World’s best performers are coming to the Orcas Center screen this autumn

||| FROM BETHANY MARIE for ORCAS CENTER |||

This season’s On-Screen lineup at Orcas Center includes a host of offerings from The Metropolitan Opera, Bolshoi Ballet, and National Theatre Live. Filmed live in HD, these on-screen events feature a diverse sampling of the world’s best performers at the height of their careers – giving you the best seat in the house from the comfort of your own island!

October 16 at 1pm: Hansard (Rated R) from National Theatre Live. It’s a summer’s morning in 1988 and Tory politician Robin Hesketh has returned home to the idyllic Cotswold house he shares with his wife of 30 years, Diana. But all is not as blissful as it seems. Diana has a stinking hangover, a fox is destroying the garden, and secrets are being dug up all over the place. As the day draws on, what starts as gentle ribbing and the familiar rhythms of marital sparring quickly turns to blood-sport.

October 30 at 1pm: Boris Godunov from The Metropolitan Opera. Bass René Pape, the world’s reigning Boris, reprises his overwhelming portrayal of the tortured tsar caught between grasping ambition and crippling paranoia. Conductor Sebastian Weigle leads Mussorgsky’s masterwork, a pillar of the Russian repertoire, in its original 1869 version, which runs two-and-a-quarter hours with no intermission. Stephen Wadsworth’s affecting production poignantly captures the hope and suffering of the Russian people as well as the tsar himself.

November 6 at 1pm: Cyrano de Bergerac from NT Live. Fierce with a pen and notorious in combat, Cyrano almost has it all – if only he could win the heart of his true love Roxane. There’s just one big problem: he has a nose as huge as his heart. Will a society engulfed by narcissism get the better of Cyrano – or can his mastery of language set Roxane’s world alight?

This season’s line-up also includes favorites like Spartacus and The Nutcracker from the Bolshoi Ballet, War Horse and King Lear from NT Live, and an incredible new work from Terrance Blanchard, Fire Shut Up My Bones marking the first performance of an opera at the Met by a Black composer.

Advanced ticket sales only – no door sales. Ticket prices range from $5-$47, with a “pay what you can” option to suit your personal budget. Covid precautions will be followed, call 360-376-2281 ext 1, or visit www.orcascenter.org for tickets and more information.