Jan. 22, 2009
The next installment in The Met: Live in HD series will be a revival of Orfeo ed Euridice, Christoph Willibald Gluck’s melodic and historically significant 1762 opera. After Monteverdi, Italian opera had become more stylized and artificial, with greater emphasis on spectacle and showmanship than on the human elements of the drama. Orfeo ed Euridice marked a return to an operatic style that was more musically and dramatically direct, what Gluck called “a beautiful simplicity,†a hallmark of the emerging Classical era. This innovative production is directed by the iconoclastic choreographer Mark Morris and features costumes by Isaac Mizrahi. Stephanie Blythe and Danielle de Niese star as the lovers, who, in this version of the mythological story, are reunited at the end by Cupid. James Levine is the conductor.
The live transmission of Orfeo ed Euridice will be on Saturday, January 24, starting at 1:00 pm (ET), with an encore broadcast on Wednesday, February 4, at 7:00 pm (local time). Check your local theater listings for details or check out the Met’s website.