The Met: Live in HD Kicks Off Its Season With TOSCANA, 10/10

Tickets for the fourth season of The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's popular, award-winning series of live transmissions in movie theaters around the world, are now on sale at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater. The 2009-10 season, featuring nine live opera transmissions, kicks off on Saturday, October 10 at 1:00 p.m. ET with a new production of Puccini's Tosca starring Karita Mattila, conducted by Met Music Director James Levine.

More than 900 theaters in 42 countries around the world are participating in The Met: Live in HD this season. A record number of more than 1.8 million Live in HD tickets were sold last season.

Four other new productions are featured in the series, including Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann starring Joseph Calleja in the title role, with Anna Netrebko and Alan Held; Bizet's Carmen starring El?na Garan?a and Roberto Alagna; Natalie Dessay and Simon Keenlyside in Thomas's Hamlet; and Rossini's Armida starring Renée Fleming. The HD season also includes Verdi's Aida with Violeta Urmana, Dolora Zajick, and Johan Botha; Maria Guleghina and Marcello Giordani in Puccini's Turandot; Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier with Fleming and Susan Graham; and Verdi's Simon Boccanegra starring Plácido Domingo, singing the title role for the first time at the Met. James Levine leads four of the HD transmissions. Complete casting and details of the season's Live in HD performances follows below.

All nine high-definition productions will be shown live on Saturdays through May 1, with most encore presentations following the live exhibition.

The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from the Neubauer Family Foundation. THT's media sponsor for the series is Vermont Public Television
The Met: Live in HD has expanded its distribution in the 2009-10 season to include 42 countries. New countries joining the Live in HD network this season include Bulgaria, Chile, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, and Uruguay.

Tickets for the Saturday Live Broadcasts are $22. A special agreement with the Metropolitan Opera will allow THT to sell discounted student tickets ($10) for all encore presentations.

"We're especially excited about the new low student price," says Town Hall Theater Executive director Douglas Anderson. "These intimate and compelling broadcasts are the perfect way to introduce a young person to the world of opera."

Tickets for the entire series are now on sale. Call 802 382-9222, or purchase tickets on-line at www.townhalltheater.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the Town Hall Theater Box Office, Monday-Saturday, noon-5 pm.