OCT 14, 2017, 12:00pm: Die Zauberflöte (Mozart)

– Expected run time: 3 hours, 10 minutes

 

Mozart’s late, transcendent opera The Magic Flute begins as a magical rescue mission but soon transforms into a fable of personal development—accompanied by the most utopian music of Mozart’s entire oeuvre. This beloved production by Julie Taymor, the award-winning director of theater, opera, and film, presents the full opera in the original German language. With Mozart’s tuneful and approachable music, as well as the production’s whimsical aesthetic, this work is a great match for younger audiences. For older students, the opera contains deeper layers of meaning, with its basis in Enlightenment philosophy.

 

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FEB 10, 2018, 12:00pm: L’Elisir d’Amore (Donizetti)

– Expected run time: 2 hours, 50 minutes

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Link here to listen to the 4 character arias.

A late example of an opera buffa—written during the nascent Romantic era when most operatic plots had shifted to the heroic and tragic—Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore is a charming love story between a sweet and sincere boy, self-conscious of his own simplicity, and the headstrong, capricious land-owner who learns to repent spurning his love. Comic relief and
romantic rivalry are provided by a supporting cast of a sly but ultimately harmless charlatan and a pompous traveling soldier. This production by Barlett Sher highlights the work’s pastoral romanticism, complete with a set that realistically depicts both an idyllic Italian countryside and picturesque town center. With its comic plot and gentle love story, L’Elisir d’Amore is appropriate for audiences of all ages, while older students will find much to identify with in the predicaments of both main characters—not only Nemorino, who lacks romantic confidence, but also Adina, who finds herself the subject of an unwanted crush.

 

MAR 31, 2018, 12:00pm: Così fan tutte (Mozart)

– Expected run time: 3 hours, 45 minutes

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McDermott)Mozart’s opera buffa masterpiece Così fan tutte casts an ironic gaze at our sometimes ridiculous behavior when
love is at stake, accompanied by such lavishly sublime melodies that it’s tempting to look for a happier ending than the one the work provides. But instead, this final collaboration between Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (after Le Nozze de Figaro and Don Giovanni) closes with a strategic loss in the battle between love and reason, and a closer understanding of
human fallibility. Mozart’s topsy-turvy world of masks and disguises finds its match in this new production by Phelim McDermott, which sets the action in the magically escapist world of Coney Island in the 1950s. Complete with bearded ladies, fire-eaters, and a Ferris wheel, McDermott’s carnivalesque interpretation provides the perfect setting for the opera’s investigation of the danger of a bet gone awry—and its humorously unintended consequences. With Mozart’s beautiful but accessible music, Così fan tutte is a wonderful production for orchestra, band, chorus, and general music students; and with da Ponte’s penchant for literary allusion, the work is also a good match for literature and humanities students.

 

APR 28, 2018, 12:00pm: Cendrillon (Massenet)

– Expected run time: 2 hours, 50 minutes

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Cendrillon, named after the French version of the Cinderella tale, is Massenet’s delicate fairy tale in four acts, dating
from the last year of the nineteenth century. Incorporating both the elegance of French Romantic melodism and the occasional foray into a more exploratory harmony, Massenet’s music is an evocative but accessible partner to this fairy- tale confection. Never before seen at the Met, the opera is directed by Laurent Pelly and will feature Joyce DiDonato in the title role, Alice Coote in the trouser role of Prince Charming, and Kathleen Kim as the Fairy Godmother. Based on the traditional tale as originally recounted in Charles Perrault’s Tales of Mother Goose, the opera includes many elements that will be familiar to students: a Prince Charming, fairy godmother, and magical creatures. It is an excellent opportunity for students to use analytical, literary, and close-reading skill sets to explore different adaptations of this age-old narrative, and consider why the myth continues to have such a firm hold over our culture’s imagination.

 

**All running times are approximate and subject to change.