[MandoMan]

If you love great opera performances and live in The Villages, Old Mill Playhouse movie theater at Lake Sumter Landing is showing live performances from the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Yesterday a friend and I saw Verdi’s “Aïda.” Last month we saw Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” Both were amazing performances by superb singers.

There is just one matinee performance for each opera. Yesterday, for “Aïda,” I’d guess there were about fifty people. The cost is $25 a ticket, which is much less than seeing a performance at the Sharon or at the Met. (You can buy tickets ant the theatre or online.) There are multiple High Definition cameras used, so it’s more like seeing a movie than like sitting in the front row. The sound quality is excellent, though the singing and orchestra are louder than they would seem in person. You don’t have to dress up or deal with New York parking or hotels. And the music is glorious, the finest the human voice can produce.

The schedule for the rest of the season is:
Fidelio: By Ludwig van Beethoven, live performance on March 15, 2025
Le Nozze di Figaro: By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, live performance on April 26, 2025
Salome: By Richard Strauss, live performance on May 17, 2025
Il Barbiere di Siviglia: By Gioachino Rossini, live performance on May 31, 2025