A New Rheingold Opens the 2010–11 Season

September 29, 2010

The Met’s 2010–11 season kicked off Monday night with the gala premiere of Robert Lepage’s highly anticipated new production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, the first installment of the company’s new Ring cycle. Music Director James Levine, who celebrates his 40th Met anniversary this season, was greeted by a thunderous ovation when he took the podium for his first conducting appearance since recuperating from back surgery last spring. The opening night audience at the Met was joined by several thousand opera lovers who defied the rain to watch the live transmissions in Lincoln Center Plaza and on giant screens in Times Square. The performance was also streamed live on the Met website and transmitted on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM.

Transmission host Deborah Voigt—who will sing Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, the second Ring opera, next spring—welcomed guests for pre-show interviews on the red carpet, including director Lepage; Eva Wagner-Pasquier, the composer’s great-granddaughter and co-director of the Bayreuth Festival; rock legend Patti Smith; and fashion guru Andre Leon Talley. Other celebrities in the audience included actors Christine Baranski, Patricia Clarkson, Vera Farmiga, Holly Hunter, Anjelica Huston, Miranda Richardson, Meg Ryan, Mark Rylance, and Patrick Stewart, TV personalities Barbara Walters and Regis Philbin, fashion designers Rachel Roy and Behnaz Sarafpour, and singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright.

Following a rousing rendition of the national anthem, the house lights dimmed and Maestro Levine launched into Das Rheingold’s mystic prelude, while the monumental set, designed by Carl Fillion, slowly came to life for the first scene, depicting the bottom of the Rhine river. Bryn Terfel led the extraordinary cast as Wotan, joined by Stephanie Blythe as Fricka, Eric Owens as Alberich, and Richard Croft as Loge.

The 2010–11 Met season runs through May 14 and features seven new productions, including the Met premieres of John Adams’s Nixon in China and Rossini’s Le Comte Ory, as well as 21 revivals. To learn all about the new Ring and the 40th anniversary of Maestro Levine, visit our special feature sections.

The Met Congratulates Julie Landsman

May 14, 2010

After 25 years in the Met orchestra, principal French horn player Julie Landsman will retire after tonight’s performance of Der Fliegende Holländer and Sunday’s MET Orchestra concert at Carnegie Hall. Landsman made her company debut with Puccini’s Tosca and went on to play in more than 2,700 performances as principal horn. We congratulate her on her achievement and wish her well.

Fabio Luisi Named Principal Guest Conductor

April 27, 2010

General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine announced today that Italian maestro Fabio Luisi will become the Met’s principal guest conductor, starting with the 2010-11 season. Luisi made his Met debut in 2005 conducting Don Carlo and this season has led performances of Elektra, Le Nozze di Figaro, Hansel and Gretel, and Tosca. He will also conduct Lulu, which opens on May 8.

“I am thrilled that Fabio Luisi has agreed to join us as principal guest conductor,” says Maestro Levine. “He has developed a wonderful rapport with our orchestra and chorus and shown his extraordinary enthusiasm and commitment over a wide range of repertoire. I am looking forward to working with him in maintaining the highest level of artistic quality at the Met.”

Luisi is only the second principal guest conductor in Met history; Valery Gergiev held the post from 1998 to 2008. “It is a great honor for me to work with the Metropolitan Opera continuously in the coming years,” says Luisi, who is currently chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony and artistic director of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. “Everything in this company meets the highest artistic standards. I enjoy every minute that we make music together.”

Gelb calls Luisi’s appointment “a natural step. After brilliantly conducting four different operas this past season (with Lulu still to come), it seemed as though he had already taken on this role. We are now formalizing it with a title.”

Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Susanna Phillips Wins Sills Award

April 21, 2010

Soprano Susanna Phillips has been named the recipient of the fifth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young American singers at the Metropolitan Opera. The $50,000 award, the largest of its kind in the United States, is designated for extraordinarily gifted singers between the ages of 25 and 40 who have already appeared in featured solo roles with the Met. It was established in 2006 by an endowment gift from Agnes Varis, a managing director on the Met board, and her husband, Karl Leichtman, in honor of Beverly Sills.

Phillips made her Met debut as Musetta in La Bohème in the 2008–09 season and appeared as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte last fall. A 2007 graduate of the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, her repertoire also includes Mozart’s Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi and Countess, as well as Violetta, Lucia, Adina, Juliette, and Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites. Phillips is the fifth winner of the Beverly Sills Award and the first soprano to be honored with this prize, following baritone Nathan Gunn, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, tenor Matthew Polenzani, and bass John Relyea.

Read the full announcement.

Meet Jonas Kaufmann at the Met Opera Shop!

April 19, 2010

The star tenor, on the Met stage this month as Cavaradossi in Tosca and Don José in Carmen, will sign copies of his new CDs, a German aria recital and Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, on Thursday, April 29, beginning 12.30pm. For more information, please contact the Met Opera Shop at 212-580-4090.

Buy Jonas Kaufmann's CDs in the Met Opera Shop.

Sting to Play at the Met on July 13 and 14

April 8, 2010

The Englishman is coming to New York: don’t miss Sting at the Met this summer! The multiple Grammy Award-winning recording artist will play two concerts at the opera house on July 13 and 14. Accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra conducted by Steven Mercurio, the concerts are part of a world tour during which Sting will perform his most popular songs re-imagined for symphonic arrangement. “The Metropolitan Opera has such a rich cultural history in supporting and celebrating a truly diverse range of artists,” the singer says. “It is both an honor and a thrill to have the opportunity to perform at this renowned landmark.”

Tickets for both concerts will go on sale on Friday, April 16, at 10am, with priority access for American Express Cardmembers from Monday, April 12, at 10am through Wednesday, April 14, at 10pm. Preferred Seating is available to Gold Card, Platinum Card, and Centurion members. To buy tickets, call 1-800-745-3000 or visit ticketmaster.com. (Tickets are not available at the Met or through metopera.org.)

Armida Open Dress Rehearsal on April 9

March 19, 2010

The final dress rehearsal of Mary Zimmerman’s Met premiere production of Armida, starring Renée Fleming, will be open to the public! Two thousand free tickets to the rehearsal on April 9 will be made available through an online ticket drawing on the Met’s website. The entry dates are from Wednesday, March 24, through the evening of Tuesday, March 30. Winners will be chosen on Wednesday, March 31, and names will be posted on the Met website that afternoon.

An additional 1000 free tickets will be distributed to students in the New York City area who participate in the Met’s HD Live in Schools program, as well as to select universities affiliated with the Met.

This will be the third and final open dress rehearsal of the season, in a program supported for the fourth consecutive year by Met Managing Director Agnes Varis and her husband, Karl Leichtman.

Armida opens on Monday, April 12, and will be seen live in HD on Saturday, May 1.

Grand Finals Concert of the 2010 National Council Auditions

March 16, 2010

Press Release | News Flash | National Council 

Last Sunday afternoon, the Met played host to the finalists of this year’s National Council Auditions, as nine young singers took the Met stage for the Grand Finals Concert. Each demonstrated extraordinary promise and talent, leaving a note-taking, binocular-wielding audience cheering for more. And the stakes are high. Each year, approximately 100 former audition participants appear in Met productions, as well as at other major opera houses around the world.

Opera legend Marilyn Horne hosted the competition, a gracious last-minute replacement for Joyce DiDonato, whose flight to New York was cancelled. In her opening remarks, Horne explained the tremendous challenges each singer has already overcome in being selected from among the original 1,500 to participate in this year’s auditions (which are held annually in 45 districts and 15 regions throughout the United States and Canada). The competition, which has received wide coverage following the 2008 release of the acclaimed documentary The Audition by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, is considered to be among the most prestigious in the world for singers seeking to launch an operatic career. “And now,” Horne said from her podium on stage, “join me in discovering the next generation of opera singers.”

And this is exactly what the near-capacity crowd—the largest in the history of the National Council Auditions—did. As singer after signer took the stage, with Marco Armiliato leading the Met Orchestra, a roar of applause went up. Nathaniel Peake distinguished himself early on with a rich, earnest delivery of “Ah, la paterna mano” from Verdi’s Macbeth, while Rachel Willis-Sørensen provided a searching account of “Einsam in trüben Tagen” from Wagner’s Lohengrin. Elliot Madore treated audiences to an especially hilarious Barber of Seville with his high-energy “Largo al factotum della cittˆ,” and Maya Lahyani’s Carmen seduced each note from “Près des remparts de Séville.”

As the judges deliberated, renowned mezzo-soprano and Met favorite Frederica von Stade took the stage to sing “Va! Laisse couler mes larmes” from Massenet’s Werther, a piece that helped her to secure her own National Council Auditions win more than 40 years ago, followed by a delightfully tipsy “Ah! quel d”ner!” from Offenbach’s La Périchole. The performance marked von Stade’s final appearance on the Met stage. This milestone was honored by Met General Manager Peter Gelb in a special onstage presentation of a first-edition score of Massenet’s Cendrillon, an opera von Stade has recorded to wide acclaim. “The great artistic standard you represent,” Gelb said, “is an inspiration to both current and future opera singers.”

Just moments later, the five winners of the 2010 National Council Auditions were announced: Leah Crocetto of Oxford, Connecticut; Lori Guilbeau of Golden Meadow, Lousiana; Elliot Madore of Toronto, Canada; Nathaniel Peake of Humble, Texas; and Rachel Willis-Sørensen of Tri-Cities, Washington. The winners gathered on stage in celebration, and soon all repaired to the Grand Tier for a special champagne toast.

“I didn’t expect this sort of magic, this feeling I got as soon as I stepped on the stage with the orchestra and just being in the house,” gushed winner Willis-Sørensen. “All I could think was, What do I have to do, who do I have to hurt to make this happen?” she laughed laughed. “It was absolute magic. I stood up there and I knew—this is it. I’m living my dream.”

Fellow winner Elliot Madore was not far away, greeting his ardent new fans. “It’s such a blur,” he said of the on-stage experience. “I don’t even really remember it. It was tough, but mostly it went well,” he said. “I’m happy.”

When asked what was next for the 22-year-old, Madore replied, “Well, I’m finishing my masters at the Curtis Institute. Then after that—who knows!” —Caroline Cooper

Read the full press announcement.

The winners, from left: Leah Crocetto, Nathaniel Peake, Lori Guilbeau, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Elliot Madore
Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

The Met Mourns Philip Langridge

March 8, 2010

The Metropolitan Opera mourns the untimely death of tenor Philip Langridge. He made his Met debut as Ferrando in Così fan tutte in 1985, and appeared as the Witch in Hansel and Gretel just two months ago. It was a role that showcased his splendid acting ability and wonderful sense of humor. In all, he sang 64 performances of eight roles, including Aron in the Met premiere of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron. We will remember his wonderful voice and superb musicianship and sorely miss him as a generous and beloved colleague. We offer our deepest sympathy to his wife, Ann, his children Stephen, Anita, Jennifer, and Jonathan, and his grandchildren.

William Kentridge Discusses The Nose with Theater Students

March 8, 2010

“There were a lot of false worries at the start,” artist and director William Kentridge told a group of theater students and professors at a seminar held at the Met last week. “The nose largely has its existence in the projections. But then we began working with the physical, 3D nose as well, and we were wondering—would the audience be able read both? Are both a credible nose? And what is the grammar of it? When you pick up the nose and are inside, how do you walk? How do you move?”

A few days before making his Met debut with the company premiere of Shostakovich’s The Nose, based on the short story by Gogol, Kentridge was in a reflective mood. The production had its final dress rehearsal on Tuesday, March 2, and, in the days remaining before its wildly successful Friday night opening, Kentridge noted there were “lots of lists being made now. Just small things from the lighting designer, the costume designer.”

From the first concepts to the last lists, the road to The Nose has been packed with what Kentridge calls “sideways explorations.” In addition to his full production at the Met, his retrospective William Kentridge: Five Themes recently opened at the Museum of Modern Art, where he performed his Gogol-inspired one man show I am not me, the horse is not mine last week. Kentridge also produced Telegrams from the Nose, together with composer Franois Sarhan, as well as a number of additional sketches, projections, sculptures, and collages, some of which are currently on display at the Schwartz Gallery Met in an exhibit titled Ad Hoc: Works from the Nose. Kentridge’s exploration of all things Nose, however, finds perhaps its grandest stage at the Met in what the artist described as “the culmination of this study.”

In the run-up to opening night, conversation focused as much on the technical aspects of the work as on broader theoretical questions. “If you’re working with computer animation and with algorithms, or with fuzzy felt that you’re ripping up, you explore different effects,” Kentridge said, talking the students through his creation of the nose in action. “Through it all, we’re constantly looking for meaning. We’re constantly trying to find the narrative of what we do.”

For his production Kentridge delved into archival film and materials from the former Soviet Union, including footage of Shostakovich. “Watching Shostakovich play piano while we listen to the percussive section of the opera was one of the transformative moments for me,” he said. “I didn’t want just the tragic Shostakovich—Shostakovich the party follower or Shostakovich the secret dissident.” Kentridge’s staging draws together the music and set designs in ways that further his explorations: “It’s in synch, it’s drifting out of synch, it’s in synch again, it drifts out,” he commented. “I’m quite comfortable with elastic synchronization.”

Kentridge, who has been working on the production for the past three years “intermittently and, in the gaps, on other versions and thoughts,” further illuminated certain technical challenges he faced in creating The Nose. “We knew we wanted the nose dancing and we had the footage of Anna Pavlova. But in the film she is a white figure against a black background,” he said, explaining the difficulties of creating the best effect for projection. “We inverted the image so she becomes a negative, a dark figure against a white background. We animated that with the nose on top of her, and then re-inverted the image.”

As the session wrapped up, Kentridge asked the students what impressed them most about the production and heard a chorus of responses that included, “the moment the nose gets shot” and “your use of space in general.” The artist remained silent a moment. The he summed up his own experience: “Seeing it yesterday, it’s so much faster than I thought. The whole thing goes by so fast.” —Caroline Cooper

Marlis Petersen to Take Over the Role of Ophélie in Hamlet

March 3, 2010

Marlis Petersen will sing the role of Ophélie in the first six performances of the Met’s new production of Thomas’s Hamlet, replacing Natalie Dessay, who is ill.

Petersen, who sang Ophélie in Düsseldorf in 2006, was already scheduled to sing the role at the Met on April 9. She will now sing the premiere on March 16 and the following five performances. Casting for the final two performances on April 5 and 9 will be announced at a later date. The March 27 matinee will be transmitted to movie theaters worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series.

Petersen also sings the title role in Berg’s Lulu at the Met this May. The German soprano made her company debut as Adele in Die Fledermaus in 2005. She recently created the title role in the world premiere of Aribert Reimann’s Medea at the Vienna State Opera, a performance that brought her enormous acclaim.

Hamlet, conducted by Louis Langrée, also stars Simon Keenlyside in the title role, with Jennifer Larmore as Gertrude, Toby Spence as Laërte, and James Morris as Claudius. The production marks the Met debuts of directors Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser.

Maestro Riccardo Muti Welcomes Students to Attila Rehearsal

March 1, 2010

On Friday, February 5, renowned conductor Riccardo Muti began rehearsals for the new production of Verdi’s Attila, which had its Met premiere on February 23. The Met orchestra assembled in the C-level Orchestra Room and Maestro Muti took the rehearsal podium. Also in the room were 24 young conductors, seated at the back of the hall, scores on their laps and pencils at the ready. The students and faculty from some of the most celebrated music schools in the U.S., including the Juilliard School, Mannes College, Manhattan School of Music, Yale, and the Curtis Institute of Music, were there to watch the work of one of the world’s most esteemed maestros and a champion of Verdian style.

Muti lightly raised his baton and then paused. “I know I am supposed to say I am very happy to be here, but it is true—I am very happy to be here.” Then he began leading the orchestra through the Attila prelude. Occasionally he stopped, injecting quick direction: “Don’t delay.” “It’s a bit faster.” “Now! Fortissimo! Boom!”

Muti studied with Antonino Votto, assistant to Toscanini (who himself played cello under Verdi’s supervision in the 1887 premiere of Otello), and is a strong supporter of mentorship for young conductors. He has served as music director and principal conductor of some of the world’s greatest orchestras and opera ensembles, most notably La Scala, where he was music director from 1986 to 2005. This year, Muti begins his tenure as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and becomes director of the Rome Opera. Attila marks his long-awaited Met debut.

On this particular morning at the Met, the maestro committed himself wholly to the rehearsal, making direct eye contact—now with the string section, now with the horns. The orchestra responded in kind. Suddenly, Muti raised his hand. In the silent rehearsal hall, he recounted a bit of European history—the parallels between Italy at the time of Attila’s 1846 premiere and the Europe of Attila the Hun. The conducting students listened intently.

“Now! Uno, due!” The orchestra began again, moving through a dozen bars before Muti paused once more. “Every chord should be music,” he said. “Concentrate on small things, and from small things create big things.” Later, referring to the opera’s plot: “The most noble leader—when he becomes a traitor—it’s the end of the world. Pow!” Then, the orchestra again. “Now, the maximum that you can give: strings! ... Fortissimo, but not heavy!”

During a break, Elliot Moore, a 30-year-old conductor with the Manhattan School of Music, commented on watching Muti work: “I’m really impressed by how colloquial he is with the orchestra, and his extreme knowledge of the score. Just in general,” he added, “Muti knows the vision he has of the piece and he expresses that to the orchestra, while also encouraging the orchestra to listen to themselves.” Moore got up to walk to the cafeteria and get a coffee. “We get to know a conductor in rehearsal, not in a performance. To actually have the opportunity to see him work—this is really incredible.”

Tara Simoncic, also of the Manhattan School of Music, was equally impressed. “We’re all learning so much,” she said. “Not only is he telling the story of the opera, but the background that comes with his wealth of knowledge.” When asked what, specifically, she might take from observing Muti to apply in her future conducting, Simoncic immediately zeroed in on the maestro’s treatment of the Verdi score. “We tend to play Verdi very short in general,” she said. “But Muti wants things very legato, and that is definitely something I will take away.”

Vladimir Kulenovic and Stilian Kirov, both of Juilliard, were heading back to the rehearsal room on the elevator. “This experience, as we say in my language, is very ‘knee to knee’,” commented Kulenovic, who is from Serbia. “This means it’s very direct, a very intense communication, the way a grandfather speaks to a child. You can see it in Muti’s face. The way he conducts will stay in your memory, your bone marrow.” Kirov nodded. “If you don’t have the chance to see the goal, you don’t know where it is,” he said. “This sets the goal for us.” —Caroline Cooper

The Met Announces 2010–11 Season

February 23, 2010

(Revised July 21, 2010)

New Season Announced | Press Release | Subscribe Now | Live in HD 2010–11 Season
Online Brochure | New Productions Photo Gallery | New Season Preview

General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine yesterday announced the Met’s plans for its 2010–11 season. The lineup features seven new productions, including two company premieres and the first two installments of a new Ring cycle, directed by Robert Lepage and conducted by Maestro Levine, as well as 21 revivals. The 2010–11 season also marks the 40th anniversary of Maestro Levine’s Met debut, a milestone that will be celebrated with the release of a series of CDs and DVDs of Levine live recordings, a documentary film, and a Met tour to Japan in the summer of 2011.

Gelb welcomed the audience to the Met’s packed List Hall and gave an overview of the coming season, commenting that “in scope and intensity, [the Met] is an opera house like none other in the world.” The new productions were then presented through a combination of video clips and director interviews. Opening and closing the season will be Das Rheingold and Die Walküre from Wagner’s epic Ring cycle. Director Lepage explained the concept for his highly anticipated production via live satellite link from Vancouver. “The Ring is a cosmos that comes with its own rules,” he said. “There is a delicate balance between the small, personal story of the characters and the big story in the background. One is the echo of the other, and it’s my job to try and magnify that.”

Bartlett Sher, who will direct the Met premiere of Le Comte Ory, was on hand to give an introduction to Rossini’s rarely staged French opera. The remaining four new productions were presented in video clips, combining interviews with the directors and performance footage from those productions that have been seen elsewhere. Stephen Wadsworth will direct Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. This will be followed by Verdi’s Don Carlo, in a production by Nicholas Hytner, and Willy Decker’s acclaimed staging of La Traviata. Composer-conductor John Adams and director Peter Sellars will helm the Met premiere of Adams’s 1987 opera Nixon in China.

Looking back on his unparalleled four decades with the company and ahead to the coming season, Levine summed up the afternoon’s proceedings: “Going into my 40th season is something unimaginable. I don’t quite know how it happened. But the future looks very, very bright to me.”

Read the full season announcement.
Scroll down to view the 2010–11 Live in HD schedule.

The Met: Live in HD 2010–11 Season

February 22, 2010

New Season Announced | Press Release | Subscribe Now | Live in HD 2010–11 Season
Online Brochure | New Productions Photo Gallery | New Season Preview

Along with the company’s plans for the 2010–11 season’s new productions and revivals, the Met today announced the lineup for next season’s Live in HD performances. Now in its fifth year, the Peabody Award-winning series will present a record 12 live transmissions to movie theaters worldwide. Tickets for the 2010–11 HD season go on sale in September, with priority access for Met members (before tickets are made available to the general public). The schedule is as follows:

October 9
Wagner’s Das Rheingold
James Levine; Wendy Bryn Harmer, Stephanie Blythe, Patricia Bardon, Richard Croft, Gerhard Siegel, Bryn Terfel, Eric Owens, Franz-Josef Selig, Hans-Peter König

October 23
Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov
Valery Gergiev; Ekaterina Semenchuk, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Oleg Balashov, Evgeny Nikitin, René Pape, Mikhail Petrenko, Vladimir Ognovenko

November 13
Donizetti’s Don Pasquale
James Levine; Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, John Del Carlo

December 11
Verdi’s Don Carlo
Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, Roberto Alagna, Simon Keenlyside, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Eric Halfvarson

January 8
Puccini’s La Fanciulla Del West
Nicola Luisotti; Deborah Voigt, Marcello Giordani, Juha Uusitalo

February 12
Adams’s Nixon in China
John Adams; Kathleen Kim, Janis Kelly, Robert Brubaker, Russell Braun, James Maddalena, Richard Paul Fink

February 26
Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride
Patrick Summers; Susan Graham, Plácido Domingo, Paul Groves, Gordon Hawkins

March 19
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Patrick Summers; Natalie Dessay, Joseph Calleja, Ludovic Tézier, Kwangchul Youn

April 9
Rossini’s Le Comte Ory
Maurizio Benini; Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, Susanne Resmark, Juan Diego Flórez, Stéphane Degout, Michele Pertusi

April 23
Strauss’s Capriccio
Andrew Davis; Renée Fleming, Sarah Connolly, Joseph Kaiser, Russell Braun, Morten Frank Larsen, Peter Rose

April 30
Verdi’s Il Trovatore
James Levine; Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky

May 14
Wagner’s Die Walküre
James Levine; Deborah Voigt, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Stephanie Blythe, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel, Hans-Peter König

Met Commissions Nico Muhly’s First Opera

February 15, 2010

A new work is coming to the Met! Composer Nico Muhly is collaborating with librettist Craig Lucas and director Bartlett Sher on his first opera, which will be co-produced by the Met and the English National Opera. The first piece to be produced from the “Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater Opera/Theater Commissions” program, the as-yet-untitled work will have its world premiere at ENO in June 2011 and be presented at the Met during the 2013–14 season.

“The opera I’ve written with Craig is a love story, a murder ballad, and a proper mystery,” Muhly says. A fictionalized piece based on a true incident, the story follows a teenager who attempts to arrange his own murder via the internet. “My adult life is grafted to the development of the internet,” Muhly continues. “When I was 14, we got the internet in our house, and from that time, I’ve maintained friendships that have been exclusively online.”

“Craig’s libretto is wonderfully settable,” Muhly says. “I got the first draft as a PDF and within 20 minutes of reading it, I knew how the opera needed to sound.” He’s quick to point out, though, that although the subject is high-tech, the score is not. “An opera that takes place primarily online suggests immediately a synthesized orchestra, but I resisted this,” he says. “The orchestration for this project is entirely acoustic.”

Muhly’s orchestral works have been performed by such ensembles as the Chicago Symphony and the American Symphony Orchestra. His two albums, Speaks Volumes and Mothertongue, both received extraordinary acclaim, as did his score for the Academy Award-winning film The Reader. Muhly, 28, is famous for collaborating with artists as varied as Björk and Philip Glass, with whom he has an extensive working relationship. But he has never before tried his hand at opera.

“Nico has the burden of being the best young composer working in classical music today,” director Sher says. “I think his sensibility really expands how we think about what’s possible in opera and at the same time deeply respects its traditions. I know of no task more difficult in any creative field than to come up with a new opera that can push the form ahead and enter the repertoire in a way that makes opera relevant and meaningful today—that’s what Nico and Craig are trying to do.”

The opera follows on the heels of such successful Met-ENO collaborations as Madama Butterfly, Satyagraha, and Doctor Atomic and represents the Met’s commitment to revitalizing the repertory with new works. “Creating successful new operas is a daunting challenge,” says Met General Manager Peter Gelb. “But hopefully we have stacked the odds in our favor with this brilliant team of composer, librettist, and director.”

For Muhly, the project offers a chance to explore his fascination with lives lived online: “I am as infatuated with online personalities as I am with people I have met in the flesh,” he says. Lucas, the playwright behind Prelude to a Kiss and Reckless and the screenwriter of Longtime Companion, is drawn to the chance to work with a composer whose work he describes as “numinous and magical.” And Sher appreciates the opportunity “to perfect a work and have a chance to make something extremely special.” At the very least, he says, “It will be wild ride for us and the audience.”

The “Met/LCT Opera/Theater Commissions” program is funded by a generous gift to the Met from the Francis Goelet Charitable Trusts.

Extended Box Office Hours

February 12, 2010

The Met’s box office is now open through the end of the first intermission on performance days. Here are the new hours:

Monday – Saturday
10:00am through the first intermission of the evening performance
10:00am – 8:00pm on non-performance days or evenings with no intermission

Sunday
12:00 noon – 6:00pm

Thaïs and La Sonnambula on DVD

January 15, 2010

Two of last season’s stunning Live in HD productions are making their DVD debuts this winter. Massenet’s Thaïs will be released on January 26, with Renée Fleming singing the title role of the courtesan who is converted to a religious life by Thomas Hampson’s Athanaël. The transmission was originally seen in December 2008. The March 2009 presentation of Bellini’s La Sonnambula will be out on DVD on February 16. Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez star in Mary Zimmerman’s innovative production of this bel canto gem. Both Thaïs and La Sonnambula, as well as all previous HD releases, are available in the Met Opera Shop and online at metoperashop.org.

Winner Chosen in Hoffmann Cocktail Contest!

December 16, 2009

“We’re all feeling fine—bring us beer, bring us wine!”

So sing the drunken chorus of the Met’s new production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann), and seven of New York’s finest mixologists answered their call. The bartenders came to participate in the Met’s first-ever cocktail competition, pouring the most inventive new cocktails inspired by Offenbach’s feverish operatic dream of love, loss and drink.

The winning beverage, to be featured at the Met’s Revlon Bar through the holiday season, was judged by Met General Manager Peter Gelb, opera star Mariusz Kwiecien (Escamillo in the Met’s new Carmen opening New Year Eve), cocktail journalist and writer Gary (“Gaz”) Regan, and Allen Katz, director of mixology and spirits education for Southern Wine and Spirits of New York.

As the mixologists set up, their jewel toned bottles and hand-cracked ice glinting on the bar, Leo Robitschek of Eleven Madison Park explained the makings of his “Hoffmann Cup.” “This is the second opera I’ve seen and it was very visual,” the mixologist said. “My ingredients represent Hoffmann’s complexity—I have some sweet vermouth, to represent Hoffmann himself. And some Averna, which is bitter, to represent the villains.”

Nearby, Ryan McGrale of the Flatiron Lounge balanced rose petals atop his cocktail. “The petal represents what Hoffmann went through,” McGrale commented. “His struggle with love. I thought, what would I want to drink if I were in his shoes? Something strong, a bit tender, but doesn’t go down easy,” McGrale said, pushing his glass forward. “We’ve all been there.”

Joaquin Simo of Death & Co. serves up his Hoffmann-inspired cocktail to (from left)
opera star Mariusz Kwiecien, Met General Manager Peter Gelb, Keri-Lynn Wilson,
and cocktail aficionado Gary "Gaz" Regan.

The mixologists bustled and poured as the Revlon Bar began to fill with the Met’s Young Associates, gathering for their third pre-show reception of the season. Lynnette Marrero of the newly opened Rye House swirled a ladle through her punch bowl. “I created a punch that’s meant to be shared,” Marrero said. “Just like the characters did in their bar scene.” Marrero poured a few sips into a glass. “The gin and cognac are dry, like Hoffmann. The cherry liqueur represents his passions, with ginger and allspice for edge.”

Margaret Juntwait, the Met’s radio host who served as MC, called the evening to order. As Young Associates looked on, Allen Katz led the judges down the line to sample each drink. “That’s delicious,” Katz said of the Flatiron concoction. “You can quote me on that.”

The judges huddled briefly and then announced their verdict—Lynnette Morrero of Rye House. Fellow mixologists nodded and congratulated Morrero, some reaching over for a quick sip.

“It’s a spice-driven punch that celebrates a moment in the show when the full cast is drinking together,” Morrero said. “And the three cherry garnish represent the three loves of Hoffmann's life.” But before she could say more, Morrero was whisked away for a photo with the judges just as the curtain chimes sounded through the house.

Winning mixologist Lynnette Marrero of Rye House (in hat) 
is flanked by the judges of the Met's Hoffmann cocktail contest.

The Hoffmann Cocktail Contest—Participating Mixologists and Recipes

Lynnette Marrero (Rye House)—WINNER
“The Kleinzach Punch”
1 oz soda
4 cubes ice
½ antica
½ lime
½ cherry
¼ ginger
1 oz cognac
1 oz genever
½ tsp dash (less) allspice dram
2 dash Angostura Bitters
1 oz Champagne
Combine ingredients over ice and top with Champagne.

Meaghan Dorman (Raines Law Room)
“Frantz’s Moment”
2 dash orange bitters
½ oz fresh lemon
½ oz Liqueur 43
¾ oz Dolin dry vermouth 
1 ½ oz Plymouth Gin
Shake and strain into rosewater rinsed glass. Garnish with lemon and orange twist.

Brad Farran  (Clover Club)
“The Three Loves”
1 oz Daron Calvados
1 oz prosecco
¾ oz Aperol
½ oz Luxardo Amaro Abano
Stir calvados, Aperol and Abano together in a mixing glass until well chilled, strain into a chilled coupe. Top with prosecco, garnish with an orange twist.

Ryan McGrale (Flatiron Lounge)
“Lover’s Lament”
1 ½ parts Delamain ‘Pale and Dry’ Cognac
¾ Royal Combier Grande Liqueur
1 dash Pernod Absinthe
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Stir all ingredients in mixing glass with a fresh lime peel, then strain into glass rinsed with Mescal.

James Menite (Porter House)
“A Toast to Offenbach”
1 ½ oz yamazaki 12 year whiskey
20 strawberries cut in half and muddled
¾ combier rotale and rouge
¼ oz fresh lemon
¾ oz rosewater infused fresh ginger syrup
2 dashes Fee’s whiskey butters
Shake vigorously with ice, serve in St. George absinthe rise champagne glass topped with champagne. Strawberry garnish.

Leo Robitschek (Eleven Madison Park)
“Hoffmann Cup”
Averna
Sweet Vermouth
Ginger
Lemon
Demerara
Tonic
Cucumber
Grapefruit zest
Mint
(Portions and serving suggestions forthcoming.)

Joaquin Simo (Death & Co.)
“An Affinity for Sable”
2 oz chamomile-infused Old Overholt rye
¾ oz Dolin Blanc vermouth
¼ oz Clear Creek pear brandy
¼ oz Benedictine
Combine all ingredients over cracked ice and stir. Strain into chilled coupe glass, no garnish.

The participating mixologists gather for a post-competition toast.
Photos: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Met Player: The Ultimate Gift for Opera Lovers

December 2, 2009

With more than 250 Met performances available on demand, Met Player is the perfect holiday gift! The company's online streaming service allows you to watch and listen to a growing catalogue of unforgettable Met performances anytime on your computer. Treat someone on your gift list to this rich collection, which today includes more than two dozen stunning productions from the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, more than 50 classic PBS telecasts, and nearly 200 historic radio broadcasts spanning more than 70 years.

An annual subscription offering unlimited access to everything on Met Player can be given as a gift for $149.99, and purchased by calling 212-362-6000 (Monday through Saturday, 10am–8pm ET, and Sundays, 12pm–6pm ET). The recipient of your gift can look forward to new operas every month, including all of the current season’s Live in HD presentations—beginning with Luc Bondy’s new production of Tosca starring Karita Mattila in December. Or visit the Met Opera Shop to see our interactive touch screen for a demonstration, then see a sales associate to purchase this one-of-a-kind opera gift!

When you purchase a gift subscription, you will receive a Met Player card with all of the information your gift recipient will need to activate his or her account. All sales are final, and customers are encouraged to review the technical requirements for Met Player before purchasing a subscription.

Chéreau, Salonen, and Gelb Discuss From the House of the Dead

October 26, 2009

Legendary director Patrice Chéreau and renowned conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen join Met General Manager Peter Gelb on Monday, November 2, when he hosts a conversation in the Met auditorium. These two artists are both making highly anticipated Met debuts with the company premiere of Janaček’s From the House of the Dead, which garnered extraordinary critical and popular acclaim when it was first presented in Europe. Janaček’s final opera, From the House of the Dead is set in a Siberian prison camp and based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Dostoevsky. “It’s a work of energy, full of life, full of vitality, and that is what Janaček’s music is about,” Chereau says of the opera. “People can be scared by the idea of an opera about prison. But life in this prison is incredibly alive, incredibly strong: it’s exactly our life, reconstructed in a prison. It’s all of mankind in an opera.” The Guardian called Chéreau’s production “a momentous achievement,” and the Financial Times described it as “100 minutes of sheer perfection.”

This From the House of the Dead production panel, presented by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, takes place on Monday, November 2, at 6 pm at the Metropolitan Opera House. As a special offering by the Met and Metropolitan Opera Guild, this free lecture is open to the public. Tickets are required and will be available beginning at 3 pm on November 2 in the Met lobby. The new production of From the House of the Dead opens on November 12.

High School Students Meet Soprano Danielle de Niese

September 18, 2009

On September 18, a group of New York high school students visited the Met to watch the final dress rehearsal of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Following the performance, the students from the Grand Street Campus High Schools, Brooklyn, and the Long Island City and Jamaica high schools in Queens met with up-and-coming soprano Danielle de Niese, who sang the role of Susanna. De Niese shared her experiences of growing up and becoming a singer and the challenges and rewards of her work with her young fans and brought copies of her latest CD. The students asked questions about how she prepares for a performance, how she manages to sing in so many different languages, and what she’s listening to on her iPod. The day ended with the taking of photos on the Grand Tier staircase in the Met’s lobby.

Bondy, Chéreau, Sher, and Gelb on Opera, Theater, and the Phenomenon of Booing

October 9, 2009

“I was scandalized that they were so scandalized!” said Luc Bondy at a NYPL Live talk last night. “I didn’t realize Tosca was the Bible!”

Along with Met General Manager Peter Gelb, Bondy, Patrice Chéreau, and Bartlett Sher, all of whom are engaged to stage new Met productions this season, participated in a charged exchange on opera, theater, and the challenging art of directing, moderated by the library’s Paul Holdengräber. Bondy joked about the violent reaction among some audience members to his headline-grabbing, season-opening new production of Puccini’s opera, which, not surprisingly turned into a major topic of conversation at this event presented at the New York Public Library. Addressing the ongoing Tosca chatter, the speakers deliberated on the phenomenon of the boo, even demonstrating and analyzing the acoustic carrying power of the word itself. Sher pondered the complicated interaction of time, tradition, and change that can lead to such a vehement response, describing booing on the one hand as an audience member’s “self-interested expression of ownership.” But he added that it was also a sign of passion preferable to quiet muttering—“a good thing that’s creating a conversation about the nature of what we’re doing.”

All three directors—and Gelb—stated unequivocally that none of them are interested in deliberately courting scandal or controversy, joking that they are too old for that. Chéreau famously encountered a huge dose of scandal when he directed the 1976 centennial production of Wagner’s Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festival and chose to set the mythological operas during the Industrial Revolution—closer to Wagner’s own era. Chéreau reflected on how, after sustaining almost violent reactions in its first season, the production went on to become one of the most beloved and legendary in the festival’s history. He summed up the opera director’s objective: “We are interested in telling a story. And we have two texts to work with—the libretto and the music.”

Chéreau spoke with great enthusiasm of both the libretto and the music for Janacek’s From the House of the Dead, which he helms for its Met premiere on November 12. He describes the opera, based on Dostoevsky’s semi-autobiographical novel about life in a Siberian prison camp, as “not a traditional love story, as you often see in opera. But it is about men who killed, and often they killed for love because they wanted to be respected. I was very compelled by that.” Thanks to a DVD made of an earlier run of this co-production, the audience at the talk was treated to a sneak preview. Chéreau said he was energized by the collaboration with new cast members and a new conductor (the eminent Finnish maestro, Esa-Pekka Salonen) at the Met. “When you re-read a book or listen to music in another tempo, you can see something new to do with it,” the director explained.

Like From the House of the Dead, Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann is a series of vignettes that benefit from a directorial approach that makes them part of a dramatic arc. Sher’s new production, which opens on December 3, emphasizes the outsider status of both the title character and Offenbach himself.

Sher made his Met debut with Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia in 2006, and he reflected on his experience directing the Rossini classic, based on the Beaumarchais play, and the veiled theme of tyranny he sees in the piece. He broke new ground with that production, literally, by staging parts of it on a specially built walkway that extended beyond the orchestra pit and placed the singers almost in the laps of audience members. “I was looking at the space of the Met differently, just as Beaumarchais was exploring the rise of the middle class,” explained the Tony Award-winning director. “There’s an interesting tension between space and politics in this.”

The rush of new productions at the Met is part of a major effort launched by Gelb to bring fresh perspectives to familiar pieces. “If you do the math,” Gelb explained, “it’s impossible to run any theater with the same production forever. The only way to keep an aging art form alive is to present new productions. You can’t do it any other way… There is no production at the Met that will not eventually be redone.” Bondy and Chéreau were both of the opinion that a production should ideally be retired after four or five years.

As the night drew to a close, talk turned once more to Tosca and New York’s response to Bondy’s rendition, which eschews lavish scenery in favor of a tight focus on the characters. “Tosca is a double opera,” Bondy explained. “It is a wonder and a horror at the same time. Yet if you cover any opera with too much decor, you can’t see it clearly. It’s like sauce: Here is the church-sauce, here is the society-sauce. It becomes too much.”

Audiences can judge for themselves. The new Tosca runs through October 17, returning again for a run in the spring, and it will be shown live in HD to movie theaters around the world this Saturday, October 10. “The main criteria for success in a show is the public,” Gelb concluded. “I feel, as these directors do, that we all have the same goals—to lead, to excite and to stimulate. Then, we have to hope that the public will come and, if they do, that could be considered a success.” —Caroline Cooper

Luc Bondy, Patrice Chéreau, and Bartlett Sher in Conversation with Peter Gelb

October 5, 2009

Luc Bondy, Patrice Chéreau, and Bartlett Sher, the award-winning directors of the Met’s recent and upcoming new productions of Tosca, From the House of the Dead, and Les Contes d’Hoffmann, will join General Manager Peter Gelb for a conversation on opera, theater, and the art of directing. Cognitive Theater: An Evening with Peter Gelb, Luc Bondy, Patrice Chéreau & Bartlett Sher will be held this Thursday, October 8, at the New York Public Library, hosted by Paul Holdengräber, director of public programs for the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library. Bondy, whose participation in the discussion was just announced, made his Met debut with the season-opening new production of Puccini's Tosca last month. Chéreau makes his long-awaited U.S. opera debut in November with a new production of Janácek’s From the House of the Dead—the staging caused a sensation when it premiered in Europe in 2007. Sher, who won a Tony Award for South Pacific, made his Met debut in 2006 with an acclaimed staging of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He returns in December with a new production of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann.

The discussion takes place on Thursday, October 8, at 7pm in the South Court Auditorium of the New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street. For more information and tickets ($25/15), visit www.nypl.org.

James Levine to Undergo Back Surgery

September 29, 2009

Met Music Director James Levine will have back surgery this week to repair a herniated disc. He has withdrawn from conducting performances this fall in order to recuperate. Joseph Colaneri, who was already scheduled to conduct Tosca on October 3, 14, and 17, will take over Levine’s performances of the Puccini opera on October 6 and 10 matinee. (He already filled in for Levine conducting Tosca on September 24 and 28.)

The conductor for Der Rosenkavalier performances on October 13, 16, and 19 will be announced soon.

Levine’s doctors expect him to recover in time to conduct the new production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann which opens December 3. In addition to six performances of the Offenbach work, he will return to the Met podium later in the season for Simon Boccanegra and Lulu, as well as Der Rosenkavalier in January and Tosca in April. He is also scheduled to lead the Met Orchestra in Carnegie Hall performances in December and January.

Critics Praise The Audition

April 16, 2009

“Where are the opera stars of the future? Some of the answers could be found in The Audition, an exhilarating and poignant documentary that takes the viewer inside the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions” (The Plain Dealer).

Susan Froemke’s new film, which chronicles the weeks leading up to the final round of the Met’s 2007 National Council Auditions, will be seen in movie theaters this Sunday, April 19. The documentary is winning high praise from critics. "Froemke deftly maintains a dynamic balance," says Variety, "following the throughline of a particular artist's development while keeping track of several singers at once without losing clarity or depth. This complex interweaving of individual and collective strands grants the docu a rare richness that climaxes spectacularly."

“As an introduction to a new generation of American opera stars and an opportunity to hear them sing, [the film] is splendid!” Roger Ebert declares. It “captures the stress and the jubilation, the camaraderie and the rivalry of the 11 young singers of the 2007 finals,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says, and the Los Angeles Times adds, "The intimacy of Froemke's cinema vérité style reveals something of the intense pressures facing the auditionees." The South Florida Classical Review points out that “the strong emotions are always present, yet Froemke never over-indulges, and is smart enough to just follow the participants. Moments of intense beauty... contrast with others of evident despair, grinding anxiety or exultant happiness... A fascinating and welcome glimpse into the world of opera.”

Watch the trailer and buy tickets to this "engrossing documentary" (The Wall Street Journal).

Live in HD Wins a Peabody

April 2, 2009

Ever since its launch with Mozart’s The Magic Flute in December 2006, The Met: Live in HD has been a global hit with critics and audiences. Now the company’s series of live high-definition performance transmissions to movie theaters around the world has also won a prestigious Peabody Award.

Created in 1941 to recognize the most outstanding achievements in broadcasting, the Peabody Awards honored the Met this year for the HD series’ “vividly designed, smartly annotated productions of Hansel and Gretel, Doctor Atomic, Peter Grimes and other operas.” Yesterday’s announcement went on to say that “the Met used state-of-the-art digital technology to reinvent presentation of a classic art form.”

With one transmission remaining this season, the series has so far sold more than 1.5 million tickets. Next season, the Met will present nine live HD productions, starting with a new production of Tosca, starring Karita Mattila and conducted by James Levine, on October 10. The season will conclude on May 1, 2010 with a new staging of Rossini’s Armida, starring Renée Fleming.

The Met was in good company among this year’s crop of Peabody winners. Other organizations to take home awards include NBC for its coverage of the Beijing Olympics; CNN for its coverage of the presidential primaries and debates; HBO for the original movie John Adams; and YouTube. The Peabody Awards’ sole criterion is “excellence.”

Last fall, the Met also won an Emmy Award for the Live in HD series.

The Met: Live in HD series, produced in association with PBS and WNET.org, is seen on public television as part of Great Performances at the Met.

The series is made possible by a generous grant from the Neubauer Family Foundation.

New CD Celebrates the Met's 125th Anniversary

March 19, 2009

Coinciding with the 125th Anniversary Gala, the Met has just released a new CD, featuring selections from seven decades of Met broadcasts. The lineup of Celebrating 125 Years: Historic Met Performances 1937–2005 includes such legendary artists as Lauritz Melchior and Kirsten Flagstad in Siegfried, Leontyne Price in Antony and Cleopatra, and Plácido Domingo in Parsifal, plus 24 other tracks. The double-CD set comes with a 28-page full-color booklet and is available exclusively at the Met Opera Shop for $25.