The final two opera productions in the current season of The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts, will be broadcast exclusively at select Ster-Kinekor and Cinema Nouveau cinemas in June and July.
Screening on 01 and 03 June, a new staging of R. Strauss’s Salome with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, sees leading South African soprano Elza van den Heever in the title role alongside baritone Peter Mattei. Leading the company’s first new production of the work in 20 years, Claus Guth, one of Europe’s leading opera directors, gives the biblical story a psychologically perceptive Victorian-era setting.
The final opera production, on 29 June and 01 July, is director Bartlett Sher’s beloved take on Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti, and featuring opera’s newest star, mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina, who returns to the Met after her hit run this season in the new production of Bizet’s Carmen.
Cape Town audiences at Ster-Kinekor V&A Waterfront can enjoy the live stream from the Met together with audiences around the globe. Each production will then have two screenings at select Ster-Kinekor and Cinema Nouveau cinemas at a later date.
“With The Met: Live in HD productions screening in our cinemas, local audiences can experience some of the world’s best-loved operas from The Met’s opulent stage to our big screens. The theatre-like setting enables cinemagoers to become an extension of the live production’s audience, making these productions accessible to anyone who enjoys and appreciates world-class opera,” says Lynne Wylie, chief marketing officer at Ster-Kinekor Theatres.
“From its beginning, The Met: Live in HD was created to connect the Met to a global audience,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager. “What began as an experiment 17 years ago has become a staple experience for opera lovers all over the world. Our 2024-25 season in cinemas reflects how opera is changing at the Met, where we’re balancing timeless classics with accessible new work that is advancing the art form and attracting younger and more diverse audiences.”
Don’t miss these world-class opera productions filmed and transmitted from the Met stage to the big screen at Cinema Nouveau and select Ster-Kinekor cinemas: Eastgate and Rosebank Nouveau in Johannesburg; Brooklyn in Tshwane; Garden Route in George; Somerset in Somerset West; and Blue Route and V&A Waterfront (livestream) in Cape Town.