Audrey Luna flies high in The Tempest (photo by Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera)
If you have an interest in fine theater, cutting-edge art and where culture’s going, get tickets to the screenings of the new Robert Lepage production of Thomas Ades’ hot new opera The Tempest – part of the Met Live in HD series at the Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie and Time and Space Limited (TSL) Warehouse in Hudson.
Lepage, who is Quebecois, made his name in avant-garde theater in Canada and has since moved on to film, several productions for Cirque du Soleil and a growing body of theatrical extravaganzas and opera works. Ades, who rose in the London-based contemporary classic scene that has caught the world’s attention, will be receiving his Metropolitan Opera debut with this production.
According to previews, Lepage’s design work recreates the interior of the rococo La Scala opera house as the magical island venue for the otherworldly arts of Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, in Shakespeare’s final play, considered by many to be one of the stalwarts of Western culture. In the new production, the great Simon Keenlyside will reprise the role of Prospero, as he did to critical acclaim in the opera’s world premiere at the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in London several years ago.
“The opera captures the magic of Shakespeare’s last play,” Lepage has said. “It is a box full of magic tricks, which makes it a gift for me and for the designers.”
The Met Live in HD: The Tempest, Saturday, November 10, 1 p.m., $26, Bardavon, 35 Market Street, Poughkeepsie, (845) 473-2072, www.bardavon.org; Saturday & Sunday, November 17-18, 1 p.m., $25, TSL Warehouse, 434 Columbia Street, Hudson, (518) 822-8100, www.timeandspace.org.