Opera Catalog

Composer: Richard Strauss
Librettist: Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Busch; Jessner, Steber, Stevens, Lechner, List

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 51 min.

The sensational Risë Stevens leads the cast in this spectacular performance of Strauss’s masterwork in one of her most memorable roles, the young Count Octavian. The passionate aristocrat finds himself caught between two women—the gracious, worldly-wise Marschallin, sung by Irene Jessner, and the beautiful young Sophie, played by Eleanor Steber, at...

Composer: Richard Strauss
Librettist: Hedwig Lachmann after Oscar Wilde

Leinsdorf; Rysanek, Varnay, Ulfung, Riegel, Bailey

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 36 min.

This performance presents the great Leonie Rysanek in one of her most memorable roles—the teenage Judean princess Salome. Obsessed with the prophet Jochanaan, the Biblical John the Baptist (Norman Bailey), she skillfully manipulates her lecherous stepfather Herod (Ragnar Ulfung) until he has no choice but to have the holy man killed for spurning th...

Composer: Richard Strauss
Librettist: Hedwig Lachmann after Oscar Wilde

Levine; Bumbry, Resnik, Ulfung, Lewis, Shadur

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 33 min.

Richard Strauss’s dramatic and colorful score, based on Wilde’s scandalous play, is brought to life masterfully by James Levine and the Met Orchestra. The magnetic Grace Bumbry captures every neurotic nuance of the title character, the teenage princess who becomes obsessed with the imprisoned prophet Jochanaan. When he rejects her advances, tragedy...

Composer: Richard Strauss
Librettist: Hedwig Lachmann after Oscar Wilde

Böhm; Nilsson, Dalis, Liebl, Shirley, Cassel

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 30 min.

The great Birgit Nilsson gives a spectacular performance as Strauss’s biblical princess. Walter Cassel is the imprisoned prophet Jochanaan, the object of Salome’s desire. When he rejects her advances, Salome has no hesitation in exacting her murderous revenge. The infamous final scene, in which she kisses Jochanaan’s severed head, is one of the mos...

Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns
Librettist: Ferdinand Lemaire

Slatkin; Graves, Domingo, Leiferkus

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 4 min.

Plácido Domingo (Samson) and Denyce Graves (Dalila) give a searing demonstration of “onstage chemistry.” Certainly no one could possibly doubt that this Samson and Dalila were fated to be together, regardless of all the obstacles put in their way. Graves’s sultry, come-hither voice perfectly complements Domingo’s honeyed tenor. With Sergei Leiferku...

Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns
Librettist: Ferdinand Lemaire

Cleva; Stevens, Del Monaco, Singher

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 56 min.

This Biblical tale of the overwhelming love between a Jewish leader (Samson) and a Philistine beauty (Dalila) that turns sour and destroys them both has inspired numerous composers. But it’s easy to see why Saint-Saëns’s opera has remained a favorite—not only with audiences but also with great singing actors. Seldom has Dalila been so sultry and se...

Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns
Librettist: Ferdinand Lemaire

Abravanel; Wettergren, Maison, Pinza

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 2 min.

Mezzo-soprano Gertrud Wettergren is the legendary biblical temptress whose ensnares the strongest man in the world, Samson, only to leave him a helpless prisoner of his enemies. Belgian tenor René Maison blends superb French style with virile intensity to make this hero a truly tragic figure. The great singing actor Ezio Pinza brings dramatic depth...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Bodanzky; Melchior, Flagstad, Schorr, Laufkötter, Habich

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 23 min.

This is one of the legendary performances from the Met’s vast archive of historic broadcasts. The incomparable Lauritz Melchior stars in the title role of the young hero who sets out to explore the world—killing the fierce dragon Fafner (Eduard Habich) and the evil dwarf Mime (Karl Laufkötter) along the way. When Wotan (the great Friedrich Schorr) ...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Levine; Eaglen, Andersen, Morris

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 57 min.

In the third of the four Ring operas, we meet the hero Siegfried (Stig Andersen in his Met debut). Taking possession of the magic ring and the powerful Tarnhelm, he sets in motion the final events of Wagner’s epic story that eventually lead to the end of the gods’ rule. Jane Eaglen sings Brünnhilde, James Morris is the Wanderer and Graham Clark giv...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave and Arrigo Boito based on the play by Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez

Levine; Frittoli, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Furlanetto

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 17 min.

James Levine leads the Met’s musical forces in one of Verdi’s most atmospheric scores, with baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the title role of the Doge of Genoa heading the extraordinary cast. Ferruccio Furlanetto is his nemesis, the noble Fiesco, who is reconciled with Boccanegra just before the Doge’s death. Barbara Frittoli sings Amelia, Boccaneg...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piaveand Arrigo Boito

Cleva; Tebaldi, Shirley, Colzani, Hines

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 10 min.

The great Renata Tebaldi leads the cast as Amelia in this memorable performance of Verdi’s drama, still a rarity on stage in the 1960s. Anselmo Colzani is her father, Simon Boccanegra, the corsair who ascends to power as Doge of Genoa but loses the woman he loves. Reunited with his daughter decades later, he faces political opposition from her love...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave and Arrgo Boito

Luisi; Gheorghiu, Giordani, Hampson, Furlanetto

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 13 min.

Public acclaim and private tragedy are inextricably linked in the story of Simon Boccanegra, sung in this broadcast by the great Thomas Hampson. On the day he is acclaimed Doge of Genoa, his beloved Maria dies, and their infant daughter disappears. Years later, father and daughter (Angela Gheorghiu) are reunited, but the man she loves (Marcello Gio...