The Met: Live in HD presents ‘The Hours’ in song

Above: Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara (Brown) and Joyce DiDonato star in The Met: Live in HD production of "The Hours." (Photo/The Metropolitan Opera)

In 1999, Michael Cunningham won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel “The Hours.” Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs. Dalloway,” the novel tells the stories of three woman at once: Woolf, a woman living in 1949 and a third woman living in 1999.

In 2002, Stephen Daldry directed a film adaptation of the play, starring Nicole Kidman as Woolf in 1923, Julianne Moore as Laura Brown living in 1951 and Meryl Streep as Clarissa Vaughan living in 2001.

Nominated for nine Academy Awards, the film managed to win one … for Kidman as Best Actress.

Now The Met: Live in HD is presenting its own adaptation of Cunningham’s “The Hours,” which will screen on Saturday and Wednesday at two area Regal Cinemas theaters, NorthTown Mall and Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone Stadium.

Sarturday’s screenings will be at 9:55 a.m. at both locations. Wednesday’s screenings will be at 1 and 6:30 p.m. at Northtown, 6:30 p.m. only at Riverstone.

The production’s music was composed by Kevin Puts, and conducted by Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, with the direction overseen by Phelim McDermott. Soprano Renée Fleming (Vaughan), soprano Kelli O’Hara (Brown) and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato (as Woolf) sing the three main roles.

In his opera review, Variety critic Daniel O’Addario wrote, “Cunningham’s novel, so seemingly rigid in its format and structure, has proven itself to be mutable enough in its concerns and rock-solid enough in its characterizations to nourish both a modern-classic film and a genuinely impressive opera, both of which work entirely on their own terms.”

If you couldn’t tell, that’s pretty much what you call a rave review.