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Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Antonio Ghislanzoni

Levine; Price, Cossotto, McCracken, Estes, Macurdy

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 45 min.

This was one of the most emotional evenings in Met history—the night Leontyne Price bid farewell to opera. Aida is the role that inspired audiences around the world to acclaim her as the greatest Verdi soprano of her time. And this telecast shows why: the famous soaring phrases that seemed to never end, the shimmering top to her lustrous voice, und...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Antonio Ghislanzoni

Levine; Millo, Zajick, Domingo, Milnes, Kavrakos

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 37 min.

Sonja Frisell’s production captures all the grandeur and excitement of Verdi’s monumental opera, particularly the great triumphal scene where the Egyptian army, led by Plácido Domingo (Radamès), returns victorious from war. Aprile Millo is Aida, the slave girl whose love for Radamès has her squaring off with Amneris (Dolora Zajick), the Egyptian pr...

Composer: Umberto Giordano
Librettist: Luigi Illica

Levine; Guleghina, White, Christin, Pavarotti, Pons

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 2 min.

Luciano Pavarotti is at his most ardent as the romantic poet Andrea Chenier who is overwhelmed by his impossible love for the beautiful Maddalena (Maria Guleghina). She is a pampered aristocrat and he is but a poor member of the French Revolution. But even though their entire world is being torn apart in by unprecedented violence, their love will n...

Composer: Richard Strauss
Librettist: Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Levine; Voigt, Dessay, Mentzer, Margison, Gunn

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 14 min.

Elijah Moshinsky’s witty production deftly walks the line between the lighthearted humor and the profound philosophical underpinnings of Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s opera, masterfully conducted here by Met Music Director James Levine. Deborah Voigt stars as Ariadne, the mythical heroine abandoned on the island of Naxos by her lover, and Richard Marg...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Antonio Somma

Levine; Millo, Blackwell, Quivar, Pavarotti, Nucci

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 15 min.

This atmospheric production by Piero Faggioni, conducted by James Levine, captures all the brooding power and elegance of Verdi’s drama of love and politics. Luciano Pavarotti stars as Riccardo, the unlucky ruler in love with his best friend’s wife, Amelia (Aprile Millo). Leo Nucci is the husband torn between loyalty and his thirst for revenge, and...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Antonio Somma

Patanè; Ricciarelli, Blegen, Berini, Pavarotti, Quilico

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 25 min.

Director Elijah Moshinsky’s production sets Verdi’s poignant opera in colonial Boston, where Riccardo (Luciano Pavarotti) is the British governor, in love with his best friend’s wife. “Perhaps the most complete role for a tenor…a severe test, both vocally and dramatically,” is how Pavarotti described his role. Of course, he’s brilliant—with his dis...

Composer: Bedřich Smetana
Librettist: Karel Sabina

Levine; Stratas, Gedda, Vickers, Talvela

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 21 min.

Every bit of the spontaneous charm that infuses Smetana’s colorful opera is conveyed in this English-language performance by a spectacular cast. Teresa Stratas as Mařenka is determined to marry her lover Jenik (Nicolai Gedda), but her father in under obligation to Micha and wants her to marry Micha’s son—the stuttering, rather foolish Vašek (Jon Vi...

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

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: 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

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...