Anna Netrebko News

Internationally-renowned tenor Piotr Beczala wowed critics and Metropolitan Opera audiences, alike, Monday evening (March 26) with his first assumption of the role of the hapless and hopelessly romantic Chevalier des Grieux in Massenet's Manon. Mr. Beczala shares the stage with soprano Anna Netrebko as the work's seductive, eponymous heroine. This new production, directed by Laurent Pelly, receives eight subsequent performances (March 31e; April 3, 7m, 11, 14e, 17, 20 & 23) www.metoperafamily.org

The new Enrico Caruso Room will feature a weekly Tuesday Night Opera Series starting April 17, showcasing a pair of talented professional opera performers each week, and a weekly Thursday Night Open Mic Series starting April 26, where singers will perform two musical pieces each. The singers on both nights will be supported by David Schaeffer on keyboard.

On Saturday, April 7, at 12 pm, The Met: Live in HD series continues at the Warner's Nancy Marine Studio Theatre with a live simulcast of Massenet's Manon.

Staatsoperndirektor Dominique Meyer, Generalmusikdirektor Franz Welser-Möst, Ballettdirektor Manuel Legris und der Kaufmännische Geschäftsführer Thomas W. Platzer haben heute, Dienstag, 27. März 2012 den Spielplan der kommenden Saison 2012/2013 präsentiert.

Following her turn as the title character in the Metropolitan Opera's season-opening production of Anna Bolena last fall, Anna Netrebko now returns to Lincoln Center to headline her second new production of the season, this time presenting her signature portrayal of the ill-fated Manon in Massenet's eponymous opera for the first time in front of New York audiences.

Following her turn as the title character in the Metropolitan Opera's season-opening production of Anna Bolena last fall, Anna Netrebko now returns to Lincoln Center to headline her second new production of the season, this time presenting her signature portrayal of the ill-fated Manon in Massenet's eponymous opera for the first time in front of New York audiences.

Opera Exposures will present its first 2012 spiritual music recital on Sunday, April 22, at 3 PM at Saint Mark's Church, Second Avenue and 10th Street in Manhattan. Sopranos Natalie Bergeron, Krysty Swann and Cheryl Warfield will join tenor George Cornelius and Baritone Anthony Turner. Jonathan Kelly will be at the piano. The recital will be followed by a Reception and Dance with the cast. Tickets are $50 and $40 and include Reception and Dance Party with a live DJ immediately following the recital. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling 917/402-8144 or visiting the Opera Exposures official website at www.operaexposures.org. They may also be purchased at the door.

In the first of three collaborations together this spring, Ailyn Perez and Stephen Costello reprise headline the Los Angeles Opera's signature production of Puccini's masterpiece. Marking Costello's house debut, the revival opens for six performances on May 12.

Anna Netrebko will make her Met role debut as the tragic heroine of Massenet's Manonin a new production directed by Laurent Pelly. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will conduct the opera for the first time at the Met, and Piotr Beczala makes his role debut as the ardent Chevalier des Grieux.

Patrick Summers continues his first season at the helm of the Houston Grand Opera this spring, leading performances of Verdi's Don Carlos (April 13-28) and Donizetti's Mary Stuart (April 21-May 4). Summers - named HGO's Artistic and Music Director in May 2011, following a 13-year period as Music Director - began his Houston season withVerdi's La traviata. Last fall, the conductor continued his long association with San Francisco Opera as principal guest conductor, leading the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis' Heart of a Soldier and, soon after, the company premiere of Handel's Xerxes. He returns to the West Coast this spring, making his Los Angeles Opera debut by conducting Puccini's La boheme (May 12-June 2).

Soprano Angela Meade, the 2011 Richard Tucker Award winner, returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Elvira in Verdi's Ernani, February 2-25, singing the role with which she made an unscheduled "star is born" professional debut at the Met in 2008 substituting for an ill colleague.

This weekend, medici.tv offers violinist Renaud Capucon performs Henri Dutilleux's gorgeous L'Arbre des songes (The Tree of Dreams), with conductor Tugan Sokhiev and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. The Toulouse program also presents Tchaikovsky's great "Pathetique" Symphony. On February 25 at 2:15 pm, medici.tv will present the opera Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss, starring soprano Renee Fleming and conducted by Christian Thielemann, in a production from Baden-Baden, Germany.

An abundance of Verdi and Wagner, in celebration of their 200th birthdays, will be featured in the Metropolitan Opera's 2012-13 season, which will showcase the world's greatest singers, conductors, and directors in seven new productions-two of them Met premieres-and 21 revivals, including three complete Ring cycles. Twelve of the season's Saturday matinees will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met's increasingly popular, award-winning Live in HD series.

The Metropolitan Opera (The Met) has just announced that Marco Armiliato will conduct Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia on February 15 and 18 matinee, replacing Maurizio Benini, who has withdrawn for personal reasons. Armiliato, who is currently conducting Verdi's Aida and Ernani, will now be conducting six out of seven Met performances this week. This is the highest number of performances for a conductor in a single week in Met history.

Screenvision, a leading innovator in cinema advertising and alternative content programming, is partnering with Ace Arts, a curator and provider of high quality performing arts content for presentation in cinema, to bring three of the opera's most acclaimed new stars into movie theaters in early 2012. The attraction, entitled '3 Superstars in Berlin,' will be available in more than 300 movie theaters across the U.S. on January 26 and February 1, 2012.