Come along to see the Met Opera 2018 - 2019 at EVENT Cinemas Blenheim, Havelock North, Palmerston North, New Plymouth and Coastlands!
AIDA (VERDI): 15 to 28 November
In what should be a highlight of the new season, soprano Anna Netrebko sings her first Met Aida, going toe-to-toe with mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili as Amneris. Later in the season, a second star-studded cast takes over, with Sondra Radvanovsky and Dolora Zajick as the leading ladies. Tenors Aleksandrs Antonenko and Yonghoon Lee alternate as Radamès, and Nicola Luisotti and Plácido Domingo take the podium for the Met’s monumental production.
SAMSON ET DALILA (SAINT-SAËNS): 6 to 19 December
Saint-Saëns’s biblical epic stars mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca and tenor Roberto Alagna in the title roles; Live in HD audiences last saw the pair together in the acclaimed 2010 transmission of Bizet’s Carmen. Bass-baritone Laurent Naouri co-stars as the High Priest, with baritone Elchin Azizov as the Philistine king Abimélech and bass Dmitry Belosselskiy as the Old Hebrew. Darko Tresnjak, the Tony Award–winning director of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, makes his debut directing the first new Met production of the opera in 20 years. Sir Mark Elder conducts.
LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST (PUCCINI): 28 February to 13 March
Soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek sings Puccini’s gun-slinging heroine in this romantic epic of the Wild West, alongside star tenor Jonas Kaufmann in the role of the outlaw Dick Johnson. Baritone Željko Lucic is the vigilante sheriff Jack Rance, and Marco Armiliato conducts.
MARNIE (MUHLY): 28 March to 10 April
Composer Nico Muhly unveils his second new opera for the Met with this gripping reimagining of Winston Graham’s novel, set in 1959, about a beautiful, mysterious young woman who assumes multiple identities. Director Michael Mayer and his creative team have devised a fast-moving, cinematic world for this exhilarating story of denial and deceit, which also inspired a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard sings the enigmatic Marnie, and baritone Christopher Maltman is the man who pursues her—with disastrous results. Robert Spano conducts.
LA TRAVIATA (VERDI): 2 to 15 May
In his first Live in HD appearance as the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Michael Mayer’s richly textured new production, featuring a dazzling 18th-century setting that changes with the seasons. Soprano Diana Damrau plays the tragic heroine, Violetta, and tenor Juan Diego Flórez returns to the Met for the first time in five seasons to sing Alfredo, Violetta’s hapless lover. Baritone Quinn Kelsey is Alfredo’s father, Germont, who destroys their love.
ADRIANA LECOUVREUR (CILEA): 16 to 29 May
For the first time at the Met, Anna Netrebko sings the title role of Adriana Lecouvreur, the great 18th-century actress in love with the military hero Maurizio, sung by tenor Piotr Beczala. Gianandrea Noseda conducts Cilea’s tragedy, in a new staging by Sir David McVicar, with the action partially set in a working replica of a Baroque theatre. The cast also features mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili as the Princess of Bouillon, Adriana’s rival for Maurizio’s affections, and baritone Ambrogio Maestri as Michonnet.
CARMEN (BIZET): 6 to 19 June
Mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine is opera’s ultimate seductress, opposite tenor Roberto Alagna, who captivated Live in HD audiences as Don José in 2010. Soprano Aleksandra Kurzak sings Micaëla, alongside bass Alexander Vinogradov as the swaggering bullfighter Escamillo. Louis Langrée conducts Sir Richard Eyre’s lively production, a favourite in the Met’s repertoire.
LA FILLE DU REGIMENT (DONIZETTI): 20 June to 3 July
Bel canto stars Pretty Yende and Javier Camarena team up for a feast of vocal fireworks on the Met stage. Baritone Maurizio Muraro is Sergeant Sulplice, with mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as the outlandish Marquise of Berkenfield. Enrique Mazzola conducts.
DIE WALKURE (WAGNER): 25 July to 7 August
In what is expected to be a Wagnerian event for the ages, soprano Christine Goerke plays Brünnhilde, the willful title warrior maiden, who loses her immortality in opera’s most famous act of filial defiance. Tenor Stuart Skelton and soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek are the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, and bass-baritone Greer Grimsley sings the god Wotan. Philippe Jordan conducts.
DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES (POULENC): 8 to 21 August
The Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads an accomplished ensemble in Poulenc’s devastating modern masterpiece of faith and martyrdom. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard is the young Blanche de La Force, opposite Met legend Karita Mattila as the First Prioress.