The Met Opera Live in HD's LOHENGRIN Comes To The Ridgefield Playhouse

Wagner's soaring masterpiece Lohengrin makes its triumphant return to the Met Opera's stage after 17 years. The Ridgefield Playhouse will host a Live in HD screening on Saturday, March 18, 2023 at 12pm as part of the FirstLight Home Care Classical Series, underwritten by Liz & Steven Goldstone, and Sabina Slavin, and with support from Whistle Stop Bakery.

In a sequel to his revelatory production of Parsifal, director François Girard unveils an atmospheric staging that once again weds his striking visual style and keen dramatic insight to Wagner's breathtaking music, with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct a supreme cast led by tenor Piotr Beczała in the title role of the mysterious swan knight. Soprano Tamara Wilson is the virtuous duchess Elsa, falsely accused of murder, going head-to-head with soprano Christine Goerke as the cunning sorceress Ortrud, who seeks to lay her low. Bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin is Ortrud's power-hungry husband, Telramund, and bass Günther Groissböck is King Heinrich. The score of Lohengrin is a supreme achievement in Romanticism: All the diverse, sometimes extreme expressions of the genre are magnificently and coherently presented. It includes Wagner's most ethereal music for both the orchestra and voice, and the choral writing is unsurpassed anywhere, expressing human hopes and fears as effectively as it reflects the dawning of a community consciousness. For decades, Lohengrin remained Wagner's most performed opera and was regarded as a sort of "gateway" to his entire corpus of works. It contains several passages well-known beyond the opera house, from orchestral sections familiar from the concert hall and even film scores to the ubiquitous Bridal Chorus, which is used quite differently in the opera than most weddings would lead one to think. Don't miss this Live in HD screening at The Ridgefield Playhouse. Tickets are FREE for students 18 & under!

For more information or to purchase touchless print at home tickets ($25, Members & Seniors $20, Students FREE), go online at www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org or visit or call the box office at (203) 438-5795. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a non-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge Road, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT and is committed to keeping the arts alive and available to all.