Two of Opera's Leading Ladies Sing 'Lucia di Lammermoor' This Season at Met
By: Faetra Petillo Sep. 09, 2008
Two of opera's leading sopranos – both acclaimed for their dramatic and vocal skills – sing the demanding title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor for the first time at the Met this season. In the opening performance, October 3, 2008, Diana Damrau – who last season became the first soprano to achieve the feat of singing both leading soprano roles in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Pamina and the Queen of the Night, in the same Met season – sings the role of Lucia for the first time in her career. Polish tenor Piotr Beczala is her beloved Edgardo in his Met role debut. Anna Netrebko returns to the Met for the first time since giving birth in September, singing the title role in the season's final four performances opposite tenor Rolando Villazón as Edgardo, who makes his first appearance at the Met in nearly two years. Marco Armiliato conducts all 11 performances.
The Saturday matinee performance on February 7, 2009, starring Netrebko and Villazón, will be seen in hundreds of movie theaters across the country and around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD series.The production by Mary Zimmerman, which opened the Met last season, was hailed by the Associated Press as both "handsomely traditional and imaginatively provocative at the same time." Zimmerman – along with set designer Daniel Ostling, costume designer Mara Blumenfeld, lighting designer T.J. Gerckens, and choreographer Daniel Pelzig – staged the bel canto favorite about a young woman destroyed by the forces of love and politics as a Victorian ghost story. The creative team returns later this season for a new production of Bellini's La Sonnambula.Completing the cast for the first seven performances are Bulgarian baritone Vladimir Stoyanov as Lucia's brother, Enrico, in his Met debut, and Russian bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov as Raimondo. In later performances, Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecen reprises Enrico, the role he sang to acclaim in last season's production premiere.
About the performers
Conductor Marco Armiliato made his Met debut in 1998 with La Bohčme, and has since led ten more productions here including the new production premieres of Wolf-Ferrari's Sly and Franco Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac, both starring Plácido Domingo, and last season's La Fille du Régiment, with Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez. This season, he conducts the new production of Puccini's La Rondine and shares the baton with Met Music Director James Levine and Patrick Summers in the Opening Night Gala starring Renée Fleming.
Diana Damrau adds two new roles to her Met repertory this season; following her career first Lucias this fall, she returns in April for her role debut with the company as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto. Since her Met debut in the brilliant coloratura role of Zerbinetta in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos in 2005, the German soprano has appeared with the company as Rosina in the hit 2006 production of IL Barbiere di Siviglia, directed by Bartlett Sher, and as Aithra in Die Ägyptische Helena, in a new production by David Fielding. Last season at the Met, she sang both Pamina and the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, in addition to Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
About the MetUnder 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 Metropolitan Opera's 2008-09 season pays tribute to the company's extraordinary history on the occasion of its 125th anniversary, while also emphasizing the Met's renewed commitment to advancing the art form. The upcoming season features six new productions, 18 revivals, the final performances of Otto Schenk's production of Wagner's Ring cycle conducted by Levine, and two gala celebrations; the galas include the season-opening performance featuring Renée Fleming as well as a 125th anniversary celebration on March 15. New productions include the company premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic as well as the Met's first staged production of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, and Massenet's Thaďs, Puccini's La Rondine, Verdi's Il Trovatore, and Bellini's La Sonnambula. Future seasons include new presentations of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles (2009-10) and Thomas Adčs's The Tempest (2011-12).Building on its 77-year-old international radio broadcast history – 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 Met: Live in HD series reached more than 935,000 people in the 2007-08 season, more than the number of people who saw performances in the opera house. These performances began airing on PBS in March 2008, and eight of these HD performances are currently or will soon be available on DVD, on the EMI and Universal labels. In the 2008-09 season, the series expands to feature 11 live transmissions, starting with the Met's Opening Night Gala and spanning the entire season. The HD productions will be seen in over 850 theaters in 28 countries around the world. Five new productions will be featured, including the Met premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic. The Opening Night transmission will be seen in the Americas only; the remaining ten high-definition productions will be shown live worldwide on Saturdays through May 9 with encores scheduled at various times. Live in HD in Schools, the Met's new 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, reached more than 7,000 public school students and teachers during the 2007-08 season. This season, Live in HD in Schools expands to reach schools in 18 cities and communities nationwide. Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78 is a subscription-based audio service broadcasting both live and rare recorded historical performances. In addition to providing audio recordings through the new 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. The Met has launched several audience development initiatives such as the company's Open House Dress Rehearsals, which are free and open to the public; two are planned for the 2008-09 season with operas and dates to be announced. The Met also presents a free performance of the Verdi Requiem on September 18, in tribute to the late Luciano Pavarotti. Other company initiatives include the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met which exhibits contemporary visual art; the immensely successful Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Rush Ticket program which provides deeply discounted orchestra seats two hours before curtain time; and an annual Holiday Series presentation for families. This season's special Holiday Presentation is Julie Taymor's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, an abridged, English-language version of the opera which is given four special matinee performances and one holiday evening performance as a way for families to celebrate the holiday season.
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