Submitted Photo Following a string of awe-inspiring Live in HD performances, Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Leonore, the faithful wife who risks everything to save her husband from the clutches of tyranny. Mozart’s timeless comedy returns to cinemas worldwide as Conductor Joana Mallwitz, in her Met debut, takes the podium to conduct a stellar ensemble cast that includes American bass-baritone Michael Sumuel as the clever valet Figaro.

Live at the Met, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live, high definition (HD) opera transmissions to theaters around the world, continues its 2024-25 season at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center on Saturday at 1 p.m., with the Wolfgang Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro.

Mozart’s timeless comedy returns to cinemas worldwide as Conductor Joana Mallwitz, in her Met debut, takes the podium to conduct a stellar ensemble cast that includes American bass-baritone Michael Sumuel as the clever valet Figaro, Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska as the wily maid Susanna, Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins as the skirt-chasing Count, Italian soprano Federica Lombardi as his anguished wife, and French mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce as the adolescent page Cherubino.

Le Nozze di Figaro is a remarkable marriage of Mozart’s music at the height of his genius and one of the best libretti ever set. In adapting a play that caused a scandal with its revolutionary take on 18th-century society, librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte focused less on the original topical references and more on the timeless issues embedded in the frothy drawing-room comedy. The production runs three hours, 45 minutes with one intermission.

The Met: Live in HD is the Metropolitan Opera’s Peabody and Emmy Award-winning series of opera performances transmitted live from the stage of the Met in New York into movie theaters and event spaces worldwide. The series has made the Met the world’s leading provider of alternative cinema content and the only arts institution with an ongoing global series of this scale. When the series launched in 2006, the Met was the first arts company to experiment with alternative cinema content. Since then, the program has expanded, with more than 31 million tickets sold to date, and has been seen in virtually every important world capital from Paris to Cairo, as well as in towns and villages spread across six continents.

Individual tickets to each of the operas in the Live at the Met season are $20, ($18 Opera House members, $10 students). Tickets may be purchased in person at the Opera House Box Office or by phone at 716-679-1891, Tuesday-Friday, 12-4:30 p.m., at the door, or online anytime at www.fredopera.org.

Part of the Arts in the Afternoon at the Opera House, which is sponsored by Dr. James M. & Marcia Merrins, Live at the Met is underwritten with support from Daniel S. Kaufman and Timothy W. Beaver

The 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center is a member-supported not-for-profit performing arts center with a mission to “present the performing arts for the benefit of our community and region … providing access to artistic diversity … and high quality programming at an affordable price.” It is located in Village Hall in downtown Fredonia. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.fredopera.org.