Renée Fleming Stars in an Encore HD Screening of The Met Opera: Strauss' DER ROSENKAVALIER on 5/16 at The Ridgefield Playhouse

The Ridgefield Playhouse and Craig's Fine Jewelry Live in HD Series presents an encore screening of The Met Opera: Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier on Tuesday, May 16 at 2 p.m. The dream cast of Renée Fleming as the Marschallin and El?na Garan?a as Octavian star in Strauss's grandest opera. In his new production, Robert Carsen places the action at the end of the Habsburg Empire, underscoring the opera's subtext of class and conflict against a rich backdrop of gilt and red damask, in a staging that also stars Günther Groissböck as Baron Ochs. Sebastian Weigle conducts the sparklingly perfect score.

The opera is originally set in Vienna in the 1740s. Genuine historical references are merged with fictitious inventions (like the "noble custom" of the presentation of the silver rose to a fiancée, which never actually existed) and anachronisms (like the Viennese Waltz, which did not yet exist at that time). It's a mixture that creates a seductive mythical landscape, a ceremonious and impossibly beautiful Vienna-that-never-was. The Met's new production moves the setting to the last years of the Habsburg Empire.

The Craig's Fine Jewelry Live in HD Series is underwritten by Lori and John Berisford, Jeanne Cook, Anita and Nicholas Donofrio, Liz and Steven Goldstone, Sabina and Walter Slavin. With Support from The Ridgefield Press and Whistle Stop Bakery

For tickets ($25, $20 Members/Seniors, $15 Students - tickets are free for children 18 and under) call or visit the box office, 203-438-5795 or go online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Ridgefield Playhouse, located at 80 East Ridge Road in Ridgefield, is a not for profit 501 (c)(3) whose mission is to present a variety of performing arts to the community and the surrounding area that they can enjoy and experience at a varied price point.