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By SALLY MURDOCK

Special to This Week in the Flathead

The new season of opera broadcast “Live in HD” from The Metropolitan Opera in New York City begins this month shown at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center and Cinemark Signature Theatres in Kalispell.

For the 2016-17 season, The Met will broadcast 10 classic favorites and lesser-known gems set in an array of settings. HD viewers will experience musical drama ranging from ancient Babylon and the post-Trojan War island of Crete to Tripoli in the 12th century, Spain in the 17th century, Vienna and Italy in the late 18th century, and Russia in the 19th century, as well as operas set in mystical or contemporary times. Some HD broadcasts are tragedies, others romantic comedies, and all filled with emotional impact.

The new HD broadcast season begins on Saturday, Oct. 8, and will end May 13. All the broadcasts at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center will be on Saturday mornings, most beginning at 10:55 a.m. Single tickets may be purchased at the door the morning of the broadcast for $20 adults/$5 students/$10 college students (cash or check). A season ticket bundle (a single ticket for each of the 10 broadcasts) is available for $180 (10 for the price of 9). Call 406-862-7591 in advance or buy a season ticket bundle at the door.

“The Met: Live in HD” broadcasts help make opera accessible to all. English subtitles are projected on the screen, and behind-the-scenes interviews with singers, directors, and others enhance audience understanding of the score and libretto.

The opera intermissions at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center feature refreshments for $1 each item, ambiance in the lobby, and good companionship with other opera lovers.

2016-17 schedule for “The Met: Live in HD” at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center:

• Oct. 8: “Tristan und Isolde” by Wagner (10 a.m.)

• Oct. 29: “Don Giovanni” by Mozart (10:55 a.m.)*

• Dec. 10: “L’Amour de Loin” (“Love from Afar”) by Saariaho (10:55 a.m.)

• Jan. 7: “Nabucco” by Verdi (10:55 a.m.)

• Jan. 21: “Romeo et Juliette” by Gounod (10:55 am)

• Feb. 25: “Rusalka” by Dvorak (10:55 a.m.)

• March 18: “La Traviata” by Verdi (10:55 a.m.)*

• March 25: “Idomeneo” by Mozart (10:55 a.m.)

• April 29: “Eugene Onegin” by Tchaikovsky (10:55 a.m.)*

• May 13: “Der Rosenkavalier” by R. Strauss (10:30 a.m.)

*The three operas marked with an asterisk above will be shown pre-recorded because of conflicts in the Whitefish PAC on the actual live broadcast dates. The audience will notice no difference in broadcast quality.

The season begins with “Tristan und Isolde” (Wagner) on Oct. 8 at 10 a.m. This opera is billed as the most romantic love tragedy in the repertoire, based on a Celtic legend at least as heart-wrenching as Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliette.” Richard Wagner believed that opera should be a complete art form that unites drama, music, scenery and action. One of Wagner’s early operas, “Tristan und Isolde” features music that builds and builds, then backs off, and builds again with emotion that fits the tragic storyline. The opera ends with Isolde singing her famous seven-minute “Love-Death” aria that beautifully melds her solo line with orchestral accompaniment and varies from very loud to ethereally soft. In this new Met production, the Swedish dramatic soprano Nina Stemme will sing the role of Isolde. Tristan will be sung by Australian heldentenor Stuart Skelton; “heldentenor” means a tenor of wide vocal range and extreme power. In other words, we will be sure to hear this star-crossed pair over the rich complexity of Wagner’s score. Run time is 4 hours and 47 minutes, including two intermissions.

“Don Giovanni” (Mozart) on Oct. 29 is a fitting choice for the Saturday before Halloween. Appearing on most opera lovers’ top 10 list, “Don Giovanni” (“Don Juan”) combines lots of laughs — even slapstick comedy — with some supernatural scary parts. Played by British baritone Simon Keenlyside, the title character is a sex-crazed rapist/murderer who gets his due in the end. Mozart’s sparkling score features exquisite ensemble numbers in which the characters’ thoughts and melodies interweave; the final scene with multiple characters onstage is a masterpiece of composition and psychological disclosure. The “Catalogue Aria” sung by Don Giovanni’s servant Leporello is a hilarious basso buffo accounting of the over 2,000 ex-girlfriends that Giovanni has slept with. In the end, Don Giovanni gets what’s coming to him: a tortuous descent into hell for murder and crimes against women. Run time is 3 hours and 22 minutes, including one intermission.

“L’Amour de Loin” (“Love from Afar”) (Saariaho) on Dec. 10 is a Met premiere of a modern opera by the female Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho that debuted in 2000. The New York Times describes this opera as having a “transfixing, lushly beautiful score ... with beguiling consonance.” Set in Tripoli in the 12th century, it is the love story of a European knight who falls for a woman in Tripoli whom he has only heard of, but never met. With high anxiety, he travels to meet her. This opera touches on the current cultural divide between East and West while paralleling what contemporary online lovers might feel before they actually meet. The main characters are both American: bass-baritone Eric Owens sings the role of Jaufre, and Susanna Phillips is his Libyan lover, Clemence. Run time is 2 hours and 33 minutes, including one intermission.

“Nabucco” (Verdi) on Jan. 7 will feature conductor James Levine, the just-retired Met musical director who has drastically cut back on his conducting schedule. And King Nabucco will be sung by none other than Placido Domingo, the famous aging tenor whom we should all see before he ultimately retires. Set in the 6th-century B.C., “Nabucco” is the story of the Babylonian defeat of the Hebrews and a romance between a Hebrew captive prince and a Babylonian princess. Throw in some sibling rivalry between Nabucco’s two daughters and the plot thickens. The bad sister eventually drinks some poison and dies, and everything turns out well in the end. “Nabucco” features one of opera’s most moving choruses: “Va, piensiero, sull’ali dorate,” also known as the “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves.” This immediately became a favorite of the Italian people who felt politically repressed themselves and wanted to express their nationalistic feelings. Bystanders lining the streets of Milan spontaneously began singing this chorus as Verdi’s funeral cortege passed by. A few months later, Arturo Toscanini conducted 800 in the singing of this chorus at Verdi’s burial. Run time is 2 hours and 44 minutes, including one intermission.

“Romeo et Juliette” (Gounod) on Jan. 21 is a new production by Director Bartlett Sher, moving Shakespeare’s love tragedy ahead a few hundred years to a lush 18th-century setting with stunning costumes and sets. This opera by French composer Gonoud is the most enduringly successful of the many operatic interpretations of Shakespeare’s tale; it focuses more on the two lovers themselves than The Bard’s original play. Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette” is in the style of French Romanticism, featuring subtlety, sensuality and graceful vocal delivery over showy effects. Diana Damrau sings Juliette, and Romeo is sung by Vittorio Grigolo. Run time is 3 hours and 4 minutes, including one intermission.

“Rusalka” (Dvorak) will show on Feb. 25. Debuting in 1901, “Rusalka” is the only one of Dvorak’s operas to become internationally successful. It is a fairytale that contrasts unspoiled nature (Acts 1 and 3) with corrupt human culture (Act 2). “Rusalka” features one of the most beautiful soprano arias, “Song to the Moon.” This “Rusalka” is a new production at The Met and will feature Kristine Opolais in the title role. Run time is 3 hours and 40 minutes, including two intermissions.

“La Traviata” (Verdi) on March 18 requires tissues, for this romantic tragedy has some of opera’s most profound and heartfelt music. “La Traviata” translates to “The Fallen Woman.” Its plot is a hybrid of “Pretty Woman” and “La Boheme.” Based on a true story, “La Traviata” tells the tale of Violetta, a high-priced prostitute forced to give up the only man she ever loved. This role is considered the pinnacle of the soprano repertoire and will be sung by Bulgarian Sondra Yoncheva. Spokane native Thomas Hampson will sing the role of the older man, the disapproving father of Violetta’s lover Alfredo, who is sung by American tenor Michael Fabiano. This production will be set in contemporary times with visually striking modern sets and costumes. Run time is 2 hours and 33 minutes, including one intermission.

“Idomeneo” (Mozart) on March 25 will feature James Levine conducting Mozart’s first operatic masterpiece, long neglected but now firmly established in the repertoire. Set in Crete about 1200 B.C., “Idomeneo” is based on a Greek myth that involves love triangles, sacrifices demanded by the gods, and post-Trojan-War angst. It picks up the story of Elektra after she killed her mother and fled to Crete. That messed-up woman never does find happiness, but the lovers who experience her wrath do become a happy couple. Matthew Polenzani stars in the title role. Run time is 3 hours and 58 minutes, including two intermissions.

“Eugene Onegin” (Tchaikovsky) on April 29 was composed by a Russian and set in late 19th century Russia. “Eugene Onegin” will feature two Russians in the lead roles: soprano Anna Netrebko as Tatiana and baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Onegin. Tchaikovsky’s lush score displays a range of emotions from grand and sweeping to tender and melancholy. Tatiana matures onstage from an impressionistic, sentimental teenager to a strong, mature woman who ultimately rejects the fickle Onegin’s advances. Run time is 3 hours and 38 minutes, including two intermissions.

“Der Rosenkavalier” (“The Knight of the Rose”) (Strauss) on May 13: What a way to end the season! “Der Rosenkavalier” is Richard Strauss’ grandest opera, the most popular German opera of the 20th century. Unlike Strauss’ “Elektra” that was broadcast last season, “Der Rosenkavalier” features no blood and no murder. It is a sparkling, bittersweet, waltzy romantic comedy combining the refinement of Mozart with the epic grandeur of Wagner, Richard Strauss’ musical hero. The libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal involves comedy, fantasy, human drama, and light touches of philosophy; the music by Richard Strauss features lots of tuneful waltzes of the Johann Strauss style as well as the most famous women’s trio in the repertoire. Originally set in Vienna in the 1740s (long before Viennese waltzes were ever invented, by the way), this Met production updates the opera to Vienna around 1800 in the last years of the Habsburg Empire. The opera’s subtext of class and conflict will be set against a rich backdrop of gilt and red damask. And in an interesting parallel to TV’s “The Bachelorette,” a silver rose is given as an engagement gift to the lucky betrothed. Renee Fleming will star as the beautiful mature Marschallin, Elina Garanca in a trouser role as the Marschallin’s young lover, and Erin Morley as the young Sophie. Matthew Polenzani also stars. Run time is 4 hours and 12 minutes, including two intermissions.

Sally Murdock is a guest writer for This Week in the Flathead and can be reached at murdock@cyberport.net.