Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Magic Flute)—seen live at the CCP in the early 80s under Sarah Caldwell—is the next offering of the CCP-Met tie up with the 2023 Met staging of English director Simon McBurney on July 11.
McBurney took a more modern approach to the classic adventure of Prince Tamino and Papageno to find Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the Night.
In his Met debut staging, McBurney lets loose a volley of theatrical flourishes, incorporating projections, sound effects, and acrobatics to match the spectacle and drama of Mozart’s fable.
In the early 80s staging at the CCP, Tamino was tenor Noel Velasco with the Pamina of Lilia Reyes and Jovita Castro.
Another distinguished Tamino is tenor Arthur Espiritu who has sung the part in Germany and Israel.
The brilliant cast includes soprano Erin Morley as Pamina, tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Tamino, baritone Thomas Oliemans in his Met debut as Papageno, soprano Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, and bass Stephen Milling as Sarastro.
Nathalie Stutzmann conducts the Met Orchestra, with the pit raised to make the musicians visible to the audience and allow interaction with the cast.
OPERA SERIES
More operas in the series include Don Giovanni on August 1, Verdi’s Falstaff on September 5 and Umberto Giordano’s Fedora on October 3.
Don Giovanni is a dramatic retelling of the story of Don Juan, a lustful womanizer who finds his desires to be the cause of his destruction.
In his major Met debut, Tony Award-winning director Ivo van Hove made a new take on Mozart’s tragicomedy, re-setting the familiar tale of deceit and damnation in an abstract architectural landscape and shining a light into the dark corners of the story and its characters.
Maestro Nathalie Stutzmann made her Met debut in this opera staging, conducting a star-studded cast led by baritone Peter Mattei as a magnetic Don Giovanni, alongside the Leporello of bass-baritone Adam Plachetka. Sopranos Federica Lombardi, Ana María Martínez, and Ying Fang make a superlative trio as Giovanni’s conquests and tenor Ben Bliss is Don Ottavio.
Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, the childhood fairytale we’ve all come to know and love, is coming to the Ayala Cinema on November 7.
A deliciously dark take on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tale, this opera stars Alice Coote and Christine Schäfer as the famous siblings lost in the woods who battle the ravenous Witch, portrayed by tenor Philip Langridge. The Met Orchestra, under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski, performed a folk-inspired score.
The season ends with another Mozart favorite, Cosi Fan Tutte, on December 5.
The production features a cast of breakout young artists—soprano Amanda Majeski, mezzo-soprano Serena Malfi, tenor Ben Bliss, and bass-baritone Adam Plachetka. baritone Christopher Maltman, as the scheming Don Alfonso, and Tony Award–winning actress Kelli O’Hara, who triumphed in her 2014 Met debut in Lehár’s The Merry Widow. David Robertson conducts Mozart’s colorful score.
Director Phelim McDermott and his team of designers have updated the opera’s setting to a boardwalk amusement park inspired by Coney Island in the 1950s.
THE MET: LIVE IN HD
Now on its 8th season, the CCP’s The Met: Live in HD series is a special program of the CCP Film, Broadcast, and New Media Division (CCP FBNMD), under the Production and Exhibition Department in partnership with The Metropolitan Opera of New York, the Filipinas Opera Society Foundation, Inc., and Ayala Malls Cinemas.
The series showcases operatic productions through the High-Definition (HD) digital video technology and Dolby Sound thus recreating the experience of watching live an opera production at the Met.
All screenings are scheduled at 5:30 p.m. at Cinema 1 Greenbelt 3 in Makati City. Tickets are priced at PHP450.00.
Students and young professionals may enjoy the screenings at PHP100 upon presentation of valid ID. Tickets are available at Greenbelt ticket booths and the website www.sureseats.com.
