Communiqué
“The Hours” kicks off season 17 of GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET – March 17 at 9 pm
< < Back to the-hours-kicks-off-season-17-on-great-performances-at-the-met-march-17-at-9-pmGreat Performances at the Met: The Hours
Renée Fleming makes her return to the Met with Kelli O’Hara and Joyce DiDonato in this new opera from a Pulitzer Prize–winning composer inspired by Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.”
Premieres on Friday, March 17 at 9 p.m. on PBS
![Actress as teacher with three students](https://woub.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/THE_HOURS_11_14_22_0251.jpg)
Great Performances at The Met: The Hours takes place in a single day as it follows the stories of three women over three time periods and cities: Clarissa Vaughan in New York City in 1999; Virginia Woolf in Richmond, England, in 1923; and Laura Brown in Los Angeles in 1949. Over the course of the opera, Woolf (DiDonato) is writing the novel, Brown (O’Hara) is reading it in the 1950s, and Vaughan (Fleming) is seemingly living through its plot in late-20th century Manhattan. Grappling with loss, isolation, and their roles in society, the three women find that they are not alone as they make shared connections that transcend time and geography. The opera uses Woolf’s and Cunningham’s magisterial prose as a departure point from which to explore ambiguities and fluidities that are heightened further by musical expression.
Cast:
Renée Fleming – Clarissa Vaughan
Joyce DiDonato – Virginia Woolf
Kelli O’Hara – Laura Brown
Denyce Graves – Sally
Kathleen Kim – Barbara/Mrs. Latch
Kyle Ketelsen – Richard
![woman actor sitting on side of bed in floural dress hands clutched to chest](https://woub.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/THE_HOURS_11_16_22_2953.jpg)
Sean Panikkar – Leonard Woolf
Brandon Cedel – Dan Brown
Kai Edgar – Richie
Sylvia D’Eramo – Kitty/Vanessa
William Burden – Louis
John Holiday – Man Under Arch/Hotel Clerk
Tony Stevenson – Walter
Atticus Ware – Julian
Lena Josephine Marano – Angelica
Patrick Scott McDermott – Quentin
Eve Gigliotti – Nelly