Franco Zeffirelli Videos

The snowfall in Act III of Franco Zeffirelli’s staging of Puccini’s La Bohème is one of the most breathtaking moments on the Met stage. Go behind the scenes and watch how the Met Stagehands make the magic happen.

Watch as renowned tenor SeokJong Baek sings an excerpt from Calàf’s Act III aria in an early dress rehearsals for the Met Opera's Turandot. Baek just made his Met debut last year.

Sports are the common denominator of our society. Everyone’s been to a baseball game. Everyone has a favorite team or hated rival. Everyone knows who Michael Jordan is. So what if opera – its performances, personnel and programming – could be demystified, discussed and promoted in such a way as to become as much a part of the public consciousness as sports? That's Opera Box Score!

Three casts of captivating artists bring Puccini's classic tragedy of bohemian friends and lovers to life in Franco Zeffirelli's immortal staging. Tenors Matthew Polenzani, Roberto Alagna, and Joseph Calleja trade off as the exuberant Rodolfo, alongside sopranos Ailyn Pérez, Hei-Kyung Hong, and Maria Agresta as the fragile Mimì. Marco Armiliato and Emmanuel Villaume share conducting duties.

New York City Opera (under the direction of Michael Capasso, General Director) will present, in a rare New York appearance, beloved soprano Aprile Millo in concert Wednesday, January 30 at 7:30pm at Zankel Hall (881 Seventh Avenue, at 56th Street). 

Tickets go on sale today for the Met's Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning Live in HD series' 2017-18 season, which begins on October 7 with the company's new production of Bellini's Norma.

Great Performances: The Opera House, the new documentary by multiple Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Susan Froemke (Grey Gardens; Lalee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton) surveys a remarkable period of the Metropolitan Opera's rich history and a time of great change for New York City. Drawing on rarely seen archival footage, stills and recent interviews, the film chronicles the creation of the Met's storied Lincoln Center home of the last 50 years, set against a backdrop of the artists, architects and politicians who shaped the cultural life of New York City in the 1950s and 60s. Amongst the notable figures featured in the film are famed soprano Leontyne Price, who opened the Met's present Opera House in 1966 with a starring role in Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra; Rudolf Bing, the Met's imperious general manager who engineered the move from the old house to the new one; Robert Moses, the unstoppable city planner who bulldozed an entire neighborhood to make room for Lincoln Center; and Wallace Harrison, whose quest for architectural glory was never fully realized.

The BBC has shared recently restored footage of Dame Maggie Smith in the role of Beatrice in Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.