The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theaters around the world, returns for a sixth season Saturday, October 15 with the Met premiere production of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, featuring Anna Netrebko in the title role.
The opera, directed by David McVicar and conducted by Marco Armiliato, is based on the final, tragic days of Anne Boleyn and has been a dramatic and vocal showcase for some of the greatest sopranos in operatic history. In addition to Ms. Netrebko, the 2011-12 Live in HD season features many of the opera world's most prominent stars, including Stephanie Blythe, David Daniels, Natalie Dessay, Joyce DiDonato, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Jonas Kaufmann, Mariusz Kwiecien, René Pape, Marina Poplavskaya, Bryn Terfel and Deborah Voigt. Met Music Director James Levine conducts the HD performances of Wagner's Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, the final two installments of the Met's new Ring cycle, as well as the new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni.
Tickets for the 2011-12 Live in HD season will go on sale in the U.S. on Monday, August 29 at www.FathomEvents.com. The Met distributes its shows to more than 700 locations in the United States, including more than 640 participating NCM Fathom theaters. This season, approximately 1600 theaters in 51 countries around the world will participate in The Met: Live in HD. New countries added this year will include China, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Morocco, and the territory of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Last year, a record number of more than 2.6 million Live in HD tickets were sold to opera lovers across the globe.
The 2011-12 Live in HD season features 11 transmissions, which include a Met premiere, a world premiere, three new productions of repertory favorites, and the final two installments of a new Ring cycle. In addition to Netrebko in the title role, Anna Bolena (October 15) stars Ekaterina Gubanova as GiovAnna Seymour and Ildar Abdrazakov as Enrico (Henry VIII).
Joyce DiDonato, David Daniels, Plácido Domingo, Danielle De Niese, and Luca Pisaroni are among the stars of The Enchanted Island (Jan. 21), a world premiere work inspired by the musical pastiches and masques of the 18th century. Devised and written by Jeremy Sams with a story drawn from Shakespeare, The Enchanted Island showcases arias and ensembles by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and others. William Christie conducts; the production is directed by Phelim McDermott.
Tony Award-winning directors Michael Grandage and Des McAnuff make their respective Met debuts with new productions of Mozart's Don Giovanni (October 29) and Gounod's Faust (December 10). James Levine conducts Don Giovanni, which stars Mariusz Kwiecien in his first Met performances of the iconic title role opposite Barbara Frittoli, Ramón Vargas, Luca Pisaroni, and debuting sopranos Marina Rebeka and Mojca Erdmann. Jonas Kaufmann, Marina Poplavskaya, and René Pape take the demanding leading roles of Faust, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Netrebko sings her second title role this season in the new production of Massenet's Manon (April 7), conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi, directed by Laurent Pelly, and also starring Piotr Beczala and Paulo Szot. Robert Lepage's exciting new staging of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen reaches its spectacular conclusion with new productions of Siegfried (November 5) and Götterdämmerung (February 11), both conducted by Levine. Siegfried stars Deborah Voigt, Gary Lehman, Eric Owens, and Bryn Terfel; Voigt, Lehman, and Owens also star in Götterdämmerung.
Other highlights of the Live in HD season include Philip Glass's opera based on the life of Gandhi, Satyagraha, in an inspiring production by McDermott that stars Richard Croft (November 19); Renée Fleming in one of her greatest portrayals, the title role in Handel's virtuosic Rodelinda (December 3), also starring Stephanie Blythe and Andreas Scholl; Verdi's Ernani, starring rising soprano Angela Meade opposite experienced Verdians Marcello Giordani, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Ferruccio Furlanetto (February 25); and Natalie Dessay in her Met role debut as Violetta in Willy Decker's theatrically compelling production of Verdi's La Traviata, with Hvorostovsky and Matthew Polenzani. Complete casting and details of the season's Live in HD performances follow below.
All 11 high-definition productions will be shown live worldwide on Saturdays through April 14. Most operas will begin at 12:55 EST, with some operas beginning earlier in the afternoon; exact starting times appear on the schedule below. The majority of encore presentations in the United States will be shown on Wednesdays, 18 days after the live exhibition. Ticket sales to the general public begin on Monday, August 29, online and at the box offices of participating theaters in the U.S. and the Atlantic provinces of Canada. For complete information on locations and tickets, visit www.metopera.org/hdlive.
