Ridgefield Playhouse’s Met Opera Screenings Continue In April

**News Release Submitted by The Ridgefield Playhouse**

Feb. 2, 2023

The Ridgefield Playhouse’s Classical Series continues in April with a trio of broadcasts from The Met Opera. On Friday, April 7, 2023 at 6pm, it’s an Encore in HD presentation of Verdi’s "Falstaff" with Maestro Daniele Rustioni at the podium. Next up it’s a Live in HD broadcast of "Der Rosenkavalier" on Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 12pm. A dream cast assembles for Strauss’s grand Viennese comedy; including Soprano Lise Davidsen is the aging Marschallin, opposite mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as her lover Octavian and soprano Erin Morley as Sophie, the beautiful younger woman who steals his heart. And Live In HD on Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 1pm, it’s "Champion" from Grammy Award Winner Terence Blanchard. The Met Opera is presented at The Ridgefield Playhouse as part of the FirstLight Home Care Classical Series, with underwriting by Liz & Steven Goldstone, and Sabina Slavin, and with support from Whistle Stop Bakery. Discount tickets are available to members, seniors, college students, and AAA members, with free tickets for all students 18 & under!

Baritone Michael Volle stars as the caddish knight Falstaff, gleefully tormented by a trio of clever women who deliver his comeuppance, in Verdi’s glorious Shakespearean comedy. Maestro Daniele Rustioni takes the podium to oversee a brilliant ensemble cast that features sopranos Hera Hyesang Park and Ailyn Pérez, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, tenor Bogdan Volkov, and baritone Christopher Maltman.

A dream cast assembles for Strauss’s grand Viennese comedy, "Der Rosenkavalier." Soprano Lise Davidsen is the aristocratic Marschallin, opposite mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as her lover, Octavian, and soprano Erin Morley as Sophie, the beautiful younger woman who steals his heart. Bass Günther Groissböck returns as the churlish Baron Ochs, and Markus Brück is Sophie’s wealthy father, Faninal. Maestro Simone Young takes the Met podium to oversee Robert Carsen’s fin-de-siècle staging.

With "Champion," Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard brings his first opera to the Met after his "Fire Shut Up in My Bones" triumphantly premiered with the company to universal acclaim in 2021. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is the young boxer Emile Griffith, who rises from obscurity to become a world champion, and bass-baritone Eric Owens portrays Griffith’s older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda Griffith, the boxer’s estranged mother, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is the bar owner Kathy Hagan. Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for Blanchard’s second Met premiere, also reuniting the director-and-choreographer team of James Robinson and Camille A. Brown.

For more information or to purchase touchless print at home tickets ($25, Members & Seniors $20, Students $15, Children 18 & under FREE), go online at www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org or visit or call the box office at (203) 438-5795. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a non-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge Road, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT and is committed to keeping the arts alive and available to all.