Venue and performance information | Feature article  
Q & A with Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna | Press release 

The Met Summer Concert is a special event, but it's hardly the first time you've sung outdoors for tens of thousands of people.
Angela Gheorghiu: I've sung large public concerts many times, all over the world in parks and stadiums, for the Queen of England in Buckingham Palace Park, and in Amsterdam for Queen Beatrix's anniversary. The most recent one was in Hyde Park in London for the Last Night of the Proms.
Roberto Alagna: I did "Michael Jackson and Friends" a few years ago, and I sang for the Pope. Also, every summer I sing at the Chorégies d'Orange Festival in France at the ancient theater in Orange. But this will be my first outdoor concert in the U.S.

There are lots of familiar pieces on the program, but also duets from operas by Delibes and Bizet that aren't very well known. How did you choose what to sing?
AG: We thought that the audience would like to hear well-known pieces, but we also planned to perform some lesser-known music because we know they will enjoy new discoveries.
RA: It's not easy to do a program for this kind of event. This one is a collaboration between the Met, Angela, [conductor] Ion Marin, and me.

Roberto, tell us about the aria based on Victor Hugo's novel The Last Day of a Condemned Man.
RA: I read the book in 1996, while I was singing in Chicago, and the words inspired something musical in me. So I called my brothers and asked them to try to write an opera. They said that I should write the libretto first, which I did. I sent it to Frédérico, who rewrote it in a much better version, and then David composed the music. I first sang the opera in Paris in 2007 in a concert version, then in Valencia this year. It's a very moving piece with a powerful message of humanity, tolerance, and respect towards life.

Next season you'll be appearing together at the Met in a new production of Puccini's La Rondine, an opera that hasn't been performed here since 1936. Why has it taken so long to return to the repertory?
RA: I wish I knew! I don't understand it.
AG: I've always thought that La Rondine is one of Puccini's most important operas. In many ways, it's less dramatic than his other works but the music is fantastic.
RA: There's a lot of emotion in it, with a wide range of musical atmosphere, and very dramatic moments with powerful sound in the orchestra.

The story of Magda and Ruggero is reminiscent of both La Traviata and La Bohème.
RA: Each time you sing you become someone else. For me it's very important to live many lives on stage.
–Philipp Brieler