Metropolitan Opera HD Live & Encore Presentations - 2009/2010

Tickets are currently on sale at the box office or online. Adult $24, Senior $22, Child $16. Refunds accepted up to seven days before each event. Please keeps your tickets in safe place. No admission without tickets.

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Tosca - Puccini

HD Live - Saturday, October 10, 2009, 10:00 a.m.
HD Encore - Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 6:30 p.m.
Run time: 3 hours, 35 min.

James Levine; Karita Mattila, Marcelo Álvarez, Juha Uusitalo, Paula Pliska

Tosca tells the story of three people--a famous opera singer, a free-thinking painter, and a sadistic chief of police--caught in a net of love and politics. Soprano Karita Mattila, recently seen in last season’s Live in HD presentation of Salome, sings the title role for the first time outside her native Finland. Luc Bondy, acclaimed for his imaginative theater and opera productions, directs. The cast also includes Marcelo Álvarez as Cavaradossi and George Gagnidze as Scarpia. Joseph Colaneri conducts.

Aida - Verdi

HD Live - Saturday, October 24, 2009, 10:00 a.m.
HD Encore - Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 6:30 p.m.
Run time: 4 hours

Conductor: Daniele Gatti; Production: Sonja Frisell; Violeta Urmana, Dolora Zajick, Johan Botha, Carlo Guelfi, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Stefan Kocán

Set in ancient Egypt, Aida is both a heartbreaking love story and an epic drama full of spectacular crowd scenes. A cast of powerful voices and a grand production bring the story to life on the Met stage (and on the HD screen). Violeta Urmana stars in the title role of the enslaved Ethiopian princess, with Dolora Zajick as her rival. Johan Botha plays Radamès, commander of the Egyptian army, and Daniele Gatti conducts. Among the score’s highlights is the celebrated Triumphal March.

Turandot - Puccini

HD Live - Saturday, November 7, 2009, 10:00 a.m.
HD Encore - Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 6:30 p.m.
Run time: 3 hours, 25 min.

Conductor: Andris Nelsons; Production: Franco Zeffirelli; Maria Guleghina, Marina Poplavskaya, Marcello Giordani, Samuel Ramey

Director Franco Zeffirelli's breathtaking production of Puccini's last opera is a favorite of the Met repertoire. Maria Guleghina plays the ruthless Chinese princess of the title, whose hatred of men is so strong that she has all suitors who can't solve her riddles beheaded. Marcello Giordani sings Calàf, the unknown prince who eventually wins her love and whose solos include the famous “Nessun dorma.”

Les Contes d'Hoffmann - Offenbach

HD Live - Saturday, December 19, 2009, 10:00 a.m.
HD Encore - Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Run time: 4 hours, 10 min.

Conductor:James Levine; Production: Bartlett Sher; Kathleen Kim, Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Gubanova, Kate Lindsey, Joseph Calleja, Alan Held

Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific) directs this new production, returning after the triumph of his Met Barber of Seville (seen live in HD in the 2006–07 season). Offenbach's fictionalized take on the life and loves of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann is a fascinating psychological journey. Met Music Director James Levine conducts Joseph Calleja in the tour-de-force title role. Anna Netrebko is the tragic Antonia and Alan Held sings the demonic four villains.

Der Rosenkavalier - Strauss

HD Live - Saturday, January 9, 2010, 10:00 a.m.
HD Encore - Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Run time: 4 hours, 50 min.

Conductor: James Levine; Production: Nathaniel Merrill; Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Christine Schäfer, Eric Cutler, Thomas Allen, Kristinn Sigmundsson

Strauss's comic masterpiece of love and intrigue in 18th-century Vienna stars Renée Fleming as the aristocratic Marschallin and Susan Graham in the trouser role of her young lover. Music Director James Levine conducts a cast that also includes Kristinn Sigmundsson and Thomas Allen.

Carmen - Bizet

HD Live - Saturday, January 16, 2010, 10:00 a.m.
HD Encore - Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
HD Encore - Sunday, February 7, 2010, 10:00 a.m.. - TICKETS AVAILABLE
Run time: 4 hours, 5 min.

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Production: Richard Eyre; Barbara Frittoli, ElÏna Garanča, Roberto Alagna, Mariusz Kwiecien

One of the most popular operas of all time, Carmen "is about sex, violence, and racism--and its corollary: freedom," says Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre about his new production of Bizet's drama. "It is one of the inalienably great works of art. It's sexy, in every sense. And I think it should be shocking." ElÏna Garanča sings the seductive gypsy of the title for the first time at the Met, opposite Roberto Alagna as the obsessed Don José.

Simon Boccanegra - Verdi

HD Live - Saturday, February 6, 2010, 10:00 a.m.- SOLD OUT
HD Encore - Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 6:30 p.m. - TICKETS AVAILABLE
Run time: 3 hours, 45 min.

Conductor: James Levine; Production: Giancarlo del Monaco; Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordani, Plácido Domingo, James Morris

Four decades into a legendary Met career, tenor Plácido Domingo makes history singing the title role in Verdi's gripping political thriller, which is written for a baritone. Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordani, and James Morris are his co-stars in this moving and tragic story of a father and his lost daughter. James Levine conducts.

Hamlet - Ambroise Thomas

HD Live - Saturday, March 27, 2010, 10:00 a.m .- TICKETS AVAILABLE
HD Encore - Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 6:30 p.m. - TICKETS AVAILABLE
Run time: 3 hours, 50 min.

Conductor: Louis Langrée; Production: Patrice Caurier/Moshe Leiser; Natalie Dessay, Jennifer Larmore, Toby Spence, Simon Keenlyside, James Morris

The works of Shakespeare have inspired more operatic adaptations than any other writer's. Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay bring their extraordinary acting and singing skills to two of the Bard's most unforgettable characters in this new production of Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet. For the role of Ophelia, the French composer created an extended mad scene that is among the greatest in opera.

Armida - Rossini

HD Live - Saturday, May 1, 2010, 10:00 a.m. - TICKETS AVAILABLE
HD Encore - Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 6:30 p.m. - TICKETS AVAILABLE
Approximate running time: 4 hours, 25 min.

Conductor: Riccardo Frizza; Production: Mary Zimmerman; Renée Fleming, Lawrence Brownlee, Bruce Ford, José Manuel Zapata, Barry Banks, Kobie van Rensburg

This mythical story of a sorceress who enthralls men in her island prison has inspired operatic settings by a multitude of composers, including Gluck, Haydn, and Dvořák. Renée Fleming stars in the title role of Rossini's version, opposite no fewer than six tenors. Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman returns to direct this new production of a work she describes as "a buried treasure, a box of jewels."  The fanciful and magical tale, Zimmerman says, "has an epic, enchanted quality and a tremendous visual element."