Jonas Kaufmann News

The Metropolitan Opera announced plans today to return to Japan for a three-week tour in June 2011, presenting 13 performances of three fully staged operas in Tokyo and Nagoya.

The 79th consecutive season of the Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcasts launches on December 12, 2009 at 12:30 p.m. EST with a live performance of Puccini's Il Trittico, starring Patricia Racette singing all three leading soprano roles.

Karita Mattila will sing the title role in Puccini's Tosca as scheduled tomorrow evening, Saturday, October 17 at 8:00 p.m. She had cancelled Wednesday evening's performance due to illness.

Joseph Colaneri will conduct this evening's performance of Tosca, replacing James Levine who has withdrawn due to a back injury.

The Metropolitan Opera has reason to celebrate; $2.5 million worth of tickets were sold on Sunday, the first day of sales, through its box office, telephone call center and Web site, up from $2 million on the first day of sales last year, according to the Associated press.

The Met has announced that soprano Angela Gheorghiu has withdrawn from the first six performances of a new production of Bizet's Carmen for personal reasons. Gheorghiu will be replaced by El?na Garan?a, who sang the title role of La Cenerentola at the Met last spring to great acclaim; that production was transmitted to movie theaters worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series.

Flash Entertainment, Abu Dhabi?s leading event management company, has announced that tickets for the biggest selling classical soloist of all time, Andrea Bocelli?s first concert in Abu Dhabi are currently on sale. The concert will be taking place at The Emirates Palace on March 27, 2009.

Eight new productions, four of which are company premieres, will highlight the Metropolitan Opera's 2009-10 season. General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine jointly announced plans that include: the Met premieres of Rossini's Armida, Verdi's Attila, Jan?ček's From the House of the Dead, and Shostakovich's The Nose; new productions of Bizet's Carmen, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Thomas's Hamlet, and Puccini's Tosca; and 18 revivals from the company's repertory. The season is the first to be entirely planned under Gelb's leadership, in collaboration with Levine (the past three seasons were planned before Gelb became General Manager in 2006-07 but included some productions, repertoire, and casting changes made by Gelb).