Hamlet Met Saturday Matinee & High Definition Broadcast

Photo by Marty Sohl, Metropolitan Opera
Marlis Petersen in rehearsal as Ophelia in Hamlet at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City on March 16. She stepped in after Natalie Dessay withdrew from the production due to illness. Click here to see the video "Last Minute Soprano Saves the Opera."

The Saturday matinee broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera will be Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet. Classic 99.1 KFUO-FM will carry the broadcast beginning at 12:00 noon (CT). Approximate running time is 3 hours, 43 minutes, including one intermission.

A high-definition live transmission of Hamlet will also be presented at the AMC Esquire 7 Theatre on Clayton Road, The St. Louis Mills 18 in the St. Louis Mills Mall, and AMC Chesterfield 14 Cinemas in the Chesterfield Mall. Click here for ticket information.

From the Met's web site:

Two of Shakespeare's unforgettable characters come to life in Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser's new production. Simon Keenlyside is "stunning," delivering a "haunting portrayal" in the title role, the New York Times says. Marlis Petersen "brings a luminous voice and winning grace to her performance" of Ophélie. Thomas's score "could not have a better champion than the conductor Louis Langrée."

From Anthony Tommasini's March 17, New York Times review:

The opera is also a star vehicle for the right baritone in this punishing title role. Simon Keenlyside, the Ralph Fiennes of baritones, was the acclaimed Hamlet when this production was introduced, and he dominated the evening here. His singing was an uncanny amalgam, at once elegant and wrenching, intelligent and fitful. Handsome, haunted and prone to fidgety spasms that convey Hamlet’s seething anger and paralyzing indecision, Mr. Keenlyside embodied the character in every moment, and you could not take your eyes off him.

The soprano Natalie Dessay, this production's original Ophélie, was to have joined Mr. Keenlyside here. She withdrew from the entire run because of illness and was replaced by the German soprano Marlis Petersen. The opera world has been abuzz recently with reports of Ms. Petersen's whirlwind last-minute rehearsal schedule. She missed the dress rehearsal on Friday because she was performing in Vienna. The Met sent a coach there to work with Ms. Petersen, who flew to New York on Saturday, then endured a 30-hour period of costume fittings, stage rehearsals with piano and one abbreviated orchestral run.