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The Met: Live in HD
Met Opera 2009-2010
Program Schedule
Carmen – Georges Bizet
Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 1 p.m. - SOLD OUT!
Approximate Running Time: 4 hours with 2 intermissions
Encore Date:
Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 7 p.m. - Tickets still available
One of the most popular operas of all time, Carmen “is about sex, violence, and racism—and its corollary: freedom,” says Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre about his new production of Bizet’s drama. “It is one of the inalienably great works of art. It’s sexy, in every sense. And I think it should be shocking.” Elīna Garanča plays the seductive gypsy of the title in her role debut, opposite Roberto Alagna as the obsessed Don José.
Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Production: Richard Eyre; Barbara Frittoli, Elīna Garanča, Roberto Alagna, Mariusz Kwiecien
Les Contes d’Hoffmann – Jacques Offenbach
Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 1 p.m.
CANCELLED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER
PLEASE NOTE: Ticket holders to this event can use their ticket for any upcoming Met Opera performance.
Encore Date:
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 7 p.m.
Approximate Running Time: 3 hours with 2 intermissions
Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific) directs this new production, returning after the triumph of his Met Barber of Seville (seen live in HD in the 2006–07 season). Offenbach’s fictionalized take on the life and loves of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann is a fascinating psychological journey. Met Music Director James Levine conducts Joseph Calleja in the tour-de-force title role. The stellar star cast also includes Anna Netrebko as the tragic Antonia, Elīna Garanča as the ambiguous Nicklausse, and Alan Held as the demonic four villains.
Conductor: James Levine; Production: Bartlett Sher; Kathleen Kim, Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Gubanova, Elina Garanča, Joseph Calleja, Alan Held
Der Rosenkavalier – Richard Strauss
Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 1 p.m.
Approximate Running Time: 3 hours with 2 intermissions
Encore Date:
Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 7 p.m.
Strauss’s comic masterpiece of love and intrigue in 18th-century Vienna stars Renée Fleming as the aristocratic Marschallin and Susan Graham in the trouser role of her young lover.
Music Director James Levine conducts a cast that also includes Kristinn Sigmundsson and Thomas Allen.
Conductor: James Levine; Production: Nathaniel Merrill; Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Christine Schäfer, Eric Cutler, Thomas Allen, Kristinn Sigmundsson
Simon Boccanegra – Giuseppe Verdi
Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 1 p.m.
CANCELLED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER
PLEASE NOTE: Ticket holders to this event can use their ticket for any upcoming Met Opera performance.
Encore Date:
Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
Approximate Running Time: 3 hours 40 minutes with 2 intermissions
Four decades into a legendary Met career, tenor Plácido Domingo makes history singing the title role in Verdi’s gripping political thriller, which is written for a baritone. Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordani, and James Morris are his co-stars in this moving and tragic story of a father and his lost daughter. James Levine conducts.
Conductor: James Levine; Production: Giancarlo del Monaco; Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordani, Plácido Domingo, James Morris
Hamlet – Ambroise Thomas
Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 1 p.m.
Approximate Running Time: 3 hours 45 minutes with 1 intermission
Encore Date:
Friday, April 9, 2010 at 7 p.m.
The works of Shakespeare have inspired more operatic adaptations than any other writer’s. Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay bring their extraordinary acting and singing skills to two of the Bard’s most unforgettable characters in this new production of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet.
For the role of Ophelia, the French composer created an extended mad scene that is among the greatest in opera.
Conductor: Louis Langrée; Production: Patrice Caurier/Moshe Leiser; Natalie Dessay, Jennifer Larmore, Toby Spence, Simon Keenlyside, James Morris
Armida – Gioachino Rossini
Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 1 p.m.
Approximate Running Time: 4 hours 20 minutes with 2 intermissions
Encore Date:
Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 7 p.m.
This mythical story of a sorceress who enthralls men in her island prison has inspired operatic settings by a multitude of composers, including Gluck, Haydn, and Dvořák. Renée Fleming stars in the title role of Rossini’s version, opposite no fewer than six tenors. Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman returns to direct this new production of a work she describes as “a buried treasure, a box of jewels.” The fanciful and magical tale, Zimmerman says, “has an epic, enchanted quality and a tremendous visual element.”
Conductor: Riccardo Frizza; Production: Mary Zimmerman; Renée Fleming, Lawrence Brownlee, Bruce Ford, José Manuel Zapata, Barry Banks, Kobie van Rensburg
Previous Events
Les Contes d’Hoffmann – Jacques Offenbach
Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 1 p.m.
CANCELLED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER
Approximate Running Time: 3 hours with 2 intermissions
Encore Date:
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 7 p.m.
Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific) directs this new production, returning after the triumph of his Met Barber of Seville (seen live in HD in the 2006–07 season). Offenbach’s fictionalized take on the life and loves of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann is a fascinating psychological journey. Met Music Director James Levine conducts Joseph Calleja in the tour-de-force title role. The stellar star cast also includes Anna Netrebko as the tragic Antonia, Elīna Garanča as the ambiguous Nicklausse, and Alan Held as the demonic four villains.
Conductor: James Levine; Production: Bartlett Sher; Kathleen Kim, Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Gubanova, Elina Garanča, Joseph Calleja, Alan Held
Der Rosenkavalier – Richard Strauss
Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 1 p.m.
Approximate Running Time: 3 hours with 2 intermissions
Encore Date:
Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 7 p.m.
Strauss’s comic masterpiece of love and intrigue in 18th-century Vienna stars Renée Fleming as the aristocratic Marschallin and Susan Graham in the trouser role of her young lover.
Music Director James Levine conducts a cast that also includes Kristinn Sigmundsson and Thomas Allen.
Conductor: James Levine; Production: Nathaniel Merrill; Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Christine Schäfer, Eric Cutler, Thomas Allen, Kristinn Sigmundsson
Aida – Giuseppe Verdi
Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 1 p.m.
Approximate Running Time: 4 hours with 2 intermissions
Encore Date:
Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 7 p.m.
Set in ancient Egypt, Aida is both a heartbreaking love story and an epic drama full of spectacular crowd scenes. A cast of powerful voices and a grand production bring the story to life on the Met stage (and on the HD screen). Violeta Urmana stars in the title role of the enslaved Ethiopian princess, with Dolora Zajick as her rival. Johan Botha plays Radamès, commander of the Egyptian army, and Daniele Gatti conducts.
Among the score’s highlights is the celebrated Triumphal March.
Conductor: Daniele Gatti; Production: Sonja Frisell; Violeta Urmana, Dolora Zajick, Johan Botha, Carlo Guelfi, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Stefan Kocán
Tosca – Giacomo Puccini
Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 1 p.m.
Approximate Running Time: 3 hours 30 minutes with 2 intermissions
Encore Date:
Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 7 p.m.
“Tosca combines Puccini’s glorious musical inspiration with the melodramatic vitality of one of the great Hitchcock films,” says Met Music Director James Levine, who conducts this new production. The opera tells the story of three people—a famous opera singer, a free-thinking painter, and a sadistic chief of police—caught in a net of love and politics. Soprano Karita Mattila, recently seen in this season’s Live in HD presentation of Salome, sings the title role for the first time outside her native Finland. Luc Bondy, acclaimed for his imaginative theater and opera productions, directs. The cast also includes Marcelo Álvarez as Cavaradossi and George Gagnidze as Scarpia.
Conductor: James Levine; Production: Luc Bondy; Karita Mattila, Marcelo Álvarez, George Gagnidze, Paul Plishka
Turandot – Giacomo Puccini
Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 1 p.m.
Approximate Running Time: 3 hours 30 minutes with 2 intermissions
Encore Date:
Monday, November 23, 2009 at 7 p.m.
Director Franco Zeffirelli’s breathtaking production of Puccini’s last opera is a favorite of the Met repertoire. Maria Guleghina plays the ruthless Chinese princess of the title, whose hatred of men is so strong that she has all suitors who can’t solve her riddles beheaded.
Marcello Giordani sings Calàf, the unknown prince who eventually wins her love and whose solos include the famous “Nessun dorma.”
Conductor: Andris Nelsons; Production: Franco Zeffirelli; Maria Guleghina, Marina Poplavskaya, Marcello Giordani, Samuel Ramey
Best of the Met: Summer 2009
Encore Broadcasts:
La Sonnambula (New Production) – Bellini
Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 1 p.m.
Running time is 2 hours 40 minutes with one intermission
Encore Date:
Sunday, April 19 at 1 p.m.
Mary Zimmerman, who directed Natalie Dessay in last season’s hit production of Lucia di Lammermoor, underlines La Sonnambula’s dual elements of sleep and wakefulness in an intriguing staging set in the present. Bellini’s hauntingly lyrical score soars as performed by Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez, back from their sensational run together in La Fille du Régiment.
Conductor: Evelino Pidò; Production: Mary Zimmerman; Natalie Dessay, Juan Diego Flórez, Michele Pertusi
Madama Butterfly – Puccini
Encore Date:
Friday, March 27 at 7 p.m. for Madama Butterfly
Running time is 3 hours 25 minutes with two intermissions
Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, and based on a play by David Belasco, this production is directed by Anthony Minghella (The English Patient). No opera is performed more often in North America than Puccini’s cross-cultural tragedy, Madama Butterfly. It is a tale of devotion and irresponsibility and misunderstandings willful and innocent. Critics have called Madama Butterfly compassionate and brutal, colonialist and anti-imperialist, disdainful of Americans and demeaning of Japanese. But audiences are enraptured by the humanity of Cio-Cio-San’s love—and by Puccini’s music, which is at once lush, evocative, and witty.
La Cenerentola – Rossini
Saturday, May 9, 2009 at 12:30 p.m.
Running time is 3 hours with one intermission
Encore Date:
Wednesday, May 27 at 7 p.m.
Hot on the heels of her triumphant Met debut as Rosina in last season’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Elīna Garanča portrays another Rossini charmer in this bel canto Cinderella story. Lawrence Brownlee is her Prince Charming. Veteran baritone Alessandro Corbelli demonstrates his impeccable comic timing to match the gravitas of Met favorite John Relyea.
Conductor: Maurizio Benini; Production: Cesare Lievi; Elīna Garanča, Lawrence Brownlee, Simone Alberghini, Alessandro Corbelli, John Relyea
For more information visit The Metropolitan Opera online.
