With 18- to 24-year-olds the fastest growing demographic of U.S. opera audiences, those who already love opera and those new to the genre will find something to love in the spring performances in the Metropolitan Opera “Live in HD” series.
Grinnellians will share their love of the art and information about each performance in opera talks preceding the regular shows. Talks begin at 11:30 a.m., with the operas beginning at noon in Harris Center Cinema.
Schedule for Spring Semester
Jan. 5: Hector Berlioz’s Les Troyens is a French grand opera in five acts based on Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid and portraying characters from the Trojan War.
Jan. 19: Maria Stuarda, Gaetano Donizetti’s tragic, two-act opera set in the Tudor period, is loosely based on the lives of Mary Queen of Scots and her cousin Queen Elizabeth I.
Feb. 16: Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunchbacked court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto’s beautiful daughter Gilda.
March 2: Richard Wagner’s final masterpiece, Parsifal, is loosely based on the 13th-century epic poem of an Arthurian knight and his quest for the Holy Grail.
March 16: Francesca Da Rimini, composed by Riccardo Zandonai, is a story of doomed lovers.
April 27: George Frideric Handel’s Giulio Cesare is the story of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.
Encore Presentations
The following encore presentations will occur at 6 p.m. in the Harris Center Cinema. All encore presentations will be recordings of an earlier live broadcast.
- Wednesday, Jan. 23: Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda
- Thursday, Jan. 31: Berlioz’s Les Troyens
- Wednesday, Feb. 6: Verdi’s Aida
- Wednesday, April 10: Zandonai’s Francesca Da Rimini
Tickets
Tickets are required.
Tickets for Grinnell College faculty, staff, and students have been funded by the president’s office and are available at no cost at all ticket locations.
For non-College guests, tickets will be available for purchase at the Pioneer Bookshop in downtown Grinnell and the Grinnell College Bookstore: $15 for adults, $10 for students. Tickets will also be available at the Harris Center on the day of the show.
