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  • Met Opera Summer Encore: L’Elisir d’Amore (Broadcast Live in HD)

    Donizetti’s comic gem L’Elisir d’Amore, directed by Bartlett Sher and conducted by Maurizio Benini, stars Anna Netrebko in her Met role debut as the beautiful landowner Adina, with Matthew Polenzani as Nemorino, the simple peasant who falls in love with her. Mariusz Kwiecien sings Adina’s arrogant fiancé, Sergeant Belcore, and Ambrogio Maestri sings the role of the magic potion-peddling Doctor Dulcamara.

    (originally transmitted live on October 13, 2012)

  • Met Opera Summer Encore: La Boheme (Broadcast Live in HD)

    In one of the most dramatic saves in Live in HD history, soprano Kristine Opolais sang the role of Mimi with only a few hours notice in Franco Zeffirelli’s breathtaking production of La Bohème, the most-performed opera in Met history. Featuring a cast of hundreds, a glorious onstage snow scene, and a detailed reconstruction of the Latin Quarter in Paris, La Bohème also stars Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo as the passionate poet Rodolfo, Susanna Phillips as the flirtatious Musetta, and Massimo Cavalletti is the painter Marcello. Stefano Ranzani conducts.

    (originally transmitted live on April 5, 2014)

  • Met Opera Summer Encore: Cosi Fan Tutte (Broadcast Live in HD)

    Met Music Director James Levine conducts Mozart’s barbed romance Così fan tutte, a comic masterpiece about the romantic complications that ensue when a pair of friends decide to test their fiancée’s fidelity. Lesley Koenig’s sleek production features a cast filled with rising Met stars, including Susanna Phillips and Isabel Leonard as the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella; Matthew Polenzani and Rodion Pogossov as their fiancés, Ferrando and Guglielmo; and Danielle de Niese as their feisty maid Despina. Maurizio Muraro is the cynical Don Alfonso.

    (originally transmitted live on April 26, 2014)

  • Aquila Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing

    Shakespeare’s great comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, highlights Aquila Theatre’s 25th anniversary season. Spying, subterfuge, deception, false identities, slander, manipulation and love all take part in this wonderfully entertaining battle of the sexes. Much Ado About Nothing, thought to have been written in 1598, belongs to a group of Shakespeare’s more mature romantic comedies. It is an exuberant, philosophical, and festive play exceling in combative wit, melodrama, and potential tragedy. Much Ado About Nothing is wonderfully intricate, flush with surprising twists and turns, and articulated in expert language. Aquila Theatre’s original Much Ado opened in Boston and toured the United States in 2000/2001. It was performed in 60 American cities, ran for nearly a year including Off Broadway in New York, was performed at the White House for the President and First Lady, and was then revived at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2006. The New York Times described the show as “Outstanding . . . almost unbearable fun. . . gleefully engaging . . . and directed with inspiration.” The New Yorker hailed it as “Just plain cool . . . beautifully spoken, dramatically revealing, and crystalline in effect.” Aquila’s original Much Ado was a Critic’s Choice for Time Out, The Village Voice and The New York Times.

    There will be a preshow talk at 6:00 PM with the cast the day of show.  

  • Walnut Street Theatre’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers

    America in the 1960s, an era that encouraged LOVE, was populated by “Mad Men” and “Mod Women” trying to navigate the new normal. In this freshly conceived production of Neil Simon’s classic, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, true comedy ensues when a modern man in the hip sixties looks for something new and different, but ends up finding himself in the same situation, again and again…and again!

    Barney Cashman is middle-aged, married, overworked and overweight. It’s finally his turn to join the sexual revolution… before it’s too late. With no experience in covert maneuvers, he arranges three attempted trysts. His targets; a bawdy bundle of fun who likes smooth whiskey and other women’s husbands, a young actress too kooky for words, and a neurotic housewife who happens to be married to his best friend. And through all the mishaps and laughter, Barney begins to rediscover his humanity and what he thought was missing all along.
    Last of the Red Hot Lovers had a lengthy run on Broadway and was made into a hit film starring Alan Arkin and Sally Kellerman.

    Walnut Street Theatre, America’s Oldest Theatre, celebrated 200 years of great entertainment in 2009. Most noteworthy American actors of the 19th century and many from the 20th century have appeared on stage at the Walnut. Some of the Walnut’s shining stars include: Edwin Forrest, Edwin Booth, the Drews, the Barrymores, George M. Cohan, Will Rogers, The Marx Brothers, Helen Hayes, Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Ethel Waters, Audrey Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, Lauren Bacall, George C. Scott, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Julie Harris, Jack Lemon, and William Shatner.

    The theatre has been home to many pre-Broadway try-outs of plays that would go on to become American classics, such as A Streetcar Named Desire starring Marlon Brando, A Raisin in the Sun featuring Sydney Poitier, The Diary of Anne Frank featuring Susan Strasberg, Mister Roberts, starring Henry Fonda, and Neil Simon’s first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn.

    The Walnut began its most recent incarnation as a self-producing, non-profit regional theatre when Bernard Havard took the helm in 1982, founding the Walnut Street Theatre Company with a vision of once again creating theatre in a space that is so steeped in the American theatre’s traditions and history. Today, you can experience the realization of that dream when you attend a live performance. With over 56,000 subscribers annually, Walnut Street Theatre is the most subscribed theatre company in the world. For additional information about Walnut Street Theatre: Visit WalnutStreetTheatre.org.

    “Delightfully hilarious and witty, as well as filled with wisdom about human nature…an uproariously funny author. But he is far more than that. He has a mellow and compassionate understanding of how weak and essentially well meaning mankind behaves…a genuinely brilliant play.”- New York Post

  • Bolshoi Ballet: The Golden Age – Live in HD

    In a seaside town where business and mafia are flourishing, The Golden Age cabaret is the favorite nightly haunt of dancers, bandits and young revelers, where the young fisherman Boris falls in love with Rita, a beautiful dancer, but also the friend of a local gangster…

    A satire of Europe during the Roaring 20s, The Golden Age makes for an original, colorful, and dazzling show with its jazzy score and music-hall atmosphere. This ballet that can only be seen at the Bolshoi has everything to it: mad rhythms, vigorous chase scenes, and decadent cabaret numbers. With its passionate love story featuring beautiful duets between Boris and Rita, the Bolshoi dancers plunge into every stylized step and gesture magnificently.

    Running time 2:20

    Music – Dmitri Shostakovich

    Choreography – Yuri Grigorovich

    Libretto – Yuri Grigorovich and Isaak Glikman

    Cast The Bolshoi Principals, Soloists and Corps de Ballet

  • Bolshoi Ballet: The Bright Stream – Live in HD

    During harvest festival at a collective farm, a visiting dance troupe reunites a ballerina with her childhood friend Zina. In order to teach her unfaithful husband a lesson, Zina, the ballerina and the ballerina’s husband decide to swap roles for the evening…

    Alexei Ratmansky invokes the genius of Shostakovich’s score at the Bolshoi, creating a laugh-out-loud masterpiece with its bits of slapstick comedy, hilarious deceptions, false identities including Principal Dancer Ruslan Skvortsov dressed as a Sylph and its many colorful characters! The Bolshoi bursts with vivid life and bright spirits in Ratmansky’s brilliantly choreographed smash.

    Running time: 2:30

    Captured live on Apr 29, 2012

    Music Dmitri Shostakovich

    Choreography Alexei Ratmansky

     
  • Bolshoi Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty – Live in HD

    On her 16th birthday, a curse by the evil Carabosse causes the beautiful Princess Aurora to fall into a deep slumber for 100 years. Only the kiss of a prince could awaken her…

    In this resplendent and magical classic, the Bolshoi dancers take us on a dream-like journey through this classic fairytale complete with jewel fairies, a magical kingdom, a youthful princess and a handsome prince in this purest style of classical ballet. The Bolshoi’s sumptuous staging with its luxurious sets and costumes gives life to Perrault’s fairy tale unlike any other. A must-see!

    Run time: 2:50

    Music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Choreography Yuri Grigorovich

    Libretto Ivan Vsevolozhsky and Marius Petipa (after Charles Perrault)

  • Bolshoi Ballet: Swan Lake – Live in HD

     

    At moonlight on the banks of a mysterious lake, Prince Siegfried meets the bewitched swan-woman Odette. Completely spellbound by her beauty, he swears his faithfulness to her. However, the Prince realizes too late that Fate has another plan for him….

     A ballet of ultimate beauty and a score of unparalleled perfection born at the Bolshoi in 1877. In the dual role of white swan Odette and her rival black swan Odile, prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova exudes both vulnerability and cunning through superb technical mastery, alongside the powerful and emotional Siegfried, Denis Rodkin. Including breathtaking scenes with the Bolshoi’s corps de ballet, this is classical ballet at its finest.

    Captured live on Jan 25, 2015

    Run time: 3:00

    Music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Choreography Yuri Grigorovich

    Libretto Yuri Grigorovich

  • Bolshoi Ballet: A Contemporary Evening – Live in HD

    For one evening, the Bolshoi takes on a new challenge with audacity in Hans Van Manen’s Frank Bridge Variations, Sol León and Paul Lightfoot’s Short Time Together and Alexei Ratmansky’s Russian Seasons.

    This encounter between some of the best dancers in the world and masters of contemporary choreography results in an outstanding synthesis of bringing Van Manen’s formal beauty, León and Lightfoot’s intensity, and Ratmansky’s witty brilliance to a new level.

    Run time: 2:40

    Music

    Benjamin Britten (Frank Bridge Variation); Max Richter, Ludwig van Beethoven (Short Time Together), Leonid Desyatnikov (Russian Seasons)

    Choreography 

    Hans Van Manen (Frank Bridge Variation); Sol León & Paul Lightfoot (Short Time Together); Alexei Ratmansky (Russian Seasons)