The 1891 Fredonia Opera House continues the 2012-13 season of Live at the Met high definition opera broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's final Italian opera, La Clemenza di Tito, on Saturday, Dec. 1, at 1 p.m.
"This week's offering, La Clemenza di Tito, is a rarely seen classic set in ancient Rome, with a charismatic cast of stars," says Opera House Executive Director Rick Davis.
Mozart's opera about a Roman emperor who is the subject of a vengeful woman's assassination scheme comes to Live in HD screens for the first time. The cast includes Elina Garanca in the trousers role of Sesto, a young nobleman in love with the passionate Vitellia, sung by Barbara Frittoli. Giuseppe Filianoti sings the role of the emperor Tito, with Lucy Crowe (in her Met debut) and Kate Lindsey as the young lovers Servilia and Annio.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s final Italian opera, La Clemenza di Tito, will be screened live in high definition at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's classic Met production presents the opera as it might have been seen in Mozart's time, with stylized settings suggesting a historic vision of ancient times. Baroque specialist Harry Bicket leads the opera, which includes one of Mozart's most famous arias, Sesto's wrenching "Parto, parto."
The production lasts three hours, 13 minutes, notes Davis. "There is one intermission," he adds, "during which the Opera House will have snacks and beverages available for purchase in the trustee room on the second floor of Village Hall. (No food or beverage is allowed inside the theatre.)"
Live at the Met opera broadcasts are made possible by Dr. James M. and Marcia Merrins, who funded the purchase of the satellite transmission and projection equipment used in the series. Additional support comes from Bob and Shirley Coon, Bob and Susan Dilks, Steve and Mary Rees and DFT Communications.
Tickets to La Clemenza di Tito are $20 ($18 for Opera House and Met members, $15 for students) and are available in advance by calling or visiting the Box Office at 716-679-1891 Tuesday Friday, 1-5 p.m. They also may be purchased online anytime at www.fredopera.org. The Opera House also is offering a new flexible opera subscription consisting of nine tickets that can be used however the patron wants one at a time to nine different operas, all at once for nine people, or anything in between. The flexible opera subscription is $161.
Chautauqua County's only performing arts center presenting its own programming year-round, the 1891 Fredonia Opera House is a member-supported not-for-profit organization located in Village Hall in downtown Fredonia. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.fredopera.org.
