La Cenerentola shown worldwide and locally at Fairfield University May 9

La Cenerentola shown worldwide and locally at Fairfield University May 9

Peabody Award-winning series The Met: Live in HD

The Met: Live in HD presents the series' season finale, "La Cenerentola," starring Elïna Garança, worldwide and locally at Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts, Saturday, May 9 at 12:30 p.m. There is an encore performance Sunday, May 10 at 12:30 p.m. There is no reserved seating.

Garança made her triumphant Met debut as Rosina in last season's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," and here, portrays another Rossini charmer in the bel canto Cinderella story. Lawrence Brownlee is her Prince Charming and veteran baritone Alessandro Corbelli demonstrates his impeccable comic timing to match the gravitas of Met favorite John Relyea. Maurizio Benini conducts.

Of the opera's great coloratura showpiece, "Nacqui all'affanno," which is considered an especially difficult aria, Garança admits, "For me it's the Olympics - adrenaline at its highest. To get through it I must switch on all the buttons in the computer in my head and body."

The Met's innovative Live in HD series has made performances like Garança's accessible worldwide and the impact of that powerful medium is not lost on the soprano, "The fact that it's being shown live all over the world makes my heart jump. So it's best I don't think about it! This opera is perfect for HD because everyone knows the story of Cinderella. It's witty and comic - plus the music is great!"

On April 1st the 68th Annual Peabody Awards were announced and among the winners chosen by the Peabody board as the best in electronic media for 2008, was The Metropolitan Opera's: Live in HD series. The achievement was lauded in the Peabody Board's descriptive criteria, "With vividly designed, smartly annotated productions of "Hansel and Gretel," "Dr. Atomic," "Peter Grimes" and other operas, the Met used state-of-the-art digital technology to reinvent presentation of a classic art form."

Peabody Director Horace Newcomb noted, "The works recognized by the Peabody Board this year not only reflect great diversity of content and genre, but also true technical innovation and the varied roles of new distribution systems. The list of winners this year clearly indicates a changing media environment that will continue to require judgment and evaluation through the Peabody Awards process."

Tickets are $22 general, $20 seniors, $15 children and students and are available online at quickcenter.com or by calling the Box Office at (203) 254-4010. The toll free number is 1-877-ARTS-396. Sign up at quickcenter.com to receive e-mails for special offers and discounts for Quick Center shows. Take exit 22 off I-95 to reach the Quick Center and Fairfield University.

Approximate running time is 3 hours with one intermission.

In 2009, the Met won a special Emmy award for "advancing technology through ongoing, live, global transmission of high-definition programming to movie theaters." During the 2007-08 season, the series reached approximately 1.5 million people - more than the number of people who saw performances in the opera house over an entire season. Now seen in over 850 theaters in 36 countries, The Met: Live in HD has reached over 1.4 million people around the world this season.

Posted On: 04-23-2009 10:04 AM

Volume: 41 Number: 318