Patricia Racette and Sondra Radvanovsky to Star as the Diva Heroine of Puccini's TOSCA at the Met

Patricia Racette and Sondra Radvanovsky will reprise their acclaimed performances of one of the most famous roles in opera, the heroine of Puccini's Tosca, at the Met this season. Racette sings the role beginning October 29, opposite Roberto Alagna as Cavaradossi and George Gagnidze as Scarpia. Radvanovsky takes the role on December 11, singing with Marcello Giordani as Cavaradossi and Gagnidze as Scarpia. Two Italian conductors, Riccardo Frizza and Marco Armiliato, lead this season's performances of Puccini's celebrated tragedy. On December 20, Portuguese soprano Elisabete Matos sings her first Met Tosca, and on December 17, Brazilian tenor Ricardo Tamura makes his Met debut as Cavaradossi. The November 9 matinee of Tosca, starring Racette, Alagna, and Gagnidze, will be transmitted live as part of the Met's Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 1,950 theaters in 64 countries around the world.

Patricia Racette made her company role debut as Tosca in 2010 and repeated the role at the Met in 2012. Her extensive Met repertory includes numerous Puccini heroines-Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Musetta and Mimì in La Bohème, and the three principal soprano roles in Il Trittico. She has also sung four Verdi heroines: Violetta in La Traviata, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlo, and Leonora in Il Trovatore. Last season, she made her Met role debut as Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, and this spring, she will add another role when she sings her first Maddalena in Giordano's Andrea Chénier.

Sondra Radvanovsky is currently starring to critical acclaim in Bellini's Norma at the Met, in her first staged performances of the title role. She made her company role debut as Tosca in 2011. A graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she has been particularly noted for her performances of Verdi heroines with the company, including Amelia in last season's new production of Un Ballo in Maschera, Leonora in the 2009 new production premiere of Il Trovatore, Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlo, Elvira in Ernani, Elena in I Vespri Siciliani, Lina in Stiffelio, and the title characters in Aida and Luisa Miller.

Roberto Alagna made his Met role debut as Cavaradossi opposite Radvanovsky as Tosca in 2011, repeating the role opposite Racette in 2012. He made his Met debut as Rodolfo in La Bohème in 1996, and his subsequent performances with the company have included the title roles in Don Carlo, Massenet's Werther, and Gounod's Faust; Radamès in Aida; Nemorino in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore; the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto; Roméo in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette; Don José in Bizet's Carmen; Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly; Ruggero in Puccini's La Rondine; Turiddu in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana; and Canio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.

Marcello Giordani first sang Cavaradossi at the Met in 2005 and reprised the role in 2010. His extensive Met repertory comprises 27 roles. He made his Met debut in 1995 as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème, the role he has sung most frequently with the company. His many other appearances include the title roles in the Met premieres of both Bellini's Il Pirata and Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini and leading roles in three other new production premieres: Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and the title role in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust. Last season at the Met, he sang Calàf in Puccini's Turandot, Aeneas in Berlioz's Les Troyens, and Paolo in Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini.

George Gagnidze sang Scarpia in the 2009 new production premiere of Luc Bondy's Tosca staging and reprised his performance in 2012 opposite Racette's Tosca. He made his Met debut in 2009 in the title role of Rigoletto. Last season, he made his Met role debut as Amonasro in Verdi's Aida. His other roles with the company are Shaklovity in Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina and the title role in Macbeth.

Riccardo Frizza currently conducts the Met revival of Norma, starring Radvanovsky in the title role. He made his company debut in the 2008-09 season, in which he conducted performances of both Rigoletto and Il Trovatore. In 2010, he conducted the company premiere of Rossini's Armida, and he returned the following season to lead a revival of the opera that was transmitted worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series.

Marco Armiliato has led performances of 21 operas by a variety of composers over his 15-year Met career. In recent seasons, he has conducted the company premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena as well as performances of Verdi's Ernani, Aida, and Rigoletto; Madama Butterfly; and Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia. In the spring he will return to the Met to conduct Madama Butterfly and Bellini's La Sonnambula.

Tosca Live in HD and on the Radio:

Tosca will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world on Saturday, November 9 at 12:55 p.m. as part of the Met's Live in HD series. Soprano Renée Fleming hosts the transmission. Since the Live in HD series launched in 2006, more than 13 million tickets have been sold to opera lovers worldwide. The Met: Live in HD is now seen in more than 2,000 theaters in 64 countries around the world.

The October 29 opening performance of Tosca will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performances on November 5 and 13 and December 23 and 28.

The October 29 and December 23 performances will also be streamed live on the Met's website, www.metopera.org.

The December 28 matinee at 12:30 p.m. will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

For more information on this season's performances of Tosca, visit the Met's website at www.metopera.org.

Pictured: Patricia Racette as Tosca and Roberto Alagna as Cavaradossi in a scene from Act I of Puccini's "Tosca."
Photo Credit: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.