We Make Opera Popular in Taos
MET LIve in HDAt the Taos Center for the Arts |
Join us for a pre-opera talk in the Encore Gallery prior to every MET Live in HD performance. These informative and entertaining talks will enhance your enjoyment of the opera. Each starts one hour before the opera. MET Live Ticket Information Tickets for the MET Live in HD performance are $20 for TCA members, $25 for non-members and free for youth 22 and under (see below) and may be purchased by calling (575)758-2052 Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm or at the TCA office during those hours. Tickets may also be purchased online through the Calendar. We also invite all Taos County youth, age 22 and under, to come to free performances of all the MET Live in HD operas shown at the Taos Center for the Arts. The YOUTH'S tickets are free. The youths simply present themselves at the TCA box office on the day of the performance, as an 'invited student guest'. That’s it. A free student ticket will be provided. |
LA SONNAMBULA (Bellini) SAT October 18, 11am 10 am - Pre Opera talk by Mary Hanawell, Encore Gallery Runtime: 3h 15m (1 Intermission) Following triumphant Live in HD performances in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Nadine Sierra summits another peak of the soprano repertoire as Amina, who sleepwalks her way into audiences’ hearts in Bellini’s poignant tale of love lost and found. In his new production, Rolando Villazón—the tenor who has embarked on a brilliant second career as a director—retains the opera’s original setting in the Swiss Alps but uses its somnambulant plot to explore the emotional and psychological valleys of the mind. Tenor Xabier Anduaga co-stars as Amina’s fiancé, Elvino, alongside soprano Sydney Mancasola as her rival, Lisa, and bass Alexander Vinogradov as Count Rodolfo. Riccardo Frizza takes the podium for one of opera’s most ravishing works. LA BOHÈME (Puccini) SAT November 8, 11am 10 am - Pre Opera talk by Carolyn Haddock, Encore Gallery Runtime: 3h 29m (2 Intermissions) With its enchanting setting and spellbinding score, the world’s most popular opera is as timeless as it is heartbreaking. Franco Zeffirelli’s picture-perfect production brings 19th-century Paris to the Met stage as Puccini’s young friends and lovers navigate the joy and struggle of bohemian life. Soprano Juliana Grigoryan is the feeble seamstress Mimì, opposite tenor Freddie De Tommaso as the ardent poet Rodolfo. Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts the November 8 performance. ARABELLA (Strauss) SAT November 22, 11am 10 am - Pre Opera talk by Mary Burns, Encore Gallery Runtime: 4h 12m (2 Intermissions) Strauss’s elegant romance brings the glamour and enchantment of 19th-century Vienna in a sumptuous production by legendary director Otto Schenk that “is as beautiful as one could hope” (The New York Times). Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen stars as the title heroine, a young noblewoman in search of love on her own terms. Radiant soprano Louise Alder is her sister, Zdenka, and bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny is the dashing count who sweeps Arabella off her feet. ANDREA CHÉNIER (Giordano) SAT December 13, 11am 10 am - Pre Opera talk by Carita Simons, Encore Gallery Runtime: 3h 31m (2 Intermissions) Giordano’s passionate tragedy stars tenor Piotr Beczała as the virtuous poet who falls victim to the intrigue and violence of the French Revolution. Following their celebrated recent partnership in Giordano’s Fedora in the 2022–23 Live in HD season, Beczała reunites with soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Chénier’s aristocratic lover, Maddalena di Coigny, with baritone Igor Golovatenko as Carlo Gérard, the agent of the Reign of Terror who seals their fates. Met Principal Guest Conductor Daniele Rustioni takes the podium to lead Nicolas Joël’s gripping staging. I PURITANI (Bellini) – New Production SAT January 10, 11am 10 am - Pre Opera talk by Jim White, Encore Gallery Runtime: 3h 47m (1 Intermission) For gorgeous melody, spellbinding coloratura, and virtuoso vocal fireworks, I Puritani has few equals. This is the first new Met production of Bellini’s final masterpiece in nearly 50 years—a striking staging by Charles Edwards, who makes his company directorial debut after many successes as a set designer. The Met has assembled a world-beating quartet of stars, conducted by Marco Armiliato, for the demanding principal roles. Soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Lawrence Brownlee are Elvira and Arturo, brought together by love and torn apart by the political rifts of the English Civil War, with baritone Artur Ruciński as Riccardo, betrothed to Elvira against her will, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Elvira’s sympathetic uncle, Giorgio. Charles Edwards (Production); Charles Edwards (Set Designer), Gabrielle Dalton (Costume Designer), Tim Mitchell (Lighting Designer), Tim Claydon (Movement Director) | TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (Wagner) SAT March 21, 10am 9 am - Pre Opera talk by Alan Gibson, Encore Gallery Runtime 5h 12m (2 Intermissions) After years of anticipation, a truly unmissable event arrives as the electrifying Lise Davidsen tackles one of the ultimate roles for dramatic soprano: the Irish princess Isolde in Wagner’s transcendent meditation on love and death. Heroic tenor Michael Spyres stars opposite Davidsen as the love-drunk Tristan. The momentous occasion also marks the advent of a new, Met-debut staging by Yuval Sharon—hailed by The New York Times as “the most visionary opera director of his generation” and the first American to direct an opera at the famed Wagner festival in Bayreuth—as well as Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s first time leading Tristan und Isolde at the Met. Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova reprises her portrayal of Brangäne, alongside bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, who sings Kurwenal after celebrated Met appearances in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer and Ring cycle. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green makes an important role debut as King Marke. EUGENE ONEGIN (Tchaikovsky) SAT May 2, 11am 10 am - Pre Opera talk by Molly Steinbach, Encore Gallery Runtime: 4h 5m (2 Intermissions) Following her acclaimed 2024 company debut in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, soprano Asmik Grigorian returns to the Met as Tatiana, the lovestruck young heroine in this ardent operatic adaptation of Pushkin. Baritone Igor Golovatenko reprises his portrayal of the urbane Onegin, who realizes his affection for her all too late. The Met’s evocative production, directed by Tony Award–winner Deborah Warner, “offers a beautifully detailed reading of ... Tchaikovsky’s lyrical romance” (The Telegraph). Maria Barakova (Olga), Stephanie Blythe (Filippyevna), Stanislas de Barbeyrac (Lenski), Igor Golovatenko (Onegin), Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Prince Gremin) EL ÚLTIMO SUEÑO DE FRIDA Y DIEGO (Gabriela Lena Frank – Libretto by Nilo Cruz) SAT May 30, 11am 10 am - Pre Opera talk by Kathy Fortner, Encore Gallery Runtime: 2h 48m On May 30, the Metropolitan Opera’s 2025–26 Live in HD season comes to a close with a live transmission of American composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s first opera, a magical-realist portrait of Mexico’s painterly power couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, with libretto by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Nilo Cruz. Fashioned as a reversal of the Orpheus and Euridice myth, the story depicts Frida, sung by leading mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, leaving the underworld on the Day of the Dead and reuniting with Diego, portrayed by baritone Carlos Álvarez. The famously feuding pair briefly relive their tumultuous love, embracing both the passion and the pain before bidding the land of the living a final farewell. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Met-premiere staging of Frank’s opera, a “confident, richly imagined score” (The New Yorker) that “bursts with color and fresh individuality” (Los Angeles Times). The vibrant new production, taking enthusiastic inspiration from Frida and Diego’s paintings, is directed and choreographed by Deborah Colker. Deborah Colker (Production); Jon Bausor (Set and Costume Designer), Adam Silverman (Lighting Designer), Deborah Colker (Choreographer) |