Opera Catalog

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Levine; Scotto, Niska, Pavarotti, Wixell

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 2 min.

Puccini’s heartbreaking story of young love in the garrets of Belle Epoque Paris has attracted many famous singers through the years. But with James Levine at the helm and the starry duo of Luciano Pavarotti and Renata Scotto as Rodolfo and Mimi, every bit of emotion in the score pours across the footlights and seduces the audience. In this case, t...

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Luisotti; Gheorghiu, Arteta, Vargas, Tézier

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 16 min.

Puccini’s evergreen paean to young love and the bohemian life has captivated generations of Met-goers through Franco Zeffirelli’s iconic production. Movie theater audiences for the high-definition transmission of this staging got to see it with fresh eyes in a touching performance starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas as the frail seamstress a...

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Levine; Stratas, Scotto, Carreras, Stilwell

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 4 min.

Franco Zeffirelli’s sensational production of Puccini’s haunting opera of young love is one of the great classics in the history of the Met. Many great singers have appeared in it over the years, but there is something especially endearing about this magical first cast: the touching and fragile Teresa Stratas as the dying Mimi, and young, handsome ...

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky
Librettist: Modest Mussorgsky

Gergiev; Semenchuk, Antonenko, Balashov, Nikitin, Pape, Petrenko, Ognovenko

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 23 min.

Stephen Wadsworth’s production of Mussorgsky’s epic masterpiece brilliantly captures the suffering and ambition of the Russian people at a critical time in their nation’s history. René Pape is riveting as the Tsar of the title, giving a commanding and charismatic performance of one of the greatest bass roles in the repertoire—his Boris is dominatin...

Composer: Richard Strauss
Librettist: Clemens Krauss and Richard Strauss

Davis; Fleming, Connolly, Kaiser, Larsen, Braun, Rose

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 28 min.

Renée Fleming is Countess Madeleine, the beautiful, enigmatic woman at the center of Strauss’s sophisticated “Conversation Piece for Music.” She is being courted by two men: Joseph Kaiser sings the composer, Flamand, and Russell Braun is Olivier, the poet. The stellar cast also includes Peter Rose as the theater director La Roche, Sarah Connolly as...

Composer: Georges Bizet
Librettist: Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy

Nézet-Séguin; Frittoli, Garanča, Alagna, Tahu Rhodes

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 46 min.

Richard Eyre’s stunning new production of Bizet’s opera was the talk of the town when it was unveiled on New Year’s Eve 2009. Elīna Garanča leads the cast as the iconic gypsy of the title—a woman desired by every man but determined to remain true to herself. Roberto Alagna is Don José, the soldier who falls under her spell and sacrifices everything...

Composer: Georges Bizet
Librettist: Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy

Levine; Gheorghiu, Meier, Domingo, Leiferkus

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 34 min.

The great singing actress Waltraud Meier stars as Carmen in Franco Zeffirelli’s sumptuous production of Bizet’s colorful opera. A beautiful gypsy driven by passion and love of freedom, she draws the soldier Don José, portrayed by the legendary Plácido Domingo, into a web of love and jealousy that will seal her fate. Angela Gheorghiu is Micaëla, the...

Composer: Pietro Mascagni & Ruggiero Leoncavallo
Librettist: Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, Guido Menasci and Ruggiero Leoncavallo

Levine; Troyanos, Domingo, Shinall, Stratas, Milnes

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 31 min.

This video captures a real rarity: one of the very few times the brilliant Plácido Domingo performed both of the great tenors roles during the same evening at the Met. Domingo singing either Turiddu (in Cavalleria) or Canio (in Pagliacci) would be remarkable, but to get both in the same incandescent performance is to see history. With James Levine’...

Composer: Gioachino Rossini
Librettist: Jacopo Ferretti

Benini; Garanča, Brownlee, Corbelli, Alberghini

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 43 min.

If ever a composer was born to set the enchanting fairy tale of Cinderella to sparkling music it was Rossini. His much put upon heroine Angelina (Elīna Garanča) has to cope not only with nasty stepsisters, but also an over-the-top, farcical father, Don Magnifico (Alessandro Corbelli). And in this version the Prince (Lawrence Brownlee) and his valet...

Composer: Gioachino Rossini
Librettist: Jacopo Ferretti

Levine; Bartoli, Vargas, Alaimo, Corbelli

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 30 min.

The enchanting Cecilia Bartoli was the first singer to perform Rossini’s comedy at the Met, and people clamored for tickets to the long-sold out performances. This retelling of the classic Cinderella story has some delightful twists—like Dandini (the very funny Alessandro Corbelli), the valet to the prince who’s disguised as the prince and who also...

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Pietro Metastasio

Bicket; Frittoli, Garanča, Lindsey, Filianoti

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 35 min.

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s dramatic production brings ancient Rome to life for this gripping tale of revenge, terror, and attempted murder. Giuseppe Filianoti is the Emperor Tito who chooses Servilia (Lucy Crowe) to be his Empress. But when she tells him she is already in love with Annio (Kate Lindsey) he decides to wed Vitellia (Barbara Frittoli) inst...

Composer: Gioachino Rossini
Librettist: Eugène Scribe and Charles-Gaspard Delestre-Poirson

Benini; Damrau, DiDonato, Resmark, Flórez, Degout, Pertusi

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 23 min.

Rossini’s rarely heard comedy receives a brilliant performance in Bartlett Sher’s Met premiere production, with a trio of today’s greatest bel canto stars in the leading roles: Juan Diego Flórez is Count Ory, a handsome rogue who finds women—all women—irresistible. Diana Damrau sings the virtuous Countess Adèle, and Joyce DiDonato is Isolier, the c...