The Met Opens Radio Broadcast Season With LA DAMNATION DE FAUST 11/29

On November 29, the Metropolitan Opera Radio Saturday Matinee Broadcasts launches its 78th season of world-class opera heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network with the network premiere of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, starring opera luminaries Susan Graham as Marguerite and Marcello Giordani in the title role, and conducted by Met Music Director James Levine.  The new production, directed by Robert Lepage, will be broadcast live at 12:30 p.m. EST.  The longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history, the Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcasts bring the greatest singers, conductors, and artists in the world to millions of radio listeners worldwide.  Margaret Juntwait returns for her fifth season as host of the broadcasts.

The 22-week Metropolitan Opera Radio Saturday Matinee Broadcast season— featuring 21 live matinee performances and six new productions—runs through April 25, 2009. Broadcasts begin at 1:00 p.m. EST, unless noted otherwise. In addition to La Damnation de Faust, the Met will broadcast new productions of Massenet's Thaïs (12 noon start time), starring Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson and conducted by Jesús López-Cobos; Puccini's La Rondine starring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna and conducted by Marco Armiliato; Verdi's Il Trovatore conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and starring Marcelo Álvarez, Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky; and Bellini's La Sonnambula starring Natalie Dessay, Juan Diego Flórez, and conducted by Evelino Pidò.  The Met will also present a taped broadcast of John Adams's Doctor Atomic, which has its company premiere this season in a new production conducted by Alan Gilbert, starring Gerald Finley.  The Met's annual holiday presentation will feature the popular, abridged  English-language version of Mozart's The Magic Flute, conducted by Asher Fisch.  As the season finale, from March 28-April 25 James Levine will conduct Wagner's Ring cycle, featuring Christine Brewer, James Morris, Johan Botha, Waltraud Meier, and Christian Franz in the final performances of Otto Schenk's classic production.

Other artists featured in the broadcast season include Aleksandrs Antonenko, Daniel Barenboim, Piotr Beczala, Stephanie Blythe, Olga Borodina, Danielle De Niese, Plácido Domingo, Giuseppe Filianoti, Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, Maria Guleghina, Ben Heppner, Maija Kovalevska, Mariusz Kwiecien, Karita Mattila, Anna Netrebko, Seiji Ozawa, Patrick Summers, Ramón Vargas, and Rolando Villazón.

The Met will continue to connect with its long-standing audience and new listeners by providing thoughtful intermission features and interviews that capture the excitement of live opera. Host Margaret Juntwait is joined once again this season in the broadcast booth by performer, director, and writer, Ira Siff as commentator.  The live Backstage Interviews; Met Cameos, and Met Memories, recorded by singers and audience members alike; and the popular Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Quiz, hosted by a variety of artists, return this season as part of the Met Broadcast intermission features.  Met singers, directors, and designers will visit the broadcast booth to discuss their current productions with the company.

Building on the Saturday Matinee Broadcast's 77-year-old radio history, 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 new initiatives include the company's groundbreaking transmissions into movie theaters worldwide, The Met: Live in HD; the subscription-based satellite radio, Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78; the brand new video and audio streaming service at the Met's web site, Met Player (www.metopera.org); the audio on demand service Met on Rhapsody; and live performance streaming each week of the season at the Met's website.

Heard in more than 40 countries around the world, the 2008-09 Metropolitan Opera broadcast season is sponsored by Toll Brothers, America's luxury homebuilder®, with generous long-term support from The Annenberg Foundation, the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media and contributions from listeners worldwide.
Two Network Premieres

The Met premiere of Doctor Atomic, John Adams's masterful exploration of the creation of the atomic bomb, marks the first time that an opera by Adams, one of America's most admired contemporary composers, will be performed with the company.  Penny Woolcock makes her opera-directing debut with this new production, and Alan Gilbert, the Music Director Designate of the New York Philharmonic, makes his Met debut conducting the opera, which also stars Gerald Finley in the title role of J. Robert Oppenheimer.  Due to the opera's early run in the season, a taped performance will be broadcast on January 17, 2009.

Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, an opera that has only been staged at the Met once before during the 1906-07 season, marks the company debut of internationally acclaimed theater artist Robert Lepage.  Starring Marcello Giordani in the title role, with Susan Graham as Marguerite and John Relyea as Méphistophélès, the production is based on a co-production of the Saito Kinen Festival and the Opéra National de Paris. Lepage has reconceived the production using enhanced media and technology that was not previously available — some of which was developed by Lepage and his Quebec-based company, Ex Machina.

Photos by Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.