Opera Catalog

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Giambattista Varesco

Levine; Pavarotti, Behrens, von Stade, Cotrubas

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 1 min.

Mozart’s once-rare opera has become a favorite at the Met, thanks to James Levine’s loving conducting of the score and this stunning production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. In fact, this telecast follows the Met’s premiere of the opera by only a few weeks, fully capturing the excitement of the audience as it discovered not only a masterpiece, but also ...

Composer: Various
Librettist: Various

Levine; Troyanos, Domingo, Price, Horne, Milnes

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 10 min.

These highlights from three now-legendary concerts feature an impressive lineup of Met stars in selections from Handel to Puccini: Tatiana Troyanos and Plácido Domingo; Leontyne Price and Marilyn Horne; and Plácido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes. The program includes repertoire they never sang at the Met as well as excerpts from roles that helped defi...

Composer: Christoph Willibald Gluck
Librettist: Nicolas-François Guillard, based on the play by Guymond de la Touche (based on Euripides)

Summers; Graham, Domingo, Groves, Hawkins

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 55 min.

Gluck’s gripping adaptation of the ancient Greek myth is vividly brought to life by a stellar cast in Stephen Wadsworth’s atmospheric production. Plácido Domingo is Oreste, driven by the Furies to atone for killing his mother Clytemnestre. When he and his companion Pylade (Paul Groves) are shipwrecked on the island of Tauride, the king Thoas (Gordo...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Levine; Marton, Rysanek, Hofmann, Roar, Macurdy

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 43 min.

Wagner’s Romantic opera demands singing actors who can truly inhabit their parts, and that’s just what we have here. Is it possible for a Knight of the Holy Grail to look more enticing than Peter Hofmann? No wonder Elsa (Eva Marton) falls in love at first sight. Marton’s heroine is innocent, but she is also a passionate, real-life young woman—which...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Temistocle Solera

Levine; Flanigan, Pavarotti, Beccaria, Ramey

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 21 min.

James Levine’s love for this seldom-heard score infuses every measure of Verdi’s music. Superstar Luciano Pavarotti heads the cast as the Muslim warrior prince Oronte who converts to Christianity out of love for the Italian Giselda (Lauren Flanigan)—before dying of the wounds he received in battling the Crusaders. Samuel Ramey is the Crusader-turne...

Composer: Gaetano Donizetti
Librettist: Salvatore Cammarano

Summers; Dessay, Calleja, Tézier, Youn

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 22 min.

The tragic tale of "the bride of Lammermoor" has always been a favorite of opera-goers and sopranos alike. Yet with the riveting singing actress Natalie Dessay in the title role, Lucia's plight and descent into madness take on another dimension. Joseph Calleja is an ardent Edgardo, the man she loves but is not allowed to marry. Instead, her brother...

Composer: Gaetano Donizetti
Librettist: Salvadore Cammarano

Bonynge; Sutherland, Kraus, Elvira, Plishka

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 16 min.

This telecast offers a rare opportunity to see the legendary Joan Sutherland in the role that first catapulted her to international stardom. She drove audiences wild by the way her opulent voice caressed the music’s long phrases and sprinted effortlessly through the fiendish runs, trills, embellishments and stratospheric high notes. One of the glor...

Composer: Gaetano Donizetti
Librettist: Salvatore Cammarano

Armiliato; Netrebko, Beczala, Kwiecien, Abdrazakov

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 22 min.

Star soprano Anna Netrebko adds Donizetti’s hapless heroine to her growing list of Met triumphs in this production by Mary Zimmerman that updates the events to the 19th century. Rising young tenor sensation Piotr Beczala is Edgardo and Mariusz Kwiecien plays Lucia’s brother Enrico whose brutal authority forces her to deny her heart and marry for th...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Salvadore Cammarano

Levine; Scotto, Domingo, Milnes, Giaiotti, Morris

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 27 min.

Renata Scotto is the innocent Luisa, very much in love with Rodolfo (Plácido Domingo in one of his best roles). But he turns out to be the son of the Count Walter (Bonaldo Giaiotti), who has other plans for his aristocratic boy. Enter the evil Wurm (James Morris) whose blackmail eventually backfires, destroying the young lovers despite everything L...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave and Andrea Maffei

Levine; Guleghina, Pittas, Lucic, Relyea

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 35 min.

Esteemed Shakespearean director Adrian Noble focuses on the timeless and universal themes embraced by Verdi. This atmospheric production, starring Željko Lučić and Maria Guleghina, highlights the ferocious royal couple’s erotic connection as the lynchpin of their ruthlessness. James Levine presides over a powerful performance that features some of ...

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Summers; Racette, Giordani, Zifchak, Croft

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 26 min.

Anthony Minghella’s stunning production of Puccini’s opera opened the Met’s 2006–07 season and was seen by thousands of people around the world as part of the company’s Live in HD series. Patricia Racette is Cio-Cio-San, the trusting and innocent young geisha of the title, who disastrously falls in love with American Navy lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton...

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Emanuel Schikaneder

Levine; Huang, Miklósa, Polenzani, Pape, Gunn

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 52 min.

This was the groundbreaking broadcast that launched the Met’s heralded Live in HD series, seen by opera lovers in movie theaters around the world. Adults and children alike were enchanted by the whimsical humor and breathtaking puppetry of Julie Taymor’s hit production, presented in a shortened English-language version. Under the baton of Maestro...