April Programs on The Metropolitan Opera

Kristine Opolias reprises her portrayal of the title role in Madama Butterfly.

www.thestage.co.uk

This month the Metropolitan Opera performs Anthony Minghella's stunning production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, with Kristine Opolias singing the title role.

4/2        Puccini:  Madama Butterfly 

Anthony Minghella's breathtaking production has thrilled audiences ever since its premiere in 2006. Kristine Opolais reprises her acclaimed portrayal of the title role, opposite Roberto Alagna as Pinkerton, the naval officer who breaks Butterfly's heart. Ana María Martínez, Latonia Moore, Roberto De Biasio, and Gwyn Hughes Jones star in a second set of performances. Karel Mark Chichon conducts.

4/9        Verdi:  Simon Boccanegra 

The legendary pair of James Levine and Plácido Domingo have defined Verdi’s art for more than four decades. They demonstrate their mastery with this remarkable character study of the wise Doge forced to confront his past. The spectacular cast includes tenor Joseph Calleja and another legend, bass Ferruccio Furlanetto, as Boccanegra’s rival, Fiesco.

4/16      Donizetti:  Roberto Devereux 

Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky takes on the extraordinary challenge of singing all three of Donizetti’s Tudor queen operas in the course of a single season, a rare feat made famous by Beverly Sills—and not attempted on a New York stage since. In this climactic opera of the trilogy, she plays Queen Elizabeth I, forced to sign the death warrant of the nobleman she loves, Roberto Devereux. Tenor Matthew Polenzani is Devereux, and mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča and baritone Mariusz Kwiecien complete the principal quartet in the bel canto masterpiece, conducted by Donizetti specialist Maurizio Benini. As with the earlier Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda, the production is by Sir David McVicar, who with this staging completes an enormously ambitious directorial accomplishment. Live in HD

4/23      Verdi: Otello 

Director Bartlett Sher’s new production of Verdi’s masterful Otello, which opened the Met season last September, returns for a second run, with Aleksandrs Antonenko in the title role and Željko Lučić as Iago reprising their performances. Hibla Gerzmava joins the cast as Desdemona, and Adam Fischer conducts. 

4/30      R. Strauss:  Elektra 

The genius director Patrice Chéreau (From the House of the Dead) didn’t live to see his great Elektra production, previously presented in Aix and Milan, make it to the stage of the Met. But his overpowering vision lives on with soprano Nina Stemme—unmatched today in the heroic female roles of Strauss and Wagner—who portrays Elektra’s primal quest for vengeance for the murder of her father, Agamemnon. Legendary mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier is chilling as Elektra’s fearsome mother, Klytämnestra. Soprano Adrianne Pieczonka and bass-baritone Eric Owens are Elektra’s troubled siblings. Chéreau’s musical collaborator Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Strauss’s mighty take on Greek myth. Live in HD