Noted director Robert Lepage makes his Met debut with a technologically innovative new production of Hector Berlioz's masterpiece, La Damnation de Faust, opening on November 7. Music Director James Levine will conduct the first staging of the work at the Met since 1906, with Marcello Giordani in the title role, Susan Graham as Marguerite, and John Relyea as Méphistophélès.
The Met's acclaimed production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, directed by the late Academy Award-winning film director Anthony Minghella, returns to the stage for twelve performances beginning Friday, October 24, 2008. Reprising their portrayals in the production this season are sopranos Patricia Racette and Cristina Gallardo-Domâs in the title role, tenors Roberto Aronica and Marcello Giordani as Pinkerton, and baritone Dwayne Croft as Sharpless. Patrick Summers conducts the opera for the first time at Met.
The Metropolitan Opera will perform Verdi's Requiem Mass on Thursday, September 18 at 5:00 p.m. in commemoration of the first anniversary of the death of Luciano Pavarotti, who died on September 6, 2007.
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.
The Metropolitan Opera will perform Verdi's Requiem Mass on Thursday, September 18 at 5:00 p.m. in commemoration of the first anniversary of the death of Luciano Pavarotti, who died on September 6, 2007.
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.
Finnish soprano Karita Mattila sings the title role of Puccini's Manon Lescaut which will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 1PM EST on February 16, 2008.
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 up on the tremendous popular success of its inaugural Open Houses last season, the Metropolitan Opear will host the first of the season's three free Open Houses on Thursday, September 20, for the final dress rehearsal of Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti's haunting opera about a love doomed to fail, directed by Tony winner Mary Zimmerman, starring Natalie Dessay and Marcello Giordani.
On the heels of a notably strong box office opening, the Metropolitan Opera launches its 2007-08 season with a wide range of public outreach events and programs. For the second year in a row, the Met presents its groundbreaking opening-night relay to Times Square. On Monday, September 24, the gala performance of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor will be transmitted live onto giant outdoor screens in Times Square and Lincoln Center's Josie Robertson Plaza.
Theatre directors Mary Zimmerman, Adrian Noble, Richard Jones and John Doyle will be among those staging operas at the Met during the opera company's 2007-2008 season.
