New York, NY (UPDATED July 19, 2007) — General Manager, Peter Gelb – together with Music Director James Levine – has announced plans to expand the number of new productions, high-definition transmissions into movie theaters, and other audience outreach initiatives for the 2007-08 season. The season will open on Monday, September 24, with Mary Zimmerman’s new production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, conducted by Maestro Levine. With the company currently experiencing a dramatic increase in attendance – the first box office improvement in six seasons – Gelb announced plans for seven new productions in 2007-08, the most new productions the Met has presented in one season since its inaugural 1966-67 season at Lincoln Center. He also announced plans to increase the number of high-definition transmissions into movie theaters from six to eight, a reflection of the significant success of this new method of reaching opera lovers throughout the world.
“So far, this season has proven that with a recipe of dynamic new productions, great singers, and a more direct approach to the public, it is possible to reach a wider and younger audience, while still serving our loyal audience,” said Gelb. “However, our efforts to sustain and re-energize the art form have only just begun.”
James Levine said, “The successes we have had in increasing the audience and reaching out to a broader public have brought a new exuberance to the artistic offerings as well. The variety and richness of next season’s repertory is extraordinary, and the sense of excitement and anticipation in the company is palpable.”
The Met’s efforts to revitalize its repertory next season begin with an accelerated schedule of new productions. In addition to the season-opening production of Lucia di Lammermoor (September 24), which stars Natalie Dessay, Marcello Giordani, and Mariusz Kwiecien, the other new productions include Verdi’s Macbeth (October 22), staged by former Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Adrian Noble, conducted by Levine, and starring Željko Lucic and Maria Guleghina; Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride (November 27), directed by Stephen Wadsworth and conducted by Louis Langrée, with Susan Graham in the title role and Plácido Domingo as Oreste; Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (December 24), the Met’s winter holiday presentation, in a new staging by Richard Jones and conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, featuring Christine Schäfer and Alice Coote; Britten’s Peter Grimes (February 28), directed by John Doyle and conducted by Donald Runnicles, featuring Anthony Dean Griffey in the title role; Philip Glass’s Satyagraha (April 11), directed by Phelim McDermott of London’s Improbable theater company in the work’s Met premiere, conducted by Dante Anzolini, with Richard Croft as Gandhi; and a critically acclaimed production of Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment (April 21), directed by Laurent Pelly and conducted by Marco Armiliato, featuring Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez. All the directors, except for Wadsworth, make their Met debuts this season, as well as Maestros Langrée and Anzolini.
In addition to the new productions of Lucia di Lammermoor and Macbeth, James Levine conducts two important revivals, Manon Lescaut and Tristan und Isolde. In 2007-08, Maestro Levine presents the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall for the 18th consecutive season. The series includes three concerts, one led by the Met’s Principal Guest Conductor, Valery Gergiev, who returns to the Met to conduct War and Peace and The Gambler – the first time two Prokofiev operas have been performed in a single season at the Met.
Lorin Maazel, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, conducts five performances of Wagner’s Die Walküre, beginning January 7, 2008. The performances mark Maestro Maazel’s first Met conducting engagement in 45 years. His last appearance with the company was during the 1962-63 season, when he made his Met debut leading performances of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier.
During the 2007-08 season, the world’s greatest singers continue to find an artistic home at the Met. The roster includes Roberto Alagna, Carlos Alvarez, Marcelo Álvarez, Lado Ataneli, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Stephanie Blythe, Olga Borodina, Johan Botha, Joseph Calleja, Alice Coote, Michèle Crider, Dwayne Croft, Richard Croft, Eric Cutler, Diana Damrau, Mark Delavan, Natalie Dessay, Michelle DeYoung, Larissa Diadkova, Luciana D’Intino, Plácido Domingo, Giuseppe Filianoti, Renée Fleming, Juan Diego Flórez, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Vladimir Galouzine, Elina Garanca, Lisa Gasteen, Angela Gheorghiu, Marcello Giordani, Susan Graham, Anthony Dean Griffey, Paul Groves, Andrea Gruber, Maria Guleghina, Nathan Gunn, Olga Guryakova, Thomas Hampson, Anja Harteros, Ben Heppner, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Tamar Iveri, Jonas Kaufmann, Simon Keenlyside, Aleksandra Kurzak, Mariusz Kwiecien, Salvatore Licitra, Željko Lucic, Karita Mattila, James Morris, Heidi Grant Murphy, Anna Netrebko, René Pape, Adrianne Pieczonka, Matthew Polenzani, Juan Pons, Patricia Racette, Sondra Radvanovsky, Ruggero Raimondi, Samuel Ramey, John Relyea, Dorothea Röschmann, Matti Salminen, Michael Schade, Christine Schäfer, Erwin Schrott, Krassimira Stoyanova, Ruth Ann Swenson, Bryn Terfel, Ramón Vargas, Rolando Villazón, Deborah Voigt, and Dolora Zajick.
New Initiatives
In December 2006, building on the success of the Met’s longstanding radio broadcasts, the company launched “Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD,” a series of live performance transmissions shown in high definition in movie theaters throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. The series has met with overwhelming success and plays to sold-out houses, prompting many theaters to schedule encore showings. Having launched in 60 venues worldwide with a transmission of The Magic Flute on December 30, the series played in over 239 venues worldwide. The March 24 transmission of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, starring Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, and Peter Mattei, broke previous HD attendance records by drawing a worldwide audience of over 55,000. When the series ended on May 15, the Met had sold more than 320,000 tickets, including encore presentations. The groundbreaking concept has shown that opera can take advantage of new technology to dramatic effect. The Los Angeles Times praised the series: “The Met’s experiment of merging film with live performances has created a new art form… This venture may be the most significant development in opera since the supertitle.”
Next season, “Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD” expands from six to eight opera transmissions: Roméo et Juliette (December 15), featuring Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón; Hansel and Gretel starring Christine Schäfer and Alice Coote (January 1); Macbeth (January 12); Manon Lescaut (February 16), starring Karita Mattila and Marcello Giordani and conducted by James Levine; Peter Grimes featuring Anthony Dean Griffey and Patricia Racette(March 15); Tristan und Isolde (March 22), featuring Deborah Voigt and Ben Heppner and conducted by Levine; La Bohème (April 5), starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas; and La Fille du Régiment featuring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez (April 26).
“Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD” expands within New York City this season through a partnership with the New York City Department of Education and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. The Met will transmit at least four opera performances into public schools in all five boroughs at no cost to the schools. “We are thrilled that our students will have the opportunity to experience the magic of opera through these live broadcasts, thanks to the generosity of the Met and their corporate sponsors,” said Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. “Our partnership with the Met will help support and augment arts education programs in our schools.”
The Metropolitan Opera Guild will partner with the Met and the NYC Department of Education to develop educational materials for teachers, students, and families.
Corporate sponsors will partner with the Met to make important contributions to this program: Panasonic will provide “1080i” HD projectors to each school; Dolby Laboratories’ Production Services will calibrate each auditorium and install specialized audio decoding equipment; and Bell Express Vu will provide “6100” satellite dishes and receivers for each location.
Great Performances at the Met, the new television series from Thirteen/WNET that is broadcasting all six of the performances in the current HD series, continues its partnership with the Met next season. The 2006-07 series of six broadcasts marks the most complete Met operas ever presented by PBS in one season.
The programs, delivered to movie theaters in Dolby Digital 5.1 with surround sound, are enhanced by live interviews and specially produced features designed to give audiences a look at the behind-the-scenes action. In the current series, guest interviewer Beverly Sills conducted live backstage interviews with Plácido Domingo (The First Emperor) and Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Eugene Onegin), while Fleming interviewed Anna Netrebko (I Puritani) in her dressing room before and after the opera’s challenging mad scene. Special guest hosts, including Katie Couric, Zhang Ziyi, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, have introduced each opera to movie theater audiences.
Opera companies around the country have joined forces with the Met’s HD transmission series to promote live opera in their communities, including Arizona Opera, Atlanta Opera, Opera Pacific, Sacramento Opera, Opera San Diego, Connecticut Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Minnesota Opera, St. Louis Opera, Opera Cleveland, Knoxville Opera, Greensboro Opera Company, and Dallas Opera.
The Met on the Radio and the Web
In 2007-08 the Met celebrates the 77th anniversary of its Saturday matinee radio broadcasts, heard for the third season over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. The Met recently revamped the broadcasts to include dynamic intermission features, such as live backstage interviews with artists and participation by celebrity guest hosts and Opera Quiz masters, including Beverly Sills and Renée Fleming, choreographer Mark Morris, comedian Robert Klein, tenor Rolando Villazón, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, and soprano Martina Arroyo.
Metropolitan Opera Radio, channel 85 on Sirius Satellite Radio, launched in September as the world’s first around-the-clock subscription opera channel. On February 14, 2007, Metropolitan Opera Radio on Sirius launched in Canada to an additional 200,000 subscribers.
With support from RealNetworks®, the leading creator of digital media services, the Met presents live streams from its website, metopera.org, once every week.
New Audiences
The Met’s box office for the 2006-07 season closed ahead of the previous season by 7.1% in total sales (83.9%) and experienced its first increase since 2001. The following productions in 2006-07 sold out for their entire runs: Madama Butterfly (13 performances); the holiday matinee series of The Magic Flute (6 performances); The First Emperor (9 performances); Eugene Onegin (7 performances), Il Trittico (8 performances), and Orfeo ed Euridice (4 performances). In all, 96 performances sold out during the 2006-07 season – a quadruple increase from the 22 sold-out performances during the previous season.
The Met’s popular Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Rush Ticket program returns for another season, thanks to a generous gift renewed by Met Board member Agnes Varis and her husband, Karl Leichtman. The program provides up to two tickets per customer for orchestra seats regularly priced at $100 per ticket at the sharply discounted price of $20, available two hours before curtain time, with new special provisions for senior citizens next season. At least 200 tickets were offered per performance (22 out of 25 operas in the current season’s repertory) in 2006-07. By the end of the 2006-07 season, the Met will have offered 20,000 orchestra tickets through this program. Based on a survey the Met conducted among Varis rush ticket buyers, 32% of those who responded to the survey had never before attended the Met, of which 44% were 30 years old or younger (1,275 respondents).
There are no single ticket price increases for the 2007-08 season. For the first time ever, subscribers as well as patrons will be able to order additional single tickets to the entire season when they subscribe, including those performances not already in their subscription package. In the new season, Monday through Thursday Orchestra Premium pricing will be $250 per subscription ticket while Single Sale remains $275 per ticket (still a discount for subscribers). Friday night subscriptions will be offered at the same lower price as Monday through Thursday subscriptions.
New Productions
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor launches the Met’s 2007-08 season on September 24 in a new production by Tony Award-winning theater artist Mary Zimmerman, who makes her Met debut. Conducted by James Levine, Lucia stars the consummate singing actress Natalie Dessay as the tragic Scottish maiden. Annick Massis sings the title role in some performances; Marcello Giordani and Giuseppe Filianoti share the role of Lucia’s lover, Edgardo; Mariusz Kwiecien is her scheming brother Enrico; and John Relyea is the compassionate Raimondo. Joining Zimmerman on the production team are Daniel Ostling, set designer; Mara Blumenfeld, costume designer; T.J. Gerckens, lighting designer; and Daniel Pelzig, choreographer – all in their Met debuts.
Zimmerman recalls her inspiration: “I went to Scotland to Culzean Castle on the west coast, which clings to the side of a cliff surrounded by vast cultivated gardens, alleys of trees, and wild land as well. That place became the core of our design: the strange shade of green of the outsized rooms, the bare branches above our heads in the alleyways – an image of the nervous system or the broken vasculature of Lucia’s brain. It felt like a place haunted by madness, the setting for a ghostly Victorian tale.”
Debuting director Adrian Noble explores Verdi’s affinity for Shakespeare in the new production of Macbeth, which opens on October 22, conducted by James Levine. The ambitious couple is portrayed by baritone Željko Lucic and soprano Maria Guleghina. Lado Ataneli and Carlos Alvarez sing Macbeth and Andrea Gruber sings Lady Macbeth at later performances. John Relyea and René Pape share the role of the doomed Banquo, while Dimitri Pittas, Roberto Aronica, and Joseph Calleja alternate as the heroic Macduff. Mark Thompson designs the sets and costumes and Jean Kalman the lighting. Sue Lefton makes her Met debut as choreographer.
“Verdi almost completely unleashes Lady Macbeth and Macbeth,” notes Noble. “They are bound to each other in ambition and have an extraordinary connection – it’s profound, and it’s very dangerous… Verdi was brilliant at creating character through music. Particularly in the duets, you get these extraordinary combustive relationships created that fulfill totally Shakespeare’s dream.”
Gluck’s final operatic masterwork, Iphigénie en Tauride, returns to the Met on November 27 for the first time since 1917, in a new production by Stephen Wadsworth, whose staging of Rodelinda at the Met in 2004 was a sell-out success. French conductor Louis Langrée, Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival, makes his Met debut; Susan Graham, who has won international acclaim in the title role, sings opposite Plácido Domingo, who adds the role of Oreste to his astounding repertory, with Paul Groves as Pylade. The production, which uses the version of the score that Gluck wrote for Vienna in 1781, has sets designed by Thomas Lynch, costumes by Martin Pakledinaz, lighting by Neil Peter Jampolis, and choreography by Daniel Pelzig. A co-production with Seattle Opera, Iphigénie en Tauride premieres there with a different cast on October 13.
Commenting on the opera’s story, Wadsworth said, “Iphigénie and Oreste face the tragedies of the family. They’ve suffered for so long that resolution hardly seems possible. After all they’ve been through, they may not even know how to recognize or bear it when it comes.”
The new production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, the second in the Met’s annual series of special holiday presentations, premieres on December 24. In their Met debuts, Richard Jones, the director, and John Macfarlane, the set and costume designer, bring out the dark underpinnings of the classic fairy tale, presented in an English-language version by David Pountney. Vladimir Jurowski conducts a cast that includes Christine Schäfer and Alice Coote in the title roles, with Philip Langridge as the Witch. Jennifer Tipton is the lighting designer, and Linda Dobell creates the choreography. This new production is based on one originally created for the Welsh National Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Jones discussed the opera’s appeal to younger audiences: “Hansel and Gretel is a feast for children because they transgress, they’re naughty. They’re evicted from their house in the first scene. But then they get to eat a lot of food – they get to gorge themselves on sweets. It engages with their fears and their fantasies.”
Peter Grimes, Benjamin Britten’s probing exploration of the nature of guilt and judgment, returns to the Met on February 28 in a new production by John Doyle, recent winner of a Tony Award for Sweeney Todd. Doyle, his set designer, Scott Pask, and his costume designer, Ann Hould-Ward, are all making their Met debuts in this modern masterpiece, with lighting by Peter Mumford. Donald Runnicles conducts a cast that includes Anthony Dean Griffey singing one of 20th-century opera’s most impressive tenor roles, Patricia Racette as the kindhearted Ellen Orford, and Anthony Michaels-Moore as Balstrode.
Doyle said, “Peter Grimes is about judgment for me. It’s a highly theatrical piece. But equally, it is a piece that could happen. And it does happen every day… The set design is based upon the net huts in Hastings, where I live. We’ve created a series of walls made up of the imagery of those net huts. And these walls do, in the course of the evening, close in, so you do get a sense of him being completely trapped.”
Composer Philip Glass’s landmark 1980 opera, Satyagraha, has its Met premiere on April 11 in a co-production with English National Opera which London’s Guardian newspaper praised as “an astonishingly beautiful work...Phelim McDermott's staging, undertaken in collaboration with the theatre company Improbable, is also a thing of wonder.” In their Met debuts, director Phelim McDermott and associate director and designer Julian Crouch (artistic directors of London’s provocative Improbable theater company) use improvisational puppetry, achieved by a team of aerialists, to illuminate Mahatma Gandhi’s formative experiences in South Africa. Lighting designer Paule Constable also makes her Met debut. Tenor Richard Croft portrays Gandhi in Glass’s opera, which is set to text from the ancient Sanskrit scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. Dante Anzolini makes his Met debut as conductor, and Rachelle Durkin, Earle Patriarco, and Alfred Walker complete the cast. This will be the second Glass opera produced by the Met; his The Voyage, based on Christopher Columbus’s journey to America, was commissioned by the Met and had its world premiere in 1992.
Explaining the opera’s title, McDermott said: “‘Satyagraha’ means ‘truth force’ or ‘soul force’… the idea that people operate from this place as a community and as a group. Then shifts can happen… In reading about Satyagraha, I felt as if I’d had some kind of experience of that atmosphere, when people as a group take responsibility to make change happen.”
A co-production with the Royal Opera and Vienna State Opera, Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez, became the hit of Covent Garden’s current season. It joins the Met repertory on April 21, 2008 with the same two leads, as the final new production of the season. The production, by a debuting team that includes director and costume designer Laurent Pelly, set designer Chantal Thomas, lighting designer Joël Adam, and choreographer Laura Scozzi, received rave reviews in London, where The Times called it “the operatic show of the season,” and The Guardian proclaimed, “The Royal Opera’s new staging of La Fille du Régiment will probably go down in history as one of the company’s great achievements.” Marco Armiliato conducts, with Barry Banks sharing the role of Tonio with Mr. Flórez, Felicity Palmer as the Marquise, Alessandro Corbelli as Sulpice, and four-time Tony Award-winner Zoe Caldwell in the speaking role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp.
Pelly, describing his approach to the production, said, “I wanted to turn the patriotic tone upside down… We can smile at the flag-waving, almost laugh at it, in a way that’s tongue-in-cheek. Marie is a bit of a tomboy, a rebel. I thought it was funny that she has to do all the household chores for 500 soldiers. But in the end, she’s transformed by love.”
Special Performance Events
The Met’s 2007-08 season kicks off with Opening Night Gala events supporting the premiere of Lucia di Lammermoor on Monday, September 24. The Met’s history-making Times Square plazacast, which drew a huge public crowd to the open-air presentation of Madama Butterfly last season, is planned to take place again this year when the opening night performance of Lucia di Lammermoor is presented on Panasonic’s AstroVision screen located at One Times Square, at 43rd Street. A simultaneous outdoor broadcast of the performance will be presented in Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza, drawing an additional potential audience of 2,000. The opening of the Met’s new season is supported by a half-million-dollar outdoor transit campaign, underwritten by Agnes Varis, a managing director of the Met Board. The first of three Open Houses will be held for the dress rehearsal of Lucia di Lammermoor on Thursday, September 20. The first annual Open House at the Met in 2006-07 invited over 3,000 people through its doors to attend the dress rehearsal of Madama Butterfly for free and included a first-ever tour of the Met stage.
The Met’s Holiday Matinee Series continues this season with the English-language production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, the new Met production directed by Richard Jones. The fairy tale is a timeless children’s favorite, yet the sophisticated score and staging will appeal to adult audiences. Opening December 24, Hansel and Gretel runs for four matinee performances and five evening performances.
Repertory
In addition to the seven new productions, the Met’s 2007-08 season includes 21 revivals. Met Music Director James Levine conducts two revivals. The first is Manon Lescaut, with Karita Mattila taking on Puccini’s free-spirited beauty for the first time at the Met, on the heels of her triumph in this season’s Jenufa. Marcello Giordani is her lover Des Grieux, Dwayne Croft sings her carefree cousin Lescaut, and Dale Travis her aged suitor Geronte. In March, Maestro Levine leads Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, with the highly anticipated first Met performances by Deborah Voigt as Isolde. She is paired with Ben Heppner as Tristan, one of his most celebrated roles. Michelle DeYoung and Margaret Jane Wray share the role of Brangäne, and Matti Salminen sings the role of King Marke for the first time at the Met since his debut season in 1981.
Principal Guest Conductor Valery Gergiev revisits two operatic masterpieces by Prokofiev, both of which he introduced to the Met in recent seasons. The Gambler, a gripping interpretation of Dostoyevsky’s tale of compulsion, addiction, and madness, is brought to life by many of the same Russian singers who were hailed for their portrayals at the opera’s Met premiere in 2002, notably Vladimir Galouzine and Olga Guryakova leading the cast. The epic War and Peace – the biggest production the Met has ever done – also returns under Maestro Gergiev’s baton. Prokofiev’s moving adaptation of the Tolstoy novel calls for 68 solo roles and numerous extras to depict the battles and balls of Imperial Russia. The predominantly Russian cast includes several debuting artists, and American bass Samuel Ramey will repeat his acclaimed performance as General Kutuzov.
Three sold-out new productions from the current season will be revived in 2007-08. Bartlett Sher’s staging of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia returns with the Met debut of the heralded mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca as Rosina, tenors Michael Schade and José Manuel Zapata (debut) as Almaviva, Franco Vassallo as Figaro, and veteran Italian bass Ruggero Raimondi as Don Basilio, a role he shares with Peter Rose. Frédéric Chaslin conducts. Anthony Minghella’s highly theatrical production of Puccini’s heartrending Madama Butterfly also returns this season with a new cast. Patricia Racette brings her talents as a singing actress to the demanding title role for the first time at the Met, and star tenor Roberto Alagna sings his first Met performances as Pinkerton, conducted by Mark Elder. Following its sold-out premiere run this season, Tan Dun’s The First Emperor will receive encore performances, with Plácido Domingo once again in the title role, which he created in the 2006-07 season, and the composer conducting. Filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s monumental production features a cast that includes Sarah Coburn, Susanne Mentzer, Paul Groves, and Hao Jiang Tian repeating their successful portrayals from the premiere season.
Roméo et Juliette, Gounod’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, is a great vehicle for the charismatic duo of Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. These will be the first Met performances of the title roles for the young stars, who have sung together in the opera elsewhere. Nathan Gunn is Roméo’s loyal friend Mercutio, and Kristinn Sigmundsson and Robert Lloyd share the role of Frère Laurent. Plácido Domingo presides on the podium.
Other major revivals include Verdi’s early opera Ernani, not heard at the Met since 1985, with a quartet of lead singers who are singing their roles for the first time with the company: Marcello Giordani in the title role, Sondra Radvanovsky as Elvira, Thomas Hampson as Don Carlo, and Ferruccio Furlanetto as de Silva. Roberto Abbado conducts.
Soprano Renée Fleming brings two of her most popular Verdi portrayals back to the Met stage this season. In the title role of La Traviata, she is joined by Matthew Polenzani, in his first Met performances of Alfredo, and Dwayne Croft in his familiar role as Giorgio Germont. Later performances of La Traviata feature Ruth Ann Swenson in the title role and the rising German tenor Jonas Kaufmann as Alfredo.
Verdi’s Otello also features Fleming, in the role of Desdemona, opposite South African heldentenor Johan Botha, singing the jealous Moor for the first time at the Met. Carlo Guelfi engineers the work’s tragic outcome as the evil Iago, and Semyon Bychkov conducts.
Bizet’s Carmen, with Russian mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina in the title role, replaces the previously announced performances of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann. The change in repertory is due to the decision by Argentine tenor Marcelo Álvarez to retire the title role of Hoffmann from his repertory. Nancy Fabiola Herrera sings the title role in one performance, Maija Kovalevska and Krassimira Stoyanova both sing the role of Micaëla at the Met for the first time, and Emmanuel Villaume conducts all eight performances.
The conducting roster for the 2007-08 season boasts many celebrated musicians in addition to Maestros Levine and Gergiev, beginning with the return of Lorin Maazel to the Met podium for the first time in 45 years. The first American to conduct at the Bayreuth Festival, and the first non-German to conduct the Ring cycle there, Maestro Maazel leads Wagner’s Die Walküre with an opening cast that includes Lisa Gasteen, Adrianne Pieczonka, Stephanie Blythe, Clifton Forbis, James Morris, and Mikhail Petrenko.
Kazushi Ono, Music Director of Brussels’s Théâtre de la Monnaie, makes his Met debut in the season’s first week conducting Aida. In addition, some of the world’s leading conductors will appear in the Met’s 2007-08 season: Maurizio Benini (Norma); Harry Bicket (La Clemenza di Tito); Philippe Jordan (Le Nozze di Figaro); Nicola Luisotti (La Bohème); Gianandrea Noseda (Un Ballo in Maschera and War and Peace); Kirill Petrenko (Die Zauberflöte); David Robertson (Die Entführung aus dem Serail); and Emmanuel Villaume (Carmen).
Many notable artists are adding new roles to their Met repertories this season, including both Hasmik Papian and Maria Guleghina in the title role of Norma; Angela M. Brown as Amelia, Stephanie Blythe as Ulrica, Salvatore Licitra as Riccardo, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Renato in Un Ballo in Maschera; Ramón Vargas as Tito and Susan Graham as Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito; Marcelo Álvarez as Don José and Krassimira Stoyanova in Carmen; Diana Damrau as Konstanze and Matthew Polenzani as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Dorothea Röschmann as the Countess, Isabel Bayrakdarian and Ekaterina Siurina as Susanna, Simon Keenlyside as the Count, and Erwin Schrott as Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro; and Luciana D’Intino as Amneris in Aida.
Diana Damrau, whose appearances as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos in 2005 and as Rosina in this season’s new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia brought the house down, takes on two new roles in the 2007-08 season – both in the same opera. In an unusual feat of versatility, she appears in Die Zauberflöte as Pamina in early performances, then switches to the Queen of the Night at the end of the run.
Angela Gheorghiu leads the list of major stars who are returning with some of their most celebrated interpretations. She brings her acclaimed Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème to the Met stage for the first time in twelve years. In addition, powerhouse mezzo-sopranos Dolora Zajick and Olga Borodina offer their searing portrayals of Amneris in Aida, joined by baritones Juan Pons and Mark Delavan as Amonasro. After a season’s absence, commanding bass-baritone Bryn Terfel comes back to the Met with his irresistible Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro. Ms. Borodina also returns in the title role of Carmen.
Additional important debuts in the 2007-08 season include Micaela Carosi in the title role and Andrzej Dobber as Amonasro in Aida; Ofelia Sala as Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera; Quinn Kelsey as Schaunard in La Bohème; Steve Davislim as Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Anke Vondung as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro; Isabel Leonard as Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette; Irina Mataeva and Marina Poplovskaya as Natasha Rostova, and Vassily Ladyuk as Andrey Bolkonsky in War and Peace; and Genia Kühmeier as Pamina, Anna-Kristiina Kaappola as the Queen of the Night, and Joseph Kaiser as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte.
The MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
The MET Orchestra returns for its 18th consecutive season of concerts at Carnegie Hall during the 2007-08 season. James Levine conducts the first concert on February 17 in a program that includes Webern’s Six Pieces for Large Orchestra; Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, with Alfred Brendel as soloist; Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra; and the final scene from Strauss’s Salome with Deborah Voigt as soloist. On May 18, Valery Gergiev conducts an all-Mussorgsky program with bass René Pape as soloist: A Night on Bald Mountain (original version), Songs and Dances of Death, Monologue from Act II of Boris Godunov, and Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky/Ravel). The final concert, on May 22, conducted by James Levine, features Elliott Carter’s Three Occasions; Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, with Jonathan Biss as soloist; and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36.
Met Gala Performances
On November 27, the gala premiere of the new production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride marks the first performance of this opera at the house since 1917. Susan Graham stars as Iphigénie, with Plácido Domingo singing the tenor role of Oreste from the 1781 version Gluck wrote for Vienna. Paul Groves sings Pylade and William Shimell is Thoas. Louis Langrée makes his Met debut as conductor.
The December 31 performance of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, with Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani, is the centerpiece of the Met’s New Year’s Eve Gala.
The April 21 gala premiere of La Fille du Régiment celebrates two of the world’s great bel canto singers, Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez. This new Fille, directed by Laurent Pelly, was a tremendous success in London earlier this year.
The Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met
The Met’s contemporary art gallery, the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, new in 2006-07, reinforces the company’s historical connection to contemporary artists. On May 6, 2006, the company hosted its first Art for Opera contemporary art auction on stage at the Met, which raised over $1.8 million for new productions. Opera by Design, an exhibit of scenic models and costume sketches for new productions in the Met’s 2007-08 season, opens at Gallery Met on May 25 and runs through September 2007. The gallery will display Chuck Close’s images of Philip Glass in April 2008 to celebrate the Met premiere of the composer’s Satyagraha.
Met in the Parks
The 2007 Met in the Parks concert series takes place this summer from June 12 to June 23 featuring performances of Puccini’s La Bohème and Gounod’s Faust. The company will take a mid-season break in 2007-08 from January 16 through January 21. Information on subscriptions or additional information can be obtained by calling Met Ticket Service at (212) 362-6000, or by visiting the Met website at www.metopera.org.
2007-08 Season
Complete Repertoire and Casting
METROPOLITAN OPERA PREMIERE
SATYAGRAHA (Apr. 11, 14, 19 mat, 22, 25, 28, May 1)
Composer Philip Glass
Libretto Philip Glass and Constance De Jong
Co-production with English National Opera
Conductor: Dante Anzolini*
Production: Phelim McDermott*
Associate Director: Julian Crouch*
Set Designer: Julian Crouch*
Costume Designer: Kevin Pollard*
Lighting Designer: TBA
Miss Schlesen: Rachelle Durkin
M.K. Gandhi: Richard Croft
Mr. Kallenbach: Earle Patriarco
Parsi Rustomji: Alfred Walker
NEW PRODUCTIONS
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR (Sep. 24, 27, Oct. 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 20, 25, Mar. 5, 8 mat, 13)
Composer Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto Salvadore Cammarano
Conductor: James Levine/TBA
Production: Mary Zimmerman*
Set Designer: Daniel Ostling*
Costume Designer: Mara Blumenfeld*
Lighting Designer: T. J. Gerckens*
Choreographer: Daniel Pelzig*
Lucia: Natalie Dessay/Annick Massis
Edgardo: Marcello Giordani /TBA/Giuseppe Filianoti
Enrico: Mariusz Kwiecien
Raimondo: John Relyea
MACBETH (Oct. 22, 26, 31, Nov. 3, Jan. 5, 9, 12 mat, 15, May 9, 13, 17)
Composer Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto Francesco Maria Piave
Conductor: James Levine
Production: Adrian Noble*
Set Designer: Mark Thompson
Costume Designer: Mark Thompson
Lighting Designer: Jean Kalman
Choreographer: Sue Lefton*
Lady Macbeth: Maria Guleghina/Andrea Gruber
Macduff: Dimitri Pittas/Roberto Aronica/Joseph Calleja
Macbeth: Željko Lucic/Lado Ataneli/Carlos Alvarez
Banquo: John Relyea/René Pape
IPHIGÉNIE EN TAURIDE (Nov. 27, Dec. 1 mat, 5, 8 mat, 11, 14, 19, 22)
Composer Christoph Willibald Gluck
Libretto Nicolas-François Guillard
This production features the version of the score that Gluck
wrote for Vienna in 1781.
Co-production with Seattle Opera
Conductor: Louis Langrée*
Production: Stephen Wadsworth
Set Designer: Thomas Lynch
Costume Designer: Martin Pakledinaz
Lighting Designer: Neil Peter Jampolis
Choreographer: Daniel Pelzig
Iphigénie: Susan Graham
Oreste: Plácido Domingo
Pylade: Paul Groves
Thoas: William Shimell
HANSEL AND GRETEL (Dec. 24 mat, 29 mat, Jan. 1 mat, 4 mat, 8, 11, 23, 26, 31)
Composer Engelbert Humperdinck
Libretto Adelheid Wette
Originally created for Welsh National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago
Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski
Production: Richard Jones*
Set Designer: John Macfarlane*
Costume: John Macfarlane*
Lighting Designer: Jennifer Tipton
Choreographer: Linda Dobell
English Version: David Pountney
Gretel: Christine Schäfer
Hansel: Alice Coote
Gertrude: Rosalind Plowright
The Witch: Philip Langridge
Peter: Alan Held/John Hancock
PETER GRIMES (Feb. 28, March 3, 7, 11, 15 mat, 20, 24)
Composer Benjamin Britten
Libretto Montagu Slater
Conductor: Donald Runnicles
Production: John Doyle*
Set Designer: Scott Pask*
Costume Designer: Ann Hould-Ward*
Lighting Designer: Peter Mumford
Ellen Orford: Patricia Racette
Peter Grimes: Anthony Dean Griffey
Balstrode: Anthony Michaels-Moore
LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT (Apr. 21, 26 mat, 29, May 2, 5, 8, 12, 16)
Composer Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto Jean-François Bayard and J. H. Vernoy de Saint-Georges
Co-production with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, and the Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna
Conductor: Marco Armiliato/TBA
Production: Laurent Pelly*
Set Designer: Chantal Thomas*
Costume Designer: Laurent Pelly*
Lighting Designer: Joël Adam*
Choreographer: Laura Scozzi*
Marie: Natalie Dessay
Marquise of
Berkenfeld: Felicity Palmer
Tonio: Juan Diego Flórez/Barry Banks
Sulpice: Alessandro Corbelli
Duchess of
Krakenthorp: Zoe Caldwell*
REPERTORY
AIDA (Sep. 29 mat, Oct. 4, 16, 20 mat, 24, 27, 30, Nov. 2, 5, 8)
Composer Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto Antonio Ghislanzoni
Conductor: Kazushi Ono*
Production: Sonja Frisell
Set Designer: Gianni Quaranta
Costume Designer: Dada Saligeri
Lighting Designer: Gil Wechsler
Aida: Angela M. Brown/Micaela Carosi*
Amneris: Dolora Zajick/Olga Borodina/Luciana D’Intino
Radamès: Marco Berti
Amonasro: Andrzej Dobber*/Juan Pons/Mark Delavan
Ramfis: Carlo Colombara/Vitalij Kowaljow
The King: Dimitri Kavrakos/Reinhard Hagen*
UN BALLO IN MASCHERA (Dec. 17, 21, 24, 29, Jan. 1, 5 mat, Apr. 16, 19, 23)
Composer Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto Antonio Somma
Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda
Production: Piero Faggioni
Set Designer: Piero Faggioni
Costume Designer: Piero Faggioni
Lighting Designer: Piero Faggioni
Amelia: Michèle Crider/Angela M. Brown
Oscar: Ofelia Sala*/TBA
Ulrica: Stephanie Blythe
Riccardo: Salvatore Licitra
Renato: Dmitri Hvorostovsky/TBA
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA (Jan. 12, 22, 26 mat, 30, Feb. 2, 7, 14, 21, 25, 29)
Composer Gioacchino Rossini
Libretto Cesare Sterbini
Conductor: Frédéric Chaslin
Production: Bartlett Sher
Set Designer: Michael Yeargan
Costume Designer: Catherine Zuber
Lighting Designer: Christopher Akerlind
Rosina: Elina Garanca*
Count Almaviva: Michael Schade/Jose Manuel Zapata*
Figaro: Franco Vassallo
Dr. Bartolo: Bruno Praticò/Maurizio Muraro
Don Basilio: Peter Rose/Ruggero Raimondi
LA BOHÈME (Mar 29, Apr. 1, 5 mat, 9, 12, 15, 18)
Composer Giacomo Puccini
Libretto Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Conductor: Nicola Luisotti
Production: Franco Zeffirelli
Set Designer: Franco Zeffirelli
Costume Designer: Peter J. Hall
Lighting Designer: Gil Wechsler
Mimì: Angela Gheorghiu
Musetta: Ainhoa Arteta
Rodolfo: Ramón Vargas
Marcello: Ludovic Tézier
Schaunard: Quinn Kelsey*/Jeff Mattsey
Colline: Oren Gradus/TBA
Benoit / Alcindoro: Paul Plishka
CARMEN (Feb. 4, 8, 13, 16, 19, 23 mat, 27, Mar. 1)
Composer Georges Bizet
Libretto Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy
Conductor Emmanuel Villaume
Original Production Franco Zeffirelli
Set Designer Franco Zeffirelli
Costume designer Anna Anni
Lighting designer Duane Schuler
Choreographer Maria Benitez
Carmen: Olga Borodina/Nancy Fabiola Herrera
Don José: Marcelo Álvarez
Micaëla: Maija Kovalevska/Krassimira Stoyanova
Escamillo: Lucio Gallo
LA CLEMENZA DI TITO (May 3, 6, 10 mat, 15)
Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto Pietro Metastasio, revised by Caterino Mazzolà
Conductor: Harry Bicket
Production: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Set Designer: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Costume Designer: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Lighting Designer: Gil Wechsler
Servilia: Heidi Grant Murphy
Vitellia: Tamar Iveri
Sesto: Susan Graham
Annio: Anke Vondung
Tito: Ramón Vargas
Publio: Oren Gradus
DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL (Apr. 26, 30, May 3 mat, 7)
Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto Christoph Friedrich Bretzner, adapted by Johann Gottlieb Stephanie, Jr.
Conductor: David Robertson
Production: John Dexter
Set Designer: Jocelyn Herbert
Costume Designer: Jocelyn Herbert
Lighting Designer: Gil Wechsler
Konstanze: Diana Damrau
Blonde: Aleksandra Kurzak
Belmonte: Matthew Polenzani
Pedrillo: Steve Davislim*
Osmin: Kristinn Sigmundsson
Pasha Selim: Matthias von Stegmann
ERNANI (Mar. 17, 21, 26, 29 mat, Apr. 2, 5, 10)
Composer Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto Francesco Maria Piave
Conductor Roberto Abbado
Production Pier Luigi Samaritani
Set Designer Pier Luigi Samaritani
Costume Designer Peter J. Hall
Lighting Designer Gil Wechsler
Elvira Sondra Radvanovsky
Ernani Marcello Giordani
Don Carlo Thomas Hampson
de Silva Ferruccio Furlanetto
THE FIRST EMPEROR (May 10, 14, 17 mat)
Composer Tan Dun
Libretto Ha Jin and Tan Dun
Conductor: Tan Dun
Production: Zhang Yimou
Set Designer: Fan Yue
Costume Designer: Emi Wada
Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler
Co-Director: Wang Chaoge
Choreographer: Dou Dou Huang
Princess Yueyang: Sarah Coburn
Shaman: Ning Liang
Mother of Yueyang: Susanne Mentzer
Emperor Qin: Plácido Domingo
Gao Jianli: Paul Groves
General Wang: Hao Jiang Tian
THE GAMBLER (Mar. 27, 31, Apr. 4, 8, 12 mat)
Composer Sergei Prokofiev
Libretto Sergei Prokofiev
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Production: Temur Chkheidze
Set Designer: George Tsypin
Costume Designer: Georgi Alexi-Meskhishvili
Lighting Designer: James F. Ingalls
Polina: Olga Guryakova
Madame Blanche: Olga Savova
Grammy: Larissa Diadkova
Alexei: Vladimir Galouzine
The Marquis: Nikolai Gassiev
Mr. Astley: John Hancock
The General: Sergei Aleksashkin
MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Oct. 8, 12, 15, 19, 23, 27 mat)
Composer Giacomo Puccini
Libretto Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Conductor: Mark Elder
Production: Anthony Minghella
Associate Director: Carolyn Choa
Choreographer: Carolyn Choa
Set Designer: Michael Levine
Costume Designer: Han Feng
Lighting Designer: Peter Mumford
Puppetry: Blind Summit Theatre
Cio-Cio-San: Patricia Racette
Suzuki: Maria Zifchak
Pinkerton: Roberto Alagna
Sharpless: Luca Salsi
MANON LESCAUT (Jan. 29, Feb. 1, 5, 9, 12, 16 mat, 20, 23)
Composer Giacomo Puccini
Libretto Marco Praga, Domenico Oliva, Giulio Ricordi,
Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Conductor: James Levine/TBA
Set Designer: Desmond Heeley
Costume Designer: Desmond Heeley
Lighting Designer: Gil Wechsler
Manon Lescaut: Karita Mattila
Des Grieux: Marcello Giordani
Lescaut: Dwayne Croft
Geronte: Dale Travis
NORMA (Nov. 12, 16, 19, 23, 26, 30, Dec. 4, 7)
Composer Vincenzo Bellini
Libretto Felice Romani
Conductor: Maurizio Benini
Production: John Copley
Set Designer: John Conklin
Costume Designer: John Conklin
Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler
Norma: Hasmik Papian/Maria Guleghina
Adalgisa: Dolora Zajick
Pollione: Franco Farina
Oroveso: Vitalij Kowaljow/Hao Jiang Tian
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO (Oct. 2, 6 mat, 10, 13 mat, 18,
Nov. 10 mat, 14, 17 mat, 21, 24, 28, Dec. 1)
Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto Lorenzo da Ponte
Conductor: Philippe Jordan
Production: Jonathan Miller
Set Designer: Peter Davison
Costume Designer: James Acheson
Lighting Designer: Mark McCullough
Choreographer: Terry John Bates
Countess Almaviva: Dorothea Röschmann/Anja Harteros
Susanna: Isabel Bayrakdarian/Ekaterina Siurina
Cherubino: Anke Vondung*/Kate Lindsey
Count Almaviva: Michele Pertusi/Simon Keenlyside
Figaro: Erwin Schrott/Bryn Terfel
OTELLO (Feb. 11, 15, 18, 22, 26, Mar. 1 mat, 4, 8)
Composer Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto Arrigo Boito
Conductor: Semyon Bychkov
Production: Elijah Moshinsky
Set Designer: Michael Yeargan
Costume Designer: Peter J. Hall
Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler
Choreographer: Eleanor Fazan
Fight Director: B. H. Barry
Desdemona: Renée Fleming
Otello: Johan Botha
Iago: Carlo Guelfi
ROMÉO ET JULIETTE (Sep. 25, 29, Oct. 3, 6, 11, Dec. 8, 12, 15 mat, 20, 27, 31)
Composer Charles-François Gounod
Libretto Jules Barbier and Michel Carré
Conductor: Plácido Domingo/TBA
Production: Guy Joosten
Set Designer: Johannes Leiacker
Costume Designer: Jorge Jara
Lighting Designer: David Cunningham
Choreographer: Sean Curran
Fight Director: Dale Anthony Girard
Juliette: Anna Netrebko
Stéphano: Isabel Leonard*/Kate Lindsey
Roméo: Rolando Villazón/Matthew Polenzani
Mercutio: Nathan Gunn/Jeff Mattsey
Frère Laurent: Kristinn Sigmundsson/Robert Lloyd
LA TRAVIATA (Nov. 3 mat, 7, 10, 15, Mar. 6, 12, 15, 19, 22)
Composer Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto Francesco Maria Piave
Conductor: Marco Armiliato
Production: Franco Zeffirelli
Set Designer: Franco Zeffirelli
Costume Designer: Raimonda Gaetani
Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler
Choreographer: Maria Benitez
Violetta: Renée Fleming/Ruth Ann Swenson
Alfredo: Matthew Polenzani/Jonas Kaufmann
Germont: Dwayne Croft
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (Mar. 10, 14, 18, 22 mat, 25, 28)
Composer Richard Wagner
Libretto Richard Wagner
Conductor: James Levine
Production: Dieter Dorn
Set Designer: Jürgen Rose
Costume Designer: Jürgen Rose
Lighting Designer: Max Keller
Dramaturg: Hans-Joachim Ruckhäberle
Isolde: Deborah Voigt
Brangäne: Michelle DeYoung/Margaret Jane Wray
Tristan: Ben Heppner
Kurwenal: Eike Wilm Schulte/TBA
King Marke: Matti Salminen
DIE WALKÜRE (Jan. 7, 14, 28, Feb. 2 mat, 6, 9 mat)
Composer Richard Wagner
Libretto Richard Wagner
Conductor: Lorin Maazel/TBA
Production: Otto Schenk
Set Designer: Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Projection Designer: Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Costume Designer: Rolf Langenfass
Lighting Designer: Gil Wechsler
Brünnhilde: Lisa Gasteen
Sieglinde: Adrianne Pieczonka/Deborah Voigt
Fricka: Stephanie Blythe/Michelle DeYoung
Siegmund: Clifton Forbis/Simon O’Neill
Wotan: James Morris
Hunding: Mikhail Petrenko
WAR AND PEACE (Dec. 10, 13, 15, 18, 22 mat, 26, 28, Jan. 3)
Composer Sergei Prokofiev
Libretto Sergei Prokofiev and Mira Mendelson
Conductor: Valery Gergiev/Gianandrea Noseda
Production: Andrei Konchalovsky
Set Designer: George Tsypin
Costume Designer: Tatiana Noginova
Lighting Designer: James F. Ingalls
Projection Designer: Elaine McCarthy
Associate Set Designer: Eugene Monakhov
Choreographer: Sergei Gritsai
Natasha Rostova: Irina Mataeva*/Marina Poplovskaya*
Sonya: Ekaterina Semenchuk
Madame Akhrosimova: Larisa Shevchenko
Pierre Bezukhov: Kim Begley/Alexei Steblianko
Andrey Bolkonsky: Vassily Ladyuk*/Alexej Markov*
Napoleon Bonaparte: Vassily Gerello
Marshal Kutuzov: Samuel Ramey/Mikhail Kit
DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE (Oct. 29, Nov. 1, 6, 9, 13, 17, 20, 24 mat)
Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto Emanuel Schikaneder
Conductor: Kirill Petrenko
Production: Julie Taymor
Set Designer: George Tsypin
Costume Designer: Julie Taymor
Lighting Designer: Donald Holder
Puppet Designers: Julie Taymor and Michael Curry
Choreographer: Mark Dendy
Pamina Diana Damrau/Genia Kühmeier*
Queen of the Night Anna-Kristiina Kaappola* / Diana Damrau
Tamino Eric Cutler/Joseph Kaiser*
Papageno Stéphane Degout
Speaker Eike Wilm Schulte
Sarastro Reinhard Hagen