Warner Theatre

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Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT

START TIME: 12 PM Run Time: 4h45m

A dream cast assembles for Strauss’s grand Viennese comedy. Soprano Lise Davidsen is the aging Marschallin, opposite mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey as her lover Octavian and soprano Erin Morley as Sophie, the beautiful younger woman who steals his heart. Bass Günther Groissböck returns as the churlish Baron Ochs, and Markus Brück is Sophie’s wealthy father, Faninal. Maestro Simone Young takes the Met podium to oversee Robert Carsen’s fin-de-siècle staging.

MET: LIVE IN HD LECTURE SERIES Complimentary lectures will be held two hours prior to each Met: Live in HD simulcast, and include a 30-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute Q & A.

Presenter: Kelly Whitesell, Soprano

Lecture location: Studio Theatre lobby

KELLY WHITESELL, soprano, is from Hebron, Connecticut. She graduated with BMs in Voice Performance and Music Education from the Eastman School of Music, studying with Katherine Ciesinski and Philip Silvey. She now completes her graduate studies under the tutelage of Rod Nelman and is a teaching assistant at UConn. Whitesell made her professional debut with the Connecticut Lyric Opera as Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) in 2022. Previous credits include Monica (The Medium), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus scenes), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Celie (Signor Deluso), Witch (Into the Woods), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), and chorus credits including La Boheme, Orfeo ed Euridice, and Cendrillon. She received first prize in the Friends of Eastman Opera Voice Competition in 2019. Kelly enjoys membership in Schola Cantorum at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford. She has performed concert repertoire such as Liebermann’s Six Songs on Poems of Nelly Sachs, Bach's B-minor Mass, and jazz sets as “Kelly and the Cats.”

The Met: Live in HD 2022-23 season is generously supported by Nancy R. Wadhams.