Classic Arts NewsMetropolitan Opera Launches 11th Annual Free Summer Screening Festival With Funny FaceThe Met will also screen 10 operas in Lincoln Center Plaza beginning August 24.
By
Dan Meyer
August 23, 2019
Metropolitan Opera's 2011 Summer HD Festival on Lincoln Center Plaza
Richard Termine/Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera will screen 10 operas in Lincoln Center Plaza—all for free—starting August 24. Prior to the classic titles, the Met will screen the Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire flick Funny Face, featuring music by George and Ira Gershwin, August 23.
The Summer HD festival will offer 3,000 seats nightly with no tickets required. Bookending the screening series will be Met mainstays Anna Netrebko and Anita Rachvelishvili, in Verdi’s Aida and Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur.
Also scheduled are the Met productions of Carmen and Dialogues des Carmélites, both conducted by Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Among the stars appearing on the big screen will be Roberto Alagna, Stephanie Blythe, Javier Camarena, Joyce DiDonato, Elīna Garanča, Jonas Kaufmann, and Pretty Yende.
Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, and Anita Rachvelishvil
Ken Howard/Met Opera
The full schedule follows:
August 23, 8 PM Funny Face (pre-festival event) Starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire with Kay Thompson, Michel Auclair, and Robert Flemyng Directed by Stanley Donen Music by George and Ira Gershwin
August 24, 7:45 PM Verdi’s Aida Starring Anna Netrebko and Anita Rachvelishvili Conducted by Nicola Luisotti Originally transmitted October 6, 2018
August 25, 8 PM Bizet’s Carmen Starring Elīna Garanča and Roberto Alagna Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin Originally transmitted January 16, 2010
August 26, 7:45 PM Wagner’s Das Rheingold Starring Bryn Terfel, Stephanie Blythe, and Eric Owens Conducted by James Levine Originally transmitted October 9, 2010
August 27, 7:45 PM Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites Starring Isabel Leonard and Karita Mattila Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin Originally transmitted May 11, 2019
August 28, 8 PM Saint-Saën’s Samson et Dalila Starring Roberto Alagna and Elīna Garanča with Laurent Naouri, Elchin Azizov, and Dmitry Belosselskiy Conducted by Sir Mark Elder Originally transmitted October 20, 2018
Alice Coote and Joyce DiDonato in CendrillonKen Howard/Met Opera
August 29, 8 PM Massenet’s Cendrillon Starring Joyce DiDonato, Alice Coote, and Kathleen Kim Conducted by Bertrand de Billy Originally transmitted April 28, 2018
August 30, 8 PM Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West Starring Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jonas Kaufmann, and Željko Lučić Conducted by Marco Armiliato Originally transmitted October 27, 2018
August 31, 8 PM Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment Starring Javier Camarena and Pretty Yende with Maurizio Muraro, Stephanie Blythe and Kathleen Turner Conducted by Enrique Mazzola Originally transmitted March 2, 2019
September 1, 8 PM Verdi’s Luisa Miller Starring Sonya Yoncheva, Piotr Beczała, Plácido Domingo, Olesya Petrova, Alexander Vinogradov, and Dmitry Belosselskiy. Conducted by Bertrand de Billy Originally transmitted April 14, 2018
September 2, 8 PM Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur Starring Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, Anita Rachvelishvili, and Ambrogio Maestri Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda Originally transmitted January 12, 2019
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Aida Garifullina: Backstage at the Metropolitan Opera
Aida Garifullina: Backstage at the Metropolitan Opera
The Russian soprano makes her Met debut in Mozart's Don Giovanni.
14 PHOTOS
"I woke up at 7:30. I started to warm up my voice at 9 until about 10, and then I went to the Met."
Aida Garifullina
“It’s important for me to warm up again in the dress. To keep the beautiful, low sound, you have to try to breathe against the corset. And also the dress gives you the feeling of the character you’re playing. So it’s very helpful.”
"Most of the time, I feel like a queen, like a diva. But when I put this dress on, the dress of the country girl, I need to change everything in me: the behavior, gestures, art of acting. I’m not Zerlina in my personal life, absolutely not. Every new role is a new challenge. “
Marc J. Franklin
"They’re so top level here. They try to do everything perfect. Even the costumes, for example. I had three costume fittings already, and today, they wanted to change something. I thought, ‘Do people really see these small details?’ I’m a perfectionist myself, so I love that way of working."
Aida Garifullina
"I love to do some breath techniques from yoga—not for relaxation, but to give me power. You need to wake up your body to get energy. All the muscles have to be engaged to help you breathe and support while singing."
"I was waiting for this contract for many years. I always wanted it, and now I’m here. It’s a very prestigious house. It’s just so different; it’s like another planet."
Marc J. Franklin
"Zerlina doesn’t really have a lot of experience with love. When Don Giovanni comes to her and offers her this love, she wants to try it out. At the same time, she has her marriage to Masetto that night. So she has a lot to play with here. She reminds me a little bit of Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze de Figaro. They are a little similar."
"The first aria is very playful, but the second is more dramatic, of course. She loves [Masetto], but there's something dark; her dark side is coming out."
Backstage at Don Giovanni
Garifullina's favorite part of the Met? "The stage. I love to be on the stage."
