Patricia Racette to Replace Catherine Naglestad in Metropolitan Opera's SALOME

Patricia Racette will add a new role to her Met repertory as the title character in all performances of Strauss's Salome this season, replacing the originally announced Catherine Naglestad. Ms. Naglestad was forced to withdraw from the performances, which were to be her Met debut, for medical reasons that will prevent her traveling to America as scheduled.

Racette is currently singing Salome with Pittsburgh Opera, and has previously sung the role with San Antonio Opera and in concert at the Ravinia Festival. Later this season, she will sing the role with Los Angeles Opera. She has sung 170 Met performances of 19 different roles over the course of her career with the company, in a varied repertory that has recently included Nedda in the new production of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci; Maddalena in Giordano's Andrea Chénier; the title role of Puccini's Tosca; Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites; Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly; Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore; and the three principal soprano roles in Puccini's Il Trittico. This spring, she will make another Met role debut when she sings her first company performances of Roxane in Alfano's Cyrano.

Salome, conducted by Johannes Debus in his Met debut, will also star Nancy Fabiola Herrera as Herodias, Gerhard Siegel as Herod, Kang Wang in his Met debut as Narraboth, and Željko Lu?i? as Jochanaan. The revival opens December 5, with additional performances on December 9, 13, 17 matinee, 24, and 28.

For more information, please visit the Met's website at www.metopera.org.