The Silence Before BachJoin us as we kick off our annual Bach and Beyond Baroque Music Festival with an arthouse film that’s been called “a true wonder.” “Bach’s music is the only thing that reminds us the world is not a failure,” says a character in the film. Taking Bach’s music as a theme and a starting place, but taking it on the road, both literally (two Spanish truckdrivers discuss its fine points; a group of several dozen young cellists play rapturous Bach on a subway car they appear to have taken over) and otherwise, the music is as glorious as the cinematic art; the film’s meanings open and perhaps even profound.
“A movie in which to take refuge, and it abjures the summer heat of pop culture for a cool and lasting immersion in the miracles that people are and can create.” ~ Ty Burr, Boston Globe.
Unrated, 102 mins.
Anna Netrebko as Anna Bolena $15 General Admission
Anna Netrebko opened the Met's 2011-12 season with her portrayal of the ill-fated queen driven insane by her unfaithful king, singing one of opera's greatest mad scenes. David McVicar's Met premiere production also stars Ekaterina Gubanova as her rival, Jane Seymour, and Ildar Abdrazakov as Henry VIII. Marco Armiliato conducts.
The production's run time is 3 hours, 10 minutes.
Special Project Support for the Live at the Met Series is provided by Dr. James M. & Marcia Merrins
Juan Diego Flórez as Count Ory $15 General Admission
Bel canto sensation Juan Diego Flórez sings the title role of this vocally dazzling comedy, in Bartlett Sher's Met premiere production. Joyce DiDonato stars in the trouser role of the page Isolier, who vies with County Ory for the love of Countess Adèle, sung by Diana Damrau. Maurizio Benini conducts.
The production's run time is 2 hours, 25 minutes.
Special Project Support for the Live at the Met Series is provided by Dr. James M. & Marcia Merrins
Mariusz Kwiecien as Don Giovanni $15 General Admission
Mariusz Kwiecien is the world's most famous lover in Michael Grandage's elegant new production, led by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi. The lineup of refined Mozartians also includes Marina Rebeka, Barbara Frittoli, Ramón Vargas and Luca Pisaroni.
The production's run time is 3 hours.
Special Project Support for the Live at the Met Series is provided by Dr. James M. & Marcia Merrins
Featuring Dan Berggren, Dan Duggan and Peggy Lynn
General Admission $15 ($13 Opera House members)
Dan, Dan & Peggy, three award-winning solo musicians (and Opera House favorites), have joined forces to create the dynamic trio Jamcrackers, named in honor of the Adirondack river drivers who broke up log jams. "These loggers worked hard to find solutions and to get things rolling on a job that couldn't be done alone," says Peggy, speaking on behalf of the group. "Dan, Dan and I feel the same way about our music."
These good friends and accomplished musicians bring a rare blend of humor, history and musical spirit to their performances. Award-winning educator and songwriter Dan Berggren has deep roots in the Adirondacks. His music, which reflects the spirit and the hard-working people of that region, has traveled around the world from Central Africa to Transylvania. Author and environmental activist Bill McKibben says Dan's music "is the sound of the Adirondacks, as much as the water lapping against the granite shore of the lake or the loon echoing in the sunset or the wind tossing the spruce tops."
Berggren is the recipient of both the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the New York State Outdoor Education Association Art & Literature Award. His own record label, Sleeping Giant Records, has released 14 recordings featuring his music, including one Jamcrackers album, Ten Miles to Saturday Night.
National Hammered Dulcimer Champion Dan Duggan is known from Maine to California for his wizardry on the hammered dulcimer, flat-picking guitar and keyboards. His dulcimer talent is spotlighted on Paul Simon's Grammy-nominated album "You're the One." Duggan has recorded four collections of original compositions as well as three albums of traditional holiday music. His CD of original songs for children, "The Pieces of Our Life," received a Parent's Choice Approval Award.
Peggy Lynn, better known as the "First Lady of Adirondack Music," writes and performs songs about the women and natural beauty of the North Country; and her bluesy alto voice melts every audience that hears it. Named 1996 Adirondack Woman of the Year, she coauthored, with Sandra Weber, the book Breaking Trail: Remarkable Women of the Adirondacks. In 2005, she and Dan Berggren both received the Adirondack Mountain Club's Education Award. Recognized nationwide for her soulful songwriting and extraordinary vocal versatility, her work has been featured at the famous Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.
"A Jamcrackers performance is genuine and contagious," noted one recent reviewer. "The trio's diverse blend of folk and blues, ballads and gospel and dance tunes sparks a rare chemistry and guarantees a good time."
Joseph Calleja and Ekaterina Gubanova in Les Contes D'Hoffman $15 General Admission
Bartlett Sher's 2009 production stars Joseph Calleja in the tour-de-force title role of this fictionalized take on the life and loves of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffman. Anna Netrebko is the tragic Antonia and Alan Held sings the demonic four villains. The production also stars Ekaterina Gubanova, Kathleen Kim and Kate Lindsey. Met Music Director James Levine conducts.
The production's run time is 3 hours.
Special Project Support for the Live at the Met Series is provided by Dr. James M. & Marcia Merrins
Anna Netrebko as Lucia $15 General Admission
Anna Netrebko sings the title role of Donizetti's bel canto tragedy in her Met role debut, with Piotr Beczala as her lover, Edgardo. Mariusz Kwiecien is her tyrannical brother. Mary Zimmerman's hit production, first seen in 2007, is staged as a Victorian ghost story. Marco Armiliato conducts.
The production's run time is 2 hours, 23 minutes.
Special Project Support for the Live at the Met Series is provided by Dr. James M. & Marcia Merrins
Featuring Dennis James
General Admission $10
Dennis James says he took up the glass armonica to investigate the 18th century belief that playing the unusual glass musical instrument would cause a person to become insane. Not yet showing signs of the mysterious illness, James will present Glassical Music, an entertaining exploration of the history of glass music that is part history lesson, part one-of-a-kind concert.
Glassical Music is a witty survey of the complete history of glass music focusing on the development of Benjamin Franklin's glass armonica. Original 18th through 20th century compositions specifically composed for glass instruments by such composers as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig von Beethoven, Joseph Schmittbaur and many others are interspersed throughout the 90-minute presentation.
The image-illustrated presentation is ideal for audiences of all ages and levels of awareness of glass music. An audience-participation segment includes the distribution of water-tuned brandy snifters to the audience who are instructed how to play and then perform spontaneous music together in a harmonic choir.
The program features James' own glass armonica, a recreation of the 18th century musical instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin created his armonica after attending a concert played on musical glasses. He wrote in his diary the he was "charmed by the sweetness of its tones." His mechanized improvements resulted in what is now considered to be the first truly American musical instrument. The armonica quickly became the rage of Europe's music community and was enjoyed in performance throughout the Old World in salons and concert halls for nearly 50 years.
James developed his interest in glass music during the late 1960s upon hearing recordings of the German glass music virtuoso Bruno Hoffmann. In 1983 he organized the first International Glass Music Festival, bringing performers and enthusiasts of glass music from around the world together for the first time. He plays his own modern recreation of the armonica incorporating custom-tuned crystal glass bowls made in Frauenau, Germany. Mounted on a motor-turned spindle and rubbed with his water-moistened fingers, the armonica bowls produce notes and chords of remarkable sonority.
"A not-to-be-missed lecture/demonstration . . . Dennis James is not only one of the world's foremost glass armonica virtuosos but also an unusually diverting lecturer." -- The New Yorker.
Renée Fleming and Susan Graham in Der Rosenkavalier $15 General Admission
Strauss' comic masterpiece of love and intrigue in 18th-century Vienna stars Renée Fleming as the aristocratic Marschallin and Susan Graham in the trouser role of her young lover. Edo de Waart conducts a cast that also includes Kristinn Sigmundsson and Thomas Allen.
The production's run time is 3 hours, 20 minutes.
Special Project Support for the Live at the Met Series is provided by Dr. James M. & Marcia Merrins
Starring Pat Hazell
Reserved Seating $27 ($25 Opera House members)
A salute to the Baby Boomer Generation, The Wonder Bread Years is a fast-paced, hilarious production that gracefully walks the line between stand-up comedy and theater. Audiences across the country are enjoying a show that not only restores a much-needed sense of wonder, but leaves audiences laughing and savoring the past like never before. The Los Angeles Times calls it "pure unpasteurized nostalgia."
Written and performed by television comedy veteran Pat Hazell, The Wonder Bread Years is a celebration of Baby Boomers that recalls the youth-filled joys of Clackers, Lawn Jarts and riding way in the back of the country squire station wagon. This hilarious one-man show & tell aired on PBS. Showtime declared Hazell one of the five funniest people in America. His 25 years of experience as a writer, performer and producer have made him the go-to guy for new American theater.
Pat HazellHazell calls The Wonder Bread Years a "common journey into the attic." It doesn't matter where you grew up, he says; we all have common experiences from our childhood. These experiences are explored in The Wonder Bread Years. Hazell invites the audience to cast their memories back to a time when Kool-Aid was cool, when Toughskin jeans were all the rage and when Wonder Bread was the greatest thing since, well, all those other brands of sliced bread!
One of the original writers for NBC’s Seinfeld and a Tonight Show veteran, his television writing credits also include Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, My Life In 3D, Showtime’s Aspen Comedy Special, and Grounded For Life. A contributing commentator to National Public Radio, Hazell is recognized for his genuinely funny American humor and his salute to pop culture. PBS called him "America's foremost pop culture anthropologist."
A critically acclaimed playwright, Hazell's first endeavor was Bunk Bed Brothers, which he co-wrote with Matt Goldman. The play was critically acclaimed and later optioned by Columbia Pictures with screenwriting chores going to Hazell and Goldman. Bunk Bed Brothers then gained the attention from the television industry and was filmed as the sit-com, American Pie, for NBC Studios.
General Admission $15 ($13 Opera House members)
You won't believe your eyes, or your ears, when Ted Vigil takes the stage as the legendary John Denver.
Vigil has always had a love of music and the stage. The Seattle native began singing for audiences at an early age. He started in the church folk band at the age of 8 and continued singing in musical productions in high school.
In 1990 he began writing, recording and performing his original compositions. In 2006, Vigil competed against performers from 28 states, New Zealand, Australia and Canada to win first place in "Talent Quest '06" in Laughlin, Nev. After his win, and after years of hearing that he resembled the legendary Colorado musician, he began to plan a John Denver tribute show. He began singing his way all across the U.S. and in 2007 shared the stage with Keith Anderson, Jeff Bates and Kevin Sharp on the annual "Traveling Kountry Kruz" with the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.
That same year, he won a "Celebrity Look-Alike" contest in Seattle for looking like ... you guessed it. In 2010, Vigil met John Denver's lead guitarist, Steve Weisberg. The two continue to tour together in a special tribute to the iconic pop star. In just a very short time, he has developed into a national act, performing at casinos, show rooms, night clubs, fairs and festival across the U.S.
The most heard comment after his performance is "I can't believe how much he looks and sounds like John Denver ... it really took me back."
