The Met: Live in HD opens with Das Rheingold at Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts on October 9 | Press Releases

Image: Rheingold The Met: Live in HD , the Metropolitan Opera's Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning series of live performance transmissions opens the season with Das Rheingold , part one of Wagner's epic Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelungs ), on Saturday, Oct. 9 at Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts. The Quick Center will celebrate this monumental event with a reception at the live performance. For this, the fifth season, the series has expanded to 1500 theaters worldwide (an increase of 300 theaters), while adding Egypt, Portugal and Spain to its network of now 46 participating countries. The Met: Live in HD is an Arts & Mind presentation.

Maestro James Levine and director Robert Lepage join forces to create a groundbreaking new Ring for the Met, the company's first new production in almost 25 years. "The Ring is not just a story or a series of operas, it's a cosmos," says Lepage, who brings cutting-edge technology and his own visionary imagination to the world's greatest theatrical journey. "The Ring is about to change," he continued, "I try to be extremely respectful of Wagner's storytelling, but in a modern context."

Levine, who has conducted every complete cycle of Wagner's masterpiece performed by the Met since 1989, says, "It's one of those works of art that you think you know, but every time you return to it, you find all kinds of brilliant moments that hadn't struck you with the same force before."

Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel sings the leading role of Wotan for the first time with the company, heading an extraordinary cast that includes Stephanie Blythe as Fricka. Deborah Voight, who will make her role debut as Brünnhilde in the Ring' s second installment, Die Walküre , will host the transmission.

Running time is approximately 2 hours, 35 minutes.

Tickets for reserved seating are $22 general, $20 seniors and $15 children and students and are available online at fairfield.edu/quick or by calling the Box Office at (203) 254-4010. The toll free number is 1-877-ARTS-396. Special offers and discounts are available through the Quick Center's e-mail list. Join, by contacting boxoffice@quickcenter.com. And become a fan of the Quick Center for the Arts on Facebook! Keep up-to-date with the latest performance news, plus special offers and discounts! Find the Quick Center at www.facebook.com/FairfieldQuickCenter.

Directions: Fairfield University is located off I-95, exit 22 at 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield, CT 06824. Access to the Quick Center for the Arts is through the Barlow Road gate at 200 Barlow Roa