Verdi’s Aida Returns to the Met with Violeta Urmana in the Title Role 2/9

Verdi's grand masterpiece set in Ancient Egypt, Aida, will return to the Met February 9 with Violeta Urmana in the title role of an enslaved Ethiopian princess. Stephanie Blythe adds a new role to her extensive Met repertory as Amneris, Aida's royal rival, and Marcelo Álvarez and Marcello Giordani (both in Met role debuts) and Italian tenor Riccardo Massì (in his Met debut) share the role of the hero Radamès. Lado Ataneli sings Amonasro, Aida's father, and James Morris sings the high priest Ramfis. Marco Armiliato conducts all seven performances of the opera, which will be seen in Sonja Frisell's spectacular production.

Urmana sang her first Met performances of Aida in a 2009-10 revival that was transmitted around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD series. Her Met repertory ranges from Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal and Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo to the title characters in Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, Puccini's Tosca, Maddalena in Giordano's Andrea Chénier, and Odabella in Verdi's Attila, a role she sang in that opera's Met premiere. Blythe has been acclaimed for a diverse array of Met performances, including Fricka in the new production premieres of Wagner's Das Rheingold and Die Walküre; Ježibaba in Dvo?ák's Rusalka; Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice; Frugola, the Principessa, and Zita in the new production premiere of Puccini's Il Trittico; Eduige in the Met premiere of Handel's Rodelinda; and Mistress Quickly and Ulrica in Verdi's Falstaff and Un Ballo in Maschera. Earlier this season, she reprised Eduige in a revival of Rodelinda, and she will sing Fricka in complete cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen beginning in April.

Radamès is the fourth Verdi hero Álvarez has sung at the Met, following Alfredo in La Traviata, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, and Manrico in Il Trovatore. He starred in the recent new production premieres of Il Trovatore and Tosca, as well as the subsequent Live in HD transmissions of both operas. He last sang with the Met for two performances of Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème during the summer 2011 tour of Japan. Giordani's Met engagements this season also include the title role in Verdi's Ernani and Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, a role he sang in the 2006 new production premiere. Last season, he made his role debut as Dick Johnson in the Met's centennial production of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West. Massì, a graduate of the Accademia della Scala program in Milan, sang Radamès in 2009 in Salerno under the baton of Daniel Oren. He has sung other roles at La Scala, Berlin State Opera, Rome Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, and in concert at Amsterdam's Concertegebouw, as well as in Trieste, Salzburg, Rio de Janeiro, and Lima.

Ataneli last sang Amonasro at the Met in the 2005-06 season. He has also sung the title roles in Verdi's Macbeth, Rigoletto, and Nabucco, as well as Germont in La Traviata. Morris, now in his forty-first season with the Met, has also sung the King and Amonasro in Aida. This season, he sings Scarpia in Tosca, Claggart in Britten's Billy Budd, and?in a new Met role?the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Armiliato also conducts this season's revival of Ernani. He has conducted numerous Verdi operas at the Met, including Attila, Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Il Trovatore. Earlier this season, he led the Met premiere performances of Donizetti's Anna Bolena.

Jordan Bisch sings the King of Egypt, and 2010 National Council Auditions winner Lori Guilbeau makes her Met debut as the Priestess.

Aida Radio Broadcasts
The February 9 opening performance of Aida will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performances on February 23 and March 3. The February 9 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's Web site, www.metopera.org.

The March 3 matinee will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.