**METROPOLITAN OPERA RADIO BROADCAST ALERT**

The Met Broadcasts Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Starring Angela Meade and Marcello Giordani

Marco Armiliato leads the performance, also featuring Dolora Zajick and Juan Jesús Rodríguez

Saturday, February 13 at 1:00 p.m. ET

The 2015-16 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Verdi’s Il Trovatore, starring soprano Angela Meade as the noblewoman Leonora and tenor Marcello Giordani in the title role of the troubadour Manrico. Mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick sings her signature role of the mysterious gypsy Azucena, with Spanish baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez making his Met broadcast debut as the Count di Luna, Manrico’s rival, and bass Kwangchul Youn as Ferrando, the captain of the guard. Marco Armiliato conducts the performance. Il Trovatore will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, February 13. Angela Meade last appeared as Leonora at the Met in 2013. She made her company debut in 2008 as Elvira in Verdi’s Ernani, and has also returned as the Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff, and in the title roles of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Bellini’s Norma. She will reprise the role of Leonora at the Deutsche Oper Berlin later this season, as well as singing in Verdi’s Requiem in Bilbao. Marcello Giordani has previously sung Manrico at the Teatro Regio di Torino and Houston Grand Opera. After making his Met debut in 1995, he has been in over 220 performances with the company. His Met repertory includes several Verdi roles: Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra, Radamès in Aida, the title role of Ernani, Alfredo in La Traviata, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, and Gustavo in Un Ballo in Maschera. Giordani was seen at the Met earlier this season as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca. Dolora Zajick has sung Azucena 54 times at the Met, the most performances of this role by any singer in the company’s history. She has performed this role with opera companies around the world, mostly recently with the Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera. Zajick has appeared in over 230 performances at the Met since her company debut as Azucena in 1988. This season she also sings Verdi’s Requiem in Bilbao with Meade and Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera at the Rome Opera. Juan Jesús Rodríguez makes his Met debut this season as the Count di Luna, a role he’s sung at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Palacio de la Ópera in La Coruña, Spain, and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. His other Verdi performances this season include the title roles in Rigoletto at Madrid’s Teatro Real and Nabucco at the Las Palmas Opera, and Rodrigue in Don Carlos in Bilbao. Kwangchul Youn reprises the role of Ferrando after performing it at the Met in 2009, and also at La Scala and the Munich Opera Festival. Following his Met debut in 2004 in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, his roles with the company have included Narbal in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, Raimondo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Ramfis in Aida, and King Marke in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Also at the Met this season, he sings Talbot in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, which will be broadcast on February 20. Marco Armiliato returns to the Met after leading over 375 performances with the company since 1998, including Anna Bolena earlier this season. In recent years, he has conducted at the Vienna State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Zurich Opera, and Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. The intermission will include live backstage interviews with artists.

THE STARS OF IL TROVATORE

PHOTOS

Click here to download photos from Il Trovatore

About the Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 85th season of Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts—the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history. Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts have brought opera into millions of homes and enriched the lives of many, playing a vital and unparalleled role in the development and appreciation of opera in this country. Mary Jo Heath hosts, joined each week in the broadcast booth by commentator Ira Siff.

The broadcasts are heard worldwide, reaching millions of opera lovers in more than 35 countries.

Listeners can visit www.Metopera.org/SaturdayMatineeBroadcasts for a wealth of information about the Met broadcasts. For details about all Met performances this season, as well as ticket information, visit the Met’s website at www.metopera.org.

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Contact: Silja Tobin Metropolitan Opera (212) 870-7457 [email protected]