Lianna Haroutounian News

Lianna Haroutounian will sing the role of Amelia Grimaldi in all performances of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at the Met this season: April 1, 5, 9 matinee, 13, and 16.

Yonghoon Lee will sing the title role in this evening's performance of Verdi's Don Carlo, replacing Ricardo Tamura. As previously scheduled, Lee will sing the role in all remaining Met performances of the opera this season.

Verdi's sweeping historical tragedy Don Carlo will return to the Met stage March 30for an eight-performance revival conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the dynamic maestro who led the 2010 Met premiere ofNicholas Hytner's critically acclaimed production. Yonghoon Lee will reprise his portrayal of the conflicted title hero, withFerruccio Furlanetto as his father and rival, the imposing Philip II; Barbara Frittoli as his lover, Elisabeth de Valois;Ekaterina Gubanova as Elisabeth's tormented lady-in-waiting, Princess Eboli; Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Rodrigo, Don Carlo's friend and ally; and James Morris as the menacing Grand Inquisitor.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Luca Salsi will sing the role of Rodrigo in this season's performances of Verdi's Don Carlo, replacing Simon Keenlyside, who has withdrawn from the run due to illness.

San Francisco Opera presents Puccini's Tosca in five performances October 23-November 8. Italian maestro Riccardo Frizza conducts Puccini's masterful melodrama in which a great singer, a rebellious painter and a corrupt police chief engage in a deadly test of wills.

Opera Australia announces their replacement for Tamar Iveri, the Georgian singer who was fired last week following Facebook comments she made in which she compared homosexuals with 'faecal masses'. Opera Australia, who describes Iveri's views as 'unconscionable, released her from her contract to perform the role of Desdemona in their staging of Otello.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season will feature 26 operas, three of them company premieres, in six new productions and 18 revivals showcasing the talents of the world's leading singers, conductors, and theater artists. The three operas that will have their first-ever Met performances, each staged by a director making his Met debut, are John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris, opening October 20; Rossini's La Donna del Lago, conducted by Michele Mariotti and directed by Paul Curran, opening February 16, 2015; and Tchaikovsky's one-act opera Iolanta, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Treli?ski. Iolanta will be presented in a double bill with a new staging of Bartok's one-act Duke Bluebeard's Castle, also conducted by Gergiev and directed by Treli?ski.