The Met Announces Live In HD 2019/20 Series

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts, will begin its 14th season on October 12, with the Met's production of Puccini's Turandot, starring Christine Goerke in the title role, led by the Met's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The 2019-20 Live in HD season features ten transmissions, including five new productions: the Met premiere of Philip Glass's groundbreaking 20th-century opera Akhnaten, starring Anthony Roth Costanzo as the title pharaoh, conducted by Karen Kamensek; Peter Mattei in the title role of Berg's Wozzeck, in a new staging by acclaimed visual artist and stage director William Kentridge, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; a new production of the Gershwins' classic American opera Porgy and Bess, last performed at the Met in 1990, starring Eric Owens and Angel Blue, directed by James Robinson and conducted by David Robertson; the Met premiere of Handel's Agrippina, starring Joyce DiDonato in a contemporary staging by Sir David McVicar that promises to resonate with modern audiences; and a new take on Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer, starring Sir Bryn Terfel in the title role.

In addition to Turandot and the five new productions, Live in HD audiences will have the chance to see Massenet's lush French masterpiece Manon; the return of Anthony Minghella's inspired vision of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, with Plácido Domingo as Sharpless; Anna Netrebko in the title role of Puccini's Tosca; and Diana Damrau and Jamie Barton as the dueling queens of Maria Stuarda, the second opera of Donizetti's Tudor trilogy.

Select cinemas will also offer a special holiday encore of The Magic Flute, the company's first-ever Live in HD transmission from 2006. The abridged, English-language version of Mozart's classic fable features a winning ensemble, including Matthew Polenzani as Tamino, Nathan Gunn as Papageno, and René Pape as Sarastro. Julie Taymor's cherished production will be shown on December 7 in the U.S. and Canada, with dates varying internationally.

The Met: Live in HD is the largest provider of alternative cinema content in the world, with more than 26 million tickets sold since the inception of the series in 2006. The series brings live Met performances to more than 2,200 movie theaters and performing arts centers in more than 70 countries.

The Live in HD season will begin on Saturday, October 12, with Turandot. Future transmissions are as follows: Manon (October 26); Madama Butterfly (November 9); Akhnaten (November 23); Wozzeck (January 11); Porgy and Bess (February 1); Agrippina (February 29); Der Fliegende Holländer (March 14); Tosca (April 11); and Maria Stuarda (May 9). All ten operas will be Saturday matinee performances, transmitted live from the Met stage at 12:55PM Eastern Time. Please check local listings for rebroadcast dates and times.

Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera.