Description
MUSE is officially an approved streaming venue for THE MET Opera: LIVE in HD! That’s right! You can experience the world of The MET Opera in your own neighborhood.
The Met: Live in HD Season Continues with Strauss’s
Arabella on Saturday, November 22, Streamed at MUSE Noon Central
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.
The Stars of Arabella:
Arabella: Rachel Willis-Sørensen
Zdenka: Louise Alder
Fiakermilli: Julie Roset
Countess Adelaide Waldner: Karen Cargill
Matteo: Pavol Breslik
Mandryka: Tomasz Konieczny
count Waldner: Brindley Sherratt
SYNOPSIS
ACT I Vienna, the 1860s. Arabella is the beautiful daughter of the debt-ridden Count Waldner and his wife. Her sister, Zdenka, has been brought up as a boy to save the family money. As “Zdenko,” she has befriended and secretly fallen in love with Matteo, one of Arabella’s rejected suitors. Waldner has sent a picture of Arabella to his rich friend Mandryka, hoping he will marry her. Instead of the older man, who has died, his nephew and heir,
also called Mandryka, appears. He has fallen in love with the picture and asks the stunned Waldner for Arabella’s hand.
INTERMISSION
ACT II When Mandryka and Arabella are introduced at a ball that evening, it is love at first sight. Meanwhile “Zdenko,” who is trying to keep Matteo happy, tells him Arabella will meet him in her hotel room later. Overhearing this, Mandryka is appalled. The confused Waldner takes him back to the hotel.
INTERMISSION
ACT III Arabella, Matteo, Mandryka, and the Waldners all meet in the hotel lobby. Mandryka is convinced of Arabella’s betrayal, despite her protestations of innocence. The situation is about to get out of hand when suddenly Zdenka appears in a nightgown and confesses that in the darkness of her room she gave herself to Matteo. Matteo is stunned to realize he loves her, not Arabella, and the two are united. Arabella forgives Mandryka, and they renew their promise of love.
Production a gift of Mrs. Michael Falk