Damrau and Flórez Star In The Met's LA FILLE DU REGIMENT

Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flórez star in La Fille du Régiment, Donizetti's comedy about the tough-hearted young woman who was rescued and raised by the 21st regiment of the French army, and her romance with a hapless soldier-suitor. Flórez returns to his triumphant portrayal of Tonio of two seasons ago, when he electrified audiences and was hailed as the "new hero of the high C's" by Newsweek. He garnered a rare, on-the-spot encore of his aria "Pour mon âme," which the New York Times called "one of those thrilling moments that opera impresarios live for." Kiri Te Kanawa returns to perform her first role at the Met in twelve years, taking on the comic part of the Duchess of Krakenthorp. Maurizio Muraro sings his first Sergeant Sulpice at the Met, and Meredith Arwady makes her Met role debut as the Marquise of Berkenfield. Laurent Pelly's 2008 production, his Met debut, was hailed by the New York Times as "one of the hottest tickets of the Met's season." Pelly also designed the costumes, and the sets are by ChantAl Thomas. Joël Adam designed the lighting, and choreography is by Laura Scozzi. Performances run through February 22.

About the Performers
Diana Damrau, who sings the role of Marie for the first time at the Met, received wide acclaim for the two roles she added to her Met repertoire last season: Gilda in Rigoletto and the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, which she sang for the first time anywhere. Damrau made her Met debut in 2005 in the brilliant coloratura role of Zerbinetta in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. The German soprano has since appeared with the company as Rosina in Bartlett Sher's 2006 new production of IL Barbiere di Siviglia and as Aithra in the 2007 new production of Richard Strauss's Die Ägyptische Helena. Also in 2007, she became the first soprano in Met history to appear as both Pamina and the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in the same season. In 2008, Damrau performed the demanding role of Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Met. Earlier this season, Damrau reprised her role as Rosina in IL Barbiere di Siviglia, and on January 24 she appeared as soloist with the MET Orchestra and Music Director James Levine at Carnegie Hall in a concert that included Strauss lieder and the aria "Grossmächtige Prinzessin" from Ariadne auf Naxos.
Tenor Juan Diego Flórez made his Met role debut as Tonio in the 2008 premiere, a role the New York Times hailed for his "bull's-eye high C's fired off with parade-ground panache." The production was transmitted live in HD. Flórez made his Met debut in 2002 as Almaviva, a role he reprised in the Met's 2006 hit new production of IL Barbiere di Siviglia, featured live in HD. Flórez followed his Met debut with two more Rossini roles: Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola and Lindoro in L'Italiana in Algeri. He starred as Ernesto in the 2006 new production of Donizetti's Don Pasquale. Last season, the Peruvian tenor was seen as Elvino in Mary Zimmerman's new production of La Sonnambula, transmitted live in HD.

New Zealand soprano Kiri Te Kanawa gained legendary status almost overnight following her sensational debut as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden in 1971. Te Kanawa made her Met debut when, on extremely short notice, she sang the role of Desdemona in Otello in a 1974 Saturday matinee performance that was also broadcast live, a surprise appearance that proved a huge success. Te Kanawa last appeared at the Met as the Countess in the 1998 company premiere of Capriccio. Other notable roles at the Met include Fiordiligi in a 1982 new production of Così fan tutte, the title role in a 1983 new production of Arabella, and Rosalinde in a 1986 new production of Die Fledermaus. Her Met repertoire also includes the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, the Philistine Woman/Israelite Woman in Handel's Samson, Amelia in a 1995 new production of Simon Boccanegra, Violetta in La Traviata, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro.

A winner of the 2004 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, contralto Meredith Arwady made her Met debut in the 2008-09 season as Pasqualita in the company premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic. Also last season, Arwady made her European debut at the Frankfurt Opera as Ulrica in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera as well as her English National Opera debut in Doctor Atomic. Arwady began this season at the San Francisco Opera, appearing as the Abbess in Suor Angelica, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, and the Marquise of Berkenfield in La Fille du Régiment. Later this season, Arwady will make her role debut at the Frankfurt Opera as Erda in a new production of Das Rheingold.
Maurizio Muraro makes his role debut as Sulpice. Muraro made his Met debut in 2005 as Dr. Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro. This season he reprises the same character but in a different opera, IL Barbiere di Siviglia. In European opera houses, Muraro has sung numerous bel canto roles (Oroveso in Norma, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, the title role in Don Pasquale, Dulcamara in L'Elisir d'Amore), Verdi characters (Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra and Philip II in Don Carlo), and 20th-century parts such as Truelove in The Rake's Progress and Milord Runebif in Wolf-Ferrari's La Vedova Scaltra.

Marco Armiliato conducts a trio of operas this season at the Met. In addition to La Fille du Régiment, which he conducted in the new production's premiere in the 2007-08 season, Armiliato will also conduct La Bohème and Attila. Since making his debut with La Bohème in 1998, Armiliato has led the 2002 Met premiere of Wolf-Ferrari's Sly and the 2005 United States premiere of Alfanos's Cyrano de Bergerac. Last season, Armiliato conducted Act III of Manon at the Opening Night Gala and the new production of La Rondine, both shown live in HD. Also at the Met, Armiliato has conducted Turandot, Madama Butterfly, Aida, Rigoletto, Lucia di Lammermoor, Adriana Lecouvreur, La Traviata, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Andrea Chénier.

Live Broadcasts Around the World
La Fille du Régiment will be experienced by millions of people around the world this season on the radio and the internet, through distribution platforms the Met has established with various media partners.
The February 13, 16, and 22 performances will be broadcast live on the Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78 and XM channel 79. The February 13 performance will also be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.
The February 16 performance will be streamed live via RealNetworks internet streaming on the Met's website www.metopera.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 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 twelve 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.

 

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