In this 11th year, over ten nights performances from the Met’s Live in HD series will be shown starting with a screening of FUNNY FACE in a special co-presentation with Film at Lincoln Center. Screenings run from August 23 through September 2. There will be 3000 seats in the Plaza in front of the Opera House with an additional standing room area. Cancellations due to thunder/lighting or high wind will not be rescheduled.
PORGY AND BESS
George Gershwin Dubose and Dorothy Heyward, Ira Gershwin
Robertson; Blue, Schultz, Moore, Graves, Ballentine, Owens, Walker, Speedo Green
OAD 9/23/2019 – Season Premiere, 2019-2020 Opening Night
SID.19390106
One of America’s favorite operas returns to the Met for the first time in nearly 30 years. James Robinson’s stylish production transports audiences to Catfish Row on the Charleston waterfront, vibrant with the music, dancing, emotion, and heartbreak of its inhabitants. “If you’re going to stage Gershwin’s opera, this is how,” raved the Guardian when the new production premiered in London in 2018. David Robertson conducts a dynamic cast, featuring the sympathetic duo of Eric Owens and Angel Blue in the title roles
The worldwide copyrights in the works of George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin for this presentation are licensed by the Gershwin family. GERSHWIN is a registered trademark of Gershwin Enterprises. Porgy and Bess is a registered trademark of Porgy and Bess Enterprises. A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera; Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam; and English National Opera Production a gift of The Sybil B. Harrington Endowment Fund and Douglas Dockery Thomas

THE MAKROPULOS CASE:Janácek
Robertson; Norman, Clark, Hagegård, McIntyre
Original Air Date: 01/20/1996
SID.19410209
This was the cursed production which premiered the opera at the Met a few weeks earlier, and was stopped in minutes due to the death of Richard Versalle. The English version is by Moshinsky (the director), Robertson When the opera is revived two years later, it is in Czech with Malfitano and Mackerras conducting. Norman is sui generis, and so is her performance of this part. This is the premiere season for Makropulos with Norman filling out the Janacek lines (in an English translation partially attributed to her). She sings gloriously, even if it misses some of the angularity inherent in the score. This is one broadcast in a translation that regularly makes it to the airwaves if not MOoD.
THE MAKROPULOS CASE:Janácek
Robertson; Norman, Clark, Hagegård, McIntyre
Original Air Date: 01/20/1996
SID.19410209
This was the cursed production which premiered the opera at the Met a few weeks earlier, and was stopped in minutes due to the death of Richard Versalle. The English version is by Moshinsky (the director), Robertson When the opera is revived two years later, it is in Czech with Malfitano and Mackerras conducting. Norman is sui generis, and so is her performance of this part. This is the premiere season for Makropulos with Norman filling out the Janacek lines (in an English translation partially attributed to her). She sings gloriously, even if it misses some of the angularity inherent in the score. This is one broadcast in a translation that regularly makes it to the airwaves if not MOoD.
THE MAKROPULOS CASE:Janácek
Robertson; Norman, Clark, Hagegård, McIntyre
Original Air Date: 01/20/1996
SID.19410422
This was the cursed production which premiered the opera at the Met a few weeks earlier, and was stopped in minutes due to the death of Richard Versalle. The English version is by Moshinsky (the director), Robertson When the opera is revived two years later, it is in Czech with Malfitano and Mackerras conducting. Norman is sui generis, and so is her performance of this part. This is the premiere season for Makropulos with Norman filling out the Janacek lines (in an English translation partially attributed to her). She sings gloriously, even if it misses some of the angularity inherent in the score. This is one broadcast in a translation that regularly makes it to the airwaves if not MOoD.
THE MAKROPULOS CASE:Janácek
Robertson; Norman, Clark, Hagegård, McIntyre
Original Air Date: 01/20/1996
SID.19410636
This was the cursed production which premiered the opera at the Met a few weeks earlier, and was stopped in minutes due to the death of Richard Versalle. The English version is by Moshinsky (the director), Robertson When the opera is revived two years later, it is in Czech with Malfitano and Mackerras conducting. Norman is sui generis, and so is her performance of this part. This is the premiere season for Makropulos with Norman filling out the Janacek lines (in an English translation partially attributed to her). She sings gloriously, even if it misses some of the angularity inherent in the score. This is one broadcast in a translation that regularly makes it to the airwaves if not MOoD.

PORGY AND BESS : Gershwins
Original Air Date: 02/01/2020
Robertson; Blue, Schultz, Moore, Graves, Ballentine, Owens, Walker, Singletary
SID.20050000
Single Intermission
Backstage Pass – HD Host Audra McDonald interviews Angel Blue and
Eric Owens
Mary Jo Hearth interviews Joyce DiDonato about Agrippina
Mary Jo Hearth interviews Anita Hartig about Le Nozze di Figaro
Backstage Pass – HD Host Audra McDonald interviews Latonia Moore,
Golda Schultz, and Denyce Graves
Backstage Pass – HD Host Audra McDonald interviews
Frederick Ballentine and Alfred Walker
WERTHER:Massenet
Runnicles; Hampson, Graham, Evans, Robertson
Original Air Date: 01/23/1999
MOD Audio
SID.20090321
This revival had the title role moving to baritone hands (in Massenet’s own transposition) (still too high for Domingo?), but this broadcast catches Susan Graham in one of her very best afternoons. This is the baritone version Massenet wrote for Battistini. It however catches Susan Graham in particularly splendid voice. This is a novelty for if there were ever a tenor opera it is Werther, but the composer did arrange for baritone for Battistini. Hampson is very earnest.
WERTHER:Massenet
Runnicles; Hampson, Graham, Evans, Robertson
Original Air Date: 01/23/1999
MOD Audio
SID.20090532
This revival had the title role moving to baritone hands (in Massenet’s own transposition) (still too high for Domingo?), but this broadcast catches Susan Graham in one of her very best afternoons. This is the baritone version Massenet wrote for Battistini. It however catches Susan Graham in particularly splendid voice. This is a novelty for if there were ever a tenor opera it is Werther, but the composer did arrange for baritone for Battistini. Hampson is very earnest.
WERTHER:Massenet
Runnicles; Hampson, Graham, Evans, Robertson
Original Air Date: 01/23/1999
MOD Audio
SID.20090744
This revival had the title role moving to baritone hands (in Massenet’s own transposition) (still too high for Domingo?), but this broadcast catches Susan Graham in one of her very best afternoons. This is the baritone version Massenet wrote for Battistini. It however catches Susan Graham in particularly splendid voice. This is a novelty for if there were ever a tenor opera it is Werther, but the composer did arrange for baritone for Battistini. Hampson is very earnest.
COSÌ FAN TUTTE:Mozart
Robertson; Majeski, Bliss, Malfi, Plachetka, O’Hara, Maltman
Original Air Date: 03/31/2018 Live in HD SID.20150754
Fiordiligi…………..Amanda Majeski
Ferrando…………….Ben Bliss
Dorabella……………Serena Malfi
Guglielmo……………Adam Plachetka
Despina……………..Kelli O’Hara
Don Alfonso………….Christopher Maltman
Skills Ensemble: Betty Bloomerz, Nicholas DeCegli, Sarah Folkins, *
Leo the Human Gumby, Jonathan Nosan, Titano Oddfellow,,
Cristina Pitter, Sage Sovereign, Ray Valenz, Anna Venizelos,
Josh Walker, Zoe Ziegfeld *Jeff Stilt and Kelsey Strauch replaced Valenz and Bloomer as Skills for the first half of Act I
Harpsichord Continuo….Natalia Katyukova
Conductor……………David Robertson
Production…………..Phelim McDermott
Set Designer…………Tom Pye
Costume Designer……..Laura Hopkins
Lighting Designer…….Paule Constable
TV Director………….Gary Halvorson

