Riccardo Muti & Pierre Audi Make Their Met Debuts With Verdi's ATTILA

Verdi's Attila will have its Met premiere on February 23, conducted by Riccardo Muti and directed by Pierre Audi in their Met debuts. Miuccia Prada, in her debut opera production, and Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron collaborate on set and costume designs. Attila stars Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role, with Violeta Urmana as Odabella, Ramón Vargas as Foresto, Carlos Alvarez as Ezio, and Samuel Ramey as Pope Leo. Ramey has frequently sung the title role including performances at La Scala under Maestro Muti in 1991. Jean Kalman is the lighting designer and Robby Duiveman is associate costume designer. Performances run through March 27 with Marco Armiliato conducting the final three evenings.

Attila, Verdi's ninth opera, takes place in the mid-fifth century as the remnants of the western Roman Empire crumble before the barbarian invasions. The opera's action is based on a German Romantic play by Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner, called Attila, König der Hunnen, and involves attempts to spare Italy from the onslaught of Attila the Hun's hordes. Attila is one of ten Verdi operas that have not previously been performed at the Met (counting the revisions of works that were renamed, Verdi composed 28 operas in all). Its world premiere took place in 1846 at La Fenice Opera in Venice.

World-renowned conductor Riccardo Muti, who has served as director of some of the world's most prestigious orchestras and opera ensembles in the course of his career, makes his Met debut with one of Verdi's most rousing early operas. A revered Verdi specialist, Muti is deeply in touch with the musical traditions of his native land. He studied at both the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in his native Naples, and at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, where one of his teachers was the noted conductor Antonino Votto, a former assistant to Toscanini. Since his career was launched by winning first place in the famed Guido Cantelli Competition in 1967, Muti has held some of the most important posts in the musical world: principal conductor of the Maggio Musicale in Florence (1968 to 1980), chief conductor of London's Philharmonia Orchestra (1972 to 1982), music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra (1980 to 1992), and music director of La Scala (1986 to 2005). He has often conducted many of the world's foremost orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, and the Orchestre National de France. In 2010, he will celebrate 40 years of artistic colloboration with the Salzburg Festival, and since 2006, Muti has served as artistic director of the Salzburg's Pentecost Festival. In 2004, he founded the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra in Italy. Later this year, he begins his tenure as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and becomes director of the Rome Opera.

Russian bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov makes two role debuts at the Met this season: first as Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust (opposite his wife, Olga Borodina) and now as Attila. Last season he was seen as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, shown live in HD, and also made his Met role debut as Leporello in Don Giovanni. Abdrazakov made his Met debut in 2004 as Masetto in a new production of Don Giovanni, and has also performed Escamillo in Carmen and two bel canto roles: Alidoro in La Cenerentola and Mustafà in L'Italiana in Algeri. In September 2008, Abdrazakov was bass soloist in the Verdi Requiem, conducted by James Levine, presented by the Met in memory of Luciano Pavarotti.

Violeta Urmana makes her Met role debut as Odabella, having earlier this season added another Verdi heroine, Aida (seen live in HD), to her Met repertoire. The Lithuanian-born soprano made her Met debut in 2001 as Kundry in Parsifal, a role she reprised in 2003, and was next seen as Princess Eboli in the 2005 performances of Don Carlo. She has since then sung some of the most demanding dramatic soprano roles in the repertory: the title heroines in both Ariadne auf Naxos (2005) and La Gioconda (2006), Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana (2005), and Maddalena in Andrea Chénier (2007).

Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas expands his Met repertoire this season with three new roles: Foresto, Berlioz's Faust, and the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier. Last season, Vargas appeared as Alfredo in Act II of La Traviata and Des Grieux in Act III of Manon opposite Renée Fleming in the Met's Opening Night Gala, shown live in HD. Vargas made his Met debut in 1992 as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor and has since appeared as Prince Ramiro in the 1997 Met premiere of La Cenerentola, as Edgardo in the 1998 new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, and as Romeo in a 2005 new production of Roméo et Juliette. Other notable Vargas roles at the Met include Lensky in Eugene Onegin and Rodolfo in La Bohème, both shown live in HD, Alfredo in La Traviata, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, Hoffmann in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, the title role in Gounod's Faust, Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera, the title role in La Clemenza di Tito, and Count Almaviva in IL Barbiere di Siviglia.
Carlos Alvarez undertakes his seventh Verdi role at the Met as Ezio in Attila. The Spanish baritone made his Met debut in 1996 as Germont in La Traviata and most recently appeared here in the title role of Macbeth in 2008. Alvarez has also sung Count Di Luna in Il Trovatore, Renato in Un Ballo in Maschera, Miller in Luisa Miller, and the title role of Rigoletto at the Met. Elsewhere, his career highlights include the title role of Simon Boccanegra and Iago in Otello at Paris's Bastille Opera, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Vienna State Opera, Rigoletto at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Marc Antoine in Massenet's Cléopâtre in Barcelona, Macbeth at Madrid's Teatro Real, Figaro in IL Barbiere di Siviglia and Alfonso in La Favorita with the Vienna State Opera.

Marco Armiliato, who conducts Attila on March 19, 22, and 27, will lead two other operas this season: La Fille du Régiment, which he conducted to acclaim in the 2007-08 premiere season of the new production, and La Bohème. Last season he conducted Act III of Manon at the Opening Night Gala, the new production of La Rondine (both shown live in HD), Lucia di Lammermoor, and Adriana Lecouvreur. Since making his Met debut with La Bohème in 1998, Armiliato has led the Met premiere of Wolf-Ferrari's Sly (2002), the United Sates premiere of Cyrano de Bergerac (2005), as well as performances of Turandot, Madama Butterfly, Aida, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Andrea Chénier.

Russell Thomas sings the role of Foresto on March 19, and Giovanni Meoni sings Ezio on March 15. Thomas made his Met debut in 2005 and sang Malcolm in the new production of Macbeth in 2007. He has also sung Tamino in Die Zauberflöte here and sings the role of Uldino in all performances of Attila except March 19. Italian baritone Meoni has sung in many of the most important opera house of his native land including Venice's La Fenice and the Rome Opera, as well as in Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, and Moscow. This will be his Met debut.

Pierre Audi makes his Met debut directing the new production of Attila. Audi has served as the artistic director of the Netherlands Opera since 1988, where many of the productions he has introduced have gone on to great success on other stages, including his cycle of Monteverdi's three operas L'Orfeo, L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse inPatria, as well as Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, which was seen at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, the Los Angeles Opera, and the Sydney Festival. Audi is also well known for having staged the first Netherlands Opera production of Wagner's Ring cycle in the 1997-98 season. As guest director, Audi has worked for, among others, the Bavarian State Opera (Henze's Venus und Adonis), Sweden's Drottningholm Court Theatre (Tamerlano, Alcina and Rameau's Zoroastre), the Paris Opera (La Juive), the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Il Matrimonio Segreto), the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels (Pelléas et Mélisande) and Vienna's Theater an der Wien (Partenope). In 2006, Audi directed Die Zauberflöte for the Salzburg Festival, returning in 2008 to direct Rihm's Dionysus. Earlier this season, Audi paired two Gluck works, Iphigénie en Aulide and Iphigénie en Tauride, for the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels.

Herzog & de Meuron make their Met debuts with their designs for Attila. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, who founded their architectural firm in 1978, were awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2001, the highest honor in the field of architecture. Herzog & de Meuron made their theatrical design debut with a production of Tristan und Isolde for the Berlin State Opera in 2006. Based in Basel, Switzerland, and with projects across Europe, North and South America, and Asia, the practice is known for designs that are at once highly inventive and sensitive to the site, the geography, and culture of the region for which the building is planned. They have designed a stunning range of projects, from private houses to hospitals, factories, office buildings, museums and stadiums. Among their most widely recognized projects are the transformation of a power plant into London's Tate Modern, the Beijing National Stadium, known as "Bird's Nest," the Dominus Winery in Yountville, California, and the new de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Herzog & de Meuron have previously collaborated with designer Miuccia Prada to create the Prada Aoyama Epicenter in Tokyo. Work by Herzog & de Meuron has appeared in numerous publications and exhibitions.

Italian fashion designer Miuccia Prada makes her theatrical design debut at the Met with Attila. Prada holds a PhD in political science and spent five years studying and performing mime at the Teatro Piccolo in Milan before taking over her family's luggage business in 1978 and turning it into an international fashion powerhouse. Miuccia Prada's work has always involved an intellectual and introspective approach, made apparent by her talent for reversing the rules with practiced poise, her capacity for surprise, and her gift for infusing her work with thoughts linked to her day-to-day experiences and observations of the environment. Her approach disregards the search for consensus and the need to please; there is often a provocative plan to go against expectations, and a knowing attempt to mislead, determinedly seeking out those aesthetic contrasts that have often been a feature of her inventive creativity. Throughout her career, Miuccia Prada has received numerous awards for her vision, innovation and contribution to international fashion such as the Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London and the esteemed International Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). Moreover, Miuccia Prada was named Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and she received an homage from prestigious Hammer Museum in Los Angeles for her "support to international art and culture world."

Jean Kalman made his Met debut in 1997 as lighting designer for Robert Carsen's production of Eugene Onegin. He returned to create the lighting for a new production of Don Giovanni by Marthe Keller in 2004, and for the new Macbeth by Adrian Noble in 2007. The native Parisian works internationally in opera and theater, and has collaborated frequently with many of the world's other leading directors such as Peter Brook, Deborah Warner, Richard Eyre, and Nicholas Hytner.

The March 6 matinee will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network and the Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78 and XM channel 79.

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 2009-10 season features eight new productions, four of which are Met premieres. Opening night was a new production of Tosca starring Karita Mattila, conducted by Levine and directed by Luc Bondy. The four Met premieres are: Janá?ek's From the House of the Dead, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and directed by Patrice Chéreau, both in Met debuts; Verdi's Attila starring Ildar Abdrazakov, conducted by Riccardo Muti and directed by Pierre Audi, with set and costume design by Miuccia Prada, Jacques Herzog, and Pierre de Meuron, all in their Met debuts; Shostakovich's The Nose featuring Paulo Szot, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed and designed by William Kentridge in his Met debut; and Rossini's Armida with Renée Fleming, conducted by Riccardo Frizza and directed by Mary Zimmerman. Other new productions are Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann starring Joseph Calleja, Anna Netrebko, and Alan Held, conducted by Levine and directed by Bartlett Sher; Carmen with El?na Garan?a and Roberto Alagna, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and directed by Richard Eyre, both in Met debuts; and Thomas's Hamlet with Natalie Dessay and Simon Keenlyside, conducted by Louis Langrée and directed by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser in their Met debuts.
Building on its 78-year 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 and Peabody Award-winning The Met: Live in HD series returns for its fourth season in 2009-10 with nine transmissions, beginning October 10 with the new production of Tosca and ending with the new production of Rossini's Armida on May 1. The productions are seen in more than 1000 theaters in 44 countries around the world and last season sold more than 1.8 million tickets. These performances began airing on PBS in March 2008, and ten HD performances are now available on DVD. The Magic Flute was released by the Met and is available at the newly renovated Met Opera Shop. In addition, two classic Met performances from 1978 have recently been released by the Met: Otello, conducted by Levine with Jon Vickers and Renata Scotto; and Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci conducted by Levine, with Tatiana Troyanos and Plácido Domingo in the first part of the double bill and Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes in the latter. The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from the Neubauer Family Foundation. Bloomberg L.P. is the global corporate sponsor of The Met: Live in HD.
HD Live in Schools, the Met's 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, continues for a third season. This season, for the second consecutive year the program will reach public school students and teachers in 18 cities and communities nationwide. HD Live in Schools is made possible by Bank of America.

Continuing its innovative use of electronic media to reach a global audience, the Metropolitan Opera last season introduced Met Player, a new subscription service that makes much of the company's extensive video and audio catalog of full-length performances available to the public for the first time online in exceptional, state-of-the-art quality. The new service currently offers more than 190 historic audio recordings, and almost 100 full-length opera videos are available, including 27 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, are added monthly.

Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Radio is a subscription-based audio entertainment service broadcasting 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 78-year broadcast history.

In addition to providing audio recordings through the 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. A new work by composer Nico Muhly and playwright Craig Lucas was workshopped this fall.

The Met audience development initiatives include Open House Dress Rehearsals, which are free and open to the public; the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, which exhibits contemporary visual art; the immensely successful Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Rush Ticket program; and an annual Holiday Presentation for families.