Mariusz Kwiecien News

Fathom Events and The Metropolitan Opera present "The Met: Live in HD' 2016 Summer Encores," a series of four encore performances from past Live in HD seasons in select U.S. cinemas nationwide.

Mario Zeffiri will sing the title role in this evening's performance of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, replacing Matthew Polenzani, who is ill.

“The Tudor Trilogy” --putting together Donizetti's ANNA BOLENA, MARIA STUARDA and ROBERTO DEVEREUX--was fabricated to light Beverly Sills' fire as “America's Queen of Opera” at the old New York City Opera. This season, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky was charged with bringing the trio of operas to the Met for the first time and, in completing this hat trick, she proved herself opera royalty indeed.

Tenor Matthew Polenzani--he of the refined singing, elegant deportment and serious nature--is having a great season at the Met, with major roles in a pair of new productions. First, he was Nadir, whose love for the priestess Leila (Diana Damrau) tempts her to give up her vows in Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES (THE PEARL FISHERS). Now he's working his mojo on no less than Elisabetta (Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen of England), in the new production of Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX at the Met, premiering March 24.

Sondra Radvanovsky completes her season-long quest to sing the leading roles in all three operas in Donizetti's Tudor queens trilogy on March 24, when she stars as Queen Elizabeth I in the Met premiere of Roberto Devereux. Radvanovsky gave acclaimed performances as Anne Boleyn in Anna Bolena and Mary, Queen of Scots in Maria Stuarda earlier this season. Her performances in Roberto Devereux will make her the first singer since Beverly Sills in the 1970s to perform all three roles in a single New York season.

Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS continues the 2015-16 Michael Palm Series of house concerts in New York City on Saturday, February 27, 2016, with a performance featuring a stellar quartet of vocalists: bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, soprano Anita Hartig, baritone Mariusz Kwiecien, and tenor Matthew Polenzani. Held at the magnificent Tribeca loft of Simon Yates and Kevin Roon, the event begins at 6:30pm with wine and hors d'oeuvres, followed by the concert at 7:30pm. Tickets may be purchased online at classicalaction.org or by calling 212-997-7717.

One more BOHEME? Yet another TOSCA? How about BARBIERE redux? Sometimes the standard repertoire of opera companies seems too standard. That's why it was good to hear that the Met was mounting Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES for the first time in a century, as a showcase for one of its top divas, Diana Damrau with tenor Matthew Polenzani, one of the company's secret treasures.

The runaway sleeper hit of this year's Metropolitan Opera season comes to Peterborough, New Hampshire this Saturday, January 16th at 1:00pm. The Met Live's production of Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles ("The Pearl Fishers") will be shown LIVE from New York on the Players' big hi-def digital screen.

The Met's acclaimed new production of Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers), a rarity by the composer of Carmen that has not been staged by the company in a century, will be transmitted on Live in HD for the first time on Saturday, January 16 at 12:55pm ET. Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and directed by Penny Woolcock, Bizet's sweeping romance tells the story of a beautiful Hindu priestess pursued by rival pearl divers competing for her hand. Diana Damrau leads the cast as the priestess Leïla, opposite Matthew Polenzanias Nadir, Mariusz Kwiecien as Zurga, and Nicolas Testé as the high priest Nourabad. Highlights of the score include 'Au fond du temple saint,' perhaps the best-known duet for two male voices in the operatic repertory.

A new production of Bizet's LES PÊCHEURS DE PERLES (The Pearl Fishers), a rarity by the composer of Carmen that has not been seen at the Met in nearly a century, opens in a new production this New Year's Eve.

A new production of Bizet's LES PÊCHEURS DE PERLES (The Pearl Fishers), a rarity by the composer of Carmen that has not been seen at the Met in nearly a century, opens in a new production this New Year's Eve.

The Capitol Center for the Arts is pleased to announce that it will present 11 productions in next season's Met: Live in HD series, beginning with Verdi's Il Trovatore on Saturday, October 3, at 12:55pm. Single tickets for this series are on sale now for $26 Adults; $22 Seniors/Met/CCA Members; and $15 Students. Season subscriptions are also available at $234 Adults; $198 Seniors/Met/CCA Members; and $135 students.

The Metropolitan Opera's annual Summer HD Festival, which presents free outdoor screenings of operas on Lincoln Center Plaza each summer, will return with 10 screenings of performances featuring the company's leading artists in a varied selection of operas by Bartók, Bizet, Gounod, Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi, running on consecutive nights from August 29 through September 7.

It has been a very good year in New York for the Mozart of Swedish baritone Peter Mattei. He helped open the season with the Met's new production of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, receiving a splendid reception for his performance as Count Almaviva, which brought new insights to a role that frequently gets lost in the shuffle of the large ensemble. Then came his DON GIOVANNI, which finishes up its run on Friday March 6, aptly called “commanding” by The New York Times.

On Wednesday 14 January 2015, at HUSH in Mayfair, the finalists of the International Opera Awards 2015 were announced. These were selected by the jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and classical music critic with The Daily Telegraph.

Richard Eyre's acclaimed new production of Mozart's comic masterpiece Le Nozze di Figaro returns to the Met stage tonight, December 4.

Richard Eyre's acclaimed new production of Mozart's comic masterpiece Le Nozze di Figaro returns to the Met stage December 4.

Francesco Demuro and Michael Fabiano will sing the role of Rodolfo in the remaining 2014 performances of La Bohème, replacing Ramón Vargas, who has withdrawn from the remainder of the performances due to illness.

Hosted by soprano Deborah Voigt, from the Grand Staircase of the Met, the special covers a wide range of operatic ground, from heartbreak to hilarity, delivered by such artists as Natalie Dessay, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Juan Diego Flórez, Jonas Kaufmann, and Anna Netrebko, along with Voigt herself. These extraordinary moments, selected from more than 75 productions, were initially seen as part of the Met's global Live in HD movie-theater transmissions, and later shared with PBS audiences as presentations ofGreat Performances at the Met.

Sonya Yoncheva will make her North American role debut as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata at the Met this January. Yoncheva was originally scheduled to sing Musetta in La Bohème at the Met this season. Instead, she will sing Violetta, one of her most acclaimed roles, as a replacement for Marina Poplavskaya, who has withdrawn from the performances. Yoncheva sings the role on January 14, 17, 21, and 24.