Met Opera in HD
2009-10 Season
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA :
2009-2010
Captured Live in High Definition and Screening Concurrently with the New York Season
Welcome to the Opera revolution!
The Met’s 2009-10 season opens with Karita Mattila’s assumption of the title role in Luc Bondy’s new staging
of Tosca. Conducted by James Levine - who will lead performances of three other operas during the season -
performances of Tosca will feature Marcelo Álvarez in the role of Cavaradossi; Juha Uusitalo will sing Scarpia.
Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher will direct a new Kafka-inspired production of The Tales Of Hoffman
featuring Rolando Villazón in the title role, alongside Kathleen Kim’s Olympia, Anna Netrebko’s Antonia and Stella,
and the Giulietta of Ekaterina Gubanova; Elina Garanca sings Nicklausse and the Muse; René Pape will play the
opera’s Four Villains. In staging Offenbach’s opera, Sher will be joined by several of the artists with whom he
previously collaborated on the Met’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, including set designer Michael Yeargan and
costumer Catherine Zuber.
Soprano Angela Gheorghiu takes the role of Carmen in a new production of Bizet’s opera. Staged by Olivier
Award-winning director Richard Eyre ( whose film work includes Notes on a Scandal, Iris), the performance will
feature Barbara Frittoli as Micaëla and Roberto Alagna as Don José. Promising young conductor
Yannick Nézet-Séguin makes his Met debut leading the performances.
Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser’s staging of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet, a production first mounted by the
Grand Théâtre de Genève, takes the stage in April. Natalie Dessay sings the role of Ophélie alongside Simon
Keenlyside, who takes on the title role. Joining them will be Jennifer Larmore’s Gertrude, Toby Spence - in his Met
debut - as Laërte and James Morris as Claudius. The performances will employ the opera’s alternate tragic ending,
rather than the happy ending that has been used in previous performances of the production at Covent Garden.
Renée Fleming will be in the spotlight when a staging of the Rossini rarity Armida comes to the Met in a new
production by Mary Zimmerman in May. The opera, which depicts the story of a sorceress who mesmerizes the
inhabitants of her island-prison, features six principal tenor roles, which in the Met performances will include
Lawrence Brownlee as Rinaldo, Bruce Ford’s Goffredo, José Manuel Zapata’s Gernando, Barry Banks as
Carlo and Kobie van Rensburg as Ubaldo.
Casting highlights of the 2009-10 season’s revivals include Plácido Domingo singing the baritone title role of
Simon Boccanegra, joined by Adrianne Pieczonka’s Amelia, Marcello Giordani’s Adorno and the Fiesco of
James Morris; and Renée Fleming and Susan Graham as the Marschallin and Octavian in Rosenkavalier,
which also features Ramón Vargas’s Italian Singer.
Turandot will feature Maria Guleghina making her role debut as Puccini’s princess alongside Marcello Giordani
and Samuel Ramey. Dolora Zajick reprises the role of Amneris in Aida, which will also feature Violeta Urmana
in the title role.
Get ready for the 2009-10 season of Met operas:
Tickets for individual sessions are $25 for Adults and $21 for Concession.
A season pass is $90 for Adults and $74 for Concession.
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Puccini's TOSCA
Sat 25th Oct; Sun 26th Oct
“Tosca combines Puccini’s glorious musical inspiration with the melodramatic vitality of one of the great Hitchcock films,” says Music Director James Levine. “From the very first bar of the piece, the opera seizes you and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the last note.” A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
Conductor: James Levine; Production: Jürgen Flimm;
Karita Mattila, Ildikó Komlósi, Juha Uusitalo,
Kim Begley, Joseph Kaiser.
1hr 37mins. One Interval. |
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Verdi's AIDA
Sat 7th Nov; Sun 8th Nov
Set in ancient Egypt, Aida is both a heartbreaking love story and an epic drama full of spectacular crowd scenes.
A cast of powerful voices and a grand production bring the story to life on the Met stage (and on the HD screen).
Violeta Urmana stars in the title role of the enslaved Ethiopian princess, with Dolora Zajick as her rival. Johan Botha plays Radamès, commander of the Egyptian army, and Daniele Gatti conducts.
Among the score’s highlights is the celebrated Triumphal March.
Production: Sonja Frisell
Conductor: Daniele Gatti; Production: Sonja Frisell;
3hrs 21mins. One Interval. |
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Puccini's TURANDOT
Sat 6th Dec; Sun 7th Dec
Director Franco Zeffirelli’s breathtaking production of Puccini’s last opera is a favorite of the Met repertoire.
Maria Guleghina plays the ruthless Chinese princess of the title, whose hatred of men is so strong that she has all suitors who can’t solve her riddles beheaded.
Marcello Giordani sings Calàf, the unknown prince who eventually wins her love and whose solos include the famous Nessun dorma.
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Conductor: James Levine; Production: Robert Lepage;
Susan Graham, Marcello Giordani, John Relyea.
2hrs 45mins. One Interval. |
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Offenbach's THE TALES OF HOFFMAN
Sat 9th Jan; Sun 10th Jan
Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific) directs this new production, returning after the triumph of his Met Barber of Seville (seen live in HD in the 2006–07 season).
Offenbach’s fictionalized take on the life and loves of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann is a fascinating psychological journey.
Met Music Director James Levine conducts star tenor Rolando Villazon in the tour-de-force title role, with Anna Netrebko as the tragic Antonia, Elīa Garanč as the ambiguous Nicklausse, and Rene Pape as the demonic four villains.
Conductor: James Levine
Production: Bartlett Sher.
3hrs 21mins. Two Intervals. |
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Strauss' DER ROSENKAVALIER
Sat 23rd Jan; Sun 24th Jan
Richard Strauss’s comic masterpiece of love and intrigue in 18th Century Vienna stars Renée Fleming as the aristocratic Marschallin and Susan Graham in the trouser role of her young lover.
Music Director James Levine conducts a cast that also includes Kristinn Sigmundsson and Thomas Allen.
Conductor: James Levine
Production: Nathaniel Merrill
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2hrs 15mins. One Interval. |
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Bizet's CARMEN
Sat 6th Feb; Sun 7th Feb
One of the most popular operas of all time, Carmen 'is about sex, violence, and racism - and its corollary freedom,' says Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre about his new production of Bizet’s drama. 'It is one of the inalienably great works of art. It’s sexy, in every sense. And I think it should be shocking.'
Angela Gheorghiu plays the seductive gypsy of the title in her role debut, opposite Roberto Alagna as the obsessed Don José.
Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Production: Richard Eyre
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1hr 31mins. One Interval. |
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Verdi's SIMON BOCCANEGRA
Sat 20th Feb; Sun 21st Feb
Four decades into a legendary Met career, tenor Plácido Domingo makes history singing the title role in Verdi’s gripping political thriller, which is written for a baritone.
Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordani, and James Morris are his co-stars in this moving and tragic story of a father and his lost daughter.
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Conductor: James Levine
Production: Giancarlo del Monaco.
3hrs 20mins. Two Intervals. |
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Thomas' HAMLET
Sat 17th April; Sun 18th April
The works of Shakespeare have inspired more operatic adaptations than any other writer’s. Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay bring their extraordinary acting and singing skills to two of the Bard’s most unforgettable characters in this new production of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet.
For the role of Ophelia, the French composer created an extended mad scene that is among the greatest in opera.
Conductor: Louis Langrée
Production: Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser
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3hrs 21mins. Two Intervals. |
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Rossini's ARMIDA
Sat 15 May; Sun 16th May
This story of a sorceress who enthralls men in her island prison has inspired operatic settings by a multitude of composers, including Gluck, Haydn, and Dvorák. Renée Fleming stars in the title role of Rossini’s version, opposite no fewer than six tenors.
Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman returns to direct this new production of a work she describes as 'a buried treasure, a box of jewels'.
The fanciful and magical tale, Zimmerman says, 'has an epic, enchanted quality and a tremendous visual element'.
Conductor: Riccardo Frizza
Production: Mary Zimmerman.
2hrs 40mins. One Interval. |
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