Rare Revival Of Gluck's ORFEO ED EURIDICE Opens At The Met Oct. 20

Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, an operatic fable about the power of music, returns to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time since 2011 for seven performances beginning October 20, 2019. Jamie Barton-who has won the Met's National Council Auditions, its Beverly Sills Artist Award, and the Richard Tucker Award, in addition to her many accomplishments on the stage-makes her role debut as the musician Orfeo, a grieving lover on a quest through the underworld of Hades. Hei-Kyung Hong sings the role of Euridice, while Hera Hyesang Park is Amore. Conductor Mark Wigglesworth marshals the Met's forces from the podium. Mark Morris's production, which he also choreographs, features a corps of 22 dancers as well as nearly 100 members of the Met's chorus on stage, each one costumed as a different historical character, from Moses to Ella Fitzgerald to Princess Diana.

The October 24 and November 1 performances of Orfeo ed Euridice will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on Sirius XM Channel 75, and the November 1 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's web site, metopera.org. A performance will also be taped for broadcast over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network on April 4, 2020.

Korean soprano Hei-Kyung Hong adds a new role to her Met repertory as Euridice. After making her Met debut in 1984 as Servilia in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, she has sung more than 370 Met performances over the course of her three-decade career with the company. Some key roles include Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème, Adina in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, Susanna in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Liù in Puccini's Turandot, and Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata. She has been seen in leading roles around the world in opera houses such as La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Paris Opera, LA Opera, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Bavarian State Opera, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Also this season at the Met, she will reprise Mimì.

Korean soprano Hera Hyesang Park makes her Met role debut as Amore. She made her company debut as First Wood Sprite in Dvořák's Rusalka in 2017, followed by performances as Barbarina in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and the Dew Fairy in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. Recent performances include Musetta in Puccini's La Bohème at Cologne Opera, Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte at Bavarian State Opera, and Rosina in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Glyndebourne Festival. This season, she sings Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Komische Oper Berlin and Violetta in Marko Nikodijević's 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, a project in collaboration with artist Marina Abramović, at Bavarian State Opera.

American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton makes her role debut as Orfeo. She first came to prominence as a winner of the Met's National Council Auditions in 2007, a process that was chronicled in the award-winning documentary film The Audition. She made her Met debut in 2009 as the Second Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, followed by Giovanna Seymour in Donizetti's Anna Bolena, Fenena in Verdi's Nabucco, Ježibaba in a new production of Dvořák's Rusalka, and Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma. Last season at the Met, she sang Fricka in the return of Wagner's epic Der Ring des Nibelungen. She is also a recipient of the Met's 2017 Beverly Sills Artist Award and was named the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. Other performances this season include Léonor de Guzman in Donizetti's La Favorite at Houston Grand Opera, concert performances as Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo at Dallas Opera, and Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at Santa Fe Opera. Also this season at the Met, she makes her role debut as Elisabetta in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, which will be seen around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD series.

English conductor Mark Wigglesworth made his Met debut conducting Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro in 2005. He has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with English National Opera, where he has led performances of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk; Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, The Magic Flute, and Don Giovanni; Verdi's Falstaff; Janáček's Káťa Kabanová and Jenůfa; Wagner's Parsifal; and Berg's Lulu. Other engagements have taken him to Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Real in Madrid, the Glyndebourne Festival, Opera Australia, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Also his season, he leads the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

For further details on Orfeo ed Euridice, including casting by date, please click here.

Photo Credit: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera