Metropolitan Opera 2013/2014 Season to Feature FALSTAFF, DIE FLEDERMAUS, PRINCE IGOR and More

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Così fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

Ten of the new season's more than 200 performances will be transmitted live around the world as part of the popular Met: Live in HD series of movie theater simulcasts, offering a significant portion of the Met season to opera lovers in 64 countries. (A separate release, focused on the HD transmissions, is also available.)

The six new productions will include three debuts by directors new to the Met: Deborah Warner, with a new Eugene Onegin on opening night, September 23, starring Anna Netrebko, Mariusz Kwiecien, and Piotr Beczala and conducted by Valery Gergiev; Jeremy Sams, whose staging of Die Fledermaus will open on New Year's Eve, conducted by Adam Fischer and featuring new dialogue by playwright Douglas Carter Beane; and Dmitri Tcherniakov, with Borodin's Prince Igor on February 6, 2014, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and starring Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role. Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys, a Met commission, will have its American premiere October 21 in a production conducted by David Robertson and directed by Bartlett Sher. Robert Carsen returns to the Met with a new Falstaff, opening December 6, and Richard Eyre stages the final new production of the season, Massenet's Werther, starring Jonas Kaufmann and El?na Garan?a, opening February 18.

The repertory productions for the season will include a mix of rarely performed works and longtime audience favorites, both featuring some of the world's greatest stars. The 2013-14 repertory operas include Richard Strauss's Arabella, Die Frau ohne Schatten, and Der Rosenkavalier (with Garan?a in her first Met performances of Octavian). Five Bel Canto operas are part of the season, including Bellini's I Puritani, Norma (with Sondra Radvanovsky), and La Sonnambula (with Diana Damrau); Fabio Luisi leads Rossini's La Cenerentola, with Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez; and Anna Netrebko reprises her Adina opposite Ramón Vargas as Nemorino in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore. Three of Puccini's most-performed works are part of the season: casts led by Joseph Calleja and Vittorio Grigolo star in La Bohème; Patricia Racette and Radvanovsky take the title role of Tosca; and Madama Butterfly returns, with rotating casts including Kristine Opolais in her Met role debut as Cio-Cio-San. Mozart is represented in the season with both Così fan tutte and a holiday presentation of The Magic Flute. Renée Fleming returns to the title role in Dvo?ák's Rusalka, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Racette and Marcelo Álvarez star in Giordano's Andrea Chénier. The season features the first Met revivals of The Enchanted Island (with Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo) and the William Kentridge production of Shostakovich's The Nose (conducted by Gergiev), as well as the return of Michael Mayer's new production of Verdi's Rigoletto, starring Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the title role. Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream returns to commemorate the composer's centennial in a revival conducted by James Conlon, and Deborah Voigt and Thomas Hampson make Met role debuts in another twentieth-century masterpiece, Berg's Wozzeck.

The 2013-14 season was announced by Met General Manager Peter Gelb and Met Music Director James Levine. "With this new season, we continue our mission for the Met as a center of musical and theatrical creativity, hopefully stimulating our veteran audience, while also capturing the imagination of the next generation," Gelb said.

"I am delighted to be back with the great Met company, conducting three operas I love with our incomparable orchestra and chorus," said Levine.

New Productions

Eugene Onegin - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Premiere: September 23, 2013

Conductor: Valery Gergiev/Pavel Smelkov/Alexander Vedernikov

Production: Deborah Warner

Live in HD: October 5, 2013

The season opens on September 23 with a new production of Tchaikovsky's romantic tragedy Eugene Onegin. Valery Gergiev returns to the Met to conduct the opening performances of this production, staged by acclaimEd English director Deborah Warner in her Met debut. Mariusz Kwiecien sings his first Met performances as the imperious title character, a much-admired interpretation he has sung in many of the world's leading opera houses, opposite Anna Netrebko as Tatiana, in her third consecutive Met opening night and her first company performances as the naïve heroine from Pushkin's classic novel. Piotr Beczala reprises his performance as Onegin's friend turned rival, Lenski. A second cast, conducted by Alexander Vedernikov in his Met debut, features Peter Mattei as Onegin, Marina Poplavskaya as Tatiana, and, in his first Met performances since the 2008-09 season, Rolando Villazón as Lenski; all three singers will be making their company role debuts. Reviewing Warner's production when it premiered at English National Opera, the Sunday Telegraph praised its "mixture of haunting visual and emotional impact: cutting straight to the heart of the work, [Warner] shows how Onegin is simultaneously about two colliding Russian societies-rustic provincialism and cosmopolitan decadence-and three wasted lives."

Two Boys - Nico Muhly

U.S. Premiere

Premiere: October 21, 2013

Libretto: Craig Lucas

Conductor: David Robertson

Production: Bartlett Sher

"A work of dark beauty...a landmark in the career of an important artist" (The New York Times)," Two Boys marked the "auspicious operatic debut" (London Independent) of American composer Nico Muhly, who was 29 when the Met commission premiered in London in the fall of 2011. With a libretto by celebrated playwright Craig Lucas, Two Boys explores the shadowy world of the internet as a detective (Alice Coote) takes on what initially seems to be to be a straightforward case-the stabbing of one teenage boy by another-and discovers a tangled web of online intrigue. Paul Appleby co-stars as Brian in this striking new work, staged by Bartlett Sher. Although young, Muhly is a prolific composer, having already written acclaimed compositions for major orchestras, choruses, dance companies, chamber ensembles, and the opera Dark Sisters, as well as film scores and pop songs.

Falstaff - Giuseppe Verdi

Premiere: December 6, 2013

Conductor: James Levine

Production: Robert Carsen

Live in HD: December 14, 2013

Verdi's brilliant final masterpiece Falstaff has its first new Met production in nearly 50 years, conducted by James Levine and directed by Robert Carsen. Ambrogio Maestri and Nicola Alaimo take on the iconic basso buffo role of Sir John Falstaff, the boorish, blustery character originally seen in Shakespeare's Henry IV and Merry Wives of Windsor. Angela Meade sings Alice Ford, one of many objects of Falstaff's affection, and Stephanie Blythe is the sharp-tongued Mistress Quickly in a cast that also includes Lisette Oropesa as Nannetta, Jennifer Johnson Cano as Meg Page, Paolo Fanale in his Met debut as Fenton, and Franco Vassallo as Ford. The International Herald Tribune praised Carsen's staging, first seen at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, as a "production of eye-catching ingenuity."

Die Fledermaus - Johann Strauss, Jr.

Premiere: December 31, 2013

Conductor: Adam Fischer

Production: Jeremy Sams

Lyrics by: Jeremy Sams

Dialogue by: Douglas Carter Beane

A new production of Johann Strauss's sparkling comedy Die Fledermaus premieres on New Year's Eve. Adam Fischer conducts the new staging by Jeremy Sams, which sets the farcical story of romantic intrigue and mistaken identity in Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century. The new production of the quintessential Viennese comedy will feature new English-language lyrics by Sams and dialogue by award-winning Broadway playwright Douglas Carter Beane. Susanna Phillips sings Rosalinde, with Christopher Maltman as her husband, Eisenstein; Christine Schäfer and Jane Archibald as her clever maid, Adele; Michael Fabiano and Alexander Lewis as Alfred, her clandestine lover; Paulo Szot as the scheming notary Dr. Falke; and Anthony Roth Costanzo as the consummate party host, Prince Orlofsky.

Prince Igor - Alexander Borodin

Premiere: February 6, 2014

Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda/Pavel Smelkov

Production: Dmitri Tcherniakov

Live in HD: March 1, 2014

Alexander Borodin's epic Prince Igor has its first Met performances since 1917 in a new production staged by noted Russian opera director Dmitri Tcherniakov in his Met debut. Gianandrea Noseda and Pavel Smelkov conduct the lush score, famous for its celebrated "Polovtsian Dances." Ildar Abdrazakov sings the title role, a Russian hero whose military maneuvers are complicated by romantic intrigue, political rivalries, and familial disputes. The cast also includes Oksana Dyka in her Met debut as Yaroslavna, Igor's emotionally vulnerable second wife; Anita Rachvelishvili as the fiery Polovtsian princess Konchakovna; Sergey Semishkur in his Met debut as Vladimir Igorevich, Igor's son and Konchakovna's lover; Mikhail Petrenko as Prince Galitsky, Yaroslavna's brother; and Štefan Kocán as the warlord Khan Konchak. Left unfinished at the composer's death, Prince Igor does not have a definitive performing version. Noseda and Tcherniakov have constructed a new version using recent research that incorporates all the known music and orchestration by Borodin, changes the order of some scenes, and includes three pieces of newly orchestrated material by Pavel Smelkov, the Russian composer and conductor who also leads the February 21 performance.

Werther - Jules Massenet

Premiere: February 18, 2014

Conductor: Alain Altinoglu

Production: Richard Eyre

Live in HD: March 15, 2014

Director Richard Eyre, whose hit staging of Carmen premiered at the Met in 2009, returns with a new production of Massenet's Werther, starring Jonas Kaufmann and El?na Garan?a in their first Met performances as the brooding poet Werther and his unattainable love, Charlotte. Lisette Oropesa sings the role of Sophie, Charlotte's sister; David Biži? makes his Met debut as Charlotte's fiancé, Albert; and Jonathan Summers is Charlotte's father, Le Bailli. Alain Altinoglu conducts the first new Met production of the opera in more than 40 years.

Notable Met debuts this season, in chronological order, include American baritone Christopher Bolduc as Jake in Two Boys (October 21); German soprano Anne Schwanewilms as the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten (November 7); Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casadoleading Rigoletto (November 11); Russian conductor Alexander Vedernikov leading Eugene Onegin (November 23); Russian mezzo-soprano Elena Maximova as Olga in Eugene Onegin(November 23); German mezzo-soprano Daniela Sindram as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier(December 3); Italian tenor Paolo Fanale as Fenton in Falstaff (December 6); British conductorJane Glover leading The Magic Flute (December 16); American soprano Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute (December 28); Moldovan soprano Irina Lungu as Musetta in La Bohème (January 14); South African soprano Amanda Echalaz as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly (January 16); American baritone Scott Hendricks as Sharpless inMadama Butterfly (January 16); American soprano Emily Magee as the Foreign Princess inRusalka (January 23); Ukrainian soprano Oksana Dyka as Yaroslavna in Prince Igor(February 6); Russian tenor Sergey Semishkur as Vladimir Igorevich in Prince Igor (February 6); Serbian bass-baritone David Biži? as Albert in Werther (February 18); Canadian sopranoAndriana Chuchman as Miranda in The Enchanted Island (February 26); English bass Clive Bayley as the Doctor in Wozzeck (March 6); Romanian soprano Anita Hartig as Mimì in La Bohème (March 19); American soprano Jennifer Rowley as Musetta in La Bohème (March 19); French bass-baritone Nicolas Testé as Colline in La Bohème (March 19); German tenorRoberto Saccà as Matteo in Arabella (April 3); German baritone Michael Volle as Mandryka in Arabella (April 3); Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko as Elvira in I Puritani (April 17); and Italian baritone Pietro Spagnoli as Dandini in La Cenerentola (April 21).

The Met's 2013-14 season will feature 20 revivals of a varied repertory, ranging from rarely performed works to perennial audience favorites.

To commemorate Benjamin Britten's centennial, the Met will present a revival of his A Midsummer Night's Dream, which had its Met premiere in 1996. James Conlon conducts an ensemble that includes Iestyn Davies and Kathleen Kim as Oberon and Tytania, king and queen of the fairies; Erin Wall (Helena), Elizabeth DeShong (Hermia), Joseph Kaiser (Lysander), and Michael Todd Simpson (Demetrius) as the quartet of mismatched lovers; and Matthew Rose as the weaver-turned-amateur-actor Bottom.

Dvo?ák's Rusalka, a lushly romantic adaptation of the Czech folk tales Hans Christian Andersen used as the basis for The Little Mermaid, returns to the Met in January 2014. The opera had its Met premiere in 1993 and the central character of the water spirit who falls in love with a human prince is a touchstone role for Renée Fleming. This season, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a cast led by Fleming and including Piotr Beczala as the Prince, Emily Magee in her Met debut as the Foreign Princess, John Relyea as the Water Sprite, and Dolora Zajick as the witch Ježibaba.

Andrea Chénier, Giordano's tale of heroism and sacrifice during the French Revolution, returns to the repertory with Gianandrea Noseda conducting and Marcelo Álvarez taking the title part for the first time with the company. Also making Met role debuts are Patricia Racette as Maddalena, the young aristocrat who loses everything but her love for Chénier, and Željko Lu?i? as Gérard, the household servant who rises to become a revolutionary leader.

Berg's Wozzeck returns this season conducted by James Levine, who has led more than 40 performances of the opera since 1974. Two major Met stars make company role debuts in the central roles: Thomas Hampson sings the title role, a soldier so abused by society that he turns to murder, and Deborah Voigt is his unfaithful lover and victim, Marie.

Two Mozart operas are part of the repertory this season. Maestro Levine conducts Così fan tutte, with Susanna Phillips and Guanqun Yu as the conflicted Fiordiligi; Isabel Leonard as her sister, Dorabella; Danielle De Niese as their feisty maid, Despina; Matthew Polenzani and Rodion Pogossov as the sisters' fiancés, Ferrando and Guglielmo; and Maurizio Muraro as the cynical Don Alfonso.

Conductor Jane Glover makes her Met debut leading the abridged, English-language holiday presentation of The Magic Flute. Julie Taymor's hit production will feature family-friendly ticket prices and weekday matinee performances designed to appeal to audiences of all ages. The cast includes Alek Shrader in his first Met performances as the hero Tamino; Nathan Gunn in one of his most acclaimed roles as the bird-catcher Papageno; Eric Owens as the high priest Sarastro; Heidi Stober as the princess Pamina; and Albina Shagimuratova and Kathryn Lewek alternating in the role of the wicked Queen of the Night.

Three Bellini operas will be part of the Met season. Norma returns to the repertory, with Sondra Radvanovsky and Angela Meade taking on the challenging central role of a vengeful Druid priestess for the first time at the Met. Riccardo Frizza conducts the opera, with Kate Aldrich and Jamie Barton as Adalgisa; Aleksandrs Antonenko in his Met role debut as Pollione, Norma's unfaithful husband; and James Morris as the Druid chieftain Oroveso, Norma's father.

La Sonnambula returns to the Met in March, with Diana Damrau singing her first company performances of the sleepwalking heroine Amina. Javier Camarena is Elvino, Amina's betrothed, and Michele Pertusi is Rodolfo in the first revival of Mary Zimmerman's 2009 production. Marco Armiliato conducts.

The third Bellini opera in this season, I Puritani, features Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko in her Met debut as the heroine Elvira. The opera, led by rising Italian conductor Michele Mariotti, will also feature Lawrence Brownlee in his Met role debut as Arturo, Mariusz Kwiecien as Riccardo, and Michele Pertusi as Giorgio.

Three Richard Strauss works return to the Met stage this season. Vladimir Jurowski conducts Die Frau ohne Schatten in Herbert Wernicke's haunting production, last seen at the Met in 2003. Anne Schwanewilms makes her Met debut as the ethereal Empress, with Torsten Kerl as the Emperor; Ildikó Komlósi as the Empress's devoted Nurse; Johan Reuter as the poor dyer, Barak; and Christine Goerke as the Dyer's Wife, a peasant woman who is willing to give up her shadow.

Der Rosenkavalier returns to the repertory in a series of performances marking the 100th anniversary of the work's New York premiere. El?na Garan?a sings her first Met performances of the impetuous Octavian, opposite Viennese soprano Martina Serafin as Octavian's older lover, the Marschallin. Mojca Erdmann sings Sophie, and Peter Rose is the Marschallin's bumbling cousin, Baron Ochs. Edward Gardner conducts his first company performances of Strauss's beloved and bittersweet comedy.

Strauss's lively romance Arabella returns to the repertory in April, with Philippe Auguin conducting and rising Swedish soprano Malin Byström in the title role. Genia Kühmeier sings Arabella's sister, Zdenka; the ensemble cast also features Roberto Saccà and Michael Volle in their Met debuts as Matteo and Mandryka, respectively, and John Del Carlo as Waldner.

Three of Puccini's most popular works will be performed this season, with exciting new stars and acclaimed Met favorites in the central roles. Patricia Racette and Sondra Radvanovsky sing the temperamental title diva in Tosca, with Roberto Alagna and Marcello Giordani as Cavaradossi. George Gagnidze reprises his performance as the wicked Scarpia in all performances this season, which will be conducted by Riccardo Frizza and Marco Armiliato.

La Bohème returns to the repertory, with Stefano Ranzani leading 14 performances of the most-performed opera in Met history. Franco Zeffirelli's classic production will star Maija Kovalevska, debuting Romanian soprano Anita Hartig, and Barbara Frittoli as the consumptive Mimì; Joseph Calleja and Vittorio Grigolo as her star-crossed lover, Rodolfo; Susanna Phillips and debuting sopranos Irina Lungu and Jennifer Rowley as the coquettish Musetta; and Alexey Markov and Massimo Cavalletti as the painter Marcello.

Anthony Minghella's production of Madama Butterfly will star South African soprano Amanda Echalaz in her Met debut as Cio-Cio-San. Kristine Opolais, who made a highly acclaimed Met debut as Magda in La Rondine in the 2012-13 season, returns for her first company performances as Cio-Cio-San, and Chinese soprano Hui He takes the role later in the season. Bryan Hymel, Adam Diegel, James Valenti, and Gwyn Hughes Jones sing Pinkerton, the caddish American who crushes Cio-Cio-San's dreams. This season's performances will be conducted by Philippe Auguin, Marco Armiliato, and Fabio Luisi.

Principal Conductor Luisi will also lead a star-studded revival of Rossini's La Cenerentola, starring Joyce DiDonato in her first Met performances of the title role. Bel Canto star Juan Diego Flórez joins her as the dashing Don Ramiro; Pietro Spagnoli makes his Met debut as Dandini; Alessandro Corbelli sings Don Magnifico; and Luca Pisaroni is Alidoro.

Four acclaimed new productions from recent seasons re-enter the repertory. William Kentridge's innovative production of Shostakovich's The Nose returns in September, with Valery Gergiev leading a cast that includes Paulo Szot as the hapless Kovalyov, Andrey Popov as the Police Inspector, and Alexander Lewis as Kovalyov's runaway nose.

Michael Mayer's colorful, updated production of Verdi's Rigoletto returns in November, with Dmitri Hvorostovsky singing his first Met performances of the title role. Aleksandra Kurzak sings Gilda and Matthew Polenzani makes his company role debut as the womanizing Duke. Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado makes his Met debut.

Anna Netrebko reprises her Adina in Bartlett Sher's production of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, which opened the Met's 2012-13 season. Maurizio Benini returns to conduct a cast that features Ramón Vargas as Nemorino, the peasant who is infatuated with Adina; Nicola Alaimo as the arrogant Sergeant Belcore; and Erwin Schrott as the purveyor of magic potions, Dr. Dulcamara.

Patrick Summers conducts the Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island, which premiered at the Met in the 2011-12 season to critical and public acclaim. Susan Graham stars in the central role of the witch Sycorax, opposite David Daniels as Prospero, Danielle De Niese as Ariel, Andriana Chuchman in her Met debut as Miranda, Anthony Roth Costanzo as Ferdinand, Luca Pisaroni as Caliban, and the legendary Plácido Domingo as Neptune, king of the seas.

Vittorio Grigolo Recital

Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo will give a solo recital on the Met stage on Sunday, March 9 at 4 p.m. Grigolo and pianist Vincenzo Scalera will perform songs by Bellini, Rossini, Tosti, Gastaldon, Leoncavallo, De Curtis, and D'Annibale and arias from Donizetti's Il Duca d'Alba and Verdi's Il Corsaro.

The MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

The MET Orchestra continues its highly acclaimed annual series at Carnegie Hall with three Sunday afternoon concerts conducted by James Levine. The program for the October 13 concert includes the overture from Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani; Elliott Carter's "Variations for Orchestra"; Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92; and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in selections from Rossini's Giovanna d'Arco and Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito.

On December 22, Levine conducts an all-Mahler program. Baritone Peter Mattei will sing the composer's first song cycle, "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer)" and the orchestra will conclude the program with Mahler's Symphony No. 7.

The final concert of the season, on May 11, is an all-Dvo?ák prograM. Levine will conduct the orchestra in the composer's Carnival Overture, Op. 92, B. 169; Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70, B. 14; and Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191, featuring soloist Lynn Harrell.

The Met: Live in HD 2013-14

The 2013-14 season of The Met: Live in HD will feature 10 international movie theater transmissions of selected Saturday matinees. The HD season opens on October 5 with Eugene Onegin and continues with The Nose (October 26), Tosca (November 9), Falstaff (December 14), Rusalka (February 8), Prince Igor (March 1), Werther (March 15), La Bohème (April 5), Così fan tutte (April 26), and La Cenerentola (May 10).

The enormously successful Peabody and Emmy Award-winning series of live transmissions into movie theaters, which enters its eighth season in 2013-14, currently reaches more than 1,900 theaters in 64 countries. The Met launched its groundbreaking series in 2006 and quickly became the world's leading alternative cinema content provider. More than 12 million tickets have been sold since the series' inception.

Tickets for the 10 transmissions in the 2013-14 Live in HD season will go on sale in August in the U.S. and Canada, with Met Members offered priority before tickets are made available to the general public. International ticket sales dates and details on ordering tickets for the 2013-14 Live in HD series vary from country to country and will be announced separately by individual distributors.

The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor, The Neubauer Family Foundation. Global corporate sponsorship of The Met: Live in HD is provided by Bloomberg. Transmission of The Met: Live in HD in Canada is made possible thanks to the generosity of Jacqueline and Paul G. Desmarais Sr.

Within months of their initial live transmissions, the Live in HD programs are shown on PBS. The PBS series, Great Performances at the Met, is produced in association with PBS and WNET, with support from Toll Brothers, America's luxury home builder. Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ticket Prices, Subscription Changes, and Accessibility Programs

The Met's efforts to increase the accessibility of opera will continue in the new season, with more reduced ticket prices and enhanced subscriber benefits. In addition, three popular programs designed to increase audience access to Met performances will return in 2013-14.

The Met will decrease some ticket prices for next season. More than 2,000 seats for each performance will be available for lower prices than in the current season. Prices in many sections of the auditorium, particularly the orchestra and grand tier levels, will be lowered next season, causing the average price of a Met ticket to decrease from $174 to $156.

In addition, the Met is enhancing the benefits of subscribing. Subscription tickets will be priced at a significant discount, with a minimum discount of 15% versus single-sale prices for evening subscriptions, and a minimum discount of 10% for Saturday matinee subscriptions. New subscriber benefits include a modified exchange policy that eliminates exchange fees and allows the exchange of subscription tickets for any available performance with the exception of Opening Night and the New Year's Eve Gala. Also, the Met has created a new subscriber-only hotline designed to give Met subscribers priority service for all their ticket purchases, including additional single-sale tickets.

In keeping with a tradition begun on Opening Night in 2006, the September 23 premiere performance of Eugene Onegin will be transmitted live to numerous large screens in Times Square and on Lincoln Center's Josie Robertson Plaza. Attendance will be free at both locations; information on ticket distribution will be released at a later date. The Times Square relay of the Opening Night Gala is presented in cooperation with the City of New York and the Times Square Alliance.

The live opening relay is made possible through funding from Bloomberg. This program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

The Met's Rush Tickets program will return for its eighth season in 2013-14, once again making low-priced tickets in prime seating locations available for every performance.

The Met will continue its popular Open Rehearsal program, launched in 2006, which provides free dress rehearsal tickets to both students and members of the general public. The Open Rehearsals for the 2013-14 season will be announced at a later date.

New CD, DVD, and digital releases

The Met will commemorate the bicentennials of Verdi and Wagner with two exclusive box sets of historic Met performances, released by Sony Classical. Each set will feature legendary performances from the Met's archives, most never before officially released and all newly restored and mastered from the original sources. Wagner at the Met, a 25-CD set, will be released in April 2013 and feature Götterdämmerung starring Lauritz Melchior and Marjorie Lawrence (1936); Melchior and Kirsten Flagstad in Die Walküre (1940), Siegfried (1937), and Tristan und Isolde (1938); Lohengrin with Melchior and Astrid Varnay (1943); Der Fliegende Holländer with Hans Hotter and Varnay (1950); Das Rheingold with Hotter (1951); Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with Paul Schöffler and Victoria de los Angeles (1953); and Tannhäuser with Ramón Vinay, Margaret Harshaw, Varnay, George London, and Jerome Hines (1954). Conductors featured in the set include Artur Bodanzky, Erich Leinsdorf, Fritz Reiner, Fritz Stiedry, and George Szell.

This fall, Sony Classical will release Verdi at the Met, a 20-CD set of 10 previously unreleased and newly restored Verdi operas. This set will include Zinka Milanov and Jussi Björling in Un Ballo in Maschera (1940); Björling, Bidú Sayão, and Leonard Warren in Rigoletto (1945); Fritz Reiner conducting Warren in the title role of Falstaff (1949); Warren, Astrid Varnay, and Richard Tucker in Simon Boccanegra (1950); Milanov, Tucker, and Warren in La Forza del Destino (1952); Renata Tebaldi in La Traviata (1957); Mario Del Monaco, Victoria de los Angeles, and Warren in Otello (1958); Erich Leinsdorf conducting Leonie Rysanek and Warren in Macbeth (1959); Rysanek and Cornell MacNeil in Nabucco (1960); and Leontyne Price, Grace Bumbry, Carlo Bergonzi, and Robert Merrill in Aida (1967).

In addition to these audio releases, the Met will continue to release past broadcasts from the Live in HD series on DVD and Blu-Ray. The Met will also continue to make audio and video content available through iTunes in the coming season.

The Met on the Radio and the Web

The Met's 83rd consecutive Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcast season kicks off on December 7 with a live broadcast of Rigoletto and continues through the May 10 matinee of La Cenerentola. The broadcast season will once again be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. Margaret Juntwait returns for her tenth season as host and Ira Siff returns for his seventh season as commentator for the broadcasts, which feature a range of dynamic intermission features, live backstage interviews with artists, and the ever-popular Opera Quiz. The 2013-14 Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinee radio broadcast season will be sponsored by Toll Brothers, America's luxury homebuilder, with generous long-term support from The Annenberg Foundation, The Neubauer Family Foundation, and the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media, and through contributions from listeners worldwide.

Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM Channel 74 will present its eighth season as the country's premier subscription radio channel dedicated to opera. Up to three live performances will be broadcast each week during the season, beginning with the Met's Opening Night performance of Eugene Onegin on September 23, in addition to historic broadcasts from the Met's vast collection. Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM is available to subscribers in the United States and Canada.

The Met will continue to stream one live performance per week during the 2013-14 season on its website at metopera.org. The Met website also features artist interviews, video and audio clips, photo galleries, and other information about Met productions and initiatives.

The Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater "Opera/Music Theater Commissions" Program

The Met/LCT Opera/Music Theater Commissions program continues in 2013-14 with two works in development and the Met premiere of the first work to be produced from this program, Nico Muhly's Two Boys, set to a libretto by Craig Lucas. Two Boys, commissioned by the Met after being developed through workshops as part of the Met/Lincoln Center Opera/Music Theater Commissions program, received its world premiere at the London Coliseum in June 2011 in a co-production between the Met and English National Opera, directed by Bartlett Sher. Following those performances, the creative team has been working on further revisions in preparation for the Met premiere of Two Boys on October 21, 2013.

A workshop for Scott Wheeler's The Sorrows of Frederick (with a libretto by Romulus Linney) takes place at the end 2012-13 season, and two additional promising projects are currently being written in preparation for workshop productions.

Composer Ricky Ian Gordon is working on Intimate Apparel, with Lynn Nottage adapting her acclaimed play about an African-American seamstress in turn of the century New York. The play follows her pursuit of a better life, through a letter-writing relationship with a laborer working on the Panama Canal, and through her interactions with a cross section of New York City.

Composer Jeanine Tesori and playwright Tony Kushner are collaborating on a project that will expand upon their one-act opera A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck, which premiered at Glimmerglass Opera in August 2011. The one-act version dealt with the fight between an ailing Eugene O'Neill and his wife, Carlotta, during a raging snowstorm. Tesori and Kushner will expand this story to encompass more elements of the couple's tempestuous relationship during the last years of O'Neill's life, as he faced the realization that he could not complete his final masterpieces.

The Met/LCT Opera/Music Theater Commissions program is funded by a generous gift to the Met from the Francis Goelet Charitable Trusts.

Educational and Audience Development Initiatives

The Met's HD Live in Schools program will continue for its seventh season, offering free opera transmissions to New York City schools in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. The program now enters its sixth season nationally, partnering with 32 school districts across the country to bring the Met's live HD transmissions to students and teachers. The Met's HD education program includes backstage visits for students, where they learn how costumes and scenery are constructed; Q&As with artists; access to final dress rehearsals; in-school workshops; and teacher training workshops. Program and curriculum guides are created for in-school use in conjunction with HD screenings. Major funding for HD Live in Schools is made possible by Bank of America, with program support provided through a partnership with the New York City Department of Education.

Met Opera Students, the Met's popular initiative for full-time college and graduate students, will return in 2013-14. The program offers students access to steeply discounted tickets, invitations to artist lectures, discounts at the Met Opera Shop, and the opportunity to mingle with other young opera lovers at special pre-performance events.

The MetTalks series of panel discussions with the stars and creative teams of new productions will return for a fourth season in 2013-14.

The Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met

During the 2013-14 season, the contemporary art space located in the Met's south lobby will present two new exhibitions. The gallery will open for the season in late September with an exhibition presented in conjunction with Nico Muhly's Two Boys. In early 2014, a Prince Igor-themed show will open in the space; artists for both shows will be announced at a later date. Admission is free and Gallery Met is open to the public six days a week; the hours are Monday through Friday from 6 p.m. through the last intermission, and Saturdays from noon through the last intermission of the evening performance. For more information, visit metopera.org/gallerymet.

2013-14 Season
Repertory and Casting
Casting as of February 26, 2013
* Met Debut

NEW PRODUCTIONS

EUGENE ONEGIN
New Production/Opening Night Gala
Premiere: September 23, 2013

Eugene Onegin is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera.

Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Libretto: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Konstantin Shilovsky

Conductor: Valery Gergiev/Pavel Smelkov/Alexander Vedernikov*
Production: Deborah Warner*
Set Designer: Tom Pye*
Costume Designer: Chloe Obolensky*
Lighting Designer: Jean Kalman
Video Designers: Finn Ross* & Ian William Galloway*
Choreographer: Kim Brandstrup

Tatiana: Anna Netrebko/Marina Poplavskaya
Olga: Oksana Volkova/Elena Maximova*
Lenski: Piotr Beczala/Rolando Villazón
Eugene Onegin: Mariusz Kwiecien/Peter Mattei
Gremin: Alexei Tanovitsky/Štefan Kocán

(September 23, 26, October 1, 5 mat, 9, 12 eve, 16, 19 eve, November 23 eve, 29, December 2, 5, 12)

Production a gift of Ambassador and Mrs. Nicholas F. Taubman

FALSTAFF
New Production Premiere: December 6, 2013

Falstaff is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Teatro alla Scala, Milan; the Canadian Opera Company, Toronto; and De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam.

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto: Arrigo Boito

Conductor: James Levine
Production: Robert Carsen
Set Designer: Paul Steinberg
Costume Designer: Brigitte Reiffenstuel
Lighting Designers: Robert Carsen and Peter Van Praet*

Nannetta: Lisette Oropesa
Alice Ford: Angela Meade
Mistress Quickly: Stephanie Blythe
Meg Page: Jennifer Johnson Cano
Fenton: Paolo Fanale*
Falstaff: Ambrogio Maestri/Nicola Alaimo
Ford: Franco Vassallo

(December 6, 9, 14 mat, 18, 21 mat, 27, 30, January 3, 6, 11 eve)

Production a gift of the Betsy and Ed Cohen/Areté Foundation Fund for New Productions & Revivals

Additional funding from The Gilbert S. Kahn & John J. Noffo Kahn Foundation

DIE FLEDERMAUS
New Year's Eve Gala
New Production Premiere: December 31, 2013

Composer: Johann Strauss, Jr.
Libretto: Karl Haffner and Richard Genée

Conductor: Adam Fischer
Production: Jeremy Sams*
Set and Costume Designer: Robert Jones
Lighting Designer: Jennifer Schriever*
Choreographer: Stephen Mear*
Lyrics by: Jeremy Sams
Dialogue by: Douglas Carter Beane*

Rosalinde: Susanna Phillips
Adele: Christine Schäfer/Jane Archibald
Orlofsky: Anthony Roth Costanzo
Eisenstein: Christopher Maltman
Alfred: Michael Fabiano/Alexander Lewis
Dr. Falke: Paulo Szot

(December 31, Jan 4 eve, 7, 11 mat, 15, 18 mat, February 3, 5, 8 eve, 11, 13, 15 mat, 20, 22 eve)

Production a gift of The Sybil B. Harrington Endowment Fund; and Howard Solomon in honor of his wife, Sarah Billinghurst Solomon.

PRINCE IGOR
New Production Premiere: February 6, 2014

Composer: Alexander Borodin
Libretto: Alexander Borodin

Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda/Pavel Smelkov
Production: Dmitri Tcherniakov*
Set Designer: Dmitri Tcherniakov*
Costume Designer: TBA
Lighting Designer: Gleb Filshtinsky
Choreographer: TBA

Yaroslavna: Oksana Dyka*
Konchakovna: Anita Rachvelishvili
Vladimir Igorevich: Sergey Semishkur*
Prince Igor: Ildar Abdrazakov
Prince Galitsky: Mikhail Petrenko
Khan Konchak: Štefan Kocán

(February 6, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24, March 1 mat, 4, 8 eve)

Production a gift of The Annenberg Foundation, and The Gilbert S. Kahn & John J. Noffo Kahn Foundation

TWO BOYS
Metropolitan Opera Premiere: October 21, 2013

Two Boys is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera.
Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Originally commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater Opera/Music Theater Commissions Program.

Composer: Nico Muhly
Libretto: Craig Lucas

Conductor: David Robertson
Production: Bartlett Sher
Set Designer: Michael Yeargan
Costume Designer: Catherine Zuber
Lighting Designer: Donald Holder
Projections and Animation: 59 Productions
Choreographer: TBA

Rebecca: Jennifer Zetlan
Cynthia: Caitlin Lynch
Anne Strawson: Alice Coote
Fiona: Sandra Piques Eddy
Anne's Mum: Judith Forst
Brian: Paul Appleby/Nicky Spence*
Jake: Christopher Bolduc*
Peter: Keith Miller

(October 21, 25, 30, November 2 mat, 6, 9 eve, 14)

Production a gift of the Francis Goelet Charitable Trusts

Additional funding from Dr. Coco Lazaroff

WERTHER
New Production Premiere: February 18, 2014

Composer: Jules Massenet
Libretto: Edouard Blau, Paul Milliet, Georges Hartmann

Conductor: Alain Altinoglu
Production: Richard Eyre
Set and Costume Designer: Rob Howell
Lighting Designer: Peter Mumford
Video Designer: Wendall Harrington
Choreographer: Sara Erde

Sophie: Lisette Oropesa
Charlotte: El?na Garan?a
Werther: Jonas Kaufmann
Albert: David Biži?*
Le Bailli: Jonathan Summers

(February 18, 22 mat, 25, 28, March 3, 7, 11, 15 mat)

Production a gift of The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.; and the Gramma Fisher Foundation, Marshalltown, Iowa

Major funding from Rolex

Additional funding from The Gilbert S. Kahn & John J. Noffo Kahn Foundation

REPERTORY

ANDREA CHÉNIER
Season Premiere: March 24, 2014

Composer: Umberto Giordano
Libretto: Luigi Illica

Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda
Production: Nicolas Joël
Set and Costume Designer: Hubert Monloup
Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler

Maddalena: Patricia Racette
Andrea Chénier: Marcelo Álvarez
Carlo Gérard: Željko Lu?i?

(March 24, 28, 31, April 5 eve, 8, 12 mat)

Production a gift of The Annenberg Foundation

ARABELLA
Season Premiere: April 3, 2014

Composer: Richard Strauss
Libretto: Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Conductor: Philippe Auguin
Production: Otto Schenk
Set Designer: Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Costume Designer: Milena Canonero
Lighting Designer: Gil Wechsler

Arabella: Malin Byström/Erin Wall
Zdenka: Genia Kühmeier
Matteo: Roberto Saccà*
Mandryka: Michael Volle*
Waldner: John Del Carlo

(April 3, 7, 11, 16, 19 mat, 24)

Production a gift of Mrs. Michael Falk

LA BOHÈME
Season Premiere: January 14, 2014

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica

Conductor: Stefano Ranzani
Production: Franco Zeffirelli
Set Designer: Franco Zeffirelli
Costume Designer: Peter J. Hall
Lighting Designer: Gil Wechsler

Mimì: Maija Kovalevska/Anita Hartig*/Barbara Frittoli
Musetta: Irina Lungu*/Jennifer Rowley*/Susanna Phillips
Rodolfo: Joseph Calleja/Vittorio Grigolo
Marcello: Alexey Markov/Massimo Cavalletti
Schaunard: Joshua Hopkins/Patrick Carfizzi
Colline: Christian Van Horn/Nicolas Testé*/Oren Gradus
Benoit/Alcindoro: Donald Maxwell/Philip Cokorinos

(January 14, 18 eve, 22, 25 eve, 30, March 19, 22 eve, 26, 29 eve, April 2, 5 mat, 10, 14, 18)

Production a gift of Mrs. Donald D. Harrington

Revival a gift of Rolex

LA CENERENTOLA
Season Premiere: April 21, 2014

Composer: Gioachino Rossini
Libretto: Jacopo Ferretti
Conductor: Fabio Luisi
Production: Cesare Lievi
Set and Costume Designer: Maurizio Balò
Lighting Designer: Gigi Saccomandi
Choreographer: Daniela Schiavone

Angelina: Joyce DiDonato
Don Ramiro: Juan Diego Flórez
Dandini: Pietro Spagnoli*
Don Magnifico: Alessandro Corbelli
Alidoro: Luca Pisaroni

(April 21, 25, 28, May 2, 6, 10 mat)

Production a gift of Alberto Vilar

COSÌ FAN TUTTE
Season Premiere: September 24, 2013

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto: Lorenzo Da Ponte

Conductor: James Levine
Production: Lesley Koenig
Set and Costume Designer: Michael Yeargan
Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler

Fiordiligi: Susanna Phillips/Guanqun Yu
Dorabella: Isabel Leonard
Despina: Danielle De Niese
Ferrando: Matthew Polenzani
Guglielmo: Rodion Pogossov
Don Alfonso: Maurizio Muraro

(September 24, 28 eve, October 2, 5 eve, April 23, 26 mat, 30, May 3 eve, 8)

Production a gift of Alberto Vilar

Additional funding from the Metropolitan Opera Club; the Denenberg Foundation, in honor of Dan Denenberg; The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund; and Mr. and Mrs. Samuel L. Tedlow

L'ELISIR D'AMORE
Season Premiere: January 9, 2014

Composer: Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto: Felice Romani

Conductor: Maurizio Benini
Production: Bartlett Sher
Set Designer: Michael Yeargan
Costume Designer: Catherine Zuber
Lighting Designed by Jennifer Tipton

Adina: Anna Netrebko
Nemorino: Ramón Vargas
Belcore: Nicola Alaimo
Doctor Dulcamara: Erwin Schrott

(January 9, 13, 17, 21, 25 mat, 29, February 1 eve)

Production a gift of The Monteforte Foundation, in honor of Wim Kooyker

THE ENCHANTED ISLAND
Season Premiere: February 26, 2014

Composers: George Frideric Handel, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Antonio Vivaldi & others
Libretto: Jeremy Sams

Conductor: Patrick Summers
Production: Phelim McDermott
Associate Director & Set Designer: Julian Crouch
Costume Designer: Kevin Pollard
Lighting Designer: Brian MacDevitt
Choreographer: Graciela Daniele
Animation & Projection Design: 59 Productions

Ariel: Danielle De Niese
Miranda: Andriana Chuchman*
Sycorax: Susan Graham
Prospero: David Daniels
Ferdinand: Anthony Roth Costanzo
Neptune: Plácido Domingo
Caliban: Luca Pisaroni

(February 26, March 1 eve, 5, 8 mat, 12, 15 eve, 20)

Production a gift of Dr. David G. Knott and Ms. Françoise Girard

Major funding from Rolex

Additional funding from The Annenberg Foundation, the Edgar Foster Daniels Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. William R. Miller, American Express, and the National Endowment for the Arts

Revival a gift of The NPD Group, Inc.

DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN
Season Premiere: November 7, 2013

Composer: Richard Strauss
Libretto: Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski
Production: Herbert Wernicke
Set, Costume, and Lighting Designer: Herbert Wernicke

The Empress: Anne Schwanewilms*/Meagan Miller*
The Dyer's Wife: Christine Goerke
The Nurse: Ildikó Komlósi
The Emperor: Torsten Kerl
Barak: Johan Reuter

(November 7, 12, 16 eve, 20, 23 mat, 26)

Production a gift of a Managing Director and his wife

Revival a gift of Robert L. Turner

MADAMA BUTTERFLY
Season Premiere: January 16, 2014

Madama Butterfly is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, and the Lithuanian National Opera.

Composer: