See The Met Opera's LA TRAVIATA at The Ridgefield Playhouse Next Month

From the Met Opera stage to the big screen at The Ridgefield Playhouse, it's an encore in HD screening of Verdi's La Traviata on Sunday, November 20, 2022 at 12pm.

La Traviata is widely recognized as one of the most performed operas in the world. Adored by music lovers globally, it wows new audiences with its accessible plotline, relatable characters, and recognizable melodies. Verdi's classic story has served as the inspiration for several modern adaptations, including the popular films Moulin Rouge! and Pretty Woman. Soprano Nadine Sierra returns to the Met stage following a star turn in the spring 2022 production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. She plays the self-sacrificing courtesan Violetta-one of opera's ultimate heroines-in Michael Mayer's vibrant production of Verdi's beloved tragedy. Mayer is a Tony Award-winner, known for directing popular Broadway productions of Spring Awakening, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Thoroughly Modern Mille. His past Live in HD productions include Nico Muhly's Marnie (2018) and Verdi's Rigoletto (2013). Tenor Stephen Costello plays Violetta's self-centered lover, Alfredo, alongside baritone Luca Salsi as his disapproving father, with Maestro Daniele Callegari on the podium. The encore transmission will be hosted by superstar soprano and four-time Grammy Award-winner Renée Fleming, who will be starring in Kevin Puts's The Hours, screening at the Playhouse on Sunday, December 18 at 12:30pm. The Met Opera screenings are presented at the Playhouse courtesy of the FirstLight Home Care Classical Series, Underwritten by Liz & Steven Goldstone, and Sabina Slavin, with Support from Whistle Stop Bakery.

Verdi's La Traviata had its world premiere in 1853 in Venice at Teatro la Fenice. It survived a notoriously unsuccessful opening night to become one of the best-loved operas in the repertoire. Following the larger-scale dramas of Rigoletto and Il Trovatore, its intimate scope and subject matter inspired the composer to create some of his most profound and heartfelt music. The title role of the "fallen woman" has captured the imaginations of audiences and performers alike with its inexhaustible vocal and dramatic possibilities-and challenges. Violetta is considered a pinnacle of the soprano repertoire.

In a remarkable career spanning six decades in the theater, Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) composed 26 operas, at least half of which are at the core of today's repertoire. Francesco Maria Piave (1810-76) was Verdi's librettist during his productive middle period and also worked with him on Ernani, Macbeth, Rigoletto, and La Forza del Destino, among others. With La Traviata, Verdi and Piave fashioned an opera from a play set in contemporary times-an exception in the composer's long career. Verdi's musical-dramatic ability to portray the individual in a marginalized relationship to society keeps this work a mainstay on the world's stages. The vocal and emotional scope of the title character is enormous-from her Act I show-stopper aria "Sempre libera degg'io" to the haunting regret of "Addio, del passato" in Act III to the extended Act II confrontation with her lover's father, Germont.

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