‘The Hours’ Streams Live From The Met To Cinemas Dec. 10. Courtesy/The Met
The Met News:
NEW YORK, NY — After playing to sold-out audiences since its widely acclaimed premiere last week, Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Kevin Puts’s The Hours transmits live to cinemas worldwide at 12:55 p.m. (EST) Saturday, Dec. 10, as part of The Met: Live in HD series.
Adapted from Michael Cunningham’s acclaimed novel and the film of the same name, The Hours marks the highly anticipated return of soprano Renée Fleming to the Met stage, starring alongside operatically-trained Broadway star Kelli O’Hara and renowned mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato as the opera’s trio of heroines—Clarissa Vaughan, Laura Brown, and Virginia Woolf.
With Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium for this production by Phelim McDermott, the cast also features mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves as Sally, Clarissa’s partner; soprano Kathleen Kim as Barbara and Mrs. Latch; soprano Sylvia D’Eramo as Kitty and Vanessa; countertenor John Holiday as the Man Under the Arch and the Hotel Clerk; bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen as Richard, Clarissa’s best friend who is dying of AIDS; treble Kai Edgar as the young Richard; tenor William Burden as Louis, Richard’s ex-boyfriend; tenor Sean Panikkar as Leonard Woolf, Virginia Woolf’s husband; and bass-baritone Brandon Cedel as Dan Brown, Laura Brown’s husband.
Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Cunningham’s novel was originally adapted into an Oscar-winning film, starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman. Now a powerful operatic libretto, its plot takes place in a single day and concerns three women from different eras—Virginia Woolf (DiDonato) in London in 1923, as she struggles with mental illness and writing her novel Mrs. Dalloway; Los Angeles housewife Laura Brown (O’Hara), in 1949, who yearns to escape from her family; and, in 1999, literary editor Clarissa Vaughan (Fleming), a New Yorker haunted by the past as she plans a party to celebrate her closest friend who is dying of AIDS.
In addition to McDermott, who most recently won praise for his staging of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, the creative team includes set and costume director Tom Pye, lighting designer Bruno Poet, projection designer Finn Ross, choreographer Annie-B Parson in her Met debut, and dramaturg Paul Cremo. Star of stage and screen Christine Baranskihosts the live transmission.
The Hours contains themes of suicide. If you or someone you know is considering self-harm or suicide, help is available from the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 or visiting 988lifeline.org.
For more information about The Hours, please click here. Visit your local theater website for the most up-to-date information related to their health-and-safety measures.
For audiences who do not live near a participating cinema, The Hours will also be available on the newly launched The Met: Live at Home platform, which offers the live performance stream or view-on-demand capability for seven days following the performance.
PRESS QUOTES:
“Kevin Puts’s The Hours mixes musical freshness and venerable traditions in a fine and moving music drama … Greg Pierce does a jeweler’s job with the libretto … You couldn’t ask for a lusher trio than Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, and Kelli O’Hara (or more committed leadership from the pit than Yannick Nézet-Seguin’s) … Director Phelim McDermott weaves the separate settings and plots together with deftness and clarity.” — New York Magazine
“A Woolf pack of divas at the Met … Juicy roles for three women … Lushly pretty score … McDermott’s production eloquently capitalized on the opera’s dreaminess and overlap of worlds.” —Wall Street Journal
“Compelling … DiDonato is gripping as Virginia Woolf … Broadway star O’Hara gives a striking performance as Laura Brown … Fleming gave an affecting, introspective account … Ravishing” —Financial Times
“Opera event of the year” —PBS Newshour
“The divas steal the show … Fleming’s vocal freshness remains a marvel … O’Hara vividly portrays the Fifties housewife Laura Brown … DiDonato utterly harrowing in her portrayal … Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s musical director, revels in the plush orchestration, full of sumptuous strings and crisp percussion … Cinematic and beautiful.” — The Times (U.K.)
“In The Hours, Prima Donnas and Emotions Soar … Achingly—pretty, relentlessly stirring … Surging, strings-forward lyricism.” —The New York Times
The Stars of The Hours:
- Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Montreal, Canada
- Renée Fleming; Rochester, New York
- Kelli O’Hara; Elk City, Oklahoma
- Joyce DiDonato; Kansas City, Kansas
- Denyce Graves; Washington, D.C
- Kathleen Kim; Seoul, South Korea
- Sylvia D’Eramo; Tyler, Texas
- John Holiday; Rosenberg, Texas
- Kyle Ketelsen; Clinton, Iowa
- Kai Edgar; Chicago, Illinois
- William Burden; Miami, Florida
- Sean Panikkar; Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
- Brandon Cedel; Hershey, Pennsylvania