Opera Catalog

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave

Levine; Cotrubas, Domingo, MacNeil

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 59 min.

Ileana Cotrubas is stunning as Violetta, the glamorous courtesan who gives up everything for love. Her portrayal is filled with countless little touches that make even the most familiar role seem totally new, and audiences suffered with her plight, and wept at her death. Plácido Domingo’s golden, seductive voice would make any woman want to run awa...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave

Cleva; Tebaldi, Campora, Warren

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 59 min.

Few singing actresses can resist the appeal of playing Violetta, the beautiful courtesan who gives up everything for her one chance at true love. Renata Tebaldi’s idiomatic portrayal is heartbreaking; from the glittering gaiety of Act I, through gripping confrontation with Alfredo’s father (Leonard Warren) and the misunderstanding with Alfredo hims...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave

Armiliato; Gheorghiu, Kaufmann, Michaels-Moore

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 0 min.

There’s a good reason La Traviata is one of the best-known, and best-loved, operas of all time. Verdi’s exquisite music conveys every bit of emotion felt by the gorgeous, successful Parisian courtesan Violetta (Angela Gheorghiu). From the frenzy of her pleasure-filled life, to the suddenness with which she falls in love with handsome young Alfredo ...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Bodanzky; Flagstad, Melchior, Branzell, List, Huehn

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 3 min.

The pairing of Kirsten Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior in the title roles of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is among the most celebrated artistic collaborations in the history of 20th-century opera. This legendary broadcast unites these two exceptional singers, both at the height of their vocal powers, in a performance of stunning intensity. Karin Branz...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Barenboim; Dalayman, DeYoung, Lehman, Grochowski, Youn

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 50 min.

Celebrated Wagnerian conductor Daniel Barenboim made his Met debut with this production of one of opera’s greatest dramas. Gary Lehman and Katarina Dalayman are the legendary title characters in this searing story of love and destiny. Kwangchul Youn sings King Marke, the betrayed monarch whose understanding and forgiveness comes too late to save th...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Solti; Nilsson, Dalis, Liebl, Cassel, Hines

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 19 min.

This is the only Met broadcast the legendary Birgit Nilsson sang with conductor Georg Solti. Wagner’s revolutionary music drama requires performers of exceptional vocal and dramatic abilities, and since Nilsson’s 1950 Met debut in the role, there was no soprano who could match her as the fiery Irish princess. Isolde is forced into marrying the agin...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Rosenstock; Nilsson, Dalis, Liebl, Cassel, Hines

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 15 min.

Wagner’s revolutionary score changed the world of music with its radical portrayal of an all-consuming passion that can only be fulfilled in death. The legendary Birgit Nilsson sings Isolde, one of her greatest roles, in her second Met season. Karl Liebl is Tristan, the man she loves—and the best friend of the man she is forced to marry. Jerome Hin...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Levine; Eaglen, Dalayman, Heppner, Ketelsen, Pape

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 51 min.

Wagner’s retelling of the ancient tale of all consuming love that knows no boundaries is one of the greatest operas ever written. The orchestra is as much a part of the story as the singers on stage, and under James Levine’s inspired leadership the Met orchestra gives one of its greatest performances—by turns yearning, raging, tender, fiery, and al...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Stiedry; Harshaw, Thebom, Vinay, Cassel, Edelmann

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 25 min.

Wagner’s ode to the power of all-consuming love makes inhuman demands on the tenor and soprano who portray the two lovers. Fortunately in this broadcast we have Ramon Vinay as Tristan—a singing actor known for intensity and spontaneity in his stage appearances. His Isolde is the great American soprano Margaret Harshaw in her only broadcast of this ...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Salvadore Cammarano

Cillario; Caballé, Cossotto, Domingo, Merrill, Vinco

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 8 min.

One of Verdi’s most popular operas receives a blazingly dramatic performance by a sensational cast: Montserrat Caballé is Leonora, the young noblewoman caught between two feuding archenemies: her beloved, the troubadour and rebel leader Manrico (Plácido Domingo), and the aristocratic, villainous Count di Luna (Robert Merrill). Fiorenza Cossotto is ...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Salvatore Cammarano

Bonynge; Sutherland, Verrett, Pavarotti, Nucci, De Grandis

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 15 min.

Enrico Caruso famously said that putting on Trovatore was easy: the only thing needed were the four best singers in the world. Few people would take issue with the sensational cast of this broadcast: The radiant superstar Joan Sutherland, in her last operatic appearance at the Met, is Leonora, the young woman loved by two men—the outlaw Manrico (Lu...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Salvatore Cammarano and Leone Emanuele Bardare

Levine; Millo, Cossotto, Pavarotti, Milnes, Plishka

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 8 min.

Verdi’s beloved opera overflows with marvelous arias, ensembles, and choruses—all superbly sung by this all-star cast, under the direction of James Levine. Aprile Millo (Leonore) is in love with the mysterious troubadour Manrico (Luciano Pavarotti) but the nefarious Count Di Luna (Sherrill Milnes) wants her for himself. Add to the roiling drama the...