May and June’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!

Sunday, May 1st 1pm: Don Carlos from The Met Opera. For the first time in company history, the Met presents the original five-act French version of Verdi’s epic opera of doomed love among royalty, set against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition. Verdi’s masterpiece receives a monumental new staging by David McVicar that marks his 11th Met production, placing him among the most prolific and popular directors in recent Met memory.

Saturday, May 14th at 1pm: Skylight from National Theatre Live. On a bitterly cold London evening, schoolteacher Kyra Hollis (Carey Mulligan) receives an unexpected visit from her former lover, Tom Sergeant (Bill Nighy), a successful and charismatic restaurateur whose wife has recently died. As the evening progresses, the two attempt to rekindle their once passionate relationship only to find themselves locked in a dangerous battle of opposing ideologies and mutual desires.

Saturday, May 21st at 1pm: Turandot from The Met Opera. Puccini’s final opera is an epic fairy tale set in a China of legend, loosely based on a play by 18th-century Italian dramatist Carlo Gozzi. Featuring a most unusual score with an astounding and innovative use of chorus and orchestra, it is still recognizably Puccini, bursting with instantly appealing melody. The unenviable task of completing the opera’s final scene upon Puccini’s sudden death was left to the composer Franco Alfano. Conductor Arturo Toscanini oversaw Alfano’s contribution and led the world premiere.

Saturday, June 11th at 1pm: Lucia di Lammermor from The Met Opera. The character of Lucia has become an icon in opera and beyond, an archetype of the constrained woman asserting herself in society. She reappears as a touchstone for such diverse later characters as Flaubert’s adulterous Madame Bovary and the repressed Englishmen in the novels of E. M. Forster. The insanity that overtakes and destroys Lucia, depicted in opera’s most celebrated mad scene, has especially captured the public imagination. Donizetti’s handling of this fragile woman’s state of mind remains seductively beautiful, thoroughly compelling, and deeply disturbing.

Thursday, June 30th at 1pm: Hamlet from The Metropolitan Opera. When Australian composer Brett Dean’s Hamlet had its world premiere at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2017, The Guardian declared, “New opera doesn’t often get to sound this good … Shakespeare offers a gauntlet to composers that shouldn’t always be picked up, but Dean’s Hamlet rises to the challenge.”

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.