Opera Catalog

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica

Luisi; Racette, Kaufmann, Terfel

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 0 min.

Three of today’s great singing actors—Patricia Racette, Jonas Kaufmann, and Bryn Terfel—take on the leading roles in Puccini’s thrilling opera that blends love, politics, and raw passion into an extraordinary theatrical masterpiece. Innocently caught between her lover, the freethinking painter Cavaradossi (Kaufmann), and Baron Scarpia, Rome’s evil ...

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica

Franck; Racette, Álvarez, Morris

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 59 min.

American diva Patricia Racette gives an impassioned performance as the title heroine of Puccini’s drama, the celebrated singer Floria Tosca. Marcelo Álvarez is her lover, the painter Cavaradossi, whose political convictions get him into trouble with Baron Scarpia, Rome’s evil chief of police, sung by the great James Morris. But Scarpia also wants T...

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, based on Victorien Sardou's play La Tosca

Armiliato; Radvanovsky, Álvarez, Struckmann

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 56 min.

Perhaps the most thrilling of Puccini’s operas, Tosca takes place almost in real time, over the course of a few hours from the afternoon of one day to the early morning of the next. The story is set in a specific moment in Italian history in June 1800, with the Napoleonic wars as its background. Floria Tosca (Sondra Radvanovsky), Rome’s most celebr...

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Conlon; Verrett, Pavarotti, MacNeil

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 53 min.

This all-star performance of Puccini’s hit opera features Luciano Pavarotti as Mario Cavaradossi, one of the legendary tenor’s most memorable roles. He portrays the ardent lover of the beautiful singer Floria Tosca (the great Shirley Verrett) no less convincingly than the passionate patriot fighting Rome’s notorious chief of police, Baron Scarpia (...

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Oren; Holleque, Pavarotti, Pons

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 54 min.

Luciano Pavarotti was especially acclaimed for his portrayal of Cavaradossi in Puccini’s magnificent opera. The superstar tenor’s plangent, beautiful voice perfectly fit the expressive music. Elizabeth Holleque plays Floria Tosca, the famous singer who is caught in the snare of her lover’s political enemy, Rome’s chief of police, Baron Scarpia (Jua...

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Adler; Price, Corelli, MacNeil

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 55 min.

The combination of Leontyne Price and Franco Corelli sent audiences into delirium. Her rich, soaring soprano perfectly matched his ardent, romantic tenor. The year after their history-making joint debut at the Met, they were paired in Puccini’s gripping tale of deception and revenge. Price, in the title role of Rome’s most famous singer, is forced ...

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Mitropoulos; Tebaldi, Tucker, Warren

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 0 min.

Sometimes everything clicks during a performance, and this Tosca is one of those rare moments. Three of the greatest singers in the world—Renata Tebaldi, Richard Tucker, and Leonard Warren—all in such spectacular voice, effortlessly convey every bit of Puccini’s hair-raising drama. With Dimitri Mitropoulos bringing the orchestra and chorus into the...

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Giacosa and Illica

Adler; Steber, Bergonzi, London

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 53 min.

Tosca, the beautiful, glamorous singer who has all of Rome at her feet, is one of the iconic soprano roles of the Italian repertoire. She’s caught between two men—her lover, the handsome, idealistic painter Cavaradossi, and the villainous Baron Scarpia, Rome’s all-powerful chief of police, who will stop at nothing to win Tosca for himself. Puccini’...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave

Rizzi; Racette, Álvarez, Chernov

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 0 min.

Soprano Patricia Racette is deeply moving as Violetta, the courtesan of the title and one of Verdi’s most beloved creations. Marcelo Álvarez sings Alfredo, the young man whose devotion and honesty make her give up her life of endless partying. They leave the city of Paris together—only to have their idyllic existence shattered when Alfredo’s father...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave

Abel; Gheorghiu, Valenti, Hampson

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 2 min.

Angela Gheorghiu, in one of her signature roles, is the enticing Violetta, the most beautiful courtesan in Paris. With the entire city at her feet she would seem to have everything—except true love, from which she has always run away. When she meets the young, handsome Alfredo (rising tenor James Valenti), she gives up her former life. But their bl...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave

Antonicelli; Steber, Di Stefano, Merrill

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 54 min.

Verdi’s immortal tragedy about the clash of true love with social convention has seldom been as poignant as in this broadcast. The sensational Italian tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano, in his second season at the Met, offers his first Alfredo with the company—a tender, romantic, and gorgeously sung performance that perfectly matches Eleanor Steber’s sumpt...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave

Gergiev; Fleming, Vargas, Hvorostovsky

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 3 min.

Superstar Renée Fleming sings one of the most famous roles in all of opera, the beautiful and riveting courtesan Violetta. She could have any man in Paris, but she throws it all away for her one chance at true love with Alfredo (Ramón Vargas). But Alfredo’s father—the sensational Dmitri Hvorostovsky—afraid of a scandal is determined to break the co...