The Metropolitan Opera

Airs Saturday, February 18 at 12:00 noon.   The 2011-12 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Rossini’s comic favorite Il Barbiere di Siviglia – The Barber of Seville. Soprano Diana Damrau, who starred in the 2006 premiere of Bartlett Sher’s production, reprises her acclaimed performance as the spirited heroine Rosina.Rising South African tenor Colin Lee makes his Met role debut as Count Almaviva, the nobleman who disguises himself to win Rosina’s heart. Rodion Pogossov is Figaro, the barber and jack-of-all-trades who helps bring them together. John Del Carlo is Rosina’s guardian, Dr. Bartolo, and Ferruccio Furlanetto is his co-conspirator, the music teacher Don Basilio.

Airs Saturday, February 11 at 11:00 a.m.  The 2011-12 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Götterdämmerung, the final opera in Wagner’s four-part cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads the performance, which stars Deborah Voigt in the central role of Brünnhilde. Jay Hunter Morris, who stepped into the title role of Wagner’s Siegfried to great acclaim earlier this season, will sing the role of the doomed hero.

Airs Saturday, February 4 at 12:00 noon.  The 2011-2012 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, starring Anna Netrebko in the tour-de-force title role of Henry VIII’s ill-fated second wife, Anne Boleyn. Marco Armiliato conducts the opera, a thrilling dramatization of Boleyn’s final days, which had its Met premiere on opening night of this season in a production by David McVicar. The opera also stars Ekaterina Gubanova as Anna’s romantic rival, Giovanna (Jane Seymour); Ildar Abdrazakov as the cruel Enrico (Henry VIII); Stephen Costello as Anna’s first love, Lord Percy; and Tamara Mumford as the queen’s devoted page Smeaton.

      Airs Saturday, January 28 at 12:00 noon.  The 2011-2012 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Puccini’s Tosca, starring Patricia Racette as the fiery title character, Marcelo Álvarez as her lover, the idealistic Cavaradossi, and James Morris as the villain Scarpia. Finnish conductor Mikko Franck makes his Met debut with this season’s performances of Tosca, and veteran bass Paul Plishka, whose distinguished Met career spans more than 40 years, sings the role of the Sacristan in his final Met performance. Tosca will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12:00 noon CST on Saturday, January 28.

Airs Saturday, January 21 at 12:00 noon.  The 2011-2012 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of The Enchanted Island, a world premiere opera written and devised by Jeremy Sams that sets music by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and other composers of the Baroque era to a new, English-language libretto.