Video: Antony and Cleopatra at THE METROPOLITAN OPERA

Get a first look at the Metropolitan Opera's Antony and Cleopatra, which comes to NYC following runs at San Francisco Opera and the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. The Met Opera production includes seven performances conducted by the composer himself in the original production by Elkhanah Pulitzer.

This marks the fifth production of a John Adams opera at the Met—past productions include Nixon in China, Doctor Atomic, The Death of Klinghoffer, and El Niño—solidifying his status as the most performed living composer on its storied stage.

Gerald Finley and Julia Bullock star as Antony and Cleopatra, joined by Paul Appleby as Octavius Caesar and Elizabeth DeShong as Octavia. Finley and Bullock, who are both Adams champions in their own right, have also performed together on the GRAMMY-nominated recording of Adams's opera Doctor Atomic.

With a libretto in English adapted by the composer from Shakespeare's tragedy with supplementary passages from Plutarch, Virgil, and other classical texts, the opera distills the epic drama into two gripping acts. The production, created in collaboration with director Elkhanah Pulitzer and dramaturg Lucia Scheckner, fuses the mythic grandeur of antiquity with the starry glamour of 1930s Hollywood.

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