The Metropolitan Opera announced its 2011-12 HD broadcast lineup on Wednesday. The announcement included mention that there are now 1,500 theatres hosting the broadcasts in 46 countries, up by 25 per cent from last season. Gross ticket revenue from these broadcasts in 2009-10 was $48 million (U.S.), of which half went to the Met.
The announcement also sais that, to-date, 7 million Met opera HD broadcast tickets have been sold.
Here are the relevant passages from the press release regarding next season's productions and broadcasts:
The 2011-12 season of The Met: Live in HD will feature 11 transmissions, beginning on October 15 with Anna Bolena and continuing with Don Giovanni (October 29), Siegfried (November 5), Satyagraha(November 19), Rodelinda (December 3), Faust (December 10), The Enchanted Island (January 21), Götterdämmerung(February 11), Ernani (February 25), Manon (April 7), and La Traviata (April 14).
Here are the details on the new production that will be shown on the HD broadcasts:
Anna Bolena – Gaetano Donizetti (Live in HD: October 15 at 1 p.m./ET)
The season opens with the Met premiere of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, starring Anna Netrebko as the young queen of the title and conducted by Marco Armiliato. Elīna Garanča is Giovanna (Jane Seymour); Stephen Costello is Lord Percy; Ildar Abdrazakov is Enrico (Henry VIII); and Tamara Mumford is the queen’s page, Smeton. Generally considered one of Donizetti’s finest operas, Anna Bolena was the composer’s first international success. Though never performed at the Met, the opera was famously revived at La Scala with Maria Callas in the 1950s. Anna Bolena is the first of a trilogy of Donizetti’s operas based on the lives of Tudor-era queens that David McVicar will be directing at the Met in coming seasons. Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux complete the trilogy, each with a different design team. All three operas will be Met premieres.
David McVicar, whose 2009 production of Il Trovatore earned critical and audience acclaim, has said that his staging of Anna Bolena will “embrace the romanticism of the piece.” His production team is led by set designer Robert Jones, an Olivier Award-nominated English designer of opera and stage productions; costume designer Jenny Tiramani, who previously served as Director of Theatre Design at Shakespeare’s Globe; lighting designer Paule Constable, a three-time Olivier Award winner whose credits include War Horse on Broadway and Satyagraha at the Met; and choreographer George Andrew. Jones and Tiramani are making their Met debuts with Anna Bolena. The production is a gift of Mercedes and Sid R. Bass.
Don Giovanni – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Live in HD: October 29 at 1 p.m./ET)
Tony Award winner Michael Grandage directs a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni for his Met debut. Grandage has a multifaceted impression of the title character: “Don Giovanni has a charismatic lust for life, but he’s not just some serial seducer; he’s a dark, complex individual.” The cast, conducted by James Levine and led by Mariusz Kwiecien in the title role, features the Met debuts of Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka as Donna Anna and German soprano Mojca Erdmann as Zerlina. Ramón Vargas as Don Ottavio, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello, and Štefan Kocán as the Commendatore sing their roles for the first time at the Met, while Barbara Frittoli and Joshua Bloom reprise their performances of Donna Elvira and Masetto. Grandage’s production marks the Met debuts of Tony Award winner Christopher Oram (set and costume design) and Ben Wright (choreography), with lighting design by Paule Constable in her second new Met production of the season. The production is a gift of the Richard and Susan Braddock Family Foundation, with additional funding from Mr. and Mrs. Ezra K. Zilkha.
Siegfried – Richard Wagner (Live in HD: November 5 at 12 p.m./ET)
Maestro Levine also conduct’s Robert Lepage’s production of Siegfried, starring Gary Lehman in his first Met performances of the title role. Singers from earlier operas in the Ring cycle also appear, including Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde, Patricia Bardon as Erda, Bryn Terfel as the Wanderer, and Eric Owens and Gerhard Siegel as the greedy brothers Alberich and Mime. For this third installment of Wagner’s great epic, Lepage introduces a new 3D technology as part of the projections that transform the set into startlingly dramatic images that readjust as the scenery moves and changes shapes. Developed by Réalisations.net, the innovative software, called Maginaire, programmed by Alexandru Duru, has never before been used in a theatrical presentation. Siegfried is the only opera in the new Ring to make use of this technology, which will be utilized to create an enhanced sense of theatrical realism for Siegfried’s forest dwelling. “When you come to Siegfried,”Lepage says, “you can fully appreciate the complexity and genius of the leitmotifs Wagner has used to create another world. That is what we must do onstage as well—create an organic world of dragons and bears and insects and other creatures, where Siegfried can prove himself the strong, fearless, virile hero.” The production team also includes associate director Neilson Vignola, set designer Carl Fillion, costume designer François St-Aubin, lighting designer Etienne Boucher, and video image artist Pedro Pirés. The production is a gift of Ann Ziff and the Ziff family, in memory of William Ziff, and is presented in collaboration with Ex Machina.
Satyagraha – Philip Glass (Live in HD: November 19 at 1 p.m./ET)
Philip Glass’s Satyagraha has its first Met revival in Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s innovative production, conducted by Dante Anzolini, who led the opera’s Met premiere. Richard Croft will reprise his lead performance as Gandhi, with Rachelle Durkin as Miss Schlessen, Kim Josephson as Mr. Kallenbach, and Alfred Walker as
Parsi Rustomji. The visually extravagant staging, praised by the Washington Post as “a profound and beautiful work of theater,” features the designs of Crouch (sets), Kevin Pollard (costumes), and Paule Constable (lighting), with video design byLeo Warner and Mark Grimmer of Fifty Nine Productions. Satyagraha is a co-production with English National Opera, in collaboration with Improbable.
Rodelinda – George Frideric Handel (Live in HD: December 3 at 12:30 p.m./ET)
Stephen Wadsworth’s much-heralded production of Handel’s opera features Renée Fleming in the title role of the Queen of Lombardy. Kobie van Rensburg and Stephanie Blythe sing Grimoaldo and Eduige, with countertenors Andreas Scholl (as Bertarido) and Iestyn Davies (in his Met debut as Unulfo) and bass-baritone Shenyang (as Garibaldo) completing the cast. Harry Bicket, who led the opera’s Met premiere, conducts. Wadsworth’s staging, created in 2004 for the first-ever Met performances of the opera, has been hailed as a “landmark production…seldom has Handel’s inexhaustible imagination seemed as miraculous as in Rodelinda” (The New York Times). Rodelinda features set design by Thomas Lynch, costume design by Martin Pakledinaz, and lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski.
Faust – Charles Gounod (Live in HD: December 10 at 1 p.m./ET)
Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff (Met debut) has set his new production of Gounod’s Faust in the first part of the 20th century. McAnuff is interested in the opera’s philosophies of “personal responsibility…I think that’s the Faustian journey right there. It’s trying to escape from ultimate knowledge, which includes evil.” Star tenor Jonas Kaufmann sings his first Met performances of the title role, opposite Angela Gheorghiu as the innocent Marguerite, Michèle Losier as Siébel, Russell Braun as Valentin, René Pape as Méphistophélès; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who led the new production premieres of Carmenand Don Carlo in recent seasons, conducts his first Met performances of the opera. Theatrical designers Robert Brill (sets) andPaul Tazewell (costumes) make their Met debuts with this production, which also features lighting design by Peter Mumford, video design by Dustin O’Neill, choreography by Kelly Devine, and fight direction by Stephen Rankin. Faust is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and the English National Opera, where this production premiered earlier this season.
The Enchanted Island (Live in HD: January 21 at 1 p.m./ET)
The Met will present The Enchanted Island, a world premiere creation using Baroque music set to an all-new English-language libretto by Jeremy Sams, who collaborated with Baroque specialist William Christie, who conducts. Works by George Frideric Handel, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and Antonio Vivaldi make up the majority of the score with smaller excerpts of pieces by André Campra, Jean-Marie Leclair, and others. The opera combines characters and plot elements from two Shakespeare plays: the four mismatched lovers from A Midsummer Night’s Dream are shipwrecked on an island where The Tempest’s Prospero and Sycorax are embroiled in a supernatural battle. The starry cast includes Danielle de Niese as Ariel, Lisette Oropesa as Miranda, Joyce DiDonato as Sycorax, David Daniels as Prospero, Anthony Roth Costanzo as Ferdinand, and Luca Pisaroni as Caliban – with a special appearance by Plácido Domingo as Neptune. Director Phelim McDermott, associate director and set designer Julian Crouch, and costume designer Kevin Pollard, the team behind the Met’s production of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha, have created an opulent, imaginative showcase for this 21st-century interpretation of an 18th-century pasticcio. Lighting designer Brian MacDevitt, choreographer Graciela Daniele, and animation and projection design company 59 Productions help to create the magical world of The Enchanted Island.
As an operatic pasticcio or pastiche, The Enchanted Island harks back to the 18th century when adapting new words to music from various composers to create an altogether new theatrical piece became standard procedure in opera houses. According toThe New Grove Dictionary of Music, the tradition began in late 17th-century Italy but flourished particularly in London, where Handel himself was a prominent practitioner. “We wanted to create a modern vehicle for Baroque music featuring artists who are virtuoso performers of this style, so I turned to Jeremy Sams and William Christie,” explained Gelb. “I believe this hybrid creation will showcase some of the great music of the period in a way that will honor the Baroque tradition, yet be modern in spirit – especially with a creative team led by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch.”
Götterdämmerung – Richard Wagner (Live in HD: February 11 at 12 p.m./ET)
Robert Lepage’s production of the final opera in the Ring cycle, Götterdämmerung, will also be conducted by Maestro Levine. In the cycle’s thrilling conclusion, in which deception and greed lead to a global cataclysm, Deborah Voigt and Gary Lehman again sing Brünnhilde and Siegfried. The cast also features Eric Owens as Alberich, Waltraud Meier as Waltraute and, as the Gibichungs who scheme to destroy Siegfried, Hans-Peter König as Hagen, Wendy Bryn Harmer as Gutrune, and Iain Paterson as Gunther. “Götterdämmerung is different from the other Ring operas because it is about society,” Lepage says. “The more the story progresses, the more it moves away from the realm of the gods to focus on the power and ambition of human beings. Götterdämmerung is about Brünnhilde in society, her journey as a character, and her role as the heroine who must restore balance to the world.” Lepage’s design team from Siegfried reassembles to create the visuals for the final segment of the Ring. The production is a gift of Ann Ziff and the Ziff family, in memory of William Ziff, and is presented in collaboration with Ex Machina.
Ernani – Giuseppe Verdi (Live in HD: February 25 at 1 p.m./ET)
Verdi’s Ernani, conducted by Marco Armiliato, will star Salvatore Licitra in his first Met performances of the title role. As Elvira, the woman Ernani loves, young American soprano Angela Meade will star in her first Live in HDtransmission. Consummate Verdians Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Carlo) and Ferruccio Furlanetto (de Silva) complete the principal cast. Verdi’s early romantic tragedy, a tale of hot-blooded passion adapted from a popular 19th-century stage drama by Victor Hugo, contains some of the composer’s most thrilling arias. Ernani will be seen in Pier Luigi Samaritani’s grandly-scaled production, which features set design by the director, costumes by Peter J. Hall, and lighting design by Gil Wechsler.
Manon – Jules Massenet (Live in HD: April 7 at 12 p.m./ET)
Anna Netrebko opens her second new production of the season, portraying the impetuous, tragic title character in Massenet’sManon for the first time at the Met. Also making Met role debuts are Piotr Beczala as Manon’s lover the Chevalier des Grieux, Paulo Szot as her cousin Lescaut, and David Pittsinger as the Comte des Grieux. Met Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi conducts his first house performances of the work. Laurent Pelly’s stylish production, starring Netrebko, premiered to outstanding reviews at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2010. Pelly says that his production of the opera will provide “an adventure that amuses, moves, and frightens” the audience. The production reunites Pelly’s design team from 2008’s La Fille du Régiment: Chantal Thomas (sets), Pelly (costumes), and Joël Adam (lighting). French choreographerLionel Hoche makes his Met debut with this production. Manon is underwritten by The Sybil B. Harrington Endowment Fund and is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, New York; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London; Teatro alla Scala, Milan; and Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse.
La Traviata – Giuseppe Verdi (Live in HD: April 14 at 1 p.m./ET)
Natalie Dessay makes her Met role debut as the tragic courtesan Violetta in Willy Decker’s innovative modern-dress staging of La Traviata, which “delivers style, sparkle, and stirring drama…it demands to be seen” (Los Angeles Times). Matthew Polenzani, who starred in the new production premiere this season, will reprise his Alfredo, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky will sing the role of his disapproving father, Giorgio Germont. Met Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi leads his first Met performances of the opera. This transmission is the Live in HD premiere of this classic Verdi opera. Decker’s production features the work of set and costume designer Wolfgang Gussmann, lighting designer Hans Toelstede, and choreographerAthol Farmer. Original production of the Salzburger Festspiele; with thanks to De Nederlandse Opera.
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There are also 19 revivals as part of the Met's new season. Here are the words from the company's press release:
The Met’s 2011-12 season will feature 19 revivals, ranging from standard repertory productions with starry casts to revivals of rarely performed operatic masterpieces. Philip Glass’s Satyagraha will have its first Met revival in Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s innovative production, conducted by Dante Anzolini, who led the opera’s Met premiere. Richard Croft will reprise his lead performance as Gandhi, with Rachelle Durkin, Kim Josephson, and Alfred Walker in principal roles.
Janáček’s The Makropulos Case will return to the Met for the first time since 2001, with Karita Mattila in the starring role of the supernaturally youthful diva Emilia Marty and Janáček specialist Jiří Bělohlávek conducting. Kurt Streit and Johan Reuter (in his Met debut) are two of Emilia’s admirers and Tom Fox is the skeptical lawyer Kolenatý.
Another 20th-century opera, Britten’s Billy Budd, has its first Met revival since 1997, with Nathan Gunn singing the title role for the first time at the Met. John Daszak makes his Met debut as Captain Vere and James Morris sings the villain John Claggart in Britten’s adaptation of the classic Melville novella, conducted by David Robertson.
Handel’s Rodelinda will return to the repertory, with Renée Fleming again singing the title role of the Queen of Lombardy, and Kobie van Rensburg and Stephanie Blythe as Grimoaldo and Eduige. Harry Bicket, who led the opera’s first performances at the Met, returns to conduct. Countertenors Andreas Scholl (as the usurped king Bertarido) and Iestyn Davies (in his Met debut as Unulfo, Bertarido’s friend) and bass-baritone Shenyang (as the evil Garibaldo) complete the cast of Stephen Wadsworth’s acclaimed production.
Russian opera is represented this season by Mussorgsky’s dramatic historical epic Khovanshchina, not heard at the Met since 1999. Anatoli Kotscherga and Misha Didyk make their Met debuts in the roles of Ivan and Andrei Khovansky, surrounded by an outstanding cast of Russian and Georgian artists that includes Olga Borodina as Marfa, Vladimir Galouzine as Vasily Golitsin, George Gagnidze as Shaklovity, Ildar Abdrazakov as Dosifei, and conductor Kirill Petrenko.
Puccini lovers will hear revivals of the composer’s three most popular works. Madama Butterfly, in Anthony Minghella’s stunning production, will star Liping Zhang and Patricia Racette in the heartbreaking title role, with Robert Dean Smith and Marcello Giordani as the callous Lieutenant Pinkerton. Maria Zifchak returns to the role of Suzuki and Luca Salsi and Laurent Naouri (in his Met debut) sing Sharpless. Plácido Domingo, Marco Armiliato, and Yves Abel will each conduct performances of Butterfly in the coming season. Carolyn Choa, the production’s original choreographer and associate director, returns to stage the revival.
Racette will also sing the title role of Tosca, a part that earned her tremendous acclaim when she first sang it at the Met in 2010. Two tenors will alternate as her lover Cavaradossi: Roberto Alagna, who made an unexpected Met role debut in the part in the current season and Aleksandrs Antonenko, singing the role for the first time at the Met. Scarpia will be sung by George Gagnidze and James Morris. Young Finnish conductor Mikko Franck makes his Met debut.
Puccini’s enduring classic La Bohème, in Franco Zeffirelli’s spectacular staging, will return next season with Hibla Gerzmava and Hei-Kyung Hong as Mimì and Dimitri Pittas as Rodolfo. Susanna Phillips reprises her winning portrayal of Musetta and Alexey Markov, Patrick Carfizzi, and Matthew Rose (in his Met debut) comprise Rodolfo’s circle of bohemian friends. Louis Langrée conducts his first Met performances of the opera.
Bartlett Sher’s rollicking production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia returns to the Met for an extended run, with two casts of stars conducted by Maurizio Benini. An October revival will star Peter Mattei as Figaro and Isabel Leonard in her Met role debut as Rosina, with Javier Camarena making his Met debut as Count Almaviva, Maurizio Muraro as Dr. Bartolo, and Paata Burchuladze and Samuel Ramey singing Don Basilio. A spring run will feature Diana Damrau as Rosina, with Rodion Pogossov as Figaro, Colin Lee as Almaviva, John Del Carlo as Dr. Bartolo, and Ferruccio Furlanetto as Don Basilio.
Two Donizetti comedies will join Barbiere on the lighter side of the season. L’Elisir d’Amore has a glittering cast of bel canto stars: Diana Damrau as the beautiful Adina, Juan Diego Flórez as the bumbling Nemorino, Mariusz Kwiecien as the cocky Belcore, and Alessandro Corbelli as the elixir-dispensing Dulcamara. Donato Renzetti conducts.
Laurent Pelly’s production of La Fille du Régiment returns for a third engagement, with Nino Machaidze making her house role debut in the title role and Lawrence Brownlee returning to the high C-laden role of Tonio. Kiri Te Kanawa will again grace the Met stage in the speaking role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp, while Ann Murray and Maurizio Muraro sing the comic roles of the Marquise of Berkenfield and Sulpice. Yves Abel conducts the opera for the first time at the Met.
Verdi operas are heavily represented in the season, with five revivals of the composer’s works. Natalie Dessay sings her first Met performances of Violetta in Willy Decker’s innovative 2010 production of La Traviata, conducted by Met Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi, with Matthew Polenzani reprising his portrayal of Alfredo and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Giorgio Germont. Thomas Hampson makes a house role debut as the title character in Macbeth, opposite the Lady Macbeth of debuting soprano Nadja Michael. Verdi specialist Gianandrea Noseda conducts.
Sonja Frisell’s grand production of Aida will feature Stephanie Blythe in her first Met performances of Amneris, opposite Violeta Urmana in the title role and Marcelo Álvarez as Radamès. Ernani will star Salvatore Licitra in the title role and Angela Meade—in her first full run of Met performances—as Elvira, with Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Carlo and Ferruccio Furlanetto as de Silva. Marco Armiliato will conduct both revivals.
The biblical epic Nabucco returns for 12 performances, with Maria Guleghina and Marianne Cornetti singing the role of Abigaille, and Željko Lučić in the title role. Tenor Yonghoon Lee, whose Met debut in the title role of Don Carlo was much admired this season, sings Ismaele and Paolo Carignani conducts.
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