Saturday December 27th: Metropolitan Opera New York celebrates Handel's Rodelinda
Handel wrote some of his most beautiful and characterful music for Rodelinda. Hatred and despair, thwarted love and resentment, and a fierce desire for revenge all combine to make a narrative of extraordinary power and potency. Tonight, the Metropolitan Opera New York brings us a celebration of Handel with archival excerpts from Met performances, in honour of the 300th anniversary of Rodelinda.
Saturday January 3rd: Metropolitan Opera New York presents The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Mason Bates
In this exhilarating new adaptation of Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, set shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, two Jewish cousins invent an anti-fascist superhero and launch their own comic-book series, hoping to recruit America into the fight against Nazism. Incorporating scintillating electronic elements and a variety of musical styles, composer Mason Bates's eclectic score moves seamlessly among the three worlds of Gene Scheer's libretto: Nazi-occupied Prague, the bustling streets of New York City, and the technicolor realm of comic-book fantasy. Bartlett Sher's production provides spectacular visuals to match, with towering sets and proscenium-filling projections designed by Jenny Melville and Mark Grimmer of 59 Studio. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Opening Night premiere, and baritone Andrzej Filonczyk makes his Met debut as the artist Joe Kavalier, who flees Czechoslovakia and arrives at the Brooklyn doorstep of writer Sam Clay, sung by tenor Miles Mykkanen.
Saturday January 10th: Metropolitan Opera New York presents Bellini's I Puritani
For gorgeous melody, spellbinding coloratura, and virtuoso vocal fireworks, I Puritani has few equals. The Met has assembled a quartet of stars, conducted by Marco Armiliato, for the demanding principal roles. Soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Lawrence Brownlee are Elvira and Arturo, brought together by love and torn apart by the political rifts of the English Civil War, with baritone Artur Rucinski as Riccardo, betrothed to Elvira against her will, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Elvira's sympathetic uncle, Giorgio.
Saturday January 17th: Metropolitan Opera New York presents Bizet's Carmen
Bizet's fiery masterpiece of seduction, obsession, and tragedy stars leading mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina as Carmen, whose irresistible allure drives the soldier Don José, with tenor Michael Fabiano in the role, to destruction. Pier Giorgio Morandi conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus in this live broadcast.
