THE next opera film from the New York Metropolitan Opera to be screened at Cinema Nouveau is Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Michelle Mariotti conducts Rossini’s classic comedy with its instantly recog-nisable melodies. Bartlett Sher is the director of this comic opera, which replaced the originally scheduled Death of Klinghoffer in the Live in HD transmissions.
Soprano Isabel Leonard is the feisty Rosina, while tenor Lawrence Brownlee is her conspiring flame and British baritone Christopher Maltman makes his met debut as the resourceful barber.
This was the first opera to be performed in Italian in New York back in 1825, and almost 200 years later it remains one of the world’s most performed operas.
The feature is hosted by soprano Deborah Voigt, who will interview the three main stars as well as the Met’s longtime music director, James Levine, during the interval.
We should also get a back-stage glimpse of rehearsal for the Met’s upcoming production of Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow, which will be the Met’s first 2015 HD simulcast, set for screening in here in February.
We should get to watch Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, directed by James Levine and recorded this month, next month on our screens.
There should also be a demonstration by the animal handler with the donkey that pulls Figaro’s barbershop cart.
• The feature runs at about 205 minutes with one intermission and screens on Saturday and Tuesday, December 30 at 5pm; Sunday at 2.30pm; Tuesday and Wednesday, December 31 at 11.30am; and Thursday, January 1 at 5.30pm at Ster-Kinekor Nouveau.