2017-18 Live Broadcasts

“NORMA : Bellini
Original Air Date: 09/25/2017
Cast: Rizzi; Radvanovsky, DiDonato, Calleja, Rose
Media: SID.17400640 Tags: LIVE; 2017
Opening Night 2017-2018 Season – Soprano Sandra Radvanovsky and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato star in the Met’s new production of Norma. Tenor Joseph Calleja is Pollione, Norma’s unfaithful lover, and Carlo Rizzi conducts. Sir David McVicar’s evocative production sets the action deep in a Druid forest where nature and ancient ritual rule. Production a gift of Veronica Atkins

Reviews
Anthony Tommasini (NY Times): www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/arts/music/norma-review-metropolitan-opera.html

Anne Midgette (The Washington Post) www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2017/09/26/for-once-the-met-opera-goes-traditional-for-season-opener/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b63cc26e01e6

Russell Platt (The New Yorker) www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/norma-and-the-met-operas-leading-ladies

James Jorden (New York Observer) observer.com/2017/09/review-sondra-radvanovsky-sizzles-in-mets-norma-despite-all-odds/

Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/norma-review-met-opera-live-hd-solid-unpretentious-spectacle/“

DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE : Mozart
Live in HD 

James Levine conducts Rene Pape, Golda Schultz, Kathryn Lewek, Charles Castronuovo and Markuys Werba in the Mozart classic

THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL : Adès
Original Air Date: 11/18/2017
Cast: Adès; Luna, Echalaz, Matthews, etc.

From metopera.org: Following the rapturous response to his last opera, The Tempest, the Met presents the American premiere of Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel, inspired by the classic Luis Buñuel film of the same name. Hailed by the New York Times at its 2016 Salzburg Festival premiere as “inventive and audacious … a major event,” The Exterminating Angel is a surreal fantasy about a dinner party from which the guests can’t escape. Tom Cairns, who wrote the libretto, directs the new production, and Adès conducts his own adventurous new opera.

Music by Thomas Adès, libretto by Tom Cairns in collaboration with the composer, based on the screenplay by Luis Buñuel and Luis Alcoriza”

“TOSCA : Puccini
Original Air Date: 01/27/2018
Cast: Villaume; Yoncheva, Grigolo, Lucic
Media: Live Broadcast SID.18040640 Tags: LIVE; 2018, Puccini
Sir David McVicar’s “smashing new production” is “a grand triumph” (Huffington Post), featuring an exciting cast led by soprano Sonya Yoncheva in the title role of the fiery diva and Vittorio Grigolo as her passionate lover, Cavaradossi. The pair are “youthful, ardent, and innocent … their duets electric, their kisses hot and numerous” (Wall Street Journal). Yoncheva’s sound is “richly textured and shimmering,” and “Grigolo’s Mario is a true hothead … complete with thrilling top notes” (New York Times). Željko Lučić is “an imposing figure with a voice to match” (Wall Street Journal) as the villainous police chief, Scarpia, and Emmanuel Villaume conducts.

Production a gift of Jacqueline Desmarais, in memory of Paul G. Desmarais Sr; The Paiko Foundation; and Dr. Elena Prokupets, in memory of her late husband, Rudy Prokupets

Major funding from Rolex
-metopera.org”

“L’ELISIR D’AMORE : Donizetti
Original Air Date: 02/10/2018
Cast: Hindoyan; Yende, Polenzani, Luciano, D’Arcangelo
Media: Live Broadcast SID.18060639 Tags: LIVE; 2018
Pretty Yende debuts a new role at the Met with her first Adina opposite Matthew Polenzani, who enthralled Met audiences as Nemorino in 2013 with his ravishing “Una furtiva lagrima.” Bartlett Sher’s production is charming, with deft comedic timing, but also emotionally revealing. Domingo Hindoyan conducts. (metopera.org) “

“LA BOHÈME : Puccini
Original Air Date: 02/24/2018
Cast: Armiliato; Yoncheva, Phillips, Fabiano, Meachem, Lavrov, Rose, Plishka
Media: Live Broadcast SID.18080640 Tags: LIVE; 2018, Puccini
“

“SEMIRAMIDE : Rossini
Original Air Date: 03/10/2018
Cast: Benini; Meade, DeShong, Abdrazakov, Camarena
Media: Live Broadcast SID.18100640 Tags: LIVE; 2018
This masterpiece of dazzling vocal fireworks makes a rare Met appearance—its first in nearly 25 years—with Maurizio Benini on the podium. The all-star bel canto cast features Angela Meade in the title role of the murderous Queen of Babylon, who squares off in breathtaking duets with Arsace, a trouser role sung by Elizabeth DeShong. Javier Camarena, Ildar Abdrazakov, and Ryan Speedo Green complete the stellar cast.

Production a gift of the Lila Acheson and DeWitt Wallace Fund for Lincoln Center, established by the founders of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.

Revival a gift of Ekkehart Hassels-Weiler”

“COSÌ FAN TUTTE : Mozart
Original Air Date: 03/31/2018
Cast: Robertson; Majeski, Bliss, Malfi, Plachetka, O’Hara, Maltman
Media: Live Broadcast SID.18130639 Tags: LIVE; 2018, Mozart
“

“LUISA MILLER : Verdi
Original Air Date: 04/14/2018
Cast: de Billy; Yoncheva, Beczala, Domingo, Vinogradov, Belosselskiy, Petrova
Media: Live in HD SID.18150640 Tags: LIVE; 2018, Domingo, Verdi
Plácido Domingo adds yet another role to his legendary Met career in this rarely performed Verdi gem, a heart-wrenching tragedy of fatherly love. Sonya Yoncheva sings the title role opposite Piotr Beczała in the first Met performances of the opera in more than ten years. Bertrand de Billy conducts.

Production a gift of Catherine and Ephraim Gildor

Revival a gift of Rolex and Mrs. Jayne Wrightsman
“

“CENDRILLON : Massenet
Original Air Date: 04/28/2018
Cast: de Billy; DiDonato, Coote, Kim, Blythe, Naouri
Media: Live Broadcast SID.18170640 Tags: LIVE; 2018

observer.com/2018/04/joyce-didonato-shines-in-luminous-cendrillon-at-met-opera-review/“

AIDA : Verdi
LIVE IN HD 
Luisotti; Netrebko, Rachvelishvili, Antonenko, Kelsey, Belosselskiy, Speed Green
Media: Live in HD SID.18400600 

NYT Review   (Tommassini)  Last spring at the Metropolitan Opera, the soprano Anna Netrebko took on the title role of Puccini’s “Tosca” for the first time. She claimed that touchstone part for her own, and put her mark on the whole season. On Wednesday at the Met, Ms. Netrebko did it again, this time in the title role of Verdi’s “Aida.” She is still fairly new to this challenging part, which she introduced at the Salzburg Festival a year ago. There was something fresh and exploratory about her performance on Wednesday. Yet it also felt fully formed, dramatically deep. And she sang magnificently.

Observer (Jorden)  “Ritorna vincitor!” cries the Egyptian throng in the first scene of Aida as they send their hero off to war: “Return in triumph!”  And that’s what the Met’s undisputed prima donna Anna Netrebko did last night in her first local performance of the protean title role of this opera: she came, she sang and she conquered.

Reviews 

SAMSON ET DALILA:Saint-Saëns
Original Air Date: 10/20/2018
Elder; Garanca, Algana, Naouri, Azizov, Belosselskiy
Live in HD SID.18420600

LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST : Puccini
Armiliato; Westbroek, Kaufmann, Bosi, Lucic, Simpson, Rose, Gradus
Live in HD

PROGRAM 

Soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek sings Puccini’s gun-slinging heroine in this romantic epic of the Wild West. Tenor Yusif Eyvazov portrays Dick Johnson for opening night (Oct 4, 8, 12)  Jonas Kaufmann returns to the MET for performances on Oct 17, 20, 23, and 27.   Baritone Željko Lučić is the vigilante sheriff Jack Rance, and Marco Armiliato conducts.

NYTimes Review: Jonas Kaufmann, Back at the Met, Is Good, Not Great

BWWReview:  Kaufmann Returns to the Met with a ‘Heigh-ho Silver’ in Puccini’s FANCIULLA DEL WEST

MARNIE : Nico Muhly
Original Air Date: 11/10/2018
Cast: Spano; Leonard, Kelly, Graves, Davies, Maltman
Media: Live Broadcast SID.18450600

SYNOPSIS

Composer Nico Muhly unveils his second new opera for the Met with this gripping reimagining of Winston Graham’s novel, set in the 1950s, about a beautiful, mysterious young woman who assumes multiple identities. Director Michael Mayer and his creative team have devised a fast-moving, cinematic world for this exhilarating story of denial and deceit, which also inspired a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard sings the enigmatic Marnie, and baritone Christopher Maltman is the man who pursues her—with disastrous results. Robert Spano conducts.

Music by Nico Muhly, libretto by Nicholas Wright, based on the novel by Winston Graham
Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera
A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera
By special arrangement with Universal Pictures

LA TRAVIATA : Verdi
Cast: Nézet-Séguin; Damrau, Flórez, Kelsey
Live in HD

Program 121518-Traviata

First Intermission

Backstage Pass: HD Host Anita Rachvelishvili interviews Juan Diego Floréz
TOLL BROTHERS – METROPOLITAN OPERA QUIZ
Guest Artist: Bartlett Sher  Host: Gerald Martin Moore; Panelists: Neal Goren, Roger Pines, and Melanie Spector

Second Intermission
Backstage Pass: HD Host Anita Rachvelishvili interviews Diana Damrau
Backstage Pass: HD Host Anita Rachvelishvili interviews Quinn Kelsey
Radio Host Mary Jo Heath interviews Erin Morley about Magic Flute

Backstage Pass: General Manager Peter Gelb interviews Music Director Yannick Nézet-SéguinRAM

19th-century setting that changes with the seasons. Soprano Diana Damrau plays the tragic heroine, Violetta, and tenor Juan Diego Flórez returns to the Met for the first time since 2015 to sing the role of Alfredo, Violetta’s hapless lover. Baritone Quinn Kelsey is Alfredo’s father, Germont, who destroys their love. Later performances feature Anita Hartig, Stephen Costello, Artur Ruciński, and Plácido Domingo.

Production a gift of The Paiko Foundation

Major additional funding from Mercedes T. Bass, Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Montrone, and Rolex

ADRIANA LECOUVREUR:Cilea
Original Air Date: 01/12/2019
Noseda; Netrebko, Rachvelishvili, Beczala, Bosi, Maestri, Muraro
Live in HD SID.19020640
Based on a play by Eugène Scribe, the story was inspired by the real-life intrigues of famed actress Adrienne Lecouvreur and the legendary soldier—and lover—Maurice of Saxony. Cilea’s operatic retelling quickly became a favorite of charismatic soloists. The title character in particular is a quintessential diva role.

Program 123118-Adriana

Pre-Show 
Backstage Pass: General Manager Peter Gelb interviews Anna Netrebko

First Intermission 
Backstage Pass: HD Host Matthew Polenzani interviews Anita Rachvelishvilli
TOLL BROTHERS – METROPOLITAN OPERA QUIZ
Guest Artist: Paul Appleby Host: Brian Zeger
Panelists: Jon Tolins, George Preston, and Melanie Spector

Second Intermission 
Backstage Pass: HD Host Matthew Polenzani interviews Piotr Beczala
Backstage Pass: General Manager Peter Gelb interviews Director David McVicar
Backstage Pass: HD Host Matthew Polenzani interviews maestro Gianandrea Noseda

Drama Queen (Article by William Berger)
“On New Year’s Eve, Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur returns to the Met with soprano Anna Netrebko in the touchstone title role. She teams up with tenor Piotr Beczała as her lover, Maurizio—a brilliant pairing of stars fresh off a joint triumph in performances of Adriana in Vienna. Mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili rounds out the all-star principal trio, and maestro Gianandrea Noseda is on the podium. Sir David McVicar’s new staging—the Met’s first new production of the work in more than half a century—embraces Cilea’s glamorous 18th-century Parisian setting but also mines for deeper artistic significance in an opera that is often underestimated.” (William Berger)
Co-Production of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London; Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona; Wiener Staatsoper; San Francisco Opera; and L’Opéra National de Paris Production a gift of The Sybil B. Harrington Endowment Fund

CARMEN : Bizet
Original Air Date: 02/02/2019
Langrée; Phillips, Margaine, Alagna, Simpson
Live in HD  SID.19050640

Program 020219-carmen

INTERMISSION FEATURES
-Backstage Pass: HD Host Ailyn Pérez interviews Clémentine Margaine
-Backstage Pass: HD Host Ailyn Pérez interviews Children’s Chorus Master Anthony Piccolo and Members of the Children’s Chorus
-Commentator William Berger interviews Luca Pisaroni about Don Giovanni
-Backstage Pass: HD Host Ailyn Pérez interviews Alexander Vinogradov
-Backstage Pass: HD Host Ailyn Pérez interviews Aleksandra Kurzak and Roberto Alagna

Mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine reprises her remarkable portrayal of opera’s ultimate seductress, a triumph in her 2017 debut performances, with impassioned tenors Yonghoon Lee and Roberto Alagna as her lover, Don José. Omer Meir Wellber and Louis Langrée share conducting duties for Sir Richard Eyre’s powerful production, a Met favorite since its 2009 premiere.

LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT:Donizetti
Original Air Date: 03/02/2019
Mazzola; Yende, Blythe, Camarena, Corbelli, Muraro
Live in HD SID.19090640

Program 030219-Fille

Intermission
-Backstage Pass – HD Host Nadine Sierra interviews Pretty Yende
-William Berger interviews Ailyn Pérez, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, and Golda Schultz about Falstaff
-Backstage Pass – HD Host Nadine Sierra interviews Stephanie Blythe and Maurizio Muraro
-Backstage Pass – HD Host Nadine Sierra interviews Javier Camarena

Tenor Javier Camarena and soprano Pretty Yende team up for a feast of bel canto vocal fireworks—including the show-stopping tenor aria “Ah! Mes amis … Pour mon âme,” with its nine high Cs. Alessandro Corbelli and Maurizio Muraro trade off as the comic Sergeant Sulpice, with mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as the outlandish Marquise of Berkenfield. And in an exciting piece of casting, stage and screen icon Kathleen Turner makes her Met debut in the speaking role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp. Enrique Mazzola conducts. A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London; and the Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna

IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA:Rossini
Original Air Date: 03/24/2007
Benini; Mattei, DiDonato, Flórez, Del Carlo, Relyea
Live in HD MOD Video SID.19120212
This is a simulcast of the first season Live in HD videocast. It’s the only matinee broadcast appearance of Mattei, DiDonato and Florez together, and they are a splendid trio.

FALSTAFF:Verdi
Garsington Opera
Streaming LIVE on OperaVision
(recorded Summer 2018)

Sir John Falstaff Henry Waddington
Alice Ford Mary Dunleavy
Ford Richard Burkhard
Mistress Quickly Yvonne Howard
Nannetta Soraya Mafi
Fenton Oliver Johnston
Meg Page Victoria Simmonds
Dr. Caius Colin Judson
Bardolfo Adrian Thompson
Pistola Nicholas Crawley
Page (silent) Ansh Shetty
Chorus Garsington Opera Chorus
Orchestra Philharmonia Orchestra

Conductor Richard Farnes
Director Bruno Ravella
Designer Giles Cadle
Lighting Designer Malcolm Rippeth
Movement Director Tim Claydon

Available for repeat viewings on Opera Vision until September 9, 2019
The streaming service is free through OperaVision, which, per its official website, is a project “supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe program, OperaVision builds on the success of The Opera Platform, with more contributing opera companies from more countries, under the editorial supervision of Opera Europa, the European association of opera companies and festivals. 

DIE WALKÜRE:Wagner
Original Air Date: 03/30/2019
Jordan; Goerke, Westbroek, Barton, Skelton, Grimsley, Groissböck
Live in HD SID.19130638
In what is expected to be a Wagnerian event for the ages, soprano Christine Goerke, in her MET role debut, plays Brünnhilde, Wotan’s willful warrior daughter, who loses her immortality in opera’s most famous act of filial defiance. Tenor Stuart Skelton and soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek play the incestuous twins Siegmund and Sieglinde. Greer Grimsley sings Wotan. Philippe Jordan conducts.

Program 033019-Walkure

LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST: Puccini
Staatsoper (Munich)
Sat, 30 March 2019, 7 pm (CET)
Conductor: James Gaffigan
Production: Andreas Dresen
With Anja Kampe (Minnie), Brandon Jovanovich (Dick), John Lundgren (Jack)

Live stream twitter guide #BSOfanciulla
During the live stream we’ll be providing background info via the hashtag #BSOfanciulla on Twitter. Join the conversation!

DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES : Poulenc
OAD: 05/11/2019  SID.19190638
Nézet-Séguin; Leonard, Pieczonka, Morley, Cargill, Mattila, Portillo, LaPointe

Program 051119-carmelites

THAÏS:Massenet
Original Air Date: 12/20/2008
López-Cobos; Fleming, Hampson, Schade
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19200208
Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.

THAÏS:Massenet
Original Air Date: 12/20/2008
López-Cobos; Fleming, Hampson, Schade
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19200424
Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.

SAMSON ET DALILA : Saint-Saens
Elder; Garanca, Alagna, Naouri, Azizov, Belosselskiy
OAD SID.18390106 /  Encore SID.19200535
SUMMER ENCORE  – Opening Night of 2018-2019 Season
Program
When mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča and tenor Roberto Alagna joined forces for a new production of Carmen at the Met, the results were electrifying. Now this star duo reunites for another sensual French opera when they open the season in the title roles of Saint-Saëns’s biblical epic Samson et Dalila. Darko Tresnjak, who won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2014 for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, makes his Met debut directing a vivid, seductive staging, featuring a monumental setting for the last-act Temple of Dagon, where the hero crushes his Philistine enemies. Sir Mark Elder conducts the first new Met production of the work in 20 years.

Production a gift of the Gramma Fisher Foundation, Marshalltown, Iowa, and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang, PhD. and Oscar Tang

Additional funding from The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Endowment Fund and William R. Miller”

THAÏS:Massenet
Original Air Date: 12/20/2008
López-Cobos; Fleming, Hampson, Schade
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19200640
Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.

“
LA BOHÈME:Puccini
Original Air Date: 09/25/2018
Gaffigan; Car, Blue, Grigolo, Dupuis, Luciano, Rose, Maxwell
SID.19210535
Puccini’s timeless masterpiece of love and loss features two casts of young stars. Sopranos Nicole Car (in her highly anticipated Met debut) and Ailyn Pérez share the role of the ill-fated Mimì, opposite tenors Vittorio Grigolo and Michael Fabiano as the ardent poet Rodolfo. After a celebrated Met debut as Mimì in 2017, Angel Blue returns as the spitfire Musetta, and Etienne Dupuis (in his Met debut) and Lucas Meachem share the role of Marcello. James Gaffigan conducts.

MEFISTOFELE:Boito
Original Air Date: 11/08/2018
Rizzi; Meade, Fabiano, Van Horn, Check
SID.19220535
The spectacular Robert Carsen production returns to the Met for the first time since 2000, with bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as the diabolical title character, tenor Michael Fabiano as Faust, and soprano Angela Meade as Margherita. Mefistofele is the celebrated and only completed opera by Arrigo Boito—who famously collaborated with Verdi on the libretti for Otello and Falstaff. Production co-owned by the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera; Production a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Julian H. Robertson, Jr. and Mrs. and Mrs. Wilmer J. Thomas, Jr.; Additional funding by the Rose and Robert Edelman Foundation, Inc.

TOSCA:Puccini
Original Air Date: 10/25/2018
Rizzi; Radvanovsky, Calleja, Koch, Carfizzi
SID.19230535
Met favorite Sondra Radvanovsky and rising star Jennifer Rowley share the title role of the volatile diva at the heart of Puccini’s operatic thriller. Joseph Calleja brings his stylish tenor to the role of Cavaradossi, and Wolfgang Koch and Claudio Sgura share the role of the nefarious police chief Scarpia. Carlo Rizzi conducts Sir David McVicar’s resplendent production. Production a gift of Jacqueline Desmarais, in memory of Paul G. Desmarais Sr; The Paiko Foundation; and Dr. Elena Prokupets, in memory of her late husband, Rudy Prokupets Major funding from Rolex Revival a gift of NPD Group, Inc.