Matinee A

Series Detail - Matinee A /

5 Performances

Tosca

Saturday, October 3, 2009
1:00 pm

“Tosca combines Puccini’s glorious musical inspiration with the melodramatic vitality of one of the great Hitchcock films,” says Music Director James Levine who conducted the opening night performance. “From the very first bar of the piece, the opera seizes you and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the last note.” Karita Mattila, who sings the title role for the first time at the Met, says, “There are so many fascinating qualities to Tosca. At first I thought, ‘How will it feel to kill somebody on stage?’ But Tosca is like an action movie, and the drama just happens.” Luc Bondy, acclaimed for his imaginative theater and opera productions, directs. Marcelo Álvarez and George Gagnidze open as Cavaradossi and Scarpia, with Jonas Kaufmann, Marcello Giordani, and Bryn Terfel stepping in for later performances.

A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, and Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich.

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Cast: Colaneri; Mattila, Álvarez, Gagnidze, Plishka

Sung in Italian with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Carmen

Saturday, January 16, 2010
1:00 pm

"Carmen is about sex, violence, and racism—and its corollary: freedom,” says Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre. “It is one of the inalienably great works of art. It’s sexy, in every sense. And I think it should be shocking.” Elina Garanca sings Carmen for the first time at the Met. Roberto Alagna and Jonas Kaufmann share the role of the obsessed Don José, Barbara Frittoli is Micaëla, and Mariusz Kwiecien is the matador Escamillo. Angela Gheorghiu and Olga Borodina sing Carmen in later performances. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.

For information about tickets that include the New Year’s Eve Gala dinner, please call 212.362.6000

On December 31, the Met celebrates New Year's Eve with the opening night of this highly anticipated new production of Bizet’s Carmen. Learn more

Composer: Georges Bizet
Cast: Nézet-Séguin; Frittoli, Garanca, Alagna, Kwiecien

Sung in French with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

The Nose

Saturday, March 13, 2010
1:00 pm

Artist William Kentridge defies genres with Shostakovich’s adaptation of Gogol’s story. “The opera is about the terrors of hierarchy,” Kentridge says. “There’s a mixture of anarchy and the absurd that interests me. I love in this opera the sense that anything is possible.” The new production is conducted by definitive Shostakovich interpreter Valery Gergiev. Acclaimed baritone Paulo Szot, who won a Tony Award® for South Pacific, makes his Met debut as the man who wakes up to discover that his nose has disappeared.

Watch the director video

A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and the Opéra National de Lyon, France.

Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich
Cast: Gergiev; Popov, Gietz, Szot

Sung in Russian with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Hamlet

Saturday, March 27, 2010
1:00 pm

Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay bring their extraordinary acting and singing skills to two of Shakespeare’s unforgettable characters. When this production, directed by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser, opened in London at Covent Garden, The Independent called Keenlyside’s Hamlet, "a revelation - thrilling throughout.” Dessay plays the volatile Ophelia, whose extended mad scene is among the greatest in opera. Louis Langrée conducts.

Watch the director video

Composer: Ambroise Thomas
Cast: Langrée; Dessay, Larmore, Spence, Keenlyside, Morris

Sung in French with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Armida

Saturday, May 1, 2010
1:00 pm

Renée Fleming stars as Rossini’s sorceress, opposite no fewer than six tenors. Mary Zimmerman returns to direct, bringing her fine-tuned theatricality to a work she describes as “a buried treasure, a box of jewels.” The fanciful story of the sorceress who enthralls men in her island prison of sensual delights, Zimmerman says, “has an epic, enchanted quality and a tremendous visual element.”

For information about tickets that include the New Production Gala dinner, please call 212.362.6000

Composer: Gioachino Rossini
Cast: Frizza; Fleming, Brownlee, Ford, Zapata, Banks, van Rensburg

Sung in Italian with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish