New York, NY (November 4, 2008)—On November 29, the Metropolitan Opera Radio Saturday Matinee Broadcasts launches its 78th season of world-class opera heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network with the network premiere of Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, starring opera luminaries Susan Graham as Marguerite and Marcello Giordani in the title role, and conducted by Met Music Director James Levine. The new production, directed by Robert Lepage, will be broadcast live at 12:30 p.m. EST. The longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history, the Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcasts bring the greatest singers, conductors, and artists in the world to millions of radio listeners worldwide. Margaret Juntwait returns for her fifth season as host of the broadcasts.
The 22-week Metropolitan Opera Radio Saturday Matinee Broadcast season— featuring 21 live matinee performances and six new productions—runs through April 25, 2009. Broadcasts begin at 1:00 p.m. EST, unless noted otherwise. In addition to La Damnation de Faust, the Met will broadcast new productions of Massenet’s Thaïs (12 noon start time), starring Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson and conducted by Jesús López-Cobos; Puccini’s La Rondine starring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna and conducted by Marco Armiliato; Verdi’s Il Trovatore conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and starring Marcelo Álvarez, Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky; and Bellini’s La Sonnambula starring Natalie Dessay, Juan Diego Flórez, and conducted by Evelino Pidò. The Met will also present a taped broadcast of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, which has its company premiere this season in a new production conducted by Alan Gilbert, starring Gerald Finley. The Met’s annual holiday presentation will feature the popular, abridged English-language version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, conducted by Asher Fisch. As the season finale, from March 28-April 25 James Levine will conduct Wagner’s Ring cycle, featuring Christine Brewer, James Morris, Johan Botha, Waltraud Meier, and Christian Franz in the final performances of Otto Schenk’s classic production.
Other artists featured in the broadcast season include Aleksandrs Antonenko, Daniel Barenboim, Piotr Beczala, Stephanie Blythe, Olga Borodina, Danielle de Niese, Plácido Domingo, Giuseppe Filianoti, Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, Maria Guleghina, Ben Heppner, Maija Kovalevska, Mariusz Kwiecien, Karita Mattila, Anna Netrebko, Seiji Ozawa, Patrick Summers, Ramón Vargas, and Rolando Villazón.
The Met will continue to connect with its long-standing audience and new listeners by providing thoughtful intermission features and interviews that capture the excitement of live opera. Host Margaret Juntwait is joined once again this season in the broadcast booth by performer, director, and writer, Ira Siff as commentator. The live Backstage Interviews; Met Cameos, and Met Memories, recorded by singers and audience members alike; and the popular Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Quiz, hosted by a variety of artists, return this season as part of the Met Broadcast intermission features. Met singers, directors, and designers will visit the broadcast booth to discuss their current productions with the company.
Building on the Saturday Matinee Broadcast’s 77-year-old radio history, 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 new initiatives include the company’s groundbreaking transmissions into movie theaters worldwide, The Met: Live in HD; the subscription-based satellite radio, Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78; the brand new video and audio streaming service at the Met’s web site, Met Player (www.metopera.org); the audio on demand service Met on Rhapsody; and live performance streaming each week of the season at the Met’s website.
Heard in more than 40 countries around the world, the 2008-09 Metropolitan Opera broadcast season is sponsored by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury homebuilder®, with generous long-term support from The Annenberg Foundation, the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media and contributions from listeners worldwide.
Two Network Premieres
The Met premiere of Doctor Atomic, John Adams’s masterful exploration of the creation of the atomic bomb, marks the first time that an opera by Adams, one of America’s most admired contemporary composers, will be performed with the company. Penny Woolcock makes her opera-directing debut with this new production, and Alan Gilbert, the Music Director Designate of the New York Philharmonic, makes his Met debut conducting the opera, which also stars Gerald Finley in the title role of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Due to the opera’s early run in the season, a taped performance will be broadcast on January 17, 2009.
Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, an opera that has only been staged at the Met once before during the 1906-07 season, marks the company debut of internationally acclaimed theater artist Robert Lepage. Starring Marcello Giordani in the title role, with Susan Graham as Marguerite and John Relyea as Méphistophélès, the production is based on a co-production of the Saito Kinen Festival and the Opéra National de Paris. Lepage has reconceived the production using enhanced media and technology that was not previously available — some of which was developed by Lepage and his Quebec-based company, Ex Machina.
New Productions
John Cox’s production of Massenet’s Thaïs will be broadcast on December 20, 2008 at 12 noon, starring Renée Fleming in the title role and Thomas Hampson as Athanaël. The Chicago Tribune praised Fleming and Hampson’s 2002 performance in Thaïs with Lyric Opera of Chicago noting that the “co-stars have what is required vocally, physically, and dramatically to breathe conviction into fascinating characters who move at cross-purposes to some of Massenet's most subtly colorful music.”
Renowned married duo Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna star in Puccini’s rarely performed operetta La Rondine, which returns to the Met Broadcasts this season for the first time since 1936. The new production, directed by Nicolas Joël, will be broadcast on January 10, 2009.
Marcelo Álvarez stars in David McVicar’s new production of Il Trovatore, which will be broadcast on February 28, 2009. The cast also includes Sondra Radvanovsky as Leonora, Dolora Zajick as Azucena, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Count di Luna.
Bellini’s La Sonnambula, starring Natalie Dessay as Amina and Juan Diego Flórez as Elvino, will be broadcast on March 21, 2009 in a new production by Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman. Evelino Pidò conducts.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
This season marks the final performances of Otto Schenk’s beloved production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. James Levine conducts.
Das Rheingold, featuring Wendy Bryn Harmer as Freia, Yvonne Naef as Fricka, Jill Grove as Erda, Kim Begley as Loge, James Morris as Wotan, Richard Paul Fink as Alberich, Franz-Josef Selig as Fasolt, and John Tomlinson as Fafner, will be broadcast on March 28, 2009.
Die Walküre, starring Christine Brewer as Brünnhilde, Waltraud Meier as Sieglinde, Yvonne Naef as Fricka, Johan Botha as Siegmund, James Morris as Wotan, and John Tomlinson as Hunding, will be heard on April 11, 2009, beginning at 12 noon.
Christine Brewer (Brünnhilde), Jill Grove (Erda), Christian Franz (Siegfried), Gerhard Siegel (Mime), and James Morris (Wanderer) star in Siegfried, which airs on April 18, 2009 at 12 noon.
Götterdämmerung, which will be broadcast on April 25, 2009 at 12 noon, stars Christine Brewer as Brünnhilde, Margaret Jane Wray as Gutrune, Yvonne Naef as Waltraute, Christian Franz as Siegfried, Iain Paterson as Gunther, and John Tomlinson as Hagen.
Special Holiday Presentation
The Met continues its new tradition of presenting family-friendly works during the holiday season with Julie Taymor’s hit production in an abridged English-language version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, conducted by Asher Fisch. The opera will be broadcast on December 27, 2008, with Nicole Cabell as Pamina, Cyndia Sieden as the Queen of the Night, Dimitri Pittas as Tamino, Rodion Pogossov as Papageno, and Eric Owens as Sarastro.
Season Highlights
The Met Broadcast season features an exceptional roster of talented artists. Conductor Daniel Barenboim makes his Metropolitan Opera debut this season with Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, which will be broadcast on December 6, 2008 at 11:00 a.m., with Katarina Dalayman and Peter Seiffert in the title roles.
Seiji Ozawa returns to the Met for the first time since 1992 to conduct a revival of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades on December 13, 2008 at 12:30 p.m., which also features Maria Guleghina as Lisa and Ben Heppner as Ghermann.
Plácido Domingo will sing Maurizio in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, on February 21, 2009, returning to the role of his Met debut which took place forty years ago on September 28, 1968.
In addition to La Damnation de Faust and the Ring cycle, James Levine also conducts the January 24, 2009 broadcast of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, which stars Danielle de Niese as Euridice, Heidi Grant Murphy as Amor, and Stephanie Blythe as Orfeo.
Other highlights of the broadcast season include Renée Fleming’s return to one of her signature roles, Dvořák’s Rusalka, on March 14, 2009; Angela Gheorghiu as Adina and Rolando Villazón as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore on April 4, 2009; and the return of Anthony Minghella’s critically acclaimed production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on March 7, 2009, starring Cristina Gallardo-Domâs as Cio-Cio-San, Marcello Giordani as Pinkerton, and Dwayne Croft as Sharpless. Other notable Met broadcast role debuts include Anna Netrebko in the title role of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor on February 7, 2009 and Karita Mattila as Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin on February 14, 2009.
About the Host and Commentator
Margaret Juntwait joined the Met as host of the Saturday afternoon Radio Broadcasts in 2004, only the third regular announcer in the Met’s broadcast history. In 2006, she also became the announcer for programming on Metropolitan Opera on SIRIUS Satellite Radio. Prior to her work with the Met, she was a classical music radio host with WNYC Radio. She has also hosted numerous radio documentaries and museum tours and is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music with a degree in voice.
Commentator Ira Siff is heard alongside host Margaret Juntwait for the Saturday broadcast season. A critic for Opera News magazine, Siff is also an accomplished director, having staged opera productions with numerous companies including Sarasota Opera, New Jersey State Opera, Utah Symphony and Opera, and Carnegie Hall, among others. In 2007, he directed a fully-staged production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte for the Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellows and Orchestra, conducted by James Levine. He is founder of La Gran Scena Opera Company, the performance troupe whose falsetto male singers have spoofed opera with great affection for over two decades.
The Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts
For more than seven decades, the Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts have brought opera into millions of homes and enriched the lives of many, playing a vital and unparalleled role in the development and appreciation of opera in this country. The broadcasts debuted on December 25, 1931, with Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.
Since 1940, the broadcasts have been heard in Canada, and in 1990 they expanded to include regular transmission to Europe. Today worldwide coverage has grown to include not only more than 30 European countries, but also South America, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and China. Through these international broadcasts, the Metropolitan Opera serves as a cultural ambassador to the world.
The Metropolitan Opera continues its “Support the Met Broadcasts Campaign,” a major international fundraising effort launched in March 2004 to secure the broadcasts’ long-term future. The goal is to create a sustainable Broadcast Fund with donations of all sizes from individual listeners as well as corporations and foundations who value this unique programming. Contributions may be made by phone at 1-800-METOPERA, through the internet at www.metopera.org, or by mail at “Support the Met Broadcasts Campaign,” Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, New York, NY 10023.
Listeners can visit www.operainfo.org for a wealth of information about the Met broadcasts. The site is rich with synopses and casting information, as well as background information about operas, performers, and conductors. Resources also include curriculum materials for teachers. For details about all Met performances this season, as well as ticket information, visit the Met’s website at www.metopera.org.
In North America the 2008-09 season of broadcasts will be distributed in digital stereo over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. This independent network is made up of more than 300 domestic commercial and public radio stations, as well as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s English and French networks. In Europe, the broadcast distribution is coordinated by the Geneva‑based European Broadcasting Union.
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.
The Emmy Award-winning series, The Met: Live in HD, 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 recently introduced Met Player, a new subscription service that makes 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. In the first month of the new service, 120 historic audio recordings and 50 full-length opera videos are available, 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 take place this season: La Damnation de Faust on November 4, 2008, and La Sonnambula on February 27, both at 11:00 a.m. 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.