Peter Mattei News

The Metropolitan Opera announced plans for its free outdoor events this summer, which will take place in the Lincoln Center Plaza and in parks throughout New York City. In a brand new initiative, the Met's Summer HD Festival will feature screenings of ten productions from the Met's Peabody and Emmy Award-winning Live in HD series in Lincoln Center Plaza on consecutive nights, beginning Saturday, August 29.

Erin Wall will make her Met debut as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni on April 13 and will also sing performances on April 16, 20, and 24. She replaces Barbara Frittoli, who will sing Donna Elvira instead of her originally scheduled role of Donna Anna. Frittoli is replacing Soile Isokoski, who has withdrawn from the four performances due to illness in her family.

Erin Wall will make her Met debut as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni on April 13 and will also sing performances on April 16, 20, and 24. She replaces Barbara Frittoli, who will sing Donna Elvira instead of her originally scheduled role of Donna Anna. Frittoli is replacing Soile Isokoski, who has withdrawn from the four performances due to illness in her family.

Eight new productions, four of which are company premieres, will highlight the Metropolitan Opera's 2009-10 season. General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine jointly announced plans that include: the Met premieres of Rossini's Armida, Verdi's Attila, Jan?ček's From the House of the Dead, and Shostakovich's The Nose; new productions of Bizet's Carmen, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Thomas's Hamlet, and Puccini's Tosca; and 18 revivals from the company's repertory. The season is the first to be entirely planned under Gelb's leadership, in collaboration with Levine (the past three seasons were planned before Gelb became General Manager in 2006-07 but included some productions, repertoire, and casting changes made by Gelb).

When Erwin Schrott took on the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni last year at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, The New York Times wrote: 'The surprise was the riveting Giovanni: the seductively handsome young Uruguayan bass Erwin Schrott, who boasts a strong, dusky voice and chiseled physique. Exuding charisma, he galvanized the audience with his unabashedly narcissistic portrayal.' Now Schrott, who sang the role when the Met toured Japan in 2006, is bringing his portrayal to the Met stage for the first time beginning Saturday, September 27.

Two new productions of operas by Rossini and Puccini will be helmed, respectively, by The Light in the Piazza's Bartlett Sher and Dirty Rotten Scoundrel's Jack O'Brien as part of the Metropolitan Opera's 2006-2007 season