This March, the Met’s first ever production of Rossini’s La Donna de Lago will be screened at Theatr Mwldan on March 18 at 7.15pm, by the award-winning The Met: Live in HD series.

Scottish director Paul Curran’s first production for the Met stars Joyce DiDonato as the opera’s heroine, Elena, opposite Juan Diego Flórez in the role of the King of Scotland, Giacomo V. La Donna de Lago is conducted by Michele Mariotti.

“Rossini’s gloriously incongruous Italianate treatment of Sir Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake is rarely done,” writes The Times, “not because it’s no good but because it’s fiendish to cast. Two tenors must hit stratospheric heights with insouciant ease; the soprano has a stonker of a showstopper after three hours of ferocious coloratura; her lover must be a mezzo with the demeanour of a Scottish prop forward and a voice that can skip through two octaves like a gymnast; and even the bass has to whizz through semiquaver runs while looking butch in a kilt.”

The Met’s production is certainly well-equipped for the task, with bel canto masters Joyce DiDonato as the young Elena caught in a love quadrangle, and Juan Diego Flórez as Giacomo, the benevolent King of Scotland singing 6th bel canto role for The Met. Such is their predominance in the bel canto repertoire that La Donna del Lago is the fourth Rossini opera – following Il Barbiere die Siviglia, Le Comte Ory and La Cenerentola – that they have sung together for HD broadcasts.

For the production, Daniela Barcellona sings the trouser role of Elena’s true love, Malcolm, with Oren Gradus as Elena’s father Douglas d’Angus and John Osborn as the Chief of the Highlanders, Rodrigo di Dhu, her betrothed, Based on Sir Walter Scott’s best-selling epic poem, The Lady of the Lake, the opera’s libretto is by Andrea Leone Tottola. In the words of the director, Paul Curran, “it is quite a modern story, in a way — a woman who, in an old-fashioned sense, knows her place in society, but at the same time decides that she has to follow her heart.” Other works of Sir Walter Scott’s to be set to music include Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Schubert’s Ave Maria and the anthem Hail to the Chief inspired by The Lady of the Lake.

Tickets for MET Opera screenings are £16 (£15) and are available now from Mwldan's Box Office on 01239 621200, online or via Smartphones at www.mwldan.co.uk