Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo to Headline Met's MANON, 3/9

New York, NY (March 4, 2015) - Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo will sing their first Met performances of the title character in Massenet's Manon and her devoted lover, the Chevalier des Grieux. Emmanuel Villaume will conduct the first revival of Laurent Pelly's 2012 Met staging, also starring Russell Braun as Manon's cousin, Lescaut, and Nicolas Testé as the Chevalier's father, the Comte des Grieux. The opera opens March 9 and plays six performances through March 28.

Manon is the third starring role Diana Damrau has debuted at the Met in recent years. She sang her first-ever Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata with the company in 2013 to acclaim and repeated the feat last year with a much-heralded role debut as Amina in Bellini's La Sonnambula. The German soprano made her Met debut in 2005 as Zerbinetta in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos and has sung with the company in every subsequent season, in such roles as Rosina in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia; Aithra in Strauss's Die Ägyptische Helena; Pamina and the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte; the title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor; Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto; Marie in Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment; and the Countess Adèle in the Met premiere of Rossini's Le Comte Ory. Next season, she will sing Leila in a new production of Bizet's Le Pêcheurs de Perles that will open on New Year's Eve for its first Met performances since 1916.

Vittorio Grigolo's international opera breakthrough came in 2010 when he sang des Grieux in the premiere of Laurent Pelly's staging of Manon at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. The Italian tenor made his Met debut later that year as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème, and returned to the company in 2013 to sing his first Met performances of the Duke in Verdi's Rigoletto. Earlier this year, he starred to acclaim in his first French role at the Met, the romantically luckless title character in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Next season, he will sing his first Met performances of Nemorino in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore.

Russell Braun made his Met debut in 1995 as Dr. Falke in Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus. He has since add six roles to his varied company repertory, which includes the title character in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Chou En-Lai in the Met premiere of John Adams's Nixon in China, Olivier in Richard Strauss's Capriccio, and Valentin in Gounod's Faust. This season's performances will be his company role debut as Lescaut.

French bass-baritone Nicolas Testé also makes his company role debut as the Comte des Grieux. He made his Met debut last season as Colline in La Bohème, opposite Grigolo as Rodolfo. His other performances this season include Colline at the Bavarian State Opera, Claudius in Thomas's Hamlet with Avignon Opera, Ferrando in Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Orange Festival, and Nourabad in Les Pêcheurs de Perles-a role he will repeat next season at the Met-in Valencia and Vienna.

Emmanuel Villaume is both Music Director of Dallas Opera and Chief Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra; later this year, he will begin his tenure as Music Director of the Prague Philharmonia. He made his Met debut in 2004 conducting Puccini's Madama Butterfly. His subsequent performances with the company have included Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila in 2006 and Bizet's Carmenin 2008.

Manon Radio Broadcasts

The Manon opening performance on March 9 will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performance on March 21.

The March 9 opening performance will be streamed live on the Met's website, www.metopera.org.

The March 21 matinee performance will be broadcast live over the Toll Bros. Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

For More Information

For more information about this season's performances of Manon, please visit the Met's website at www.metopera.org.

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