James Conlon to Lead LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK, Beginning 11/10 at the Met

Beginning November 10, the Met will present a rare revival of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Shostakovich's controversial 1934 opera about an adulteress whose forbidden romance leads to murder and devastation. This season's performances will be conducted by James Conlon, who also led the work's Met premiere in 1994; it has only been revived once by the company, in 2000. Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek will sing her first Met performances of the central role, Katerina Ismailova, which she has sung to acclaim at numerous leading opera houses around the world. American tenor Brandon Jovanovich sings the role of Sergei, Katerina's lover. The revival of Graham Vick's 1994 production will also star Raymond Very as Zinovy Ismailov, Katerina's ineffectual husband, and Anatoli Kotscherga as her brutal father-in-law, Boris. Dutch tenor Frank van Aken will sing Sergei in the November 21 performance.

James Conlon has conducted 22 operas at the Met over the past 38 years. In addition to Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, he led the 1999 company premiere of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah and the 2005 world premiere of Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy. His eclectic Met repertory also includes Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust; Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Peter Grimes; Janá?ek's Jen?fa; Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte; Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina; Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites; Rossini's Semiramide; Strauss's Salome; Verdi's Aida, Un Ballo in Maschera, La Traviata, and Il Trovatore; and Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer, among others. He is Music Director of Los Angeles Opera, where this season he leads performances of Le Nozze di Figaro, Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles.

Eva-Maria Westbroek has sung Katerina Ismailova at the Dutch National Opera, Paris Opera, and Madrid's Teatro Real. She made her Met debut in 2011 as Sieglinde in the new production of Wagner's Die Walküre and returned the following season to sing the role in the first full Ring cycles of the new production. In 2013, she starred in the title role of Zandonai's rarely performed Francesca da Rimini. Later this season, she will sing Maddalena in a new production of Giordano's Andrea Chénier at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; the title role in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at Zurich Opera; and Santuzza in the Met's new production of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.

Brandon Jovanovich sang Sergei in a 2013 new production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at Zurich Opera. He made his Met debut as Don José in Carmen in the 2009-10 season and returned to the role in 2010-11 and earlier this month, when he agreed at short notice to replace an ailing colleague in two performances. His other performances this season include Sam in Susannah at San Francisco Opera, Walter in Weinberg's The Passenger at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Florestan in Beethoven's Fidelio at Zurich Opera.

Raymond Very made his Met debut in 2001 as Matteo in Strauss's Arabella. Zinovy Ismailov is the fifth role in his company repertory, which also includes Cassio in Verdi's Otello, Vanya in Janá?ek's Kát'a Kabanová, Christian in Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac, and Števa in Jen?fa.

In 2012, Anatoli Kotscherga made his Met debut as Ivan Khovansky in an acclaimed revival of Khovanshchina. The Ukrainian bass's recent performances have included the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov at the Bavarian State Opera; Sobakin in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride at La Scala and the Berlin State Opera; and the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and Madrid's Teatro Real.

The November 10 opening performance will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performance on November 25. The November 10 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's Web site, www.metopera.org. On April 18, an archived performance from the fall run will be broadcast over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

For more information on Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, including casting by date, click here.

Pictured: A scene from Shostakovich's "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk." Photo by Winnie Klotz/Metropolitan Opera.

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