Opera Catalog

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Antonio Ghislanzoni

Levine; Price, Cossotto, McCracken, Estes, Macurdy

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 45 min.

This was one of the most emotional evenings in Met history—the night Leontyne Price bid farewell to opera. Aida is the role that inspired audiences around the world to acclaim her as the greatest Verdi soprano of her time. And this telecast shows why: the famous soaring phrases that seemed to never end, the shimmering top to her lustrous voice, und...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Antonio Ghislanzoni

Gatti; Urmana, Zajick, Botha, Guelfi, Scandiuzzi

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chrous and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 30 min.

This high-definition broadcast of the Met’s sumptuous Sonja Frisell-Gianni Quaranta production brings Verdi’s beloved opera to breathtaking life. The spectacular sets and costumes, the thrilling triumphal scene, and the newly created choreography by Alexei Ratmansky all frame Verdi’s poignant story of impossible love in an incandescent way. Violeta...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Antonio Ghislanzoni

Levine; Millo, Zajick, Domingo, Milnes, Kavrakos

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 37 min.

Sonja Frisell’s production captures all the grandeur and excitement of Verdi’s monumental opera, particularly the great triumphal scene where the Egyptian army, led by Plácido Domingo (Radamès), returns victorious from war. Aprile Millo is Aida, the slave girl whose love for Radamès has her squaring off with Amneris (Dolora Zajick), the Egyptian pr...

Composer: Umberto Giordano
Librettist: Luigi Illica

Levine; Guleghina, White, Christin, Pavarotti, Pons

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 2 min.

Luciano Pavarotti is at his most ardent as the romantic poet Andrea Chenier who is overwhelmed by his impossible love for the beautiful Maddalena (Maria Guleghina). She is a pampered aristocrat and he is but a poor member of the French Revolution. But even though their entire world is being torn apart in by unprecedented violence, their love will n...

Composer: Gaetano Donizetti
Librettist: Felice Romani

Armiliato; Netrebko, Gubanova, Costello, Abdrazakov

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 10 min.

David McVicar's atmospheric and brooding production captures the drama of this riveting piece of British history, retold as only Donizetti could. International superstar Anna Netrebko is Queen Anne Boleyn, trapped in an unhappy marriage to King Henry VIII (Ildar Abdrazakov) whose roving eye has settled on another woman—Jane Seymour (Ekaterina Guban...

Composer: Richard Strauss
Librettist: Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Levine; Voigt, Dessay, Mentzer, Margison, Gunn

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 14 min.

Elijah Moshinsky’s witty production deftly walks the line between the lighthearted humor and the profound philosophical underpinnings of Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s opera, masterfully conducted here by Met Music Director James Levine. Deborah Voigt stars as Ariadne, the mythical heroine abandoned on the island of Naxos by her lover, and Richard Marg...

Composer: Gioachino Rossini
Librettist: Libretto by Giovanni Schmidt, based on the epic poem "Gerusalemme Liberata" by Torquato Tasso

Frizza; Fleming, Brownlee, Banks, Osborn, van Rensburg

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 51 min.

It is a rare opera indeed that calls for one soprano diva and no fewer than six tenors. Mary Zimmerman’s fanciful production of Rossini’s drama, designed by Richard Hudson and with choreography by Graciela Daniele, provides the perfect setting for superstar Renée Fleming’s captivating performance of the title role. A beautiful but evil sorceress in...

Composer: Various
Librettist: Various

Armiliato; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 47 min.

The Audition, directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, looks at the intense pressures young opera singers face as they struggle to succeed in one of the most difficult professions in the performing arts. The feature-length documentary takes you behind the scenes at the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions, where each year thous...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Antonio Somma

Levine; Millo, Blackwell, Quivar, Pavarotti, Nucci

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 15 min.

This atmospheric production by Piero Faggioni, conducted by James Levine, captures all the brooding power and elegance of Verdi’s drama of love and politics. Luciano Pavarotti stars as Riccardo, the unlucky ruler in love with his best friend’s wife, Amelia (Aprile Millo). Leo Nucci is the husband torn between loyalty and his thirst for revenge, and...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Antonio Somma

Patanè; Ricciarelli, Blegen, Berini, Pavarotti, Quilico

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 25 min.

Director Elijah Moshinsky’s production sets Verdi’s poignant opera in colonial Boston, where Riccardo (Luciano Pavarotti) is the British governor, in love with his best friend’s wife. “Perhaps the most complete role for a tenor…a severe test, both vocally and dramatically,” is how Pavarotti described his role. Of course, he’s brilliant—with his dis...

Composer: Gioachino Rossini
Librettist: Cesare Sterbini

Benini; DiDonato, Flórez, Mattei, Del Carlo, Relyea

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 45 min.

Audiences went wild for Bartlett Sher’s dynamic production, which found fresh and surprising ways to bring Rossini’s effervescent comedy closer to them than ever before. The stellar cast leapt to the challenge with irresistible energy and bravura vocalism. Juan Diego Flórez is Count Almaviva, who fires off showstopping coloratura as he woos Joyce ...

Composer: Bedřich Smetana
Librettist: Karel Sabina

Levine; Stratas, Gedda, Vickers, Talvela

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 21 min.

Every bit of the spontaneous charm that infuses Smetana’s colorful opera is conveyed in this English-language performance by a spectacular cast. Teresa Stratas as Mařenka is determined to marry her lover Jenik (Nicolai Gedda), but her father in under obligation to Micha and wants her to marry Micha’s son—the stuttering, rather foolish Vašek (Jon Vi...