It's looking like a trend. A year after the Metropolitan Opera shook things up by beaming live, high-def performances to movie theaters throughout this country and beyond, several famed Italian opera houses will take advantage of the same technology to enter the U.S. market this season.
A production from last season of Verdi's Aida from Milan's La Scala will launch this new venture, which uses live performances on tape, rather than simulcasts. The cast will include Roberto Alagna as Radames - this is apparently the one complete performance he gave of the role at La Scala last year, a couple of nights before he was booed and, famously, walked out. Violeta Urmana sings the title role, and Riccardo Chailly conducts.
Several dozen movie houses across the U.S. are participating in the Italian project. Locally, Muvico Egyptian 24 at Arundel Mills in Hanover will offer Aida at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5. Tickets are $20. For more information, check out opera.screenvision.com.
Four other La Scala productions are scheduled in the series (if a strike of opera house workers is resolved before the season begins): Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Daniel Barenboim; Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, with Mariella Devia in the title role; Verdi's La Traviata, with Angela Gheorghiu and Ramon Vargas as the doomed lovers; and Puccini's Il Trittico.
Also slated for the big-screen treatment: Verdi's La Forza del Destino from Florence and Puccini's La Rondine from Venice.
For a live, in-person operatic experience, don't overlook the Kirov Opera's annual visit to the Kennedy Center. Valerie Gergiev will conduct the famed Russian company in productions of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades (Dec. 6, 11 and 14) and Verdi's Otello (Dec. 9, 12 and 16). For tickets, call 202-467-4600 or go to kennedy-center.org.
And if it's a close encounter with a stellar opera singer you're craving, there are two notable opportunities early next month.
Ben Heppner, today's greatest Wagnerian tenor and a compelling force in a variety of other repertoire, will make his Baltimore debut Dec. 2 for the Shriver Hall Concert Series. His recital, accompanied by pianist Thomas Muraco, includes works by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Sibelius and Tosti. Call 410-516-7164 or go to shrivercon certs.org.
Baltimore Opera Company presents gleaming soprano Renee Fleming Dec. 8 in a concert of arias by Handel, Verdi, Puccini and Dvorak, along with other works. Ya Hui Wang conducts the Baltimore Opera Orchestra in this performance at the Lyric Opera House. Call 410-727-6000 or go to baltimoreopera.com.
