LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN Premieres on THIRTEEN's Great Performances at the Met

The Metropolitan Opera's new production of Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, conducted by Met Music Director James Levine and directed by Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher, premieres on THIRTEEN'S Great Performances at the Met series. Joseph Calleja sings the title role, joined by Anna Netrebko as both Antonia and Stella, Kathleen Kim as Olympia, Ekaterina Gubanova as Giulietta, and Kate Lindsey as Nicklausse/The Muse. Alan Held sings all four villain roles. In a recent review, The New York Times called the Met's new Hoffmann "a musically gratifying and visually theatrical staging," and notes "there are many subtleties to Mr. Sher's new staging of the work...public and private spaces overlap in this production. Other scenic touches... provide continuity among the acts." Les Contes d'Hoffmann airs on THIRTEEN'S Great Performances at the Met in primetime on PBS on Wednesday, March 24 at 9 p.m. (check local listings).

"The music is so inspired, and I think we have made effective choices in the absence of an authentic, fully realized original version."

Great Performances at the Met is a presentation of THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG - one of America's most prolific and respected public media providers.

Sher, whose Great Performances at the Met debut production of IL Barbiere di Siviglia was an audience favorite, created the new staging for Offenbach's final masterpiece, which he calls "a magical journey in which the title character works out different manifestations of his psyche...The opera is often approached in terms of the crazy imagination of Hoffmann," Sher says, referring to the early German romantic polymath whose stories are used for the opera's episodic plot. "I'm more interested in why Offenbach, who had been a very popular operetta composer, was seeking to write a serious work to gain acceptance. Why, so late in his career, did he feel this need to be accepted? That led me to consider Offenbach's sense of being Jewish and an outsider. Whatever group he was in, he always appears as an outsider who never feels like he belongs, never feels like he's connected." The ambiguities and split identities of the characters figure in Sher's vision of the piece.

Offenbach died before a definitive score for Les Contes d'Hoffmann was established, though he left many sketches of possible additions and replacements which have led to different performing versions over the years. This production uses the same version that was used in the Met's most recent revival, in 1999-2000, with the Olympia act first, followed by the Antonia act, then Giulietta placed third. Maestro Levine says of the musical version, "The music is so inspired, and I think we have made effective choices in the absence of an authentic, fully realized original version."

Great Performances at the Met: Les Contes d'Hoffmann is the fifth of 10 productions airing this season during the 2009-2010 series. The performance is sung in French with English surtitles. Set designer Michael Yeargan and costume designer Catherine Zuber, both Tony Award-winners who worked with Sher on his acclaimed Great Performances at the Met production of IL Barbiere di Siviglia, are also on the production team for the new Les Contes d'Hoffmann. James F. Ingalls joins them as the lighting designer, and the choreography is by Dou Dou Huang.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers and PBS. Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is provided by Toll Brothers, America's luxury home-builder®. Major support for the telecast was also provided by the Annenberg Foundation.

Visit Great Performances Online at www.pbs.org/gperf for additional information on this and other Great Performances programs. For the Met, Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park are Supervising Producers, and Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik are Producers. Peter Gelb is Executive Producer. For Great Performances, Bill O'Donnell is Series Producer; David Horn is Executive Producer.

About WNET.ORG

New York public media company WNET.ORG is a pioneering provider of television and web content. The parent of Thirteen, WLIW21 and Creative News Group, WNET.ORG brings such acclaimed broadcast series and websites as Great Performances, Worldfocus, Nature, American Masters, Charlie Rose, Wide Angle, Secrets of the Dead, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, Visions, Consuelo Mack WealthTrack, Wild Chronicles, Miffy and Friends, and Cyberchase to national and international audiences. Through its wide range of channels and platforms, WNET.ORG serves the entire New York City metro area with unique local productions, broadcasts, and innovative educational and cultural projects. In all that it does, WNET.ORG pursues a single, overarching goal - to create media experiences of lasting significance for New York, America, and the world. For more information, visit www.wnet.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: Janá?ek's From the House of the Dead, Verdi's Attila, Shostakovich's The Nose, and Rossini's Armida. The other new productions are Puccini's Tosca, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Bizet's Carmen, and Thomas's Hamlet.

Building on its 78-year-old international radio broadcast history - heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network - the Met uses advanced media distribution platforms and state-of-the-art technology to reach audiences 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 Tosca starring Karita Mattila and ending with Armida starring Renée Fleming on May 1. The Met recently introduced Met Player, a new subscription service that makes much of its extensive video and audio catalog of full-length performances available to the public for the first time online, and in exceptional, state-of-the-art quality. Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Radio broadcasts both live and rare historical performances; the Met on Rhapsody on-demand service offers audio recordings; and the Met presents free live audio streaming of performances on its website once every week during the opera season with support from RealNetworks®.

The Met has launched several audience development initiatives, including Open House dress rehearsals, a popular rush ticket program, reduced ticket prices, Gallery Met, and an annual Holiday Series presentation for families. For more information, please visit: www.metopera.org.

Remaining broadcast premieres on Great Performances at the Met are scheduled as follows (Please check local PBS listings):

Wednesday, March 24, 9pm

LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN - Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher directs Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja, and Alan Held in a new production of the Offenbach favorite. Kathleen Kim, Ekaterina Gubanova, and Kate Lindsey round out the cast. James Levine conducts.

Sunday, April 25, 12pm

DER ROSENKAVALIER - Renée Fleming and Susan Graham star Richard Strauss's popular favorite, also featuring Eric Cutler, Kristinn Sigmundsson, and Christine Schäfer. Edo de Waart conducts.

Sunday, May 16, 12pm

CARMEN - El?na Garan?a sings the title role opposite Roberto Alagna in director Richard Eyre's new production of Bizet's masterpiece. Barbara Frittoli is Micaela and Teddy Tahu Rhodes plays the matador Escamillo. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.

Sunday, June 20, 12pm

SIMON BOCCANEGRA - Plácido Domingo sings the baritone title role of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra for the first time in his Met career, in Giancarlo del Monaco's production. Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordani, and James Morris star. James Levine conducts.

Sunday, July 18, 12pm

HAMLET - Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay headline the Ambroise Thomas opera based on Shakespeare's play, in a new production directed by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser. With Jennifer Larmore, Toby Spence, and James Morris. Louis Langrée conducts.

Sunday, August 22, 12pm

ARMIDA - Renée Fleming plays Rossini's vengeful sorceress in this opera's Met premiere, directed by Mary Zimmerman. The cast of multiple tenors includes Lawrence Brownlee, Bruce Ford, José Manuel Zapata, Barry Banks, and Kobie van Rensburg. Riccardo Frizza conducts.

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