Verdi’s La Traviata to conclude Met series at UCA

PRESS RELEASE

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS

COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS AND COMMUNICATION

April 5, 2012

CONTACT: Donna Lampkin Stephens, (501) 852-2599; donnals@uca.edu

Verdi’s La Traviata to conclude Met series at UCA

CONWAY — Verdi’s La Traviata will conclude the 2011-12 season of Captured Live from the Met @ UCA at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 15.

The opera, sung in Italian with Met titles in English, German and Spanish, will be aired in high definition in the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall on the University of Central Arkansas campus. Running time is approximately two hours, 35 minutes.

According to www.metoperafamily.org, Natalie Dessay will put on the red dress in this production, her first Violetta at the Met. Matthew Polenzani sings Alfredo, with Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Germont. Fabio Luisi conducts.

Production is by Willy Decker with set and costumes by Wolfgang Gussmann, lighting by Hans Toelstede and choreography by Athol Farmer.

This is the sixth season of the Met’s series, which came to UCA in 2008 and is sponsored by the College of Fine Arts and Communication. According to the Met, it has expanded its worldwide distribution to 1,600 theaters in 54 countries, the largest global audience the initiative has ever reached. Last year, a record of more than 2.6 million tickets were sold to opera lovers around the world, effectively quadrupling the Met’s paying audience.

Approximately 200 seats are available for each performance at UCA. General admission tickets are $15 for the public and $5 for students with valid I.D.

To order, call UCA Ticket Central at (501) 450-3265 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday or visit www.uca.edu/reynolds.

The series is made possible by UCA’s arts fee.

For more information, call the Office of the Dean, College of Fine Arts and Communication, at (501) 450-3293, e-mail lesleya@uca.edu or visit www.uca.edu/cfac or www.metopera.org.

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