Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The Met: Live in HD, the New York Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series, returns to the University of North Carolina Wilmington for another exciting season of live opera transmissions. The 2011-12 season begins Saturday, Oct. 15 with the Met premiere production of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, featuring Anna Netrebko in the title role. The opera is based on the final, tragic days of Anne Boleyn and has been a dramatic and vocal showcase for some of the greatest sopranos in operatic history.

In addition to Netrebko, the 2011-12 Live in HD season features many of the opera world's most prominent stars, including Stephanie Blythe, David Daniels, Natalie Dessay, Joyce DiDonato, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Jonas Kaufmann, Mariusz Kwiecien, René Pape, Marina Poplavskaya, Bryn Terfel and Deborah Voigt. The season features 11 transmissions, which include a Met premiere, a world premiere, three new productions of repertory favorites (including Mozart's Don Giovanni), and the final two installments of a new Ring cycle, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.

The Met distributes its Live in HD performances to more than 700 locations in the United States and 1600 theaters in 51 countries around the world. Last year, a record number of more than 2.6 million Live in HD tickets were sold to opera lovers across the globe. UNCW is the only university in NC that receives the Met broadcasts.

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UNCW is working to increase opera appreciation and understanding in our area. OLLI fosters lifelong learning opportunities, focusing on +50 adults in the SE North Carolina region by providing educational programming and connecting the adult and university communities.

The Met: Live in HD Tickets
$15 Student, $20 OLLI member, $30 non-member
Season Ticket discount is available.
Tickets and 2011-12 season schedule are available online at www.uncw.edu/metopera or by calling 910.962.3195.

Media contacts:
Dana Fischetti, media relations manager, 910.508.3127 or fischettid@uncw.edu

Amy Keith, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, 910.962.4034 or keithaw@uncw.edu