Verdi's DON CARLO to Return to the Met Opera, 3/30

Verdi's sweeping historical tragedy Don Carlo will return to the Met stage March 30for an eight-performance revival conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the dynamic maestro who led the 2010 Met premiere ofNicholas Hytner's critically acclaimed production. Yonghoon Lee will reprise his portrayal of the conflicted title hero, withFerruccio Furlanetto as his father and rival, the imposing Philip II; Barbara Frittoli as his lover, Elisabeth de Valois;Ekaterina Gubanova as Elisabeth's tormented lady-in-waiting, Princess Eboli; Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Rodrigo, Don Carlo's friend and ally; and James Morris as the menacing Grand Inquisitor.

The April 15 performance will star rising dramatic soprano Lianna Haroutounian in her Met debut as Elisabeth opposite Brazilian tenor Ricardo Tamura as Don Carlo and Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Nadia Krasteva in her Met debut as Eboli. Krasteva will also sing the role on April 18, 22, and 25. Luca Salsi, currently starring at the Met as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, will sing Rodrigo on April 15 and 22.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, made his Met debut in 2009 leading the new production premiere of Bizet's Carmen and returned the next two seasons to lead production premieres of both Don Carlo and Gounod's Faust. In recent seasons, he has conducted acclaimed Met revivals of Verdi's La Traviata and Dvo?ák's Rusalka. This September, he will lead his first Met opening night gala, a new production of Verdi's Otello starring Aleksandrs Antonenko in the title role and Sonya Yoncheva as Desdemona.

Yonghoon Lee made his Met debut as Don Carlo in 2010, with Nézet-Séguin conducting, and reprised the role on the Met's tour of Japan in 2011. In subsequent Met seasons, he has starred as Ismaele in Verdi's Nabucco and Don José inCarmen, the latter both in 2012 and earlier this month as a last-minute replacement for an ailing colleague. Next season, the Korean tenor will sing his first Met performances of both Manrico in Verdi's Il Trovatore-opposite Anna Netrebko in her North American role debut as Leonora-and Turiddu in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.

Barbara Frittoli sang her first Met performances of Elisabeth in the company's 2012-13 season. Over the course of her 20-year career with the company, she has sung more than 90 performances of 11 roles, including three Verdi heroines-the title character in Luisa Miller, Desdemona in Otello, and Amelia in Simon Boccanegra. Her other recent Met performances have included Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème and the title role of his Suor Angelica; Vitellia in Mozart's Clemenza di Tito and Donna Elvira in his Don Giovanni; and Micaëla in the 2009 new production premiere of Carmen. Next season, she makes her company role debut as Nedda in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.

Ekaterina Gubanova sings her first New York performances of Eboli, a role she first sang with the Met during the company's Japan tour in 2011. Gubanova made her Met debut in 2007 as Hélène Bezukhova in Prokofiev's War and Peace.She returned in 2009 to sing Giulietta in the new production premiere of Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann and in 2011 to sing Giovanna Seymour in the company premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena. She will reprise the latter role at the Met next January.

Nadia Krasteva has sung Eboli with the Vienna State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and Valencia's Palau de les Arts. Next season, she will sing the role with both San Francisco Opera and the Dresden State Opera. Her other performances this season include Preziosilla in Verdi's La Forza del Destino at the Bavarian State Opera and Dalila in Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila at the National Theatre in Sofia.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky has sung the role of Rodrigo 24 times with the Met between 2001 and 2013. The heroic Count of Posa is among the numerous Verdi baritone roles he has performed with the company, a list that also includes the title roles inRigoletto and Simon Boccanegra, Germont in La Traviata, Don Carlo in Ernani, Count di Luna in Il Trovatore, and Anckarström in Un Ballo in Maschera, a role he sings at the Met this April and May. Next season, he will reprise his di Luna opposite Lee and Netrebko.

Luca Salsi recently sang the title role in Rossini's Guglielmo Tell to critical acclaim with the Teatro Regio Torino at Carnegie Hall. He sings frequently under the baton of Riccardo Muti, with whom he has recently performed the title roles in Verdi's Macbeth and Nabucco; Muti will conduct him as Don Carlo in Verdi's Ernani at the Salzburg Festival this summer. Salsi made his Met debut as Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 2007.

Ferruccio Furlanetto has sung Philip II 22 times at the Met, first in 2005 and again in 2010 and 2013. He has sung the tormented monarch around the world, including stagings this season at the Vienna State Opera, National Theatre in Sofia, and Opera Australia in Sydney. His other recent roles at the Met have included Don Basilio in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Méphistophélès in Faust, de Silva in Verdi's Ernani, and Jacopo Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, which he will reprise at the Met next season.

Earlier this season, James Morris reprised the demanding role of Hans Sachs in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg to acclaim and reprised his Commendatore in a revival of Don Giovanni. He has sung more than 950 Met performances in dozens of roles, most recently Claggart in Britten's Billy Budd, Oroveso in Bellini's Norma, Timur in Puccini'sTurandot, and Lodovico in Verdi's Otello. He will return to the Met next season to sing both Timur and Lodovico.

Don Carlo Radio Broadcasts

The March 30 opening performance of Don Carlo will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performance on April 11. The March 30 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's Web site,www.metopera.org.

The April 11 performance will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

For More Information

For more information on Don Carlo, including casting by date, please click here.

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