New York, NY (September 30, 2008)—For the first time, the Metropolitan Opera will present a work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams: Doctor Atomic, his opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb. The piece is set in New Mexico in the summer of 1945, as scientists, led by Oppenheimer, and the military prepare to test the first nuclear bomb, events that will radically change the course and fabric of history. The new production, starring Gerald Finley in the title role, will open at the Met on Monday, October 13, at 8:00 p.m. When the opera premiered in San Francisco in October of 2005, The Guardian said, “Adams’s ecstatically lyrical writing and the music’s visionary eloquence make this a modern masterpiece.” The New York Times later wrote that Doctor Atomic was “the most complex and inventive of Mr. Adams’s works, an engrossing operatic drama.”
Penny Woolcock, an award-winning British TV and film director who worked with Adams on the 2003 film of his opera The Death of Klinghoffer, is making both her Met and her opera-directing debut with this new production. Doctor Atomic will be conducted by Alan Gilbert, the New York Philharmonic’s music director designate, also in his Met debut. The production will be seen live in movie theaters around the world on November 8 as part of The Met: Live in HD, the highly successful series of performance transmissions. The Arnold & Marie Schwartz Gallery Met will present an exhibition by acclaimed artist David Altmejd to coincide with the opera, opening on October 13.
“The atomic bomb is the all-time American symbol of our darkest mythology—power, technology, science and of course the responsibility of having this ability to destroy the planet,” Adams says of his fifth stage work. “These are Wagnerian topics, and they are ideally suited to operatic expression.”
The libretto for Doctor Atomic is by Peter Sellars, who adapted the text from original sources, including declassified government files and conversations with people who worked on the Manhattan Project. It also includes excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita and poetry of John Donne, Charles Baudelaire, and Muriel Rukeyser. The version of the score being performed at the Met is based on the opera’s second edition, given in Amsterdam in 2007. Performances run through November 13. The co-production with English National Opera (ENO) will open in London next February.
Julian Crouch designed the sets, and the costumes are by Tony Award-winning costume designer Catherine Zuber. The lighting is by another Tony winner, Brian MacDevitt, in his Met debut. Choreographer Andrew Dawson and sound designer Mark Grey also make their Met debuts with the new production, and the video designs are by Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer for Fifty Nine Productions. (Crouch and Fifty Nine Productions recently collaborated on the Met’s new production of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha and are working together once again on the upcoming 125th Anniversary Gala.)
A host of events related to Doctor Atomic take place around the premiere and during the run, including lectures sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild; a discussion at the 92nd Street Y; an open rehearsal for students at the Met; and a series of events at the Graduate Center of City University of New York (CUNY) funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. (See complete listing in this release.)
In presenting this modern masterpiece as the company celebrates its 125th anniversary, the Met reinforces its commitment to contemporary opera, shown last season with Satyagraha. Next season, the company will revive the 1991 production of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, and in 2012-13 the company will stage Thomas Adès’s 2004 opera The Tempest. Adams’s own Nixon in China, which premiered in 1987, will be seen at the Met in the Peter Sellars production in 2009-10.
Three of the principal singers return to the roles they performed at the opera’s 2005 premiere: Finley, who was heralded for his interpretation of Oppenheimer, Richard Paul Fink as the physicist Edward Teller, and Eric Owens in his Met debut as General Leslie Groves. Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke plays Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty. Making her Met debut is Meredith Arwady, who plays Pasqualita, the Oppenheimer’s Tewa maid.
After the world premiere, the San Francisco Chronicle called Doctor Atomic “a major addition to the operatic repertory of this new century.” The New York Times said, “Whole spans of the orchestral and choral music tremble with textural density. The vocal writing is wondrously varied, sometimes jittery and naturalistic, sometime melismatic and elegiac.” Adams is often inspired by the drama and moral complexities of recent history, such as President Richard M. Nixon’s trip to China (Nixon in China) and Leon Klinghoffer’s death at the hands of terrorists on board the Achille Lauro (The Death of Klinghoffer, 1991). In Doctor Atomic, the composer has heightened the drama of the first atomic test by focusing on a very brief period, less than 24 hours. “It really is all about the tension leading up to the moment of this detonation,” Adams says. “The scientists didn’t know if the bomb was going to work. There was incredible pressure coming from Washington, from the White House, even from Potsdam, Germany, where President Truman and Churchill and Stalin had all convened.”
The Met’s new production of Doctor Atomic is underwritten by Agnes Varis, a Met managing director who last season underwrote the new production of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha. Dr. Varis is also sponsoring an outdoor advertising campaign for Doctor Atomic that is currently being seen throughout the city. The image is based on an historic photograph of Oppenheimer that was taken by the portraitist Philippe Halsman (part of an iconic series of images of famous people jumping, which were published in Philippe Halsman’s Jump Book). Oppenheimer’s own words are included in the text: “We knew the world would not be the same.”
Exhibitions and Events
The Met premiere of Doctor Atomic has inspired a host of events at the opera house and around the city, including symposia at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). For full event details, including ticket information, visit http://www.metopera.org/atomicevents.
Metropolitan Opera: Student Open Rehearsal
Thursday, October 9 at 10:00 a.m. (rehearsal begins at 11:00 a.m.) / Metropolitan Opera
The final dress rehearsal of Doctor Atomic will be open to a number of high school and college/university students. The program includes technical displays in the lobby both before the rehearsal and during the intermissions and an onstage question-and-answer session with the production team and cast after the rehearsal. The event is for invited students only (not open to the public).
The Arnold & Marie Schwartz Gallery Met: Opening of David Altmejd Exhibition
Monday, October 13 (through January 30, 2009) / Gallery Met
The highly regarded young Canadian artist David Altmejd has his first exhibition at the Met. In 2007, he represented Canada at the Venice Biennale, where he dazzled viewers with his installation that resembled a mirrored aviary, largely filled with sculptures of birds as well as actual, taxidermy birds.
Gallery Met is free and open to the public seven days a week. The hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on performance days (closing at 6 p.m. on non-performance days) and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m.
The Metropolitan Opera Guild
Guild Lecture: “Atomic Fallout: The World of the Bomb”
Saturday, October 4 at 11 a.m. / Samuel B. & David Rose Building, Lincoln Center (6th floor)
Scholars explore the social, political, and scientific issues at stake during the dawn of the nuclear age. Moderated by Robert Marx.
Guild Lecture: “Quantum Theater: Atomic Takes the Stage”
Tuesday, October 7 at 6 p.m. / Metropolitan Opera
A Metropolitan Opera Guild lecture with Doctor Atomic composer John Adams, director Penny Woolcock, and conductor Alan Gilbert; moderated by Sarah Billinghurst, Met Assistant Manager, Artistic.
Guild Lecture: “Nuclear Family: The Singers of Doctor Atomic”
Tuesday, October 14 at 6 p.m. / Samuel B. & David Rose Building, Lincoln Center (6th floor)
Doctor Atomic requires singers to master new music as well as inhabit a social and historical sphere that still echoes within living memory. The lead singers of Doctor Atomic – Gerald Finley, Sasha Cooke, Meredith Arwady and Eric Owens – discuss how they confront the challenges and opportunities presented by this new work. Moderated by Fred Plotkin.
For tickets and information to Guild events, please call (212) 769-7028.
92nd Street Y: "The Composer's Voice: John Adams"
Monday, October 6, at 8:00 p.m. / 92nd Street Y (Lexington Ave. & 92nd Street)
Ara Guzelimian, dean of the Juilliard School, moderates a discussion with composer John Adams on the relationship of words and music. In addition, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, baritone Jordan Shanahan, and pianist Linda Hall will perform excerpts from Doctor Atomic. For tickets and information, please call (212) 415-5500 or visit http://www.92Y.org/concerts.
Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center: John Adams Reading and Signing
Thursday, October 9, at 7:30 p.m. / Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center
John Adams will read, sign, and discuss his new book of memoirs, Hallelujah Junction.
The Graduate Center of City University of New York (CUNY) October 11 – November 10
In collaboration with the Met, the CUNY symposia are presented by Science & the Arts at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as well as the National Science Foundation. All events are free; seating is first come, first seated beginning one hour before the event. For further information, call (212) 817-7524 or visit http://web.gc.cuny.edu/sciart.
Saturday, October 11, 1:00 - 6:30 p.m. / The Graduate Center of CUNY (365 Fifth Avenue)
— CUNY Symposium: "The History, Science, and Scientists of the Bomb" (1:00 p.m.)
CUNY chancellor Matthew Goldstein moderates a CUNY Symposium with Nobel laureate Norman Ramsey, who worked on the Manhattan Project; Richard Rhodes, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb; Edward Gerjuoy, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Pittsburgh, and Robert S. Norris, a nuclear weapons expert and senior research associate with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
— CUNY Symposium: "The Making of Doctor Atomic," (4:30 p.m.)
Moderated by Met General Manager Peter Gelb. John Adams, Penny Woolcock, baritone Gerald Finley, and set designer Julian Crouch discuss the production.
Tuesday, October 14, 6:30 p.m. / The Graduate Center of CUNY (365 Fifth Avenue)
CUNY Symposium: “J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Man, the Manager, the Physicist”
Participants include David Cassidy, a historian and author of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century; Robert Crease, philosopher and author of Oppenheimer: A Life; and Jeremy Bernstein, a New Yorker contributor, Professor Emeritus, Stevens Institute of Technology and author of Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma.
Friday, October 17, 3:00 - 8:30 p.m. / The Graduate Center of CUNY (365 Fifth Avenue)
— CUNY Symposium: "The Manhattan Project: Places, People, and Power" (3:00 p.m.)
Participants include Harold Agnew, a nuclear physicist who worked with the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago and on the Manhattan Project and later became the Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the coauthors of Picturing the Bomb, Rachel Fermi (Enrico Fermi's granddaughter) and Esther Samra. This event will also feature commentary and reminiscences from ten scientists who were participants in the Manhattan Project. Brian Schwartz, Professor of Physics and Vice President, Research and Sponsored Programs, the Graduate Center, CUNY, moderates this discussion.
— CUNY Symposium: "Wartime Decisions and the Atomic Age" (6:30 p.m.)
With Martin J. Sherwin, professor of History at George Mason University and co-author of American Prometheus, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Gar Alperovitz, professor of political economy at the University of Maryland and author of the acclaimed The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb; and Harry Lustig, professor of physics emeritus and provost emeritus at City College of New York and adjunct professor of physics and astronomy at the University of New Mexico.
Monday, October 20 at 6.30 p.m. / The Graduate Center of CUNY (365 Fifth Avenue)
“Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project”
Ruth Howes, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Marquette University, discusses her book dealing with the scientific problems the women of the Manhattan Project helped to solve as well as the discrimination they faced in their work.
Tuesday, October 21 at 6.30 P.M. / The Graduate Center of CUNY (365 Fifth Avenue)
“Los Alamos” – the novel
American author Joseph Kanon (who also wrote The Good German) discusses his bestselling 1997 book which used a mixture of real and fictional characters at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project.
Monday, November 10 at 6.30 P.M. / The Graduate Center of CUNY (365 Fifth Avenue)
Uranium + Peaches – A play in one act by Peter Cook and William Lanouette performed as a staged reading by Break-A-Leg Productions.
Japan Society: “An Evening with Alan Gilbert”
Monday, October 27 at 6:30 P.M. / Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street
The conductor of Doctor Atomic discusses his cultural and musical background. Eric Owens sings excerpts from the opera. Moderated by W. Anthony Sheppard, Professor of Music, Williams College.
About the composer
John Adams, a New Hampshire native and longtime resident of Berkeley, California, is one of America's most celebrated composers and conductors. Among his many works are the operas Nixon in China (1987) and The Death of Klinghoffer (1991); the musical/opera I Was Looking at the Ceiling and then I Saw the Sky; the song cycle The Wound-Dresser (1988); El Niño (2000), a dramatic oratorio of the Nativity; Shaker Loops (1983), for string orchestra, and the orchestral works Harmonium (1981), El Dorado (1992) and On the Transmigration of Souls, which he wrote to commemorate the attacks on the World Trade Center and for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. From 2003-2007, Adams held the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall. During that time, he conducted the first public concert in Carnegie’s new Zankel Hall and founded the annual "In Your Ear" festival. He has served in several other positions, including Composer in Residence at the San Francisco Symphony, where he created the "New and Unusual Music" series, Music Director of the Cabrillo Festival, and Creative Chair of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Hallelujah Junction, his book of memoirs and commentary on American musical life, will be published in hard cover by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, on October 7, 2008.
About the performers
Conductor Alan Gilbert, a native New Yorker, will become the New York Philharmonic's music director next year. He was the first music director of the Santa Fe Opera, a post he held from 2002 to 2007; in 2006, he conducted the American premiere of Thomas Adès's The Tempest there. Gilbert was chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic from 2000 until last June, when he was named conductor laureate. In Stockholm, he led the annual International Composer Festival, which in 2005 was dedicated to the music of John Adams. Gilbert is also principal guest conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg.
Gerald Finley (J. Robert Oppenheimer) has been universally lauded for his portrayal of the Faustian physicist, which the San Francisco Chronicle called "brilliantly nuanced." The Canadian baritone's repertory runs from Handel and Mozart to Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Debussy, Britten and works by contemporary composers, including Tobias Picker's Fantastic Mr. Fox and Kaija's Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin. Finley, who sings in major opera houses worldwide, made his Met debut in 1998 as Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and later sang Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème and the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni.
Sasha Cooke (Kitty Oppenheimer) won first prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions last year. A member of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, the American mezzo-soprano made her company debut last season as the second priestess in a new production of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride and also appeared as the Sandman in a new production of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and as a Madrigalist in Puccini's Manon Lescaut. At Seattle Opera, she has played Meg Page in Verdi's Falstaff; she has sung Erika in Barber's Vanessa at Central City Opera and Olga in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at Israeli Opera.
Richard Paul Fink (Edward Teller) returns to the role which The New York Times said he played with "chilling authority." At the Met, Fink has taken on many roles since his 1998 debut as Telramund in Wagner's Lohengrin, including Alberich in the composer's Der Ring des Nibelungen, Klingsor in Parsifal, and Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, as well as George Wilson in the world premiere of John Harbison's The Great Gatsby. The American baritone sings with numerous companies, among them Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Sydney Opera, the Paris Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Salzburg Festival.
Eric Owens (General Leslie Groves) was praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for his "brawny, vocally robust" portrayal of Groves at the world premiere of Doctor Atomic. He was The Storyteller in the 2006 world premiere of Adams's A Flowering Tree in Vienna and has performed Adams's song cycle The Wound Dresser, conducted by the composer. Owens was a finalist at the Met National Council Auditions in 1996. A former member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, the American bass has appeared with such companies as London's Royal Opera Covent Garden, the English National Opera, the Paris Opera, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Washington Opera.
Mezzo-Soprano Meredith Arwady who makes her Met debut this season as Pasqualita, was a winner of the 2004 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Upcoming appearances include her European debut as Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera in Frankfurt, her debut with the Houston Grand Opera in the world premiere of André Previn’s A Brief Encounter, and concert appearances in Tippett’s A Child of Our Time at Carnegie Hall. She has appeared at Lyric Opera of Chicago in Doctor Atomic, as well as Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, and Tippett’s Midsummer Marriage. In 2006-07 she debuted with the New York Philharmonic in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, and with the Santa Fe Opera as Gaea in Daphne.
About the production team
With this production, British writer-director Penny Woolcock makes two debuts: this is her first time at the Met and the first time she has directed an opera on stage. Based in London and known especially for her work with non-professional actors, she has directed many films, both features and work for television, including Tina Goes Shopping; Macbeth on the Estate, which is a gritty, present-day setting of Shakespeare's play; The Margate Exodus, a modern-day telling of the Book of Exodus and The Principles of Lust. In 2003, she made an award-winning feature film of Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, much of which she shot on a rented cruise ship. She recently completed a hip-hop urban musical film, working with gang members in Birmingham.
Julian Crouch made his Met debut last season as set designer and associate director of Glass's Satyagraha and returns as set designer for Doctor Atomic. His work will also be seen here later this season: he and Phelim McDermott are creating a multimedia production for the Met's 125th anniversary gala on March 15, 2009. In 1996, Crouch helped found London's Improbable theater company, where he is one of three artistic directors. At Improbable, he has collaborated with McDermott (who directed Satyagraha) on such productions as Animo, Lifegame, Coma, Sticky, Angela Carter’s Cinderella and Shockheaded Peter. Crouch, who began his career as a mask and puppet maker, has also designed sets for works ranging from The Magic Flute at the Welsh National Opera to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at London's National Theatre and Jerry Springer—The Opera, which toured the United Kingdom. He is directing and designing the Broadway-bound musical The Addams Family, based on the characters created by Charles Addams.
Costume designer Catherine Zuber returns to the Met, where she made her debut in the 2006-2007 season with a hit new production, directed by Bartlett Sher, of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Zuber has won four consecutive Tony Awards for her work on The Light in the Piazza, Awake and Sing!, The Coast of Utopia, and Lincoln Center Theater's current revival of South Pacific. She works extensively on and off-Broadway and in such regional theaters as the Kennedy Center, the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, as well as for many opera companies, including the Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass, the New York City Opera, and the Los Angeles Opera. Zuber recently designed costumes for a new operatic version of Romeo and Juliet at the Salzburg Festival, directed by Bartlett Sher.
Lighting designer Brian MacDevitt is making his Met debut. The winner of three Tony Awards (Into the Woods, The Pillowman, and The Coast of Utopia), he is active in theater in New York and elsewhere in the country; his other Broadway credits include Master Class, Side Show, Urinetown, The Color Purple, and Cymbeline. MacDevitt also teaches lighting design.
The projection design is by Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer for Fifty Nine Productions, who designed last season’s acclaimed Satyagraha. In addition to Doctor Atomic, they are also designing the Met’s 125th Anniversary Gala in March. Warner and Grimmer designed projections for National Theatre of Scotland’s acclaimed production of Black Watch that returns to St. Ann’s Warehouse for a run this fall. Working primarily in the United Kingdom, North America, and Europe, Warner and Grimmer are Associate Artists of the National Theatre. Their recent stage productions include Dorian Gray (New Adventures, London), Cherry Blossom (Traverse, Edinburgh), The Minotaur and Salome (Covent Garden), Alex (Arts Theatre, London), Carmen (English National Opera), The Seven Deadly Sins (Royal Ballet, London), Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland), and War Horse, Attempts on Her Life, …some trace of her, and Waves (UK’s National Theatre).
Live Broadcasts to be seen and heard around the world
Doctor Atomic will be seen and heard by millions of people around the world this season in movie theaters, on the radio, and via the internet, through distribution platforms the Met has established with various media partners. The Saturday, November 8 matinee is the third performance of the season to be transmitted as part of The Met: Live in HD series, and the season’s first to be sent to New York City Public Schools as part of the Met’s Live in HD in Schools program. Susan Graham will host the transmission, and Gary Halvorson is the HD director.
The Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78 will broadcast live the Met premiere on October 13 as well as performances on October 21, 30, November 5 and 13.
Performances on Monday, October 13 and Thursday, November 13 will also be available via RealNetworks internet streaming at the Met’s web site, www.metopera.org. The Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network will present the network premiere of Doctor Atomic on Saturday, January 17, 2009, with a performance taped during the fall run of performances.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has underwritten the Live in HD transmission on November 8 and the PBS telecast of Doctor Atomic at a date to be announced.
About the Met
Under the leadership of General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine, the Met has a series of bold initiatives underway that are designed to broaden its audience and revitalize the company’s repertory. The Met has made a commitment to presenting modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory, with highly theatrical productions featuring the greatest opera stars in the world.
The Metropolitan Opera’s 2008-09 season pays tribute to the company’s extraordinary history on the occasion of its 125th anniversary, while also emphasizing the Met’s renewed commitment to advancing the art form. The season features six new productions, 18 revivals, the final performances of Otto Schenk’s production of Wagner’s Ring cycle conducted by Levine, and two gala celebrations; the galas include the season-opening performance featuring Renée Fleming as well as a 125th anniversary celebration on March 15. New productions include the company premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic as well as the Met’s first staged production of Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust since 1906, Massenet’s Thaïs, Puccini’s La Rondine, Verdi’s Il Trovatore, and Bellini’s La Sonnambula. Future seasons include new presentations of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles (2009-10) and Thomas Adès’s The Tempest (2011-12).
Building on its 77-year-old radio broadcast history – currently heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network – the Met now uses advanced media distribution platforms and state-of-the-art technology to attract new audiences and reach millions of opera fans around the world.
The Met: Live in HD series reached more than 935,000 people in the 2007-08 season, more than the number of people who saw performances in the opera house. These performances began airing on PBS in March 2008, and eight of these HD performances are now available on DVD, on the EMI and Universal labels. In the 2008-09 season, the HD series expands to feature 11 live transmissions, starting with the Met’s Opening Night Gala and spanning the entire season. The HD productions are seen this season in over 850 theaters in 28 countries around the world. Five new productions are featured, including the Met premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic. The Opening Night transmission was seen in the Americas only; the remaining ten high-definition productions are shown live worldwide on Saturdays through May 9 with encores scheduled at various times.
Live in HD in Schools, the Met’s new program offering free opera transmissions to New York City schools in partnership with the New York City Department of Education and the Metropolitan Opera Guild, reached more than 7,000 public school students and teachers during the 2007-08 season. This season, Live in HD in Schools expands to reach schools in 18 cities and communities nationwide.
Continuing its innovative use of electronic media to reach a global audience, the Metropolitan Opera introduces Met Player, a new subscription service that will make its extensive video and audio catalog of full-length performances available to the public for the first time online, and in exceptional, state-of-the-art quality. Beginning on October 22, 2008, 120 historic audio recordings and 50 full-length opera videos will be available during the first month of the new service, including over a dozen of the company’s acclaimed The Met: Live in HD transmissions, known for their extraordinary sound and picture quality. New content, including HD productions and archival broadcasts, will be added monthly.
Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78 is a subscription-based audio entertainment service broadcasting both an unprecedented number of live performances each week throughout the Met’s entire season, as well as rare historical performances, newly restored and remastered, spanning the Met’s 77-year broadcast history.
In addition to providing audio recordings through the new Met on Rhapsody on-demand service, the Met also presents free live audio streaming of performances on its website once every week during the opera season with support from RealNetworks®.
The company’s groundbreaking commissioning program in partnership with New York’s Lincoln Center Theater (LCT), provides renowned composers and playwrights with the resources to create and develop new works at the Met and at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater. The Met’s partnership with LCT is part of the company’s larger initiative to commission new operas from contemporary composers, present modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory, and provide a venue for artists to nurture their work.
The Met has launched several audience development initiatives such as the company’s Open House Dress Rehearsals, which are free and open to the public; two are planned for the 2008-09 season with operas and dates to be announced. Just prior to beginning the current season, the Met presented a free performance of the Verdi Requiem on September 18, in tribute to the late Luciano Pavarotti. Other company initiatives include the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met which exhibits contemporary visual art; the immensely successful Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Rush Ticket program which provides deeply discounted orchestra seats two hours before curtain time; and an annual Holiday Series presentation for families. This season’s special Holiday Presentation is Julie Taymor’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, an abridged, English-language version of the opera which is given four special matinee performances and one holiday evening performance as a way for families to celebrate the holiday season.