THT and Opera Company of Middlebury Present:
The MET: Live in HD:
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Saturday, February 7 at 1:00pm* in the Anderson Studio
Pre-show talk at 12:15pm
by Larry Hamberlin, Middlebury College Professor Emeritus of Music and author of Tin Pan Opera and The Curious Listener.
Estimated Run Time:
3 hours, with one intermission
*Please note, this is an encore screening and will not be shown live.
Due to critical acclaim and overwhelming audience response, the Met-premiere production of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, recorded live earlier this season, has been added to the Live in HD lineup. This exhilarating operatic adaptation of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, follows the story of two Jewish cousins who unlock a new avenue of resistance against tyranny through the world of superheroes during World War II. The production by Tony Award–winning director Bartlett Sher provides spectacular visuals with towering sets and projections among the three worlds of the story: Nazi-occupied Prague, the bustling streets of New York City, and the technicolor realm of comic-book fantasy. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Mason Bates’s eclectic, cinematic score, which incorporates scintillating electronic elements and a variety of musical styles. The New York scenes feature inflections of jazz and big band, the music for Prague is noticeably darker and more somber, and the composer’s trademark use of electronica reaches its full fruition in the scenes set in the comic-book realm.
A note from Professor Larry Hamberlin on his preshow talk:
Not only do the intersections of opera and popular culture run deep in America’s history, but they also enliven The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a new opera about comic books, becoming an American, and fighting fascism. Explore those connections with Middlebury College Professor Emeritus Larry Hamberlin, the author of The Curious Listener and Tin Pan Opera: Operatic Novelties in the Ragtime Era.