New York, NY (March 26, 2008)—The Metropolitan Opera’s critically-acclaimed live high-definition satellite transmissions will be seen on public television in a fourteen-part series, beginning on March 30. Great Performances at the Met, presented by Thirteen/WNET New York, will feature the broadcast premieres of all eight presentations from the 2007-08 season of “The Met: Live in HD,” as well as the six shows from the 2006-07 season. A special prime time showing of Hansel and Gretel on March 26 will precede the series, which will air every Sunday afternoon at 12:00 p.m./EST for 14 weeks in selected public television markets. In New York, the programs will be a part of Thirteen/WNET’s new SundayArts programming showcase, beginning on Sunday, March 30 with Richard Jones’s new English-language production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment), starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez, is the final broadcast of the series on Sunday, June 29.
Broadcast premieres on Great Performances at the Met are scheduled as follows (Please check local PBS listings):
· March 26 (prime time)/March 30: Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, starring Christine Schäfer, Alice Coote, Rosalind Plowright, Philip Langridge, and Alan Held in Richard Jones’s new English-language production. Vladimir Jurowski conducts. Original live telecast directed by Barbara Willis Sweete.
· April 6: Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, starring Anna Netrebko, Roberto Alagna, Isabel Leonard, and Nathan Gunn. Plácido Domingo conducts. Original live telecast directed by Gary Halvorson. Also airing on Thirteen/WNET SD and HD on April 3 at 8:00 p.m./EST
· April 13: Verdi’s Macbeth starring Maria Guleghina, Željko Lučić, Dimitri Pittas, and John Relyea, in Adrian Noble’s new production. Met Music Director James Levine conducts. Live telecast directed by Gary Halvorson. Also airing on Thirteen/WNET SD and HD on April 10 at 8:00 p.m./EST
· April 27: Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, starring Karita Mattila, Marcello Giordani, and Dwayne Croft. James Levine conducts. Original live telecast directed by Brian Large. Also airing on Thirteen/WNET SD and HD on April 24 at 8:00 p.m./EST
· May 18: Britten’s Peter Grimes, starring Anthony Dean Griffey, Patricia Racette, and Anthony Michaels-Moore in John Doyle’s new production. Donald Runnicles conducts. Original live telecast directed by Gary Halvorson. Also airing on Thirteen/WNET SD and HD on May 15 at 8:00 p.m./EST
· June 1: Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, starring Deborah Voigt, Robert Dean Smith, Michelle DeYoung, and Matti Salminen. James Levine conducts. Original live telecast by Barbara Willis Sweete. Also airing on Thirteen/WNET SD and HD on May 29 at 8:00 p.m./EST
· June 15: Puccini’s La Bohème, starring Angela Gheorghiu, Ramón Vargas, Ainhoa Arteta, and Ludovic Tézier. Nicola Luisotti conducts. Original live telecast directed by Gary Halvorson. Also airing on Thirteen/WNET SD and HD on June 12 at 8:00 p.m./EST
· June 29: Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment, starring Natalie Dessay, Juan Diego Flórez, Felicity Palmer, and Zoe Caldwell in Laurent Pelly’s new production. Marco Armiliato conducts. Original live telecast directed by Gary Halvorson. Also airing on Thirteen/WNET SD and HD on June 26 at 8:00 p.m./EST
The encore presentations from last season of Great Performances at the Met are Mozart’s The Magic Flute (April 20); Bellini’s I Puritani (May 4); Tan Dun’s The First Emperor (May 11); Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (May 25); Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (June 8); and Puccini’s Il Trittico (June 22).
Now in its second year, “The Met: Live in HD” is presented in more than 600 theaters in 15 different countries and, so far this season, have been seen by nearly 650,000 people around the world who have joined together to experience the excitement and drama of live opera in movie theaters. The transmissions are produced by leading television and film directors. Mobile cameras capture the spectacle of the live performances and provide a front-row perspective. The viewing experience is enhanced by backstage coverage, including live interviews with the artists. “The productions are vivid, well-produced and have a lovely, quirky tension in the scenes backstage,” said The New York Times Magazine. Also presented on Thirteen HD, the television broadcasts are presented in their original high definition format, with Dolby 5.1 digital Surround Sound.
For the Met, Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park are supervising producers, and Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik are producers. Jay Saks is audio producer. Met General Manager Peter Gelb is Executive Producer. David Horn is series producer for GREAT PERFORMANCES, Bill O’Donnell is director of program development.