Met Opera Live on Screen: Arabella

Whitefish Theatre Co., in collaboration with the Whitefish Performing Arts Center, presents Arabella as the third opera in the 2025-2026 live streaming season of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD.
The score of Arabella is beautiful and charming with a wealth of lyrical melody perfectly attuned to the demands of the story and characters. The work is a showcase for Strauss's masterful writing for both the soprano voice and the orchestra, with the score featuring "lush strings and emphatic brass" and the orchestra creating unforgettable effects in which the listener is transported into a musical experience of forgiveness, wisdom, and the burgeoning of true love. The opera has a ‘chamber-music character’ that is both funny and emotionally resonant, as Arabella searches for genuine love while dealing with her family's financial struggles and societal pressures.
Count Waldner and his family are on the brink of financial ruin. For this reason, the older daughter Arabella is to be married as quickly as possible to some rich admirer, while her younger sister Zdenka is forced to disguise herself as a young man to save money for Arabella’s clothes. Although the wealthy landowner Mandryka seems to be the ideal match for Arabella, a betrothal and her family’s financial plans fall into chaos when Zdenka begins writing letters to the officer Matteo in Arabella’s name, who in turn falls head over heels in love with Arabella. Only the finale will reveal if the sisters find their marital aspirations, complicated by love and jealousy, in Richard Strauss’ most radiant and charming romantic comedy.