‘On Screen’ series from The Met: Live in HD and National Theatre Live

Submitted by the Orcas Center.

Running from now until June, you can view a diverse sampling of the world’s best performers at the height of their careers in productions from The Met: Live in HD and National Theatre Live at Orcas Center. These on-screen events give you the best seat in the house from the comfort of your own island. In December, you can enjoy three performances: “Arabella,” “The Magic Flute” and “Life of Pi.”

Met Live in HD, “Arabella”: Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 1 p.m. Richard Strauss’s elegant romance brings the glamour and enchantment of 19th-century Vienna to the Met stage in a sumptuous production by legendary director Otto Schenk that “is as beautiful as one could hope” (The New York Times). Compelling soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen makes her role debut as Arabella, a young noblewoman in search of love on her own terms. Soprano Louise Alder makes her Met debut as her sister, Zdenka, and bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny is the dashing count who sweeps Arabella off her feet.

Met Live in HD, “The Magic Flute”: Tuesday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. The Met made history in December 2006 when it presented its first Live in HD transmission to movie theaters worldwide — the abridged English-language version of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” This holiday season, the opera returns in a special encore presentation.

National Theatre Live, “Life of Pi”: Wednesday, Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. Puppetry, magic and storytelling combine in a unique, Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of the best-selling novel. After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, a 16-year-old boy named Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors — a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Royal Bengal tiger. Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive? Filmed live in London’s West End and featuring state-of-the-art visuals, the epic journey of endurance and hope is brought to life in a breathtaking new way.

Ticket prices range from $12-$65 with an additional $2 ticketing fee. Tickets are available online at www.OrcasCenter.org, by phone at 360-376-2281 ext. 100 or in person at the box office an hour prior to the performance.