IOLANTA & BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE Double-Bill Opens 1/26 at the Met

Beginning January 26, the Met will present a double-bill of two rarely performed one-act operas: Tchaikovsky's romantic fairy tale Iolanta, with Anna Netrebko in the title role of a blind princess and Piotr Beczala as Count Vaudémont, a knight who loves her; and Bartók's harrowing Bluebeard's Castle, with Nadja Michael as a bride who discovers the terrifying truth about her new husband, sung by Mikhail Petrenko. Valery Gergiev returns to the Met to conduct both operas, which will be presented in a production by acclaimed Polish director Mariusz Treli?ski in his Met debut. This season's performances will be the company premiere of Iolanta, Tchaikovsky's final opera, and the Met's first-ever staged performances of Bluebeard's Castle in the original Hungarian. The February 14 matinee performance will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 2,000 movie theaters in 69 countries around the world.

Iolanta will also star Aleksei Markov as Robert, the duke who has been promised Iolanta's hand in marriage; Alexei Tanovitski as King René, Iolanta's father; Azerbaijani baritone Elchin Azizov in his Met debut as the physician Ibn-Hakia. In Bluebeard's Castle, which has only two singing roles, Petrenko and Michael will star in all performances with the exception of February 18, when Michaela Martens will sing Judith. Russian conductor Pavel Smelkov leads the double-bill on February 18 and 21.

In recent years, the heroine of Iolanta has become one of Anna Netrebko's most acclaimed roles, and this season's Met performances will be her first North American performances of the role. She has sung Iolanta in Baden-Baden, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and in St. Petersburg for the opening of the new Mariinsky Opera House, and this summer will sing the role in London, Lucerne, Copenhagen, and Monte Carlo. Iolanta is Netrebko's second Tchaikovsky role with the company; she opened the 2013-14 season as Tatiana in his Eugene Onegin. The Russian soprano made her company debut in 2002 as Natasha in the Met premiere of Prokofiev's War and Peace and has since sung 15 more roles at the Met, including starring roles in the recent new production premieres of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, Don Pasquale, and L'Elisir d'Amore and Massenet's Manon. Earlier this season, she made an acclaimed Met role debut as Verdi's Lady Macbeth.

Polish tenor Piotr Beczala opened the Met's 2013-14 season as Lenski in Eugene Onegin, opposite Netrebko, and returned last winter to sing the Prince in Dvo?ák's Rusalka. This season marks his first North American performances of Count Tristan Vaudémont, a role he has previously sung at the Salzburg Festival and Baden-Baden Festival. He made his Met debut in 2006 as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto and has since sung the title character in Gounod's Faust; the Chevalier des Grieux in the new production premiere of Manon; Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor; Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème; and Roméo in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette.

Aleksei Markov has previously sung the role of Robert at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and the Teatro Real in Madrid. He made his Met debut as Andrei Bolkonsky in Prokofiev's War and Peace in 2007 and has since returned to the house as Marcello in La Bohème, Valentin in Faust, Tomsky in Tchaikovksy's Queen of Spades, di Luna in Verdi's Il Trovatore, and Shchelkalov in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. Markov currently sings Germont in Verdi's La Traviata and later this spring will sing Count Anckarström in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera.

Russian bass Alexei Tanovitski has previously sung the role of René at the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg and the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. He made his Met debut as Frate in Don Carlo in 2010 and sang Gremin in the new production premiere of Eugene Onegin last season opposite Netrebko and Beczala. He has recently sung Ivan Khovansky in Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina at the Mariinsky Theatre and Ramfis in Verdi's Aida at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo.

Elchin Azizov has previously sung the role of Ibn-Hakia at the Theatre an der Wien and the Bolshoi Theatre, where he is a resident artist. He has recently sung a number of roles with the Bolshoi, including Giorgio Germont in Verdi's La Traviata, the title role in Borodin's Prince Igor, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen, and Rodrigo in Verdi's Don Carlo. Earlier this season he made his debut with the Montreal Opera in the title role of Verdi's Nabucco.

Nadja Michael has previously sung the role of Judith at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw. The German soprano made her Met debut as Verdi's Lady Macbeth in 2012. One of her best-known roles is Strauss's Salome, which she has sung in leading opera houses around the world, including the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; San Francisco Opera; and La Scala. This season she has also sung Emilia Marty in Janácek's The Makropulos Affair at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Salome in São Paulo, and a concert with the Polish National Opera.

Russian bass Mikhail Petrenko made his Met debut in the 2002 company premiere of War and Peace, singing the roles of Marshal Davout, Bolkonsky's Valet, and Tikhon. His other roles with the company have included Prince Galitsky in last season's new production premiere of Prince Igor, Pistola in Verdi's Falstaff, Hunding in Wagner's Die Walküre, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, and Pimen in the new production premiere of Boris Godunov.

Valery Gergiev has conducted more than 100 Met performances in a varied repertory, including the company premieres of Prokofiev's The Gambler and War and Peace; Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa; and Shostakovich's The Nose. He made his Met debut in 1994 leading a new production of Verdi's Otello and also conducted new production premieres of The Queen of Spades, Eugene Onegin, Salome, and Boris Godunov. Gergiev is the general director of the Mariinsky Theatre, the artistic director of St. Petersburg's White Nights Festival, and the principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Mariusz Treli?ski, artistic director of Warsaw's Polish National Opera, makes his Met debut this season with this new production. The Polish film, theater, and opera director made his opera debut in 1999 with an acclaimed production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Polish National Opera and has since directed at the Mariinsky Theatre, Welsh National Opera, the Savonlinna Opera Festival, and Teatro Comunale in Bologna.

Treli?ski's design team for Iolanta/Bluebeard's Castle includes six debuting artists. Set designer Boris Kudlicka collaborates frequently with Treli?ski, and has designed sets for numerous productions by the director, including Madama Butterfly, Salome, Eugene Onegin, and La Traviata. Costume designer Marek Adamski's previous credits include Treli?ski's Salome staging and Natalia Korczakowska's production of Moniuszko's Halka at the Polish National Opera. Lighting designer Marc Heinz also works frequently with Treli?ski, having designed for his productions of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, Boris Godunov, La Traviata, and Puccini's Turandot, among many others. Video projection designer Bartek Macias is the co-founder of Lunapark, a collective of audiovisual artists, and has designed videos for numerous operas as well as stage productions of Nosferatu, Macbeth, The Lion in Winter, and Medea. Choreographer Tomasz Wygoda's credits include numerous dance and opera productions as a choreographer, dancer, and dramatic actor, including Treli?ski's recent stagings of Puccini's Manon Lescaut and Henze's Boulevard Solitude for the Welsh National Opera. Dramaturg Piotr Gruszczynski, of the Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, is a prolific author and dramaturg who has collaborated frequently with Treli?ski. The production's sound designer, Mark Grey, has three previous Met credits, including the company premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic and this season's new productions of Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer and Lehár's The Merry Widow.

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