Jonas Kaufmann Sings the Title Role in a New Production of PARSIFAL for the Metropolitan Opera

Peter Mattei makes his role debut as Amfortas in this production. This will be his first Wagner role at the Met, where he has sung Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and the title role in his Don Giovanni; Figaro in the new production premiere of Rossini's IL Barbiere di Siviglia; Marcello in La Bohème; Shishkov in the Met premiere of Janá?ek's From the House of the Dead; and Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades. This season, he sings Don Giovanni with the Vienna State Opera and the Bolshoi; last season, he sang that role at the Paris Opera and La Scala, and the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at Vienna State Opera.

René Pape made an acclaimed Met role debut as Gurnemanz in 2003 and repeated the role in 2006. Since his 1995 Met debut as the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, he has sung 187 Met performances in 22 roles. His extensive Met repertory includes numerous Wagner roles: Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Fasolt in Das Rheingold, King Heinrich in Lohengrin, King Marke in Tristan und Isolde,and Hunding in Die Walküre. His other recent roles at the Met include Méphistophélès in Faust, Philip II in Verdi's Don Carlo, and the title role in the new production premiere of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. Later this season, he will sing the Ring cycle's Wotan in Das Rheingold at Berlin State Opera and Die Walküre at La Scala.

Evgeny Nikitin made his Met debut in 2002 as Lt. Dolokhov in Prokofiev's War and Peace. His Met repertory includes Creon inOedipus Rex, Fasolt in Das Rheingold, Colline in La Bohème, Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Orest in Strauss's Elektra, and Rangoni in Boris Godunov, a role he sang opposite Pape in the recent new production premiere. This season, he also sings Telramund inLohengrin at the Bavarian State Opera and Munich Festival; Amfortas in Parsifal at Zurich Opera; and Gunther in Götterdämmerung at Paris Opera.

Rúni Brattaberg, a bass from the Faroe Islands, makes his Met debut as Titurel. He performs often with National Theater Mannheim, where he has sung Fafner in Das Rheingold and Siegfried, Hunding in Die Walküre, Hagen in Götterdämmerung, King Heinrich in Lohengrin, Gurnemanz in Parsifal, Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. His other engagements this season include Philip II inDon Carlo at the State Opera in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria; the Theater Manager and the Banker in Berg's Lulu at

La Monnaie in Brussels; and Baron Ochs in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier in Cincinnati.

Scenic designer Michael Levine's previous Met credits include Robert Carsen's productions of Eugene Onegin and Boito'sMefistofele, and Anthony Minghella's staging of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Costume designer Thibault Vancraenenbroeck's opera credits include Stéphane Braunschweig's production of Don Carlo, which opened La Scala's 2008-09 season. David Finn has designed lighting for numerous opera productions including the Canadian Opera Company's recent Ring cycle and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden's productions of Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer and Tannhauser. Peter Flaherty's video designs for the stage includeSondheim on Sondheim for the Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway; Girard's production of The Flight of Lindbergh and The Seven Deadly Sins; and Chen Shi-Zheng's My Life As a Fairy Tale at Lincoln Center Festival. Choreographer Carolyn Choa made her Met debut as associate director and choreographer for the 2006 new production of Madama Butterfly.

Asher Fisch will conduct the Parsifal performances on March 5 and 8. He has previously led Met performances of Lehar's The Merry Widow, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, and The Magic Flute. He is Principal Guest Conductor at Seattle Opera, where he will conduct three complete Ring cycles in August 2013.