FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Great Barrington, Mass.—The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center will present eight screenings from the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD 2025-26 season, October 19 through June 7.
The Mahaiwe will screen Bellini’s La Sonnambula on Sunday, October 19 at 1 p.m. Following triumphant Live in HD performances in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Nadine Sierra summits another peak of the soprano repertoire as Amina, who sleepwalks her way into audiences’ hearts in Bellini’s poignant tale of love lost and found. In his new production, Rolando Villazón—the tenor who has embarked on a brilliant second career as a director—retains the opera’s original setting in the Swiss Alps but uses its somnambulant plot to explore the emotional and psychological valleys of the mind. Tenor Xabier Anduaga co-stars as Amina’s fiancé, Elvino, alongside soprano Sydney Mancasola as her rival, Lisa, and bass Alexander Vinogradov as Count Rodolfo. Riccardo Frizza takes the podium for one of opera’s most ravishing works. This operatic gem from one of the great masters of melody is a benchmark of extraordinary vocalism. The title role of the sleepwalking girl was composed for the greatest diva of the day, Giuditta Pasta (for whom Bellini also wrote the tragic role of Norma). The part requires a rare combination of innocence, charm, and breathtaking vocal virtuosity. Deeper than a comedy, but in no way a tragedy, La Sonnambula reaches its conclusion through genuine, poignant character development, rather than by intrigue or farce. This screening is an encore per Mahaiwe scheduling.
The Mahaiwe will screen Puccini’s La Bohème on Sunday, November 9 at 1 p.m. With its enchanting setting and spellbinding score, the world’s most popular opera is as timeless as it is heartbreaking. Franco Zeffirelli’s picture-perfect production brings 19th-century Paris to the Met stage as Puccini’s young friends and lovers navigate the joy and struggle of bohemian life. Soprano Juliana Grigoryan is the feeble seamstress Mimì, opposite tenor Freddie De Tommaso as the ardent poet Rodolfo. Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts the performance. This screening is an encore per Mahaiwe scheduling.
The Mahaiwe will screen Strauss’ Arabella on Saturday, November 22 at 1 p.m. Strauss’s elegant romance brings the glamour and enchantment of 19th-century Vienna to cinemas worldwide in a sumptuous production by legendary director Otto Schenk that “is as beautiful as one could hope” (The New York Times). Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen stars as the title heroine, a young noblewoman in search of love on her own terms. Radiant soprano Louise Alder is her sister, Zdenka, and bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny is the dashing count who sweeps Arabella off her feet.
The Mahaiwe will screen Giordano’s Andrea Chénier on Saturday, December 13 at 1 p.m. Giordano’s passionate tragedy stars tenor Piotr Beczała as the virtuous poet who falls victim to the intrigue and violence of the French Revolution. Following their celebrated recent partnership in Giordano’s Fedora in the 2022–23 Live in HD season, Beczała reunites with soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Chénier’s aristocratic lover, Maddalena di Coigny, with baritone Igor Golovatenko as Carlo Gérard, the agent of the Reign of Terror who seals their fates. Met Principal Guest Conductor Daniele Rustioni takes the podium to lead Nicolas Joël’s gripping staging.
The Mahaiwe will screen Bellini’s I Puritani on Sunday, January 11 at 1 p.m. For gorgeous melody, spellbinding coloratura, and virtuoso vocal fireworks, I Puritani has few equals. The first new Met production of Bellini’s final masterpiece in nearly 50 years is a striking staging by Charles Edwards, who makes his company directorial debut after many successes as a set designer. The Met has assembled a world-beating quartet of stars, conducted by Marco Armiliato, for the demanding principal roles. Soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Lawrence Brownlee are Elvira and Arturo, brought together by love and torn apart by the political rifts of the English Civil War, with baritone Artur Ruciński as Riccardo, betrothed to Elvira against her will, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Elvira’s sympathetic uncle, Giorgio. This screening is an encore per Mahaiwe scheduling.
The Mahaiwe will screen Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde on Sunday, March 22 at 12 p.m. After years of anticipation, a truly unmissable event arrives as the electrifying Lise Davidsen tackles one of the ultimate roles for dramatic soprano: the Irish princess Isolde in Wagner’s transcendent meditation on love and death. Heroic tenor Michael Spyres stars opposite Davidsen as the love-drunk Tristan. The momentous occasion also marks the advent of a new, Met-debut staging by Yuval Sharon—hailed by The New York Times as “the most visionary opera director of his generation” and the first American to direct an opera at the famed Wagner festival in Bayreuth—as well as Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s first time leading Tristan und Isolde at the Met. Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova reprises her signature portrayal of Brangäne, alongside bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, who sings Kurwenal after celebrated Met appearances in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer and Ring cycle. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green makes an important role debut as King Marke. This screening is an encore per Mahaiwe scheduling.
The Mahaiwe will screen Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin on Saturday, May 2 at 1 p.m. Following her acclaimed 2024 company debut in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, soprano Asmik Grigorian returns to the Met as Tatiana, the lovestruck young heroine in this ardent operatic adaptation of Pushkin. Baritone Igor Golovatenko is the urbane Onegin, who realizes his affection for her all too late. The Met’s evocative production, directed by Tony Award–winner Deborah Warner, “offers a beautifully detailed reading of … Tchaikovsky’s lyrical romance” (The Telegraph).
The Mahaiwe will screen Gabriela Lena Frank’s Último Sueño de Frida y Diego on Sunday, June 7 at 1 p.m. The Metropolitan Opera’s 2025–26 Live in HD season comes to a close with American composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s first opera, a magical-realist portrait of Mexico’s painterly power couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, with libretto by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Nilo Cruz. Fashioned as a reversal of the Orpheus and Euridice myth, the story depicts Frida, sung by leading mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, leaving the underworld on the Day of the Dead and reuniting with Diego, portrayed by baritone Carlos Álvarez. The famously feuding pair briefly relive their tumultuous love, embracing both the passion and the pain before bidding the land of the living a final farewell. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Met-premiere staging of Frank’s opera, a “confident, richly imagined score” (The New Yorker) that “bursts with color and fresh individuality” (Los Angele Times). The vibrant new production, taking enthusiastic inspiration from Frida and Diego’s paintings, is directed and choreographed by Deborah Colker. This screening is an encore per Mahaiwe scheduling.
Mahaiwe lecturer Scott Eyerly will return to offer free opera talks online via Zoom, Thursday evenings at 5:30 p.m. the week of each broadcast. Zoom links will be available at mahaiwe.org.
Tickets
Tickets go on sale to Met Members and Mahaiwe Bravo Circle Members on Friday, August 22 at noon; to Mahaiwe Members on Wednesday, August 27 at noon; and to the public on Friday, August 29 at noon.
Tickets are $25 or $10 ages 21 and under. Tickets can be purchased online at mahaiwe.org, or by calling or visiting the Box Office, 413-528-0100, on Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.
The Mahaiwe accepts ConnectorCare/WIC/EBT cards — four free tickets to movies or HD broadcasts per individual. Learn more at mahaiwe.org/visit/ticketing-offers.
Season subscription renewals are due August 21. Contact boxoffice@mahaiwe.org to renew.
About the Mahaiwe
Located in downtown Great Barrington, Mass., the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center is the year-round presenter of world-class music, dance, theater, classic films, Live in HD broadcasts, and arts education programs for the southern Berkshires and neighboring regions. The intimate jewel box of a theater opened in 1905. Since 2005, the performing arts center has hosted over 1,500 events and welcomed over half a million people through its doors. More than 27,000 students from 77 different schools have benefited from the Mahaiwe’s school-time performances and residencies. For more information, see mahaiwe.org.
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