A new production of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore will open the 2012-13 season of Captured Live from the Met @ UCA at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14, in the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall on the University of Central Arkansas campus.
L’Elisir d’Amore will be the first of four high definition transmissions of Metropolitan Opera performances in the series sponsored by UCA’s College of Fine Arts and Communication.
“We are pleased to present the Met HD series in an abbreviated form this season, knowing that the campus is eager to see these great performances by some of the world’s finest musicians from one of the great opera halls of the world,” said Dr. Rollin Potter, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication.
The series also includes Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito on Dec. 2; a new production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda on Jan. 20; and a new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto on Feb. 17.
This is the seventh season of the Met’s series, which came to UCA in 2008. According to the Met, it has expanded its worldwide distribution to 1,900 theaters in 60 countries, the largest global audience the initiative has ever reached. Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Jamaica, Madagascar, and Qatar joining the HD distribution network for the first time. To accommodate audience demand this season, dozens more cinemas have been added in Germany, Mexico, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Eric Owens, Sondra Radvanovsky and Deborah Voigt will serve as hosts for the Live in HD presentations this season, conducting live interviews with cast, crew, and production teams, and introducing the popular behind-the-scenes interviews and features.
In Bartlett Sher’s new production of L’Elisir d’Amore, one of the greatest comic gems in opera, Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani star as the fickle Adina and her besotted Nemorino. Mariusz Kwiecien is the blustery sergeant Belcore and Ambrogio Maestri is Dulcamara, the loveable quack and dispenser of the elixir. Maurizio Benini conducts.
Approximately 200 seats are available for each performance at UCA. General admission tickets are $15 for the public and $5 for students with valid I.D.
To order, call UCA Ticket Central at (501) 450-3265 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday or visit www.uca.edu/reynolds.
The series is made possible by UCA’s arts fee.
For more information, call the Office of the Dean, College of Fine Arts and Communication, at (501) 450-3293, e-mail jdmiller@uca.edu or visit www.uca.edu/cfac or www.metopera.org.
