Massimo Cavalletti News

When Massimo Cavelletti stepped on stage at the Met on November 16, it was a milestone: His 100th performance as Marcello, the baritone lead in LA BOHEME and part of the quartet at the opera's heart: There's Mimi, the seamstress, the sad soul who dies at the opera's end; Rodolfo, the heartthrob tenor, a poet, in love with her; Musetta, the spitfire who eats men for breakfast; and then there's Marcello, a painter, her lover—and, aah, the linchpin that holds it all together.

Puccini's lush classic Manon Lescaut airs on THIRTEEN'S Great Performances at the Met Saturday, August 13 at 11 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the opera on Friday, August 26 at 9 p.m.)

In order to conserve her vocal energies in a season that has included numerous performances of demanding repertory, Anna Netrebko has withdrawn from three of her eight scheduled performances of the title role in Puccini's Manon Lescaut at the Met next season. In her place, Kristine Opolais—who starred in the premiere of the Met's new staging earlier this year—will sing the role of Manon Lescaut on November 21, December 7, and December 10. 

Kristine Opolais and Roberto Alagna star as the ill-fated lovers at the center of Manon Lescaut, Puccini's passionate adaptation of the classic novel about a free-spirited country girl who becomes the toast of Paris. Sir Richard Eyre's new production, set in the 1940s, reunites him with set designer Rob Howell, his collaborator on recent Met productions of Le Nozze di Figaro, Werther, and Carmen. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi conducts the new staging, which also stars Massimo Cavalletti as Manon's cousin, Lescaut, and Brindley Sherratt as Geronte, her wealthy older lover. The production will be presented in HD at the Peterborough Players on Saturday, March 5th at 1pm. 

The Met's new production of Puccini's MANON LESCAUT opens February 12 with Kristine Opolais as the seductive, tragic heroine and Roberto Alagna in a role debut as her ardent lover, the Chevalier des Grieux.

 The Met stage ignites when soprano Kristine Opolais and tenor Jonas Kaufmann join forces in Puccini's obsessive love story. 

The Met's new production of Puccini's MANON LESCAUT opens February 12 with Kristine Opolais as the seductive, tragic heroine and Roberto Alagna in a role debut as her ardent lover, the Chevalier des Grieux.

Jonas Kaufmann has canceled his performances in this season's new production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut due to illness.

Brandon Jovanovich has agreed at short notice to step into the role of Don José in this evening's performance of Carmen, replacing Aleksandrs Antonenko, who is ill. Jovanovich is currently rehearsing for next month's revival of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Met. He sang the October 13 performance of Carmen substituting for Antonenko as well.

Brandon Jovanovich has agreed at short notice to step into the role of Don José in this evening's performance of Carmen, replacing Aleksandrs Antonenko, who is ill. Jovanovich is currently at the Met rehearsing for next month's revival of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

Bizet's Carmen will open at the Met September 30 with Anita Rachvelishvili, the Georgian mezzo-soprano who has performed the role to acclaim around the world, reprising her interpretation of the title role. Spanish maestro Pablo Heras-Casado conducts the first eight performances of the run, which will also star Aleksandrs Antonenko as Don José, Anita Hartig as Micaëla, and Massimo Cavalletti and Ildar Abdrazakov as the swaggering toreador Escamillo. The production is by Richard Eyre, who also directed the Met's season-opening new staging of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. The November 1 matinee performance of Carmen will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 2,000 movie theaters in 69 countries around the world.

Kristine Opolais will sing Mimi in today's matinee performance of Puccini's La Boheme, replacing Anita Hartig, who is ill.

An exciting young cast stars in Franco Zeffirelli's breathtaking production of La Bohème, the most-performed opera in Met history. Italian star tenor Vittorio Grigolo makes his Live in HDdebut as the passionate poet Rodolfo, and Romanian soprano Anita Hartig makes her highly anticipated Met debut as his fragile lover, Mimì. Susanna Phillips sings the flirtatious Musetta and Massimo Cavalletti is the painter Marcello in this performance, led by Italian conductorStefano Ranzani. Featuring a cast of hundreds, a glorious onstage snow scene, and a detailed reconstruction of the Latin Quarter in Paris, this broadcast marks 15 million viewers for the Live in HD series, which now reaches 66 countries worldwide.

An exciting young cast stars in Franco Zeffirelli's breathtaking production of La Bohème, the most-performed opera in Met history. Italian star tenor Vittorio Grigolo makes his Live in HDdebut as the passionate poet Rodolfo, and Romanian soprano Anita Hartig makes her highly anticipated Met debut as his fragile lover, Mimì. Susanna Phillips sings the flirtatious Musetta and Massimo Cavalletti is the painter Marcello in this performance, led by Italian conductorStefano Ranzani. Featuring a cast of hundreds, a glorious onstage snow scene, and a detailed reconstruction of the Latin Quarter in Paris, this broadcast marks 15 million viewers for the Live in HD series, which now reaches 66 countries worldwide.

I thought someone spiked the water cooler backstage at the Met during the first half of LA BOHEME on March 19. Tenor Vittorio Grigolo's Rodolfo jumped around in the opening scene like he had too much caffeine or needed medication for hyperactivity (think Ritalin). Charming, yes, boyish, definitely, but when he professed his love for Mimi after half an hour's acquaintance, one wondered whether he didn't need something to calm him down. And he wasn't alone.

Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo, who has earned praise for his elegant and expressive vocalism in performances at the Met and other opera houses around the world, will perform a solo recital on the Met stage on Sunday, March 9 at 4 p.m. He will be joined by pianist Vincent Scalera for the recital, which will feature songs and arias by Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Tosti, Leoncavallo, Gastaldon, De Curtis, and D'Annibale. A complete listing of the program appears below.

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.

Puccini's La Bohème, the most-performed opera in Met history, will return to the repertory this season with 14 performances featuring a number of popular Met artists and rising stars in the leading roles. The opera opens January 14 with Joseph Calleja as Rodolfo, Maija Kovalevska as Mimì, Alexey Markov as Marcello, and Irina Lungu in her company role debut as Musetta. On March 19, Vittorio Grigolo returns to the role of his Met debut as Rodolfo, leading a cast that also includes Massimo Cavalletti in his first Met performances of Marcello and two debuting sopranos: Romanian Anita Hartig as Mimì and American Jennifer Rowley as Musetta. Susanna Phillips will reprise her Musetta on April 2 and 5, and Barbara Frittoli will sing Mimì on April 10, 14, and 18. Joshua Hopkins and Patrick Carfizzi share the role of Schaunard this season; Christian Van Horn, Nicolas Testé, and Oren Gradus sing Colline; and Donald Maxwell and Philip Cokorinos sing Benoit and Alcindoro. Stefano Ranzani will conduct all of this season's performances of La Bohème, which will be seen in Franco Zeffirelli's popular 1981 production. The April 5 matinee, starring Grigolo, Hartig, Phillips, Cavalletti, Carfizzi, Gradus, and Maxwell, will be transmitted live as part of the Met's Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 2,000 theaters in 64 countries around the world.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theaters, will feature 10 productions in the 2013-14 season, offering a significant portion of the Met season to opera lovers around the world.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theaters, will reach its widest-ever global audience in its eighth season, which begins on October 5 with a new production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Met Music Director James Levine makes his highly-anticipated return to the screen with Verdi's Falstaff on December 14 and the first Live in HD performance of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte on April 26. The Live in HD series, the world's largest provider of alternative content, reaches more than 1,900 theaters in 64 countries, and offers subtitles in nine languages, including Swedish for the first time this season. To accommodate audience demand in Europe, more than 85 cinemas have been added to the HD network in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.