TURANDOT Returns to the Met Tonight

Puccini's opera set in ancient China, TURANDOT, will return to the Metropolitan Opera for 16 performances tonight, beginning September 23.

This season's performances will feature star dramatic sopranos Christine Goerke and Nina Stemme in their first Met performances as the titular ice princess, as well as Lise Lindstrom, who made a notable company debut in the role in 2009. Hibla Gerzmava, Anita Hartig, and American soprano Leah Crocetto (in her Met debut) share the role of the angelic slave girl Liù, while Marcelo Álvarez, Yusif Eyvazov (in his Met debut), and Marco Berti sing Calàf, the suitor who risks his head for TURANDOT's hand. James Morris and Alexander Tsymbalyuk sing the role of the disguised King of Tartary, Timur. Paolo Carignani will conduct all performances of Franco Zeffirelli's grand 1987 production.

Christine Goerke sings her first Met performances of TURANDOT, a role she has previously sung with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. Since making her Met debut in 1995 in the ensemble of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles, she has sung ten roles with the company including the Dyer's Wife in Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten, the Foreign Princess in Dvo?ák's Rusalka, Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. She can be seen later this season as Brünnhilde in Wagner's Siegfried at the Canadian Opera Company and Houston Grand Opera. Additionally, she will sing excerpts from Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in a Met concert at Carnegie Hall on May 26 conducted by James Levine. As previously announced, Goerke will star as Brünnhilde in a complete Ring cycle at the Met in a future season.

Nina Stemme previously sang the role of TURANDOT at La Scala and in her native country of Sweden at the Royal Swedish Opera and Dalhalla Opera. She made her Met debut in 2000 as Senta in Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer and was last seen at the Met in the title role in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos in 2010. In the spring, Stemme adds a new role to her Met repertory as the title character in the new production of Strauss's Elektra.

Lise Lindstrom returns to the Met stage following her company debut as TURANDOT in 2009. In the past, she has starred as the proud princess at the Opera Australia, La Scala, and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. She can be seen later this season in the title role of Elektra at the Opéra de Montréal, the leading role in Richard Strauss's Salome at the Bavarian State Opera, and TURANDOT at the Vienna State Opera.

Hibla Gerzmava reprises her role as Liù, a role she sang at the Met in 2012 and with the Mariinsky Theatre's tour to Japan in 2011. Previous performances at the Met include Stella and Antonia in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann and Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème. In the spring, she will make her role debut as Desdemona in the Met's new production of Verdi's Otello.

In January, Anita Hartig makes her Met role debut as Liù, a role she has previously sung at the Bavarian State Opera. In 2013, she made her company debut as Mimì in La Bohème, and last season, she sang the role of Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen. Later this year, she will star as Susanna in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Met, a role she has sung previously with the Vienna State Opera and Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

Leah Crocetto, a winner of the 2010 Met National Council Auditions, makes her Met debut as Liù after singing the role with the San Francisco Opera. She previously sang Mimì in La Bohème at the San Francisco Opera and Pittsburgh Opera, Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Bordeaux Opera and San Francisco Opera, and Desdemona in Otello at the English National Opera and Frankfurt Opera. She can be seen in the spring as Anna in Rossini's Maometto II at the Canadian Opera Company and next summer as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Santa Fe Opera.

Marcelo Álvarez makes his role debut as the hero Calàf. He has sung more than 112 Met performances in 15 roles, most recently the lead tenor roles in the double bill of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, the title role in Giordano's Andrea Chénier, Gustavo III in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, and Radamès in Verdi's Aida. Later this season, he will sing Manrico in Il Trovatore at the Paris Opera, Dick Johnson in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West at La Scala, and Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca at the Zurich Opera and Opéra de Monte Carlo.

Yusif Eyvazov makes his Met debut, as well as his North American role debut as Calàf. His recent performances include Cavaradossi in Tosca at the St. Margarethen Opera Festival in Austria, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Teatro Filarmonico for the Verona Opera Festival, and Radamès in Aida at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Later this season, he will sing the role of Manrico in Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Berlin State Opera.

Marco Berti first sang Calàf at the Met in 2012. He has sung the role at many other opera houses including the Berlin State Opera, La Scala, and San Francisco Opera. His other roles at the Met have included Radamès in Aida, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Don José in Carmen, and Manrico in Il Trovatore. This season, Berti will also sing Radamès in Aida at Teatro Regio Torino and Pollione in Bellini's Norma at the Paris Opera.

James Morris last sang Timur at the Met in 2012. He has sung 948 Met performances including most recently the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Sachs in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Oroveso in Norma, and Claggart in Britten's Billy Budd. This season, he can also be seen as Lodovico in the Met's new production of Otello and Scarpia in Tosca.

Alexander Tsymbalyuk has previously sung Timur at La Scala and the Hamburg State Opera. He made his Met debut in 2010 as Ferrando in Il Trovatore and later sang Lodovico in Otello in 2013. Later this season, he can be seen as King René in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta at the Paris Opera and both the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Bavarian State Opera.

Paolo Carignani made his Met debut in 2008 conducting La Traviata. During previous seasons, he has conducted Aida and Verdi's Nabucco, and later this season, he will conduct performances of La Bohème. The Italian maestro was the chief conductor of the Frankfurt Opera from 1997-2008.

TURANDOT Fun Facts

Since the company premiere in 1926, which starred Maria Jeritza and Giacomo Lauri-Volpi and was conducted by Tullio Serafin, TURANDOT has been performed 296 times at the Met with Zeffirelli's production premiering in 1987. Among the many performers who have sung the leading roles with the company, Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli hold the Met record with 52 and 54 performances, respectively, of the leading roles-more than half of which they sang together between 1961 and 1970.

TURANDOT Live in HD and Radio Broadcasts

The January 30 matinee performance of TURANDOT will be transmitted live around the world at 12:55 p.m. ET hosted by Reneé Fleming. The transmission will be seen in more than 2,000 movie theaters in 70 countries around the world. The September 23 performance of TURANDOT will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performance on September 30, October 26, January 26, and January 30. The October 26 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's Web site, www.metopera.org.

The January 30 performance will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

For more information on TURANDOT, including casting by date, click here.

Pictured: Lise Lindstrom in the title role of Puccini's "Turandot." Photographed by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera.