Known for Acting
Conductor Joana Mallwitz makes her Met debut leading an extraordinary cast in Mozart’s comic masterpiece. Bass-baritone Michael Sumuel stars as the clever valet Figaro, opposite soprano Olga Kulchynska as his betrothed, the wily maid Susanna. Baritone Joshua Hopkins is the skirt-chasing Count, with soprano Federica Lombardi as his anguished wife and mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa as the adolescent page Cherubino. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to movie theaters across the globe.
Servants Figaro and Susanna are filled with excitement on their wedding day, but there’s a hitch: their employer, the Count Almaviva, has dishonourable intentions of his own towards the bride-to-be. With more twists than a page boy’s stockings, the story of Mozart’s comic opera will surprise and delight you at every turn. Come for the music and stay for the cross-dressing hilarity, all unfolding over the course of one crazy, topsy-turvy day in the Almaviva household. Antonio Pappano conducts a truly international cast in David McVicar’s timeless production.
co-production with the Teatro Real (Madrid).
A count has designs on his personal valet's fiancée and is determined to stop their wedding taking place. Meanwhile, the countess tries to regain her husband's love by any means necessary. Mozart's great comic opera is a tale of intrigue, misunderstanding and forgiveness. Christian Gerhaher plays the clever Figaro and Simon Keenlyside his aristocratic master in this revival of David McVicar's much-loved production at the Royal Opera House.
Tenor Javier Camarena and soprano Pretty Yende team up for a feast of bel canto vocal fireworks—including the show-stopping tenor aria “Ah! Mes amis,” with its nine high Cs. Alessandro Corbelli and Maurizio Muraro trade off as the comic Sergeant Sulpice, with mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as the outlandish Marquise of Berkenfield. Enrique Mazzola conducts.
A young student, Ernesto, who lives with his old bachelor uncle, Don Pasquale, has refused to wed the woman of his uncle’s choosing because he is in love with a young widow, Norina. Pasquale has decided to punish Ernesto by getting married and fathering an heir, thereby cutting off his nephew without a penny. Dr. Malatesta, a friend of Pasquale as well as Ernesto and Norina, has devised a plan to both save Pasquale from his folly and help the young couple.
In Giuseppe Verdi's little-known early tragedy, a despairing father is torn between love for his family and his duty to a corrupt city. Jacopo Foscari, son of a 15th-century Doge of Venice, is convicted of murder and treason on a trumped-up charge. His wife Lucrezia is sure of his innocence. But the Doge, trapped by the machinations of the city, is forced to make a terrible decision.
The French tale of a beautiful young woman destroyed by her conflicting needs for love and luxury.
With his affinity for the 16th-century sculptor Benvenuto Cellini's advocacy of artistic and personal freedom, Hector Berlioz went straight for the grand gesture with his first completed opera. Returning to it years after initial production debacles, Berlioz stated that he would 'never again find such verve and Cellinian impetuosity, nor such a variety of ideas.' The plot revolves around Cellini's wooing of Teresa, a match frustrated at every opportunity by his rival, the cowardly Fieramosca. Benvenuto Cellini is a pithy work combining romance, excitement, violence, comedy and spectacle; the perfect stage for Terry Gilliam's stylishly colorful and larger than life directing.
A youthful cast brings Rossini’s immortal comedy to sparkling life, led by Christopher Maltman as Figaro, the resourceful barber and man-about-town of the title. The lovely Isabel Leonard is Rosina, the clever young woman at the center of the story, and Lawrence Brownlee sings Count Almaviva, the man who loves her and—with Figaro’s help—rescues her from the house of her elderly and smitten guardian, Bartolo, played by Maurizio Muraro. Paata Burchuladze is the bumbling music master Basilio, and rising conductor and bel canto specialist Michele Mariotti leads the Met’s musical forces in Bartlett Sher’s lively production.
Manon Lescaut's production was updated and it worked. Highly professional production with two of the best performances I've ever witnessed in any opera. By the end of the third act I was crying and by the end of the fourth act I could not stop the tears. These two can not only sing up a storm they act one as well. This is the best Manon Lescaut I've ever seen and hope the upcoming one at the Met is as good. It truly was thrilling. Kaufmann and Opolais were unbelievably fantastic and the orchestra was superb. Pappano is the kind of maestro you want to sing for as he coaches as in the old days of maestros like Levine, etc. This is highly recommended as a keeper!
Met Music director James Levine conducts a cast of youthful stars in Mozart’s sophisticated comedy about testing the ties of love. Susanna Phillips and Isabel Leonard are the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, who are led to believe their fiancés have gone off to war. Matthew Polenzani and Rodion Pogossov are Ferrando and Guglielmo, the lovers who return in disguise to test their girls' fidelity. Danielle de Niese sings the scheming maid Despina and Maurizio Muraro is Don Alfonso, the philosopher and mastermind pulling the strings.
