'Rigoletto' streaming live from the Met

The setting is Las Vegas 1960 for a tale of how power and vice corrupt in this Metropolitan Opera’s contemporary production of Verdi’s masterwork, “Rigoletto,” screening live at Orcas Center, Sunday, Feb. 17 at 1 p.m.

Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer, of “Spring Awakening,” makes his Met debut with a new production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” The new staging moves the opera’s tragic events from a decadent 16th-century Italian court to the glitzy, depraved setting of the Las Vegas strip circa 1960. Polish tenor Piotr Beczala sings the Duke, an amoral lounge singer whose entourage includes the world-weary comedian Rigoletto, sung by Serbian baritone Željko Lučić. German soprano Diana Damrau sings the role of the innocent Gilda, Rigoletto’s daughter and the victim of the predatory Duke. Slovakian bass Štefan Kocán sings the assassin-for-hire Sparafucile and Belarusian mezzo-soprano Oksana Volkova makes her Met debut as his seductive sister, Maddalena. Italian conductor Michele Mariotti conducts his first company performances of the Verdi masterwork, which features one of the most famous arias in all of opera, “La donna è mobile.”

“Eye-popping sets…brilliant costumes…” according to the The Wall Street Journal.

Tickets for Rigoletto from The Met: Live in HD are $18 for adults, $13  students,$2 off for Orcas Center members,and may be purchased at www.orcascenter.org or by calling 376-2281 ext. 1 or visiting the Orcas Center Box Office open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from noon - 4 p.m. For more information about Orcas Center 2013 season events, please visit www.orcascenter.org.

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