The Met Opera in HD's OTELLO Set for Ridgefield Playhouse Today

The Ridgefield Playhouse and the AAA Northeast Live in HD Series and bring Verdi's Otello to The Ridgefield Playhouse today, October 23 at 3pm.

The Met season opened with Verdi's masterful Otello, inspired by Shakespeare's play and matching it in tragic intensity. Director Bartlett Sher probes the Moor's dramatic downfall with an outstanding cast: tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko plays the doomed Otello; new soprano star Sonya Yoncheva sings Desdemona, Otello's innocent wife and victim; and baritone Željko Lu?i? plays the evil Iago, who masterminds Otello's demise. Dynamic maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts. Often cited as Italian opera's greatest tragedy, Otello is a miraculous union of music and drama, a masterpiece as profound philosophically as it is thrilling theatrically. Shakespeare's tale of an outsider, a great hero who can't control his jealousy, was carefully molded by the librettist Arrigo Boito into a taut and powerful opera text. Otello almost wasn't written: following the success of Aida and his setting of the Requiem mass in the early 1870s, Verdi considered himself retired, and it took Boito and publisher Giulio Ricordi several years to persuade him to take on a major new work. Before seeing this masterpiece, Visit Bernard's (20 West Lane · Ridgefield) on the day of the show for a great Prix Fixe Menu when you present your tickets to this performance - Reservations suggested. The Met Opera Live in HD Series is made possible by the generous underwriting by 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, Members & Seniors $20), call or visit the box office at The Ridgefield Playhouse, (203) 438-5795 or go online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org . Free tickets are offered to students 18 and under when ID is presented at the box office. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a not-for-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT; ridgefieldplayhouse.org.