Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conducts First Wagner Opera at the Met, 4/25

Future Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Wagner opera with the company, Der Fliegende Holländer, beginning April 25. The opera, which has not been seen at the Met since 2010, featuresMichael Volle as the Dutchman, the ghostly sailor damned to sail the seas in search of the love that will set him free. Amber Wagner sings the role of Senta, opposite Jay Hunter Morris as the huntsman Erik. The cast also features Dolora Zajick as Senta's nurse Mary with Ben Bliss as the Steersman and Franz-Josef Selig as Senta's father Daland.

Nézet-Séguin made his company debut during the 2009-10 season conducting a new production of Bizet's Carmen. He has returned in every subsequent season, leading acclaimed performances of Verdi's Don Carlo, Gounod's Faust, Verdi's La Traviata, and Dvo?ák'sRusalka followed by the opening night performance of the Met's 2015-16 season: a new production of Verdi's Otello. In addition to the Met, he has conducted at the Vienna State Opera; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; La Scala; Dutch National Opera; and the Salzburg Festival. Since 2012, Nézet-Séguin has been Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra; next season, will be his final season as the Music Director of Montreal's Orchestre Métropolitain and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. The Canadian maestro will become Music Director in the Met's 2020-21 season, the first season in which he is available to take over the full responsibilities of the position. Next season, he will lead Wagner's Parsifal and Strauss's Elektra with the company.

Michael Volle has previously sung the Flying Dutchman to great acclaim at the Berlin State Opera, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and Zurich Opera. He made his Met debut in 2014 as Mandryka in Strauss's Arabella followed by Sachs in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Recent credits with other companies include the title role of Rossini's Guillaume Tell at the Bavarian State Opera and Wotan in Wagner's Das Rheingold at La Scala. In May, he will be featured as a soloist in the Met's 50th Anniversary at Lincoln Center Gala, and next season, he will sing Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca with the company.

Amber Wagner adds a new role to her Met repertory as Senta. She first came to prominence as a winner of the Met's National Council Auditions in 2007, a process that was documented in the award-winning film The Audition. She made her company debut in 2011 as Anna in Verdi's Nabucco, followed by Amelia in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera. Her other credits include the title role of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at the Bavarian State Opera, Leonore in Verdi's Il Trovatore and Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Leonora in Verdi's La Forza del Destino at the Washington National Opera.

Jay Hunter Morris has sung the role of Erik at the Washington National Opera and Los Angeles Opera. He made his Met debut in 2007 as Števa in Janá?ek's Jen?fa followed by an acclaimed Met role debut in 2011, substituting at short notice as the title character in the new production premiere of Siegfried. He then returned to the Met to sing the role in the Götterdämmerungpremiere and two complete Ring cycles. Next season, he will star as Aegisth in Elektra with the company

Dolora Zajick makes her role debut as Mary. She has sung 245 performances at the Met since making her company debut as Azucena in Il Trovatore in 1988. Her most recent credits with the Met include Ulrica Arvidsson in Un Ballo in Maschera, Ježibaba in Rusalka, Amneris in Verdi's Aida, and the Countess in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades. She will sing in the Met's 50th Anniversary at Lincoln Center Gala in May, and next season, she will sing Gertrude in the company's holiday presentation of Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel.

Ben Bliss makes his role debut as the Steersman. As a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Program, he made his company debut in 2014 as Vogelgesang in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, followed by performances as Arturo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Belmonte in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Tamino in the holiday presentation of Mozart's The Magic Flute. In May, he will be a soloist in the Met's 50th Anniversary at Lincoln Center Gala, and next season, he will star as Ferrando in a new production of Mozart's Così fan tutte with the company.

Franz-Josef Selig adds a new role to his Met repertory as Daland, a role he has previously sung at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the Munich Opera Festival. His past credits with the company include Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte and Fasolt in Wagner's Das Rheingold. Later this year, he can be seen singing Arkel in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande at the Vienna State Opera and Paris Opera, as well as Gurnemanz in Parsifal and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at the Baden-Baden Festival.

Der Fliegende Holländer Fun Facts

Composer and librettist Richard Wagner conducted the premiere of Der Fliegende Holländer in 1843 in Dresden. He composed the piece to be staged without an intermission, a novelty for the era. The opera is considered by many to be the first of Wagner's fully formed and mature works. The opera is based on Heinrich Heine's retelling of the legend in his 1833 satirical novel The Memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski.

Der Fliegende Holländer premiered at the Met in 1889, and the opera has been staged 154 times to date with the company. Today, the Met Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first performances of Der Fliegende Holländer with the company, and notable other conductors who have led Wagner's opera at the Met include Karl Böhm, Erich Leinsdorf, and Met Music Director Emeritus James Levine.

Der Fliegende Holländer Radio Broadcasts

The Der Fliegende Hollander performance on April 25 will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74 and streamed live on the Met's website, www.metopera.org.

The April 29 matinee performance will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

For More Information

For more information on Der Fliegende Holländer, including casting by date, please click here.