Bel Canto News

The Guthrie presents a Pillsbury House Theatre production of Blackbird by David Harrower directed by Stephen DiMenna.

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.

Deborah Voigt takes on the title role in Ponchielli's grand, passionate drama, La Gioconda, for the first time in the United States and only the second time in her career. She is joined by Olga Borodina as her rival, Laura, and, in the role of La Cieca, Polish contralto Ewa Podleś, who returns to the Met for the first time since 1984. The cast also includes Aquiles Machado as Enzo, Carlo Guelfi as Barnaba, and, in his Met debut, Orlin Anastassov as Alvise. Conductor Daniele Callegari makes his Met debut. Performances run from September 24 through October 9, 2009.

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.

SUZANNE CARRICO, the 2008 MAC Award Winner for 'Outstanding Debut,' will return to the Metropolitan Room with THE FRIENDLIEST THING, for three performances only, Wednesday, July 2nd & 9th & Saturday, July 5th all shows at 7:30pm.

Up and coming singer Suzanne Carrico, the 2008 MAC Award Nominee for 'Outstanding Debut,' will return to the Metropolitan Room with her new show 'The Friendliest Thing', for two special performances, Mondays, May 26th & June 2nd, at 7pm.

Suzanne Carrico, 2008 MAC Award Nominee, will return to the Metropolitan Room on May 26th.

Rossini's comic masterpiece, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, will be broadcast on the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 1:30 pm EST on January 26, 2008. The inventive production by Bartlett Sher, which opened last season to rave reviews, features the Met Broadcast debuts of renowned mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča as Rosina and bel canto specialist tenor José Manuel Zapata as Count Almaviva.

In the conclusion of BWW's series on groundbreaking women in theater, Rashad sounds off on many subjects...but not her history-making Tony triumph last season.