Live at the Met, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live, high definition (HD) opera transmissions to theaters around the world, returns for the 2025-26 season at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center on Saturday at 1 p.m., with a new production of Vincenzo Bellini’s “La Sonnambula.”

Live at the Met, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live, high definition (HD) opera transmissions to theaters around the world, returns for the 2025-26 season at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center on Saturday at 1 p.m., with a new production of Vincenzo Bellini’s “La Sonnambula.”

Following previous triumphant Live at the Met performances in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Nadine Sierra summits another peak of the soprano repertoire as Amina, who sleepwalks her way into audiences’ hearts in Bellini’s poignant tale of love lost and found.

In his new production, Rolando Villazón – the tenor who has embarked on a brilliant second career as a director – retains the opera’s original setting in the Swiss Alps, but uses its somnambulant plot to explore the emotional and psychological valleys of the mind.

Tenor Xabier Anduaga co-stars as Amina’s fiance, Elvino, alongside soprano Sydney Mancasola as her rival, Lisa, and bass Alexander Vinogradov as Count Rodolfo. Riccardo Frizza takes the podium for one of opera’s most ravishing works. The performance of La Sonnambula will mark the opera’s 84th performance at the Met and second Live at the Met transmission to cinemas worldwide. Villazon’s staging marks the first new Met production of the opera since 2009.

Live at the Met 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. 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, and today reaches more than 2,000 venues in 73 countries 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. Tickets may be purchased online anytime at www.fredopera.org.

Part of Arts in the Afternoon, 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 Opera House is equipped with assistive listening headsets for the hearing-impaired. Simply request one from any usher or Opera House staff member.

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.