Patricia Racette To Sing Leading Soprano In Each Of The Three One-Act Operas in Puccini’s Trilogy IL TRITTICO

Patricia Racette is the first soprano since Teresa Stratas 20 years ago to sing all three leading soprano roles in Puccini's Il Trittico at the Met. Comprised of three one-act operas, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, Il Trittico returns to the Met in the production by Jack O'Brien that was a popular and critical hit at its premiere in 2007. Racette sings Giorgetta in Il Tabarro, the title role in Suor Angelica, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, a challenge last taken on at the Met in 1989. She is joined by Stephanie Blythe who repeats her much admired portrayals of Frugola in Il Tabarro, the Principessa in Suor Angelica, and Zita in Gianni Schicchi. Stefano Ranzani conducts in his Met debut, with Aleksandrs Antonenko as Luigi and Željko Lu?i? as Michele in Il Tabarro, Heidi Grant Murphy as Sister Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, Saimir Pirgu in his Met debut as Rinuccio, and Alessandro Corbelli in the title role in Gianni Schicchi. The set design is by Douglas W. Schmidt, Jess Goldstein created the costume designs, and the lighting designers are Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer. Performances run through December 12.

Il Trittico is the largest production in the Met's repertory, measured in the number of cargo containers necessary for its storage. At the new production premiere, the New York Times called it "grandly old-fashioned yet smart and effective," and observed that "Mr. O'Brien found his justification for the scenic grandeur in the text and music of each work."

The world premiere of Il Trittico took place at the Met in 1918, with a cast that included Claudia Muzio, Geraldine Farrar, and Florence Easton in the three leading soprano roles, and Giuseppe de Luca as Gianni Schicchi. Renata Scotto sang all three soprano roles in the 1975-76 and the 1981-82 seasons.

About the performers

Reviewing Patricia Racette's recent performance of the three leading soprano roles in Il Trittico, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Call it a trifecta, or a hat trick, or a triple whammy. Whatever the terminology, soprano Patricia Racette tackled all three soprano roles in Puccini's Il Trittico at the San Francisco Opera on Tuesday night and emerged triumphant." Last season at the Met the American soprano sang the title role in Anthony Minghella's production of Madama Butterfly, which was transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series. "In every dimension Ms. Racette's effort was exceptional; hers is a performance not to be missed," said the New York Times. Racette sang the role of Roberta Alden in the 2005 world premiere of Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy at the Met and was Ellen Orford in a new production of Peter Grimes in 2008, also shown live in HD. Since her 1995 Met debut as Musetta in La Bohème, Racette has sung Nedda in Pagliacci, Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites, Antonia and Stella in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Mimì in La Bohème, Elizabeth in Don Carlo, Alice Ford in Falstaff, and Violetta in La Traviata, which she sang in the 1998 new production premiere.

When Stephanie Blythe sang three roles in Il Trittico at the premiere of this production in 2007, the Associated Press said, "This phenomenal mezzo came close to stealing the show with her powerhouse vocalism and vivid acting." Musical America's 2009 "Vocalist of the Year" triumphed in two new roles at the Met last season: as Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice, which was transmitted live in HD, and as Ježibaba in Rusalka. This season, Blythe also sings Elgar's Sea Pictures with the MET Orchestra, conducted by James Levine in Carnegie Hall. A graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she has appeared in two company premieres, as the Cleaning Woman in Janá?ek's The Makropoulos Case (1996) and as Eduige in Handel's Rodelinda (2004). Blythe has displayed enormous versatility at the Met, performing roles of such differing musical and dramatic styles as Quickly in Falstaff, Fricka in Die Walküre, Mother Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites, Jocasta in Oedipus Rex, Cornelia in Giulio Cesare, Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera, and Baba the Turk in The Rake's Progress.
Aleksandrs Antonenko makes his Met role debut as Luigi. When he made his company debut last season in Rusalka, the New York Times said: "A handsome, virile stage presence, Mr. Antonenko moved with a winning confidence and ease. His ardent lyricism and powerful sound marked him as a performer of considerable promise." He joined the chorus of the Latvian National Opera in 1997, and within months made his solo debut there as Oberto in Alcina. The Latvian tenor now sings with major companies around the world in such roles Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut (Stockholm's Royal Opera), Ghermann in The Queen of Spades (Vienna State Opera), Ismaele in Nabucco (Bavarian State Opera, Munich), the title role of Otello (Salzburg Festival), and Don José in Carmen (Dresden's Semperoper).
Željko Lu?i? makes his role debut as Michele in Il Tabarro. The Serbian baritone made his company debut as Barnaba in La Gioconda in 2006, and the following season performed the title role in a new production of Macbeth, which was seen worldwide live in HD, and is now available on DVD. Newsday wrote of his Macbeth, "Lu?i? sang with unfailing beauty at all levels of dynamics, from a tortured whisper to a confident, embracing full voice, his sound sometimes seeming to issue from a twilight world of anguish." Last season he played three more leading Verdi roles, appearing as Rigoletto, Germont in La Traviata, and Count di Luna in Il Trovatore.
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of her Met debut, Heidi Grant Murphy returns as Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, the role she performed at the production's 2007 premiere. She sang Amore in Orfeo ed Euridice at the new production premiere in 2007 and again last season when it was transmitted live in HD. An alumna of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she has sung more than 20 roles at the Met, among them Nannetta in Falstaff, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera, both Papagena and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Susanna and Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito, Sister Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites, and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier.
Salvatore Licitra, who is also appearing this season as Radamès in Aida and Calàf in Turandot, reprises the role of Luigi in Il Tabarro, which he first sang in this production's 2007 premiere and in the live in HD transmission. The Italian tenor made a dramatic Met debut in 2002 as a last-minute replacement for Luciano Pavarotti, singing Cavaradossi in Tosca in a performance that was projected on a screen to a large crowd on the Lincoln Center Plaza. Licitra has also appeared at the Met as Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino, Canio in Pagliacci, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, and Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera.
Saimir Pirgu makes his Met debut as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi. The young Albanian tenor appeared at the Santa Fe Opera for the first time this summer, as Alfredo in La Traviata. His engagements elsewhere this season include more performances of Alfredo (Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Maggio Musicale, Florence), Edgardo in a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor (Hamburg State Opera), and the title role in Idomeneo (Zurich Opera).
"The robust and stylish Italian baritone Alessandro Corbelli made an endearing and unflappable Schicchi," the New York Times said after the premiere of this production in 2007. From the time of his 2005 Met debut as Dandini in La Cenerentola, Corbelli has specialized in comic roles. Last season he returned to La Cenerentola, in the role of Don Magnifico. He has also appeared as Sergeant Sulpice in Laurent Pelly's new production of La Fille du Régiment (2007), which was transmitted live in HD, as Taddeo in L'Italiana in Algeri, and as Dr. Dulcamara in L'Elisir d'Amore.
Maestro Stefano Ranzani makes his Met debut conducting Il Trittico. A native of Milan, he was formerly a violinist in the orchestra at La Scala, but soon turned to a conducting career. His repertoire includes Fedora (Vienna State Opera), Lucia di Lammermoor (La Scala; Deutsche Oper, Berlin), Mefistofele (Palermo's Teatro Massimo), La Sonnambula (Vienna State Opera), Tosca (Bavarian State Opera, Munich), and Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci (Zurich Opera). This season Ranzani also appears for the first time with the Dallas Opera, conducting Don Pasquale.

Live Broadcasts Around the World

Il Trittico will be experienced by millions of people around the world this season in movie theaters and on the radio and the internet, through distribution platforms the Met has established with various media partners.

The premiere on November 20 will be broadcast live on the Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78 and XM channel 79 as will the performances on November 25 and December 12.

The performance on November 20 will also be available via RealNetworks internet streaming at the Met's web site, www.metopera.org.

The December 12 matinee performance will kick off the Saturday Afternoon Broadcast season with a live transmission over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

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. Opening night is a new production of Tosca starring Karita Mattila, conducted by Levine and directed by Luc Bondy. The four Met premieres are: Janá?ek's From the House of the Dead, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and directed by Patrice Chéreau, both in Met debuts; Verdi's Attila starring Ildar Abdrazakov, conducted by Riccardo Muti and directed by Pierre Audi, with set and costume design by Miuccia Prada, Jacques Herzog, and Pierre de Meuron, all in their Met debuts; Shostakovich's The Nose featuring Paulo Szot, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed and designed by William Kentridge in his Met debut; and Rossini's Armida with Renée Fleming, conducted by Riccardo Frizza and directed by Mary Zimmerman. Other new productions are Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann starring Joseph Calleja, Anna Netrebko, and Alan Held, conducted by Levine and directed by Bartlett Sher; Carmen with El?na Garan?a and Roberto Alagna, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and directed by Richard Eyre, both in Met debuts; and Thomas's Hamlet with Natalie Dessay and Simon Keenlyside, conducted by Louis Langrée and directed by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser in their Met debuts.

Building on its 78-year radio broadcast history-currently heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network-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 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 seen in more than 900 theaters in 42 countries around the world and last season sold more than 1.8 million tickets. 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.

Continuing its innovative use of electronic media to reach a global audience, the Metropolitan Opera last season introduced Met Player, a new subscription servIce That makes much of the company's extensive video and audio catalog of full-length performances available to the public for the first time online in exceptional, state-of-the-art quality. The new service currently offers over 170 historic audio recordings, and almost 100 full-length opera videos are available, including 24 of the company's acclaimed The Met: Live in HD transmissions, known for their extraordinary sound and picture quality. New content, including HD productions and archival broadcasts, are added monthly.

Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Radio is a subscription-based audio entertainment service broadcasting an unprecedented number of live performances each week throughout the Met's entire season, as well as rare historical performances, newly restored and remastered, spanning the Met's 78-year broadcast history.

In addition to providing audio recordings through the Met on Rhapsody on-demand service, the Met also presents free live audio streaming of performances on its website once every week during the opera season with support from RealNetworks®.

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 goes into workshop this fall.

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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