Raue Center to present opera telecasts
Raue Center for the Arts brings Bardari's Maria Stuarda and Verdi's La Forza del Destino to Crystal Lake this month .
Maria Stuarda will be shown at 3 p.m. Sunday.
La Forza del Destino will be shown at 3 p.m. on April 27.
Ticket price is $20.
Filmed live during the November 2007 premiere at the renowned Teatro Communale in Florence -- the heart of the Maggio Musicale Festival -- the new production of Verdi's La Forza del Destino features an outstanding international cast, designs by Oscar-nominee Ezio Frigerio and direction by Nicolas Joel, newly appointed director of the Paris Opera.
Zubin Mehta leads the Maggio Musicale Orchestra and Chorus with tenor Marcello Giordani and soprano Violeta Urmana in the leading roles.
Hailed by The New York Times for his "ringing power and sweeping fervor," Giordani brings his trademark versatility to this international debut as Don Alvaro.
Urmana and Giordani give stunning performances in the roles of Donna Leonora and Don Alvaro, portraying the tragic love story between the two characters with the utmost vehemence.
Maria Stuarda (Mary Stuart) is a tragic opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a libretto by Giuseppe Bardari based on Friedrich von Schiller's 1800 play Maria Stuart.
It received its premiere on Dec. 30, 1835 at La Scala and is based on the lives of Mary, Queen of Scots and her cousin Queen Elizabeth I.
During the negotiations of a marriage proposal between Queen Elizabeth and the King of France, Lord Talbot, intercedes on behalf of the royal prisoner Maria Stuart, imprisoned in Fotheringay Castle since fleeing from Scotland.
The Queen is torn between sympathy for Maria and fear that she is plotting against her, but her wrath comes from Leicester, the man she loves, who argues her rivals' case with a passion that makes her feel betrayed.
As the queens confront one another, each is already convinced that the other is haughty, yet the final triumph proves elusive to either one.
The show stars Mariella Devia as Maria Stuart and Anna Caterina Antonacci as Elizabeth.
Order tickets online at www.rauecenter.org or by calling the box office at (815) 356-9010.
The Raue Center for the Arts is at 26 N. Williams St., Crystal Lake.