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The Metropolitan Opera HD Live Season 5 Episodes
Season 5 Episode Guide
12 Episodes 2010 - 2011
Episode 1
Wagner: Das Rheingold
183 mins
When Wotan, king of the gods, hired the Giants to build a palace, he didn't have the money to pay them. What to do? Plunder and steal: there is a Ring with limitless power, and that will be his solution. He doesn't know the Ring is cursed.
Episode 2
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Boris might have been a good Czar except for that thing he did years ago: he murdered the child who was the true heir to Russia's throne. Now nightmares, his conscience, the Council of Ministers and a brewing rebellion threaten his rule.
Episode 3
Donizetti: Don Pasquale
142 mins
After disinheriting his nephew Ernesto, the elderly Pasquale seeks a wife to produce an heir for his estate. Dr. Malatesta sympathizes with Ernesto and devises a plan to help Ernesto regain his inheritance and the widow Norina.
Episode 4
Verdi: Don Carlo
234 mins
Family jealousy, threat of rebellion, political back-stabbing and the Inquisition weigh heavy on the court of King Phillip II. The tension finally ignites at the King's coronation, where a number of heretics are to be burnt at the stake.
Episode 5
Puccini: La Fanciulla del West
Minnie, the titular "Girl of the Golden West" is saloon-keeper, nurse, and Bible school teacher to a camp of miners during the California Gold Rush. When the mysterious Mr. Johnson arrives, the miners suspicions (and jealousies) are roused.
Episode 6
John Adams: Nixon in China
188 mins
US President Richard Nixon, wife Pat, and Henry Kissinger travel to China to visit Chairman and Madame Mao in 1972, normalizing relations between the countries for the first time in 25 years. Both sides wonder if this for the better.
Episode 7
Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride
Sat, Feb 26, 2011
Iphigenie, banished daughter of Klytemnaestra, is now high priestess to Diana. Two strangers from Greece wash up on shore; when Iphigenie recognizes one as her brother, Orestes, she is powerless to stop his execution. Cue the goddess Diana.
Episode 8
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
180 mins
A reprise of 2009's production with cast changes, including Natalie Dessay and Joseph Calleja. The famous Mad Scene is orchestrated with a glass harmonica per Donizetti's original score, and not a flute, which is more commonly used today.
Episode 9
Rossini: Le Comte Ory
The young Count Ory takes advantage of the fact that the village men are off fighting, and breaks into the castle to declare his love to Adele. His sidekick Isolier reveals Ory's plans to her, and the two of them hatch a plan to trick Ory.
Episode 10
R. Strauss: Capriccio
150 mins
Which is greater among the arts, poetry or music? The opera explores that question in an allegorical tale: the Countess (Fleming), is torn between two suitors, the poet Olivier (Russell Braun) and the composer Flamand (Joseph Kaiser).
Episode 11
Verdi: Il Trovatore
Sat, Apr 30, 2011143 mins
The gypsy Azucena has harbored a grudge for thirty years, but she is about to have revenge at last. Meanwhile, her son Manrico is in love with Leonora, but so is his arch-enemy, the Count Di Luna. A pot-boiler, where every tune is a hit.
Episode 12
Wagner: Die Walküre
243 mins
Ring Cycle part 2, where we learn that two of Wotan's kids are having an incestuous affair, his wife is furious, so Valkyrie Brunnhilde is sent to fix things (ie, kill them). But she lets them escape instead, and oh boy, is Wotan angry now.
