Met Opera's 2009-10 Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcast Season Kicks Off 12/12 With IL TRITTICO

The 79th consecutive season of the Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcasts launches on December 12, 2009 at 12:30 p.m. EST with a live performance of Puccini's Il Trittico, starring Patricia Racette singing all three leading soprano roles. Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe also appears in the Puccini triple-bill. The 22-week season, carried over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network, runs through May 8 and features 19 live matinee performances broadcast direct from the Met stage, one pre-recorded performance, and one archival performance. (The broadcast on Saturday, March 6 at 1:00 p.m. will be announced at a later date). Four operas that have never been broadcast on the Met's Saturday Matinee series highlight the season: Shostakovich's The Nose, Janá?ek's From the House of the Dead, Thomas's Hamlet, and Rossini's Armida. Three more new productions from the Met season are also on the broadcast schedule: Tosca and Les Contes d'Hoffmann, both conducted by Met Music Director James Levine, and Carmen. Levine also conducts the broadcast of Simon Boccanegra with Plácido Domingo singing the title role for the first time at the Met, and Lulu. Margaret Juntwait returns for her sixth season as host of the broadcasts.

The longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history, on the air since 1931, the Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcasts bring the greatest operatic artists in the world to millions of radio listeners in 40 countries around the globe.

The first of the four operas having their Met Saturday Matinee Broadcast premieres is The Nose, based on a Gogol short story, under the baton of dynamic conductor Valery Gergiev, with Tony Award winner Paulo Szot making his Met broadcast debut in the lead role of Kovalyov. The new production is directed and designed by William Kentridge in his Met debut. The network premiere of From the House of the Dead, directed by Patrice Chéreau (in his Met debut) on March 20 features another major first, the Saturday Matinee broadcast debut of conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. (The performance of the Janá?ek opera will be recorded in the fall before the live broadcasts begin so that it can be part of the Saturday Matinee Radio season.) Peter Mattei in the role of Shishkov leads a powerful ensemble cast. One week later Thomas's Hamlet takes to the airwaves with the celebrated singing actors Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay bringing their acclaimed portrayals of the title role and Ophélie, respectively, to worldwide radio audiences. Louis Langrée conducts the production by debuting directors Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser. The final network broadcast premiere of the season is Rossini's Armida on May 1, starring Renée Fleming in the virtuosic role of the alluring sorceress. The production is by Mary Zimmerman; Riccardo Frizza conducts.

Met Music Director James Levine leads two new productions and three major revivals in the broadcast season, beginning on December 19 with Bartlett Sher's new production of Les Contes d'Hoffmann starring acclaimed tenor Joseph Calleja in the title role and Anna Netrebko as Antonia. Levine also leads the new Tosca production by director Luc Bondy on April 24, featuring renowned soprano Karita Mattila in the title role opposite the Cavaradossi and Scarpia of Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel - all network role debuts. The world's most famous tenor, Plácido Domingo, makes Met history by singing the title role of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, his first baritone part, with Levine leading the revival broadcast on February 6. The final broadcast of the season is Berg's Lulu, an opera that Levine has championed since he conducted the Met premiere in 1977. He again leads the 20th century masterpiece on the May 8 broadcast with Marlis Petersen in the title role and Anne Sofie von Otter as the Countess Geschwitz.

The new production of Carmen by Richard Eyre, starring the glamorous El?na Garan?a in the title role (her Met role debut) and Roberto Alagna as her jealous lover, Don José, is broadcast on January 16. Barbara Frittoli is Micaëla, Mariusz Kwiecien the toreador Escamillo, and the exceptional young Canadian conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, makes his network broadcast debut with this performance.

The Met continues its recent tradition of presenting family-friendly works during the holiday season with an English-language version of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, conducted by Fabio Luisi. The broadcast on January 2, 2010, features Miah Persson as Gretel in her network radio debut and Angelika Kirchschlager in her network role debut as Hansel. Tenor Philip Langridge repeats his hilarious tour de force as the Witch.

The December 12 performance of Il Trittico is conducted by Stefano Ranzani. In addition to Patricia Racette and Stephanie Blythe, Puccini's trilogy of one-act operas- Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi- will feature Salvatore Licitra, Željko Lu?i?, and Alessandro Corbelli in other leading roles. Other season highlights include: Strauss's Elektra, conducted by Fabio Luisi, with Susan Bullock in the title role and Deborah Voigt as Chrysothemis (December 26); Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier with Edo de Waart conducting two of America's reigning divas, Renée Fleming and Susan Graham in roles for which they are justly acclaimed-the Marschallin and Octavian; Verdi's Stiffelio, conducted by Domingo, with José Cura in the title role and Sondra Radvanovsky as Lina (January 30); Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment with Diana Damrau making her Met role debut as Marie and Juan Diego Flórez repeating his sensational Tonio, under the baton of Marco Armiliato (February 13); Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, conducted by Kirill Petrenko with Nina Stemme, who returns to the Met for the first time in nine years, in the title role (February 20); Puccini's La Bohème with Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala reprising their thrilling partnership that ignited last season's Lucia di Lammermoor (February 27); Verdi's Aida, conducted by Paolo Carignani, with Hasmik Papian, Dolora Zajick, and Salvatore Licitra in the ever-popular tale of love on the banks of the Nile (April 3); Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, with Julia Kleiter in her Met debut, Matthew Polenzani and Nathan Gunn each in acclaimed roles, led by Adam Fischer (April 10); and Verdi's La Traviata with Angela Gheorghiu in her most famous portrayal, the consumptive courtesan, opposite debuting young tenor James Valenti as her lover and Thomas Hampson in one of his most admired roles as the elder Germont, conducted by Leonard Slatkin (April 17).

Special Archive Broadcast
In celebration of the centennial of Samuel Barber's birth, an archival broadcast of his opera Vanessa will be broadcast on January 23, 2010. Vanessa's world premiere took place at the Met on January 15, 1958, to considerable acclaim, and the new opera was broadcast two weeks later on February 1, the performance which will be re-broadcast this season. Vanessa stars some of the great singers of the day including Eleanor Steber, Rosalind Elias, Regina Resnik, Nicolai Gedda, and Giorgio Tozzi. Legendary maestro Dimitri Mitropoulos conducts.
For the intermission feature, Elias, Resnik, and Tozzi recall their participation in this historic event during recent conversations taped especially for the celebratory rebroadcast.

Intermission Features
The Met will continue to connect with its longstanding audience and new listeners by providing thoughtful intermission features and interviews that capture the excitement of live opera and provide context for the operas. Host Margaret Juntwait is joined once again this season in the broadcast booth by performer, director, and writer Ira Siff as commentator. The live Backstage Interviews and the popular Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Quiz, hosted by a variety of artists, return this season as part of the broadcast intermission features. Met singers, directors, and designers will visit the broadcast booth to discuss their Current Productions with the company.
Building on the Saturday Matinee Broadcasts' 78-year-old radio history, the Met now uses advanced media distribution platforms and state-of-the-art technology to attract new audiences and reach millions of opera fans around the world. The new initiatives include the company's groundbreaking transmissions into movie theaters worldwide, The Met: Live in HD; the subscription-based satellite radio channel Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM; the new video and audio online streaming service, Met Player (www.metplayer.org); the audio on demand service Met on Rhapsody; and live performance streaming each week of the season at the Met's website www.metopera.org.
Heard in more than 40 countries around the world, the 2009-10 Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast season is sponsored by Toll Brothers, America's luxury homebuilder®, with generous long-term support from The Annenberg Foundation and the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media, and through contributions from listeners.

About the Host and Commentator
Margaret Juntwait joined the Met as host of the Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcasts in 2004, only the third regular announcer in the Met's broadcast history. In 2006, she also became the announcer for programming on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS. Prior to her work with the Met, she was a classical music radio host with WNYC Radio and has also hosted numerous radio documentaries and museum tours. Juntwait is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music with a degree in voice.
Commentator Ira Siff, a critic, voIce Teacher, and coach, is also an accomplished director, who has staged opera productions with numerous companies including Sarasota Opera, New Jersey State Opera, Utah Symphony and Opera, and Carnegie Hall, among others. At Tanglewood, he has directed fully-staged productions of Mozart's Don Giovanni (in 2009) and Mozart's Così fan tutte (in 2007) for the Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellows and Orchestra, conducted by James Levine. He is founder of La Gran Scena Opera Company, the performance troupe whose falsetto male singers have spoofed opera with great affection for more than two decades.

The Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts

For more than seven decades, the Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts have brought opera into millions of homes, playing a vital and unparalleled role in the development and appreciation of opera in this country. The broadcasts debuted on December 25, 1931, with Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.

Since 1940, the broadcasts have also been heard in Canada, and in 1990 they expanded to include regular transmission to Europe. Today worldwide coverage has grown to include not only more than 30 European countries, but also South America, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Through these international broadcasts, the Metropolitan Opera serves as a cultural ambassador to the world.

The Metropolitan Opera continues its "Support the Met Broadcasts Campaign," a major international fundraising effort launched in March 2004 to secure the broadcasts' long-term future. The goal is to create a sustainable Broadcast Fund with donations of all sizes from individual listeners as well as corporations and foundations who value this unique programming. Contributions may be made by phone at 1-800-METOPERA, through the internet at www.metopera.org, or by mail at "Support the Met Broadcasts Campaign," Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, New York, NY 10023.
Listeners can visit www.operainfo.org for a wealth of information about the Met broadcasts. The site is rich with synopses and casting information, as well as background information about operas, performers, and conductors. Resources also include curriculum materials for teachers. For details about all Met performances this season, as well as ticket information, visit the Met's website at www.metopera.org.

In North America, the 2009-10 season of broadcasts will be distributed in digital stereo over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. This independent network is made up of more than 300 domestic commercial and public radio stations, as well as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's English and French networks. In Europe, the broadcast distribution is coordinated by the Geneva?based European Broadcasting Union.

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 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 the new production of Tosca and ending with the new production of Rossini's Armida on May 1. The productions are now seen in more than 900 theaters in over 42 countries around the world and last season was attended by more than 1.8 million people. These performances began airing on PBS in March 2008, and nine HD performances are now available on DVD. The Magic Flute was released by the Met and is available at the newly renovated Met Opera Shop. In addition, two classic Met performances from 1978 have recently been released by the Met: Otello, conducted by Levine with Jon Vickers and Renata Scotto; and Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci conducted by Levine, with Tatiana Troyanos and Plácido Domingo in the first part of the double bill and Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes in the latter. The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from the Neubauer Family Foundation. Bloomberg L.P. is the global corporate sponsor of The Met: Live in HD.
HD Live in Schools, the Met's program offering free opera transmissions to New York City schools in partnership with the New York City Department of Education and the Metropolitan Opera Guild, continues for a third season. This season, for the second consecutive year the program will reach public school students and teachers in 18 cities and communities nationwide. HD Live in Schools is made possible by Bank of America.

The company's groundbreaking commissioning program in partnership with New York's Lincoln Center Theater (LCT) provides renowned composers and playwrights with the resources to create and develop new works at the Met and at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. The Met's partnership with LCT is part of the company's larger initiative to commission new operas from contemporary composers, present modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory, and provide a venue for artists to nurture their work. A new work by composer Nico Muhly and playwright Craig Lucas was workshopped in October.

The Met audience development initiatives include Open House Dress Rehearsals, which are free and open to the public; the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, which exhibits contemporary visual art; the immensely successful Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Rush Ticket program; and an annual Holiday Presentation for families. This season's special Holiday Presentation is Richard Jones's English-language production of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, which is given four matinee performances and four evening performance as a way for families to celebrate the holiday season.

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