Graham and Domingo Star in Met Saturday Matinee Broadcast of Iphigénie en Tauride

Susan Graham and Placido Domingo.
Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.
St. Louis Public Radio will carry the Met Opera broadcast of Christoph Willibald von Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride on their HD channel, KWMU-3 beginning at 12 noon. Approximate running time 2 hours, 25 minutes. Intermission at approximately 2:00 p.m.

The official Met press release states:

Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride was revived at the Metropolitan Opera beginning February 12 for a series of performances featuring three of the stars of the 2007 new production premiere: Susan Graham as Iphigénie, Plácido Domingo as Oreste, and Paul Groves as Pylade.

Patrick Summers conducts the revival of Gluck’s critically heralded but rarely staged opera, which the Met performed in only one season (1916-17) prior to the premiere of the current production in 2007. Gordon Hawkins sings Thoas and Julie Boulianne is Helen; Boulianne is making her Met debut and Hawkins his Met role debut. The production, by Stephen Wadsworth, will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world on Saturday, February 26 as part of The Met: Live in HD series.

The title role of Iphigénie en Tauride, Gluck’s adaptation of the Euripides tragedy, is a touchstone role for Graham, who has performed it with great success at the Salzburg Festival, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera and Teatro Real de Madrid. Domingo added the role of Iphigénie’s long-lost brother Oreste to his extensive repertoire for the 2007 premiere of Wadsworth’s production and earned excellent reviews for his performance in what has traditionally been considered a baritone role. Groves reprises his Pylade, which he has sung at leading opera houses in Madrid, Paris, London, Chicago, and San Francisco. Conductor Summers, who has conducted a diverse range of works at the Met ranging from Salome to Rodelinda, also conducted the Met’s revival of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.

In a February 14 review in the New York Times Zachary Woolfe said:

Gluck’s operas can seem bloodless in description but are vividly involving when you’re immersed in them. After the young Schubert heard Iphigénie en Tauride for the first time, he “was totally beside himself over the effects of this magnificent music,” a friend reported, “and asserted that there could be nothing more beautiful in the world.” Leaving the Met on Saturday, you didn’t find that notion so far-fetched.

The High Definition transmission of Iphigénie en Tauride will be presented at AMC Esquire 7, 6706 Clayton Road; St. Louis Mills 18; 5555 Saint Louis Mills Boulevard; AMC Chesterfield 14, 3000 Chesterfield Mall; and AMC Showplace Edwardsville 13, 6333 Center Grove Road, Edwardsville, Illinois. Click here to buy tickets.