Metropolitan Opera: Bizet’s Carmen

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.