Puccini's most popular work returns to the Metropolitan Opera on Monday, December 15, at 8:00 p.m. in the visually stunning classic production by Franco Zeffirelli. Frédéric Chaslin conducts the performances which run through Saturday, January 10, 2008 and feature Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas and Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska as Puccini's star-crossed lovers, Rodolfo and Mimì. Fellow Bohemians in the cast are portrayed by Susanna Phillips as Musetta in her Met debut, Mariusz Kwiecien as the painter Marcello, Tommi Hakala as the musician Schaunard, and Oren Gradus as the philosopher Colline. Paul Plishka sings both Benoit and Alcindoro. Massimo Giordano sings Rodolfo in the final two performances.
The winner of Plácido Domingo's Operalia World Opera Competition in 2006, Maija Kovalevska made her Met debut in 2006 as Mimì, which was followed by her acclaimed performance as Euridice in the new production of Orfeo ed Euridice directed by Mark Morris. She returned to the Met last season as Micaëla in Carmen. During the current season, Ms. Kovalevska sings Mimì with San Francisco Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, and at the Torre del Lago Festival, and Liu with Washington National Opera. She also participates in the Met's 125th Anniversary Gala on March 15, singing "O mio babbino caro" from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.
Ramón Vargas sang Rodolfo in last season's La Bohème revival which was transmitted as part of The Met: Live in HD series in April, 2008, and is now available on DVD on the EMI label. He also sang Rodolfo at the Met in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. He made his Met debut in 1992 as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor and sang in the new production premieres of La Cenerentola in 1997 (Prince Ramiro) and Roméo et Juliette in 2005 (Roméo). Other Met roles include Alfredo in La Traviata, Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore, Lenski in Eugene Onegin (part of The Met: Live in HD series in 2006-07), the Duke in Rigoletto, the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier, and the title roles of Les Contes d'Hoffmann and Faust.
A recent graduate of the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Susanna Phillips made her debut this fall with the Dallas Opera as the Countess in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, where the Dallas Morning News declared that "her achingly gorgeous ‘Dove sono' would melt the hardest heart." In 2005, the Alabama native won four of the world's leading vocal competitions-the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the MacAllister Awards, the George London Foundation, and Operalia, where she won both First Place and the Audience Prize.
A native of Krákow, Poland, baritone Mariusz Kwiecien joined the Met as a member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in 1998 and made his debut in 1999 as Kuligin in Kát'a Kabanová. Since 2001 he has sung leading roles with the Met including Marcello in La Bohème, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (which he sings again in January, including for The Met: Live in HD transmission on February 7), Silvio in Pagliacci, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Malatesta in the new production of Don Pasquale in 2006. At the Met's 125th Anniversary Gala, Mr. Kwiecien will sing "Finch'han dal vino" from Mozart's Don Giovanni.
French conductor Frédéric Chaslin debuted at the Met in 2002 with Verdi's Il Trovatore and has since returned for the same composer's I Vespri Siciliani, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia. In addition to conducting opera and symphonic concerts, Chaslin is also a concert pianist and composer. He recently played the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Vienna Philharmonic and, in 2007, played and conducted the Ravel Concerto in G Major with the Nagoya Philharmonic. His compositions include "Diva Dance," written for Luc Besson's movie The Fifth Element and "Chagall Suite" which had its premiere with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.
Massimo Giordano made his Met debut in 2006 as Des Grieux in Manon and sang Rinuccio from Gianni Schicchi in Jack O'Brien's new production of Il Trittico in 2007 (part of The Met: Live in HD series). This fall, he sang his first Alfredo in La Traviata at the Met opposite Anja Harteros. The Italian tenor has appeared at numerous leading theaters and festivals in Europe, among them La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Moscow's Bolshoi Opera, and the Glyndebourne and Salzburg Festivals.
