Experience Met Player

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Antonio Ghislanzoni

Gatti; Urmana, Zajick, Botha, Guelfi, Scandiuzzi

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 30 min.

This high-definition broadcast of the Met’s sumptuous Sonja Frisell-Gianni Quaranta production brings Verdi’s beloved opera to breathtaking life. The spectacular sets and costumes, the thrilling triumphal scene, and the newly created choreography by Alexei Ratmansky all frame Verdi’s poignant story of impossible love in an incandescent way. Violeta Urmana is the slave girl of the title who loves the warrior Radamès (Johan Botha). Dolora Zajick sings Amneris, the Pharaoh’s daughter and Aida’s rival for Radamès’s affection. The love triangle ends in treason, imprisonment, and death.

Composer: Various
Librettist: Various

Marco Armiliato
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 47 min.

The Audition, directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, looks at the intense pressures young opera singers face as they struggle to succeed in one of the most difficult professions in the performing arts. The feature-length documentary takes you behind the scenes at the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions, where each year thousands of hopefuls compete for a cash prize, the chance to sing on the Met stage—and the opportunity to launch a major operatic career.

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Luisotti; Gheorghiu, Arteta, Vargas, Tézier

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 16 min.

Puccini’s evergreen paean to young love and the bohemian life has captivated generations of Met-goers through Franco Zeffirelli’s iconic production. Movie theater audiences for the high-definition transmission of this staging got to see it with fresh eyes in a touching performance starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas as the frail seamstress and her poetic lover.

Composer: Gaetano Donizetti
Librettist: Salvatore Cammarano

Armiliato; Netrebko, Beczala, Kwiecien, Abdrazakov

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 22 min.

Star soprano Anna Netrebko adds Donizetti’s hapless heroine to her growing list of Met triumphs in this production by Mary Zimmerman that updates the events to the 19th century. Rising young tenor sensation Piotr Beczala is Edgardo and Mariusz Kwiecien plays Lucia’s brother Enrico whose brutal authority forces her to deny her heart and marry for the sake of her family. The famous mad scene brilliantly depicts the cascading fragments of Lucia’s disintegrating mind.

Composer: Bedřich Smetana
Librettist: Karel Sabina

Levine; Stratas, Gedda, Vickers, Talvela

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 21 min.

Every bit of the spontaneous charm that infuses Smetana’s colorful opera is conveyed in this English-language performance by a spectacular cast. Teresa Stratas as Mařenka is determined to marry her lover Jenik (Nicolai Gedda), but her father is under obligation to Micha and wants her to marry Micha’s son—the stuttering, rather foolish Vašek (Jon Vickers in a tour-de-force comic performance). Fortunately Jeník has a secret of his own and it all ends well. James Levine and the Met orchestra bring out the Bohemian color and rhythm of this enchanting score, and Pavel Smok’s choreography adds a delightful flair.

Composer: Jacques Offenbach
Librettist: Jules Barbier and Michel Carré

Dutoit; Bradley, Alexander, Troyanos, Shicoff, Morris

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 46 min.

Otto Schenk’s brilliant production captures both the dark romanticism of the story as well as its fairy-tale magic. It is a superb setting for Neil Shicoff’s vivid portrayal of the tortured poet Hoffmann, as he recounts the loves of his life and the way he has been foiled by his nemesis—a marvelous James Morris in a tour-de-force performance of the opera’s four villains. Gwendolyn Bradley is the doll Olympia, Tatiana Troyanos sings the courtesan Giulietta, and Roberta Alexander portrays the innocent Antonia.

Composer: Johann Strauss
Librettist: Karl Haffner and Richard Genée

Tate; Te Kanawa, Blegen, Troyanos, Rendall, Hagegård, Devlin

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 38 min.

“A sumptuous fantasy out of some grand hotel of the Belle Epoch”—this was one critic’s comment when this production of the most Viennese of all operettas opened at the Met. Staged by Vienna’s own Otto Schenk (who also does a star turn as the jailer Frosch), with gorgeous sets and costumes by Günther Schneider-Siemssen and Peter J. Hall, it’s the essence of a carefree, slightly naughty take on the myth of the Imperial city by the Danube. Of course it helps to have an all-star cast: from Tatiana Troyanos’s arch, smoldering Prince Orlofsky to Kiri Te Kanawa’s dreamy, elegant Rosalinde to Judith Blegen’s pert Adele. No wonder all the men invo...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave and Arrigo Boito

Levine; Te Kanawa, Domingo, Chernov, Lloyd

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 20 min.

This evocative production by Giancarlo Del Monaco sumptuously captures the look and feel of 14th century Genoa and is a perfect compliment to Verdi’s setting of this story of searing conflict between public duty and private grief. Plácido Domingo is Gabriele Adorno, sworn enemy of the doge of Genoa, Simon Boccanegra (Vladimir Chernov). Gabriele is in love with the beautiful Amelia (Kiri Te Kanawa at her most affecting) who turns out to be none other than the long-lost daughter the doge. James Levine’s authoritative conducting of the Met orchestra and chorus reveals the dark power of Verdi’s score.

Composer: Umberto Giordano
Librettist: Luigi Illica

Cleva; Milanov, Elias, Lipton, Tucker, Warren

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 52 min.

Who could resist the passionate tale of a poor but high-minded poet who falls for an aristocratic lady, only to end up persecuted by the very revolution he himself supported? Mix in one jealous rival for the lady’s hand, who also happens to wield enormous power with the revolution. With the right singers, the drama just leaps from the page—or the speakers. Zinka Milanov, Richard Tucker, and Leonard Warren all more than deliver the vocal goods in this performance.

Composer: Georges Bizet
Librettist: Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy

Pelletier; Albanese, Swarthout, Kullman, Warren

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 31 min.

The glamorous Gladys Swarthout seemed destined to play Bizet’s enticing gypsy. An exceptionally beautiful woman, she possessed a rich contralto voice that perfectly captured Carmen’s personality—caressing, beguiling, and demolishing all defenses against her will. Charles Kullman is a winning Don Jose and the young Leonard Warren sings a virile Escamillo. Licia Albanese gives an unusually passionate and three-dimensional portrayal of Micaëla.

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Giacosa and Illica

Adler; Steber, Bergonzi, London

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 53 min.

Tosca, the beautiful, glamorous singer who has all of Rome at her feet, is one of the iconic soprano roles of the Italian repertoire. She’s caught between two men—her lover, the handsome, idealistic painter Cavaradossi, and the villainous Baron Scarpia, Rome’s all-powerful chief of police, who will stop at nothing to win Tosca for himself. Puccini’s story of torture, attempted rape, murder, suicide, and general mayhem is as thrilling and dramatic as anything seen on the operatic stage. Thanks to Eleanor Steber’s impetuous title heroine, George London’s malevolent Scarpia, and Carlo Bergonzi’s romantic Cavaradossi, this Tosca still sends chills down y...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Mitropoulos; Harshaw, Schech, Thebom, Vinay, Edelmann, Böhme

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 3 min.

This most popular part of Wagner’s Ring cycle has it all—a pair of impetuous lovers who will stop at nothing to be together; a young half-goddess who changes from a sassy girl to a strong woman when she learns the meaning of love; and her father, the leader of the gods, trapped in a quagmire of his own making, who has to sacrifice the person dearest to him to retain his position. This searing drama is brilliantly conducted here by the legendary Dimitri Mitropoulos.