Met Simulcasts at the Music Academy
Continue with 'Doctor Atomic'
For Immediate Release October 21, 2008
Contact:
Tim Dougherty
805.695.7908
Santa Barbara, CA – A bold new production of Doctor Atomic, John Adams's masterpiece about theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer's decisive work on the Manhattan Project, will be the focus of the Metropolitan Opera's next "Live in HD" simulcast of the 2008-09 season at the Music Academy of the West on Saturday, November 8. The Music Academy's Hahn Hall will air the live simulcast at 10 am as well as an encore screening at 2 pm on Sunday, November 9. Tickets cost $22. Free parking is available on the Music Academy campus.
Mr. Adams's 2005 opera re-imagines the tense hours leading up to the explosion of the first atom bomb as a contemporary Faustian myth. The new production – presided over by British film director Penny Woolcock, making her Met debut – features baritone Gerald Finley in the daunting lead role he unforgettably created three years ago for the work's premiere at San Francisco Opera. According to The New York Times' Anthony Tommasini, Mr. Finley's portrayal has "grown even richer, more vocally visceral, and emotionally nuanced." The cast also includes Music Academy alumna Sasha Cooke, who sings the role of Oppenheimer's wife, Kitty, "with aching, wistful intensity," according to Mr. Tommasini. As for conductor Albert Gilbert, also making his Met debut, the venerable Times critic writes: "The performance he draws from the Met orchestra and chorus is a revelation. This score continues to impress me as Mr. Adams's most complex and masterly music. Whole stretches of the orchestral writing tremble with grainy colors, misty sonorities and textural density. Mr. Gilbert exposes the inner details and layered elements of the music: obsessive riffs, pungently dissonant cluster chords, elegiac solo instrumental lines that achingly drift atop nervous, jittery orchestral figurations." Newsweek has hailed the Met's production of Doctor Atomic – which features elaborate use of videos and electronic sound resources – as "stunning."
The 2008-09 "Live in HD" season at the Music Academy kicked off September 22 with a live simulcast of the Met's opening night gala featuring soprano Renée Fleming in fully staged scenes from three operas. The series will continue on Saturday, November 22, with a live simulcast of Hector Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, starring Marcello Giordani in the title role, with Susan Graham as Marguerite and John Relyea as Méphistophélès. The Met has announced that its "Live in HD" series will feature 11 transmissions for 2008-09, including the opening night gala. Upcoming highlights include the December 20 performance of Massenet's Thaïs, conducted by Jesús López-Cobos and with Ms. Fleming in the title role and Music Academy Distinguished Alumnus Thomas Hampson appearing as the monk Athanaël, and the March 21 performance of Bellini's La Sonnambula, starring Natalie Dessay and Music Academy alumnus Juan Diego Flórez. Most Met performances will be simulcast on Saturdays at 10 am local time, with encore screenings on Sundays at 2 pm.
Under an agreement announced in the spring, the Music Academy became one of about 70 nonprofit organizations to participate in the Met's groundbreaking "Live in HD" series. Launched in December 2006, the series features live transmissions of Met Opera performances to select venues in 17 countries throughout the world. Most participating venues are movie theaters. The transmissions are in high definition, and performances are captured using robotic cameras and other advanced technologies. As a result, simulcast viewers can see the onstage action from striking angles and enjoy a heightened awareness of the narrative elements of both the performance and the production. Simulcasts also include behind-the-scenes features, live interviews with cast and crew, and insightful short documentaries.
The series has met with impressive commercial and critical success, prompting the Met to increase the number of transmissions from eight last season and to rapidly expand its pool of participating venues. Music Academy benefactors Leatrice Luria and Leslie Ridley-Tree funded the technology necessary to simulcast the Met transmissions in Hahn Hall.
For more information, call 969-8787.
Founded in 1947, the Music Academy of the West is among the nation's preeminent summer schools and festivals for gifted young classical musicians. The Academy provides these promising musicians with the opportunity for advanced study and frequent performance under the guidance of internationally renowned faculty artists, as well as guest conductors and soloists. Admission to the Academy is strictly merit based, and Fellows receive full scholarships (tuition, room, and board). Academy alumni are members of major symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, ensembles, opera companies, and university and conservatory faculties throughout the world. Many enjoy careers as prominent solo artists. Based in Santa Barbara, the Music Academy of the West presents more than 200 public events annually, including performances by faculty, visiting artists, and Fellows; masterclasses; orchestra and chamber music concerts; and fully staged opera. For more information, visit www.musicacademy.org.
