work in the production’s 2019 run are soprano Ailyn Pérez as Alice Ford, soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano as Meg Page, and mezzo-soprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Mistress Quickly.
‘Der Rosenkavalier’
On Saturday, April 15, at 12 pm, opera lovers enjoy a stellar trio taking lead roles in Strauss’s comedy “Der Rosenkavalier,” with soprano Lise Davidsen in her Met role debut as the Marschallin, opposite mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard in her debut as Octavian, and soprano Erin Morley as Sophie. Bass Günther Groissböck rounds out the principal cast as Baron Ochs in Robert Carsen’s production, conducted by Simone Young.
‘Champion’
Terence Blanchard’s much-acclaimed “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” made history when it opened the Met’s 2021–22 season. This April, the six-time Grammy awardwinning composer’s first opera comes to the Met. The Film Center screening happens Saturday, April 29, at 12:55 pm. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green portrays young boxer Emile Griffith, who rises from obscurity to become a world champion. Bass-baritone Eric Owens plays Griffith’s older self, haunted by his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is the boxer’s estranged mother, Emelda Griffith, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is the bar owner Kathy Hagan. Yannick Nézet-Séguin returns to conduct Blanchard’s second Met premiere. Director James Robinson oversees the staging, and Camille A. Brown, whose choreography electrifies audiences, also returns.
‘Don Giovanni’
Next up at 12:55 pm on Saturday, May 20, is “Don Giovanni,” with Tony awardwinning director Ivo van Hove making his Met debut with Mozart’s tragicomedy. The tale of deceit and damnation is set in an abstract landscape that explores the dark corners of the story and its characters. Nathalie Stutzmann conducts a star-studded cast led by baritone Peter Mattei as a magnetic Don Giovanni, alongside the Leporello of bass-baritone Adam Plachetka. Sopranos Federica Lombardi, Ana María Martínez, and Ying Fang are Giovanni’s conquests — Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina — and tenor Ben Bliss sings Don Ottavio.
‘Die Zauberflöte’
Nathalie Stutzmann conducts her second Mozart work this season with a new production of ‘Die Zauberflöte” on Saturday, June 3, at 12:55 pm, rounding out the season. In his Met-debut staging, “Simon McBurney incorporates projections, sound effects, and acrobatics to match the spectacle and drama of Mozart’s fable,” the Film Center’s description says. The brilliant cast includes soprano Erin Morley as Pamina, tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Tamino, baritone Thomas Oliemans in his Met debut as Papageno, soprano Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, and bass Stephen Milling as Sarastro.
