JOEL MESLER: MILES OF SMILES

Installation view of Joel Mesler: Miles of Smiles, Guild Hall, East Hampton, August 3 – October 26, 2025. Photo: Francine Fleischer. Image Courtesy of Guild Hall.

Event Series: The Met Live

Nightly Met Opera Streams: Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur

Visit the Metropolitan Opera’s homepage to view this stream for 23 hours after it premieres

A gem of the verismo repertoire, Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur has only appeared a handful of times on the Met stage. When it has, however, it has often showcased some of opera’s greatest divas in the commanding title role, including Renata Tebaldi, Montserrat Caballé, and Renata Scotto. During the 2018–19 season, superstar soprano Anna Netrebko joined the ranks of these incomparable artists, starring opposite mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, as the fearsome Princess of Bouillon, and tenor Piotr Beczała, as her ardent lover, Maurizio. In this performance, recorded as part of the Met’s Live in HD series, Gianandrea Noseda conducts Sir David McVicar’s new staging, which teems with lurid backstage intrigue and political maneuvering.

Nightly Met Opera Streams: Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Viewers’ Choice)

Visit the Metropolitan Opera’s homepage to view this stream for 23 hours after it premieres

Anthony Minghella’s stunning production of Puccini’s opera opened the Met’s 2006–07 season and was seen by thousands of people around the world as part of the company’s Live in HD series. Patricia Racette is Cio-Cio-San, the trusting and innocent young geisha of the title, who disastrously falls in love with American Navy lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton (Marcello Giordani), only to be abandoned by him. Maria Zifchak is her loyal servant Suzuki and Dwayne Croft is Sharpless, the sympathetic American consul who does all he can but is unable to avert tragedy.

Nightly Met Opera Streams: Rossini’s Le Comte Ory

Visit the Metropolitan Opera’s homepage to view this stream for 23 hours after it premieres

Rossini’s rarely heard comedy receives a brilliant performance in Bartlett Sher’s Met premiere production, with a trio of today’s greatest bel canto stars in the leading roles: Juan Diego Flórez is Count Ory, a handsome rogue who finds women—all women—irresistible. Diana Damrau sings the virtuous Countess Adèle, and Joyce DiDonato is Isolier, the count’s page, who is also in love with the countess. Jokes, misunderstandings, and gender-bending disguises—including knights dressed as nuns— abound in this hilarious tale of deception and seduction. Maurizio Benini conducts.

Nightly Met Opera Streams: Puccini’s La Rondine

Visit the Metropolitan Opera’s homepage to view this stream for 23 hours after it premieres

Puccini’s achingly beautiful score charmingly conveys the plight of Magda (the “swallow” of the title) who unexpectedly finds true love with the handsome young Ruggero. But their idyllic and happy life comes to an premature end as she is haunted by the fear that her checkered past will ruin his future. Real-life couple and operatic stars Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna portray Puccini’s star-crossed lovers. Ezio Frigerio’s elegant and sophisticated art deco sets add a dazzling touch to Nicholas Joël’s production, which premiered in 2008.

 

 

 

Operatif: Handel, The Opera Composer

Primarily known today as the composer of oratorio such as The Messiah, George Friderich Handel was a prolific opera composer; with around 50 operatic works to his name. In this lecture, Victoria Bond will reveal how the German born composer became a master of Italian Baroque Opera, through the specific lens of his political drama, Agrippina. 

Operatif: Murder, Madness, and Brilliant Music

Alban Berg’s Wozzeck tells the tale of a soldier, who driven to madness by jealousy, murders his love and in reaction kills himself. Although the story is dark and disturbing, it is illuminated by Berg’s brilliant music and has become one of the few 20th Century works to enter the repertory. 

In this lecture, Victoria Bond will discuss the remarkable way the composer uses his intricately organized music to express a rich emotional palette; delving into the intricacies of twelve-tone atonal music. 

Operatif: Exploring Puccini’s Operatic Style

Puccini’s Turandot is a classic example of the height of the Italian romantic style – through-composed opera with lush orchestral textures, demanding larger voices to declaim highly emotional themes.  Most of Puccini’s operas are truly verismo operas in their conception, like La bohème and Tosca, recounting in ‘real time’ tales of love and sometimes violence rather than the mythological and real kings and queens or counts and countesses of the earlier operas. Turandot breaks the mold and is based on a Persian myth which Puccini sets in China. Here Puccini fits the ancient tale of the Princess Turandot in the operatic sound-world that he helped propel. Join pianist Derrick Goff and tenor Cameron Schutza as we explore how to listen to this changing operatic style. 

Please join us for the Season Opener Breakfast Reception at 11:30am in the Wasserstein Gallery prior to the lecture-recital at 12pm.

The Met: Live in HD – Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

Anthony Minghella’s vividly cinematic staging returns to cinemas, featuring soprano Hui He in the devastating title role. Pier Giorgio Morandi conducts one of opera’s most beautiful and heartbreaking scores, with a cast that also includes tenor Piero Pretti as Pinkerton, baritone Paulo Szot as Sharpless, and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong as Suzuki.

The East Hampton Star is proud to announce its new Experiential division, dedicated to providing both our readers and our partners with innovative and unexpected experiences designed to surprise, delight and create long-lasting community connections.

Join The East Hampton Star for a private three-course dinner at the Maidstone Hotel at 5pm after the screening.

 

The Met: Live in HD – Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer

Evgeny Nikitin is the mysterious seafarer searching for salvation. Director François Girard, whose mesmerizing production of Parsifal recently wowed Met audiences, returns to stage Wagner’s eerie early masterwork. Valery Gergiev conducts.

The Met: Live in HD – Philip Glass’s Akhnaten (Met Premiere)

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo headlines American composer Philip Glass’s transcendent contemporary creation, with Karen Kamensek conducting. Phelim McDermott’s stunning production employs a virtuosic company of acrobats and jugglers to conjure a mystical reimagining of ancient Egypt.

The East Hampton Star is proud to announce its new Experiential division, dedicated to providing both our readers and our partners with innovative and unexpected experiences designed to surprise, delight and create long-lasting community connections.

Join The East Hampton Star for a private three-course dinner at the Maidstone Hotel at 5:30pm after the screening.