MET Opera's HAMLET Airs on PBS, 7/15 & 7/18

Baritone Simon Keenlyside, whose performance as Hamlet received rave reviews when this production by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser was introduced at the Metropolitan Opera, commands the stage in the opera's premiere on THIRTEEN's Great Performances at the Met, in primetime on Thursday, July 15 at 8 p.m. on THIRTEEN and on Sunday, July 18 at 12 noon on PBS (check local listings). Great Performances at the Met is a presentation of THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG - one of America's most prolific and respected public media providers.

"You could not take your eyes off him."
"Elegant and wrenching, intelligent and fitful," wrote The New York Times of Keenlyside's unforgettable performance. "You could not take your eyes off him." Joining the baritone is German soprano Marlis Petersen as Hamlet's heart-broken lover Ophélie. Louis Langrée conducts this performance that also features Jennifer Larmore as Gertrude, Toby Spence as Laërte and James Morris as Claudius.

When Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet had its premiere in 1868, the opera featured considerable departures from the original storyline of Shakespeare's play, most notably a Hamlet who lives and is crowned king after killing Claudius. For the opera's London premiere, Thomas rewrote the opera to provide a tragic ending that was more in line with the original play. This production first premiered in 1996 in Geneva and went on to London and Barcelona, using the original ending. For the Met, the directors and conductor devised a tragic finale that combines the original version with the revised ending composed later by Thomas. The opera was last performed at the Met in 1897 and is known for Ophélie's famous mad scene.

Great Performances at the Met: Hamlet is directed for television by Brian Large and hosted by Renée Fleming. Jay David Saks is the audio producer. Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser make Met Opera debuts directing the production, as does set designer Christian Fenouillat, costume designer Agostino Cavalca, and lighting designer Christophe Forey. Hamlet is the ninth of 10 productions airing during the 2009-2010 season of Great Performances at the Met. The performance is sung in French with English surtitles.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers and PBS. Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is provided by Toll Brothers, America's luxury home-builder®. Additional funding for Great Performances at the Met: Hamlet provided The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Visit Great Performances online at www.pbs.org/gperf for additional information on this and other Great Performances programs. For the Met, Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park are Supervising Producers, and Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik are Producers. Peter Gelb is Executive Producer. For Great Performances, Bill O'Donnell is Series Producer; David Horn is Executive Producer.

About WNET.ORG

New York public media company WNET.ORG is a pioneering provider of television and web content. The parent of THIRTEEN, WLIW21 and Creative News Group, WNET.ORG brings such acclaimed broadcast series and websites as Need To Know, Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, Charlie Rose, Secrets of the Dead, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, Visions, Consuelo Mack WealthTrack, Miffy and Friends, Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps and Cyberchase to national and international audiences. Through its wide range of channels and platforms, WNET.ORG serves the entire New York City metro area with unique local productions, broadcasts and innovative educational and cultural projects. In all that it does, WNET.ORG pursues a single, overarching goal - to create media experiences of lasting significance for New York, America and the world. For more information, visit www.wnet.org.

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 Met's 2010-11 season will feature seven new productions, including the first two installments of a new Ring cycle, directed by Robert Lepage and conducted by Maestro Levine, and two company premieres (John Adams's Nixon in China directed by Peter Sellars, and Le Comte Ory directed by Bartlett Sher). The season also features new productions of three repertory classics by debuting directors-Boris Godunov by Peter Stein, Don Carlo by Nicholas Hytner, and La Traviata by Willy Decker.

Building on its 79-year-old international radio broadcast history - heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network - the Met uses advanced media distribution platforms and state-of-the-art technology to reach audiences around the world. The Met: Live in HD, the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series of live performance transmissions to movie theaters around the world, returns for its fifth season in 2010-11. The series of 12 transmissions begins October 9 with Das Rheingold and ends with Die Walküre on May 14. The Met recently introduced Met Player, a new subscription service that makes much of 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. Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Radio broadcasts both live and rare historical performances; the Met on Rhapsody on-demand service offers audio recordings; and the Met presents free live audio streaming of performances on its website once every week during the opera season with support from RealNetworks®.

The Met has launched several audience development initiatives, including Open House dress rehearsals, a popular rush ticket program, reduced ticket prices, Gallery Met, and an annual Holiday Series presentation for families. For more information, please visit: www.metopera.org.