Opera Catalog

Composer: Gaetano Donizetti
Librettist: Georges Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard

Armiliato; Dessay, Palmer, Flórez, Corbelli

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 19 min.

Madcap physical comedy and impeccable coloratura come together for Natalie Dessay’s indelible portrayal of the feisty tomboy raised by a regiment of French soldiers. Juan Diego Flórez is the young Swiss villager who conquers her heart—and a slew of high Cs. Also featuring uproarious performances by Felicity Palmer and Alessandro Corbelli, as well...

Composer: Tan Dun
Librettist: Tan Dun and Ha Jin

Dun; Futral, Domingo, Groves

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 57 min.

The incomparable Plácido Domingo began a new chapter in his legendary Met career when he created the role of Emperor Qin in the world premiere of Tan Dun’s epic opera. Staged by revered film director Zhang Yimou, The First Emperor is both a rich pageant of ancient China and a fascinating study of the ruler who united it. Conducted by the composer,...

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 es...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave

Levine; Price, Giacomini, Nucci, Giaiotti

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 59 min.

Verdi painted an immense canvas with this dark but tuneful opera, vividly brought to life in John Dexter’s production, with sets by the great Eugene Berman. The legendary Leontyne Price is seen in one of her greatest roles, Leonora. Price’s soaring voice encompasses every nuance of Leonora’s emotion as she moves from joy through resignation to ulti...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave

Levine; Sweet, Domingo, Chernov, Scandiuzzi

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 58 min.

With James Levine at the helm, Verdi’s multi-faceted masterpiece is revealed as a drama of almost Shakespearean proportions. Superstar Plácido Domingo takes on he demanding role of Don Alvaro, the outcast whose noble gesture unwittingly sets the wheels of fate in motion and destroys an entire family. Sharon Sweet is Leonora, the woman he loves, and...

Composer: Riccardo Zandonai
Librettist: Gabriele D'Annunzio

Levine; Scotto, Domingo, MacNeil

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 29 min.

This sumptuous production by Piero Faggioni (sets by Ezio Frigerio and costumes by Franca Squarciapino) seduced Met audiences into the enchanting world of Zandonai’s rarely heard opera. His retelling of Dante’s story of the immortal passion of Paolo and Francesca in 13th century Italy is as musically elegant and beautiful as the details of the prod...

Composer: John Corigliano
Librettist: William M Hoffman

Levine; Stratas, Hagegård, Quilico, Clark, Horne, Fleming

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 0 min.

From "James Levine: Celebrating 40 Years at the Met" DVD Box Set What happened to Figaro and his friends after the events told in Rossini’s and Mozart’s operas? One possible sequel is told in John Corigliano’s “grand opera buffa” The Ghosts of Versailles—an uproariously funny and deeply moving work inspired by Beaumarchais’s third Figaro play, La ...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Luisi; Voigt, Morris, König, Meier, Paterson, Harmer

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 4 hrs. 45 min.

Robert Lepage’s landmark staging of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, unveiled over the course of the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons, was the first new Met production of the complete cycle in more than 20 years. Combining state-of-the-art technology with traditional storytelling, it brings Wagner’s vision into the 21st century. The four-part epiccomes...

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Levine; Behrens, Jerusalem, Raffell, Salminen

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 4 hrs. 35 min.

The stupendous climax to Wagner’s four-part Ring cycle is brilliantly realized by the Otto Schenk/Günther Schneider-Siemssen production and byJames Levine’s monumental conducting. The Met orchestra, chorus, and an all-star cast make this Götterdämmerung one that truly rises to the occasion. Hildegard Behrens’s Brünnhilde must be experienced to be b...

Composer: Ambroise Thomas
Librettist: Michel Carré and Jules Barbier

Langrée; Petersen, Larmore, Keenlyside, Morris

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 49 min.

After over a century out of the Met’s repertoire, audiences were thrilled to discover just what a sensational evening in the theater Thomas’s Hamlet can be. Simon Keenlyside’s riveting performance as the tortured Prince of Denmark in Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser’s starkly brooding production had critics raving that Keenlyside’s superb singing, ...

Composer: Engelbert Humperdinck
Librettist: Adelheid Wette

Jurowski; Coote, Schäfer, Plowright, Held, Langridge

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 0 min.

This deliciously dark take on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tale, appealing to audiences of all ages, was part of the Met’s popular English-language holiday series. Alice Coote and Christine Schäfer star as the famous siblings lost in the woods, who battle the ravenous Witch—a zany portrayal by tenor Philip Langridge—while the Met orchestra, un...

Composer: Engelbert Humperdinck
Librettist: Adelheid Wette

Fulton; von Stade, Blegen, Kraft, Devlin, Elias

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 1 hrs. 42 min.

Director Nathaniel Merrill and designer Robert O’Hearn work operatic magic in this brilliant production of Humperdinck’s cherished favorite. What Christmas is complete without this sumptuous musical retelling of the classic fairy tale, replete with guardian angels, a sandman, dew fairy, and, of course, a witch and her enticing gingerbread house. Th...