Diana Damrau Sings Her First-Ever Performances of Violetta in The Met's LA TRAVIATA

Diana Damrau will make her role debut as the courtesan Violetta in La Traviata, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin in his first Met performances of the Verdi tragedy. Saimir Pirgu sings Violetta's lover Alfredo, and Plácido Domingo sings the role of Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont, in this revival of Willy Decker's 2010 production. This season's performances will be Damrau's first time singing the role of Violetta anywhere, while Domingo will move from the tenor role of Alfredo, which he has sung at the Met numerous times since 1970, to the baritone role of Giorgio.

Diana Damrau, who sang Gilda in the new production premiere of Verdi's Rigoletto earlier this year, has sung at the Met every season since her 2005 debut as Zerbinetta in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. Her performances with the company have included Rosina in the new production premiere of Rossini's IL Barbiere di Siviglia and Countess Adèle in the Met premiere of his Le Comte Ory; Aithra in the new production premiere of Strauss's Die Ägyptische Helena; both Pamina and the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Konstanze in his Die Entführung aus dem Serail;the title roles in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and La Fille du Régiment and Adina in his L'Elisir d'Amore; and Gilda, which she also sang at the Met in 2009. Next season at the Met, she will make her company role debut as Amina in Bellini's La Sonnambula.

Plácido Domingo has sung more than 650 performances at the Met in an extensive and continuously expanding repertory. In recent seasons, he has sung King Neptune in the world premiere of the Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island; Oreste in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride; the title role in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra; Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walküre; Maurizio in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur; Emperor Qin in the world premiere of Tan Dun's The First Emperor; and the title role in the U.S. premiere of Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac. Also a conductor, Domingo has led more than 140 Met performances since 1984, most recently Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and Verdi's Stiffelio. He first sang Alfredo at the Met in 1970 in a cast that included Joan Sutherland as Violetta, and repeated the role in 1973 and 1981. Next season, Domingo returns to the role of King Neptune in the first Met revival of The Enchanted Island.

Saimir Pirgu made his Met debut in 2009 as Rinuccio in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. The Albanian tenor has sung Alfredo with numerous opera companies around the world, including the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Deutsche Oper Berlin; the Hamburg, Berlin, and Vienna State Operas; Switzerland's Zurich Opera and Opéra de Lausanne; the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, Belgium; Santa Fe Opera; and Italy's Teatro del Maggio Musicale, Florence and Teatro di San Carlo, Napoli. Later this season, he will sing Macduff in Verdi's Macbeth in Florence, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto at the Arena di Verona, and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at Los Angeles Opera.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, leads his first Met performances of this opera. He made his Met debut in 2009 leading the new production premiere of Bizet's Carmen and returned in 2010 and 2011 to lead new production premieres of Verdi's Don Carlo and Gounod's Faust. He recently led the company premiere of Dvo?ák's Rusalka at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, as well as performances of Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges in Rotterdam; Verdi's Don Carlo in Amsterdam; Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Salzburg and Baden-Baden Festivals; Roméo et Juliette at La Scala; and Strauss's Salome at Opéra de Montreal. Next season at the Met, he will conduct his first company performances of Rusalka.

La Traviata Radio Broadcasts

The March 14 opening performanceof La Traviata will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performances on March 18, 30, and April 3. The March 14 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's website, www.metopera.org.

The March 30 matinee performance will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

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