Anna Netrebko News

Two of opera's leading sopranos - both acclaimed for their dramatic and vocal skills - sing the demanding title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor for the first time at the Met this season. In the opening performance, October 3, 2008, Diana Damrau - who last season became the first soprano to achieve the feat of singing both leading soprano roles in Mozart's Die Zauberflote, Pamina and the Queen of the Night, in the same Met season - sings the role of Lucia for the first time in her career. Polish tenor Piotr Beczala is her beloved Edgardo in his Met role debut.

Soprano Karita Mattila, who electrified Met audiences in the title role of Richard Strauss's Salome in 2004, returns as the voluptuous Judean princess this season, beginning September 23.

Metropolitan Opera on SIRIUS Satellite Radio channel 78 launches its regular live broadcasts of the company's 2008-09 season with the Opening Night Gala starring Renée Fleming, which airs on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. The third season of Met Opera Radio on SIRIUS features four live broadcasts weekly as the Met celebrates its 125th anniversary with six new productions, including the company premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic, 18 revivals, and the season grand finale of Wagner's epic Ring cycle, conducted by Music Director James Levine.

Tickets for the third season of The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's live transmissions in movie theaters around the world, go on sale to the general public on Friday August 22.

National CineMedia (NCM) LLC, operator of the largest digital in-theatre network in North America for cinema advertising and alternative entertainment and events, and the Metropolitan Opera are proudly partnering to bring a third season of the critically-acclaimed The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD series transmitted live, in high-definition, to more than 440 movie theatres and performing arts centers in the United States.

Tickets for the third season of The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's live transmissions in movie theaters around the world, go on sale to the general public on Friday August 22.

Anna Netrebko, who is expecting her first child in September, has withdrawn from her scheduled Met performances as Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème on December 29, 2008 and January 3 matinee, 6, and 10, 2009. She has decided that she will need a few more weeks than originally planned to be ready for her return to the stage.

The Metropolitan Opera's critically-acclaimed live high-definition satellite transmissions will be seen on public television in a fourteen-part series, beginning on March 30. Great Performances at the Met, presented by Thirteen/WNET New York, will feature the broadcast premieres of all eight presentations from the 2007-08 season of 'The Met: Live in HD,' as well as the six shows from the 2006-07 season. A special prime time showing of Hansel and Gretel on March 26 will precede the series, which will air every Sunday afternoon at 12:00 p.m./EST for 14 weeks in selected public television markets. In New York, the programs will be a part of Thirteen/WNET's new SundayArts programming showcase, beginning on Sunday, March 30 with Richard Jones's new English-language production of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment), starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez, is the final broadcast of the series on Sunday, June 29.

The Drama League (Jano Herbosch, President)announced the recipients of its three annual specialty awards, to be presented along with its five annual production and performance awards at The 74th Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon on Friday, May 16, 2008 (noon).

The Metropolitan Opera's 'Live in High Definition' series of live satellite transmissions into movie theaters achieved record-breaking attendance in its first weekend of the new 2007-08 season. The first transmission on Saturday, December 15-Romeo et Juliette, starring Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna, conducted by Placido Domingo-drew a worldwide audience of 97,000.

The second season of Metropolitan Opera: Live in High Definition kicks off worldwide on Saturday, December 15 at 1PM (EST) with the first of the Met's eight live opera transmissions: Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, starring Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna, conducted by Plácido Domingo.

Following its sold-out run in 2006, Academy Award-winning director Anthony Minghella's acclaimed production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly returns to the Met for only six performances, beginning Monday, October 8, 2007.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Opera will present A Tribute to Beverly Sills, a free public event dedicated to the memory of the great soprano, on September 16 at 5PM at the Metropolitan Opera. Sills, one of the most popular figures in the history of opera and a champion of the performing arts, died on July 2, 2007 at the age of 78.

In honor of the Met's 30th anniversary on PBS, Thirteen/WNET New York's 'Great Performances at the Met' series presents 'Great Moments at the Met: Viewer's Choice,' a showcase of fans' favorite televised Met moments, chosen through online voting.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Opera will present 'A Tribute to Beverly Sills,' a free public event dedicated to the memory of the great soprano, on September 16, 2007

Julie Taymor, Bartlett Sher, Jack O'Brien and other acclaimed directors will stage works at the Metropolitan Opera House.