La Boheme Returns To The MET 1/15

Puccini's most popular work returns to the Metropolitan Opera on Monday, December 15, at 8:00 p.m. in the visually stunning classic production by Franco Zeffirelli. Frédéric Chaslin conducts the performances which run through Saturday, January 10, 2008 and feature Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas and Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska as Puccini's star-crossed lovers, Rodolfo and Mimì. Fellow Bohemians in the cast are portrayed by Susanna Phillips as Musetta in her Met debut, Mariusz Kwiecien as the painter Marcello, Tommi Hakala as the musician Schaunard, and Oren Gradus as the philosopher Colline. Paul Plishka sings both Benoit and Alcindoro. Massimo Giordano sings Rodolfo in the final two performances.

The winner of Plácido Domingo's Operalia World Opera Competition in 2006, Maija Kovalevska made her Met debut in 2006 as Mimì, which was followed by her acclaimed performance as Euridice in the new production of Orfeo ed Euridice directed by Mark Morris. She returned to the Met last season as Micaëla in Carmen. During the current season, Ms. Kovalevska sings Mimì with San Francisco Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, and at the Torre del Lago Festival, and Liu with Washington National Opera. She also participates in the Met's 125th Anniversary Gala on March 15, singing "O mio babbino caro" from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.

Ramón Vargas sang Rodolfo in last season's La Bohème revival which was transmitted as part of The Met: Live in HD series in April, 2008, and is now available on DVD on the EMI label. He also sang Rodolfo at the Met in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. He made his Met debut in 1992 as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor and sang in the new production premieres of La Cenerentola in 1997 (Prince Ramiro) and Roméo et Juliette in 2005 (Roméo). Other Met roles include Alfredo in La Traviata, Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore, Lenski in Eugene Onegin (part of The Met: Live in HD series in 2006-07), the Duke in Rigoletto, the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier, and the title roles of Les Contes d'Hoffmann and Faust.

A recent graduate of the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Susanna Phillips made her debut this fall with the Dallas Opera as the Countess in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, where the Dallas Morning News declared that "her achingly gorgeous ‘Dove sono' would melt the hardest heart." In 2005, the Alabama native won four of the world's leading vocal competitions-the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the MacAllister Awards, the George London Foundation, and Operalia, where she won both First Place and the Audience Prize.

A native of Krákow, Poland, baritone Mariusz Kwiecien joined the Met as a member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in 1998 and made his debut in 1999 as Kuligin in Kát'a Kabanová. Since 2001 he has sung leading roles with the Met including Marcello in La Bohème, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (which he sings again in January, including for The Met: Live in HD transmission on February 7), Silvio in Pagliacci, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Malatesta in the new production of Don Pasquale in 2006. At the Met's 125th Anniversary Gala, Mr. Kwiecien will sing "Finch'han dal vino" from Mozart's Don Giovanni.

French conductor Frédéric Chaslin debuted at the Met in 2002 with Verdi's Il Trovatore and has since returned for the same composer's I Vespri Siciliani, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia. In addition to conducting opera and symphonic concerts, Chaslin is also a concert pianist and composer. He recently played the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Vienna Philharmonic and, in 2007, played and conducted the Ravel Concerto in G Major with the Nagoya Philharmonic. His compositions include "Diva Dance," written for Luc Besson's movie The Fifth Element and "Chagall Suite" which had its premiere with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

Massimo Giordano made his Met debut in 2006 as Des Grieux in Manon and sang Rinuccio from Gianni Schicchi in Jack O'Brien's new production of Il Trittico in 2007 (part of The Met: Live in HD series). This fall, he sang his first Alfredo in La Traviata at the Met opposite Anja Harteros. The Italian tenor has appeared at numerous leading theaters and festivals in Europe, among them La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Moscow's Bolshoi Opera, and the Glyndebourne and Salzburg Festivals.

Live broadcasts around the world
La Bohème will be experienced by millions of people around the world this season on the radio and the internet, through distribution platforms the Met has established with various media partners.

The season premiere on December 15 will be broadcast live on the Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (Channel 78) and XM Radio (Channel 79), as will the performances on December 22, January 3 and 6.

The performance on December 15 will also be available via RealNetworks internet streaming at the Met's web site, www.metopera.org.

The Saturday matinee performance on January 3, featuring Maija Kovalevska and Ramón Vargas will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

About the Met

Under the leadership of General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine, the Met has a series of bold initiatives underway that are designed to broaden its audience and revitalize the company's repertory. The Met has made a commitment to presenting modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory, with highly theatrical productions featuring the greatest opera stars in the world.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2008-09 season pays tribute to the company's extraordinary history on the occasion of its 125th anniversary, while also emphasizing the Met's renewed commitment to advancing the art form. The season features six new productions, 18 revivals, the final performances of Otto Schenk's production of Wagner's Ring cycle conducted by Levine, and two gala celebrations; the galas include the season-opening performance featuring Renée Fleming as well as a 125th anniversary celebration on March 15. New productions include the company premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic as well as the Met's first staged production of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust since 1906, Massenet's Thaïs, Puccini's La Rondine, Verdi's Il Trovatore, and Bellini's La Sonnambula.

Building on its 77-year-old radio broadcast history - currently heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network - the Met now uses advanced media distribution platforms and state-of-the-art technology to attract new audiences and reach millions of opera fans around the world.

The Emmy Award-winning The Met: Live in HD series reached more than 935,000 people in the 2007-08 season, more than the number of people who saw performances in the opera house. These performances began airing on PBS in March 2008, and nine of these HD performances are now available on DVD. The most recent, The Magic Flute is released by the Met and will be available at the newly renovated Met Shop in the opera house lobby in mid-December. The other eight are on the EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, and Decca labels. In the 2008-09 season, the HD series expands to feature 11 live transmissions, starting with the Met's Opening Night Gala and spanning the entire season. The HD productions are seen this season in over 850 theaters in 28 countries around the world. Five new productions are featured, including the Met premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic. The Opening Night transmission was seen in the Americas only; the remaining ten high-definition productions are shown live worldwide on Saturdays through May 9 with encores scheduled at various times.

Live in HD in Schools, the Met's new program offering free opera transmissions to New York City schools in partnership with the New York City Department of Education and the Metropolitan Opera Guild, reached more than 7,000 public school students and teachers during the 2007-08 season. This season, Live in HD in Schools expands to reach schools in 18 cities and communities nationwide.

Continuing its innovative use of electronic media to reach a global audience, the Metropolitan Opera has recently introduced Met Player, a new subscription service that makes its extensive video and audio catalog of full-length performances available to the public for the first time online, and in exceptional, state-of-the-art quality. The new service currently offers 120 historic audio recordings and 50 full-length opera videos, including over a dozen of the company's acclaimed The Met: Live in HD transmissions, known for their extraordinary sound and picture quality. New content, including HD productions and archival broadcasts, will be added monthly.

Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Radio is a subscription-based audio entertainment service broadcasting both an unprecedented number of live performances each week throughout the Met's entire season, as well as rare historical performances, newly restored and remastered, spanning the Met's 77-year broadcast history.

In addition to providing audio recordings through the new Met on Rhapsody on-demand service, the Met also presents free live audio streaming of performances on its website once every week during the opera season with support from RealNetworks®.

The company's groundbreaking commissioning program in partnership with New York's Lincoln Center Theater (LCT), provides renowned composers and playwrights with the resources to create and develop new works at the Met and at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. The Met's partnership with LCT is part of the company's larger initiative to commission new operas from contemporary composers, present modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory, and provide a venue for artists to nurture their work.

The Met has launched several audience development initiatives such as the company's Open House Dress Rehearsals, which are free and open to the public. Two are planned for the 2008-09 season: La Damnation de Faust on November 4 and La Sonnambula on February 27. Just prior to beginning the current season, the Met presented a free performance of the Verdi Requiem on September 18, in tribute to the late Luciano Pavarotti. Other company initiatives include the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met which exhibits contemporary visual art; the new $25 Weekend Tickets program; the immensely successful Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Rush Ticket program; and an annual Holiday Series presentation for families. This season's special Holiday Presentation is Julie Taymor's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, an abridged, English-language version of the opera which is given four special matinee performances and one holiday evening performance as a way for families to celebrate the holiday season