Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015 at 12:30 p.m. on KPBS TV
Metropolitan Opera, PBS and THIRTEEN New York join forces once again for a ninth season of opera telecasts, beginning in January 2015.
Richard Eyre’s mesmerizing production of Bizet’s steamy melodrama returns with mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili singing her signature role of the ill-fated gypsy temptress. Aleksandrs Antonenko plays her desperate lover, the soldier Don José, and Ildar Abdrazakov is the swaggering bullfighter Escamillo, who comes between them. Pablo Heras-Casado conducts the irresistible score, which features one beloved and instantly recognizable melody after another. "Carmen" will be broadcast on THIRTEEN’S GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET.
Christopher Wheeldon, currently artistic associate of The Royal Ballet, created the choreography. When "Carmen" was presented in the Met’s Live in HD series in 2010, it became the Met's best-selling transmission to date, and was later broadcast.
"The show caught fire, mainly on the strength of Ms. Rachvelishvili's vocal power and compelling stage presence, and Mr. Eyre's sure sense of dramatic pacing took hold,” noted The New York Times. “With her smoldering, earthy sexuality she is ideal for the role, managing to seem untamed, almost unhinged at times, yet also coolly calculating."
GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET is a presentation of THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers.
Past episodes of GREAT PERFORMANCES are available for online viewing. GREAT PERFORMANCES is on Facebook, and you can follow @GPerfPBS on Twitter. The Metropolitan Opera is on Facebook, Instagram, and you can follow @MetOpera on Twitter.
