The series opens withDonizetti’s comic gem “L’Elisir d’Amore
,”
starring
Anna Netrebko,
Matthew Polenzani,
Mariusz Kwiecien and Ambrogio Maestri in a new production by
Bartlett Sher on Saturday, Oct. 13 at 12:55 p.m. ET. Each live performance, broadcast through National CineMedia’s (NCM
®) exclusive
Digital Broadcast Network, will take place on a Saturday, with evening pre-recorded encore presentations taking place the third* Wednesday after each live performance.
Tickets are available at participating cinema box offices and online at
www.FathomEvents.com. For a complete list of cinema locations and schedule, please visit the website (
cinemas and participants are subject to change). Ticket prices vary by location.
“In addition to bringing grand opera directly from our stage into communities across the nation and around the world, our HD programs energize our performers, who know that a sizeable percentage of the global population of opera fans are watching and listening to them,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s General Manager.
Presented by The Metropolitan Opera and NCM Fathom Events, NCM’s entertainment and events division, the live transmissions of the “
The Met: Live in HD” 2012-13 season will be broadcast to 167 U.S. markets in more than 660 select cinemas (the series is also shown in 100 additional independent venues nationwide). The season features Met premieres of Thomas Adès’s “The Tempest” and Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda;” five new productions including the aforementioned “L’Elisir d’Amore
,” “Un Ballo in Maschera,” “Rigoletto,” “Parsifal” and “Giulio Cesare.” Other titles in the seventh season of “
The Met: Live in HD” include “Otello,” “La Clemenza di Tito,” “Aida,” “Les Troyens” and “Francesca da Rimini.”
“For the seventh straight season, the splendor of ‘The Met: Live in HD’ series will continue to captivate fans as the passion and creative spirit of America’s world-reknowned opera company returns to cinemas nationwide,” said Shelly Maxwell, executive vice president of NCM Fathom Events. “With each year, the popularity of the Met’s in-cinema series continues to grow bigger and Fathom is proud to bring opera fans across the U.S. the opportunity to experience this treaure of the arts with their families and friends.”
“The Met: Live in HD” is shown in more than 1,900 cinemas in 60 countries, making the Met the only arts institution with an ongoing global art series of this scale. “
The Met: Live in HD” series is made possible by a generous grant from The Neubauer Family Foundation. G
lobal corporate sponsor of “The Met: Live in HD” is Bloomberg. The 2012-13
“The Met: Live in HD” series planned schedule** is as follows:
Saturday, October 13, 2012 – 12:55 p.m. Eastern / 9:55 a.m. Pacific
L'ELISIR D'AMORE (Donizetti)Anna Netrebko and
Matthew Polenzani star in one of the greatest comic gems in opera, as the fickle
Adina and her besotted
Nemorino.
Bartlett Sher, whose previous productions of “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” “Le Comte Ory” and “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” have delighted Met audiences, guides this lively staging, where surface charm will meet with real emotion.
Mariusz Kwiecien is the blustery sergeant
Belcore;
Ambrogio Maestri is
Dulcamara, the loveable quack and dispenser of the elixir.
Maurizio Benini conducts.
Wednesday, November 7 – 6:30 p.m. local time
Encore presentation of
L'ELISIR D'AMORE (Available in select cinemas only)
Saturday, October 27, 2012 – 12:55 p.m. Eastern / 9:55 a.m. Pacific
OTELLO (Verdi)Verdi’s Shakespearean masterpiece returns to the Met with
Johan Botha as the title role opposite the acclaimed
Desdemona of star soprano
Renée Fleming, with
Falk Struckmann as
Iago and Michael Fabiano as the captain
Cassio. Acclaimed Russian conductor
Semyon Bychkov also makes
his cinematic debut.
Wednesday, November 14 – 6:30 p.m. local time
Encore presentation of
OTELLO (Available in select cinemas only)
Saturday, November 10, 2012 – 12:55 p.m. Eastern / 9:55 a.m. Pacifc
THE TEMPEST (Adès) – Met Premiere
British composer
Thomas Adès makes his Met debut conducting the first-ever Met performances of his opera, which has been widely praised as a modern masterpiece. Director
Robert Lepage recreates the interior of Milan’s famous opera house La Scala, including the hidden workings underneath the stage, where Prospero, the banished Duke of Milan, practices his otherworldly arts. The magnetic baritone
Simon Keenlyside stars as
Prospero, a role he has sung to great acclaim in London.
Wednesday, November 28 – 6:30 p.m. local time
Encore presentation of
THE TEMPEST (Available in select cinemas only)
Saturday, December 1, 2012 – 12:55 p.m. Eastern / 9:55 a.m. Pacific
LA CLEMENZA DI TITO (Mozart)The virtuosic
Elīna Garanča sings
Sesto in Mozart’s drama set in ancient Rome.
Giuseppe Filianoti is the noble
Tito and
Barbara Frittoli is
Vitellia, in this handsome revival of one of the composer’s final masterpieces.
Harry Bicket conducts.
Wednesday, December 19 – 6:30
p.pm local time
Encore presentation of
LA CLEMENZA DI TITO (Available in select cinemas only)
Saturday, December 8, 2012 – 12:55 p.m. Eastern / 9:55 a.m. Pacific
UN BALLO IN MASCHERA (Verdi)Accompanied by a thrilling score, Verdi’s vivid characters grapple with life and love, betrayal and death. Director
David Alden’s dreamlike setting provides a compelling backdrop for this dramatic story of jealousy and vengeance.
Marcelo Álvarez stars as the conflicted king;
Sondra Radvanovsky is
Amelia, the object of his secret passion; and
Dmitri Hvorostovskyis her suspicious husband.
Kathleen Kim is the page
Oscar, and mezzosoprano powerhouse
Stephanie Blythe sings the fortuneteller
Ulrica.
Fabio Luisi conducts.
Wednesday, January 9 – 6:30 p.m. local time
Encore presentation of
UN BALLO IN MASCHERA (Available in select cinemas only)
Saturday, December 15, 2012 – 12:55 p.m. Eastern / 9:55 a.m. Pacific
AIDA (Verdi)The Met’s unforgettable production of Verdi’s ancient Egyptian drama stars
Liudmyla Monastyrska in her Met debut in the title role of the enslaved Ethiopian princess caught in a love triangle with the heroic
Radamès, played by
Roberto Alagna, and the proud Egyptian princess
Amneris, sung by
Olga Borodina.
Fabio Luisi conducts this revival, which features recent choreography by
Alexei Ratmansky.
Wednesday, January 16 – 6:30 p.m. local time
Encore presentation of
AIDA (Available in select cinemas only)
Saturday, January 5, 2013 – Noon Eastern / 9:00 a.m. Pacifc
LES TROYENS (Berlioz)The Met offers a rare opportunity to witness Berlioz’s vast epic, last performed at the Met in 2003.
Deborah Voigt,
Susan Graham and
Marcello Giordani lead the star cast. Met Principal Conductor
Fabio Luisi marshals the large-scale musical forces.
Wednesday, January 23 – 6:30 p.m. local time
Encore presentation of
LES TROYENS (Available in select cinemas only)
Saturday, January 19, 2013 – 12:55 p.m. Eastern / 9:55 a.m. Pacific
MARIA STUARDA (Donizetti) – Met Premiere
Fresh from her triumph in the Met’s “The Enchanted Island,” mezzo-soprano
Joyce DiDonato, one of the world’s most exciting singers, takes on the virtuosic bel canto role of the doomed
Mary, Queen of Scots. Having scored a major success with his production of “Anna Bolena,” director
David McVicar now turns to the second opera of Donizetti’s Tudor trilogy, which explores regal characters at fateful moments of their lives
. Elza van den Heever sings
Elizabeth I, and
Maurizio Beniniconducts.
Wednesday, February 6 – 6:30 p.m. local time
Encore presentation of
MARIA STUARDA (Available in select cinemas only)
Saturday, February 16, 2013 – 12:55 p.m. Eastern / 9:55 a.m. Pacific
RIGOLETTO (Verdi)Director
Michael Mayer has placed his new production of Verdi’s towering tragedy in Las Vegas in 1960—an ideal setting for this eternal conflict of depravity and innocence. In this production, inspired by the antics of the Rat Pack,
Piotr Beczalais the womanizing
Duke of Mantua, with
Željko Lucic as his tragic sidekick,
Rigoletto.
Diana Damrau is Rigoletto’s daughter—and their victim.
Michele Mariotti conducts.
Wednesday, March 6 – 6:30 p.m. local time
Encore presentation of
RIGOLETTO (Available in select cinemas only)
Saturday, March 2, 2013 – Noon Eastern / 9:00 a.m. Pacific
PARSIFAL (Wagner)Director
François Girard’s timeless new vision for Wagner’s final masterpiece explores the many facets of this mystical score, while designer
Michael Levine (“Eugene Onegin”) creates a surreal landscape.
Jonas Kaufmann stars in the title role of the innocent who finds wisdom. His fellow Wagnerian luminaries include
Katarina Dalayman as the mysterious
Kundry,
Peter Mattei as the ailing
Amfortas and
René Pape as the noble knight
Gurnemanz.
Daniele Gatti conducts.
Wednesday, March 20 – 6:30 p.m. local time
Encore presentation of
PARSIFAL (Available in select cinemas only)
Saturday, March 16, 2013 – Noon Eastern / 9:00 a.m. Pacific
FRANCESCA DA RIMINI (Zandonai)Zandonai’s compelling opera, inspired by an episode from Dante’s Inferno, returns in the Met’s ravishingly beautiful production, last seen in 1986. Dramatic soprano
Eva-Maria Westbroek and tenor
Marcello Giordani are the doomed lovers.
Marco Armiliato conducts.
Wednesday, April 3 – 6:30 p.m. local time
Encore presentation of
FRANCESCA DA RIMINI (Available in select cinemas only)
Saturday, April 27, 2013 – Noon Eastern / 9:00 a.m. Pacific
GIULIO CESARE (Handel)David McVicar’s inventive production of Handel’s Baroque classic comes to the Met for the first time, with major stars as Caesar and Cleopatra. The world’s leading countertenor,
David Daniels, sings the title role of
Julius Caesar opposite
Natalie Dessay as an irresistibly exotic
Cleopatra. Baroque specialist
Harry Bicket conducts.
Wednesday, May 15 – 6:30 p.m. local time
Encore presentation of
GIULIO CESARE (Available in select cinemas only)
*Encores for “L’Elisir d’Amore,” “Un Ballo in Maschera,” and “Aida” are scheduled four and five weeks following the live broadcast due to the holidays.
**
Programs and casting subject to change. For more details on the operas, please visit the Met’s website atwww.metopera.org/hdlive