Tagged: Metropolitan Opera

Airs Saturday, February 23 at 12 noon. The 2012-13 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Bizet’s Carmen. Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, who made an acclaimed Met debut as Carmen in 2010, sings her first Met Saturday matinee broadcast of her signature role. Rising Italian conductor Michele Mariotti, who also leads this season’s new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto, conducts a cast that includes Austrian tenor Nikolai Schukoff and Russian soprano Ekaterina Scherbachenko, who make their Met debuts this season as Don José and Micaëla, respectively. Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov returns to the role of Escamillo, the swaggering toreador, for the first time since the Met’s 2004-05 season. Carmen will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12:00 p.m. CT on Saturday, February 23.

Airs Saturday, February 16 at 12 noon. The 2012-13 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Verdi’s Rigoletto. Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer’s new production moves the opera’s tragic events from a decadent 16th-century Italian court to the glitzy, depraved setting of Las Vegas circa 1960. Serbian baritone Željko Lučić sings the title character, here a world-weary comedian. German soprano Diana Damrau is Gilda, Rigoletto’s innocent daughter. And Polish tenor Piotr Beczala sings the Duke, portrayed as an amoral lounge singer. Slovakian bass Štefan Kocán is the assassin-for-hire Sparafucile, and Belarussian mezzo-soprano Oksana Volkova makes her network broadcast debut as his seductive sister, Maddalena. Italian conductor Michele Mariotti, who made his Met debut earlier this season, conducts his first company performances of the Verdi masterwork. Rigoletto will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12 p.m. CT on Saturday, February 16.

Airs Saturday, February 9 at 12 noon.  The 2012-13 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore. Soprano Anna Netrebko stars as the bewitching Adina, opposite tenor Matthew Polenzani as the lovelorn Nemorino, baritone Mariusz Kwiecien as the swaggering Sergeant Belcore, and bass-baritone Erwin Schrott as Doctor Dulcamara, the quack whose phony potions nevertheless lead to true love. Maurizio Benini conducts this performance of Bartlett Sher’s new production, which premiered on opening night of the current Met season. L’Elisir d’Amore will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12 p.m. CT on Saturday, February 9.