The Met’s 2014-15 Season Will Feature 26 Operas, Including Three Met Premieres, In Six New Productions and 18 Revivals The season includes the first-ever Met performances of John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer, Rossini’s La Donna del Lago, and Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta Met Music Director James Levine leads six operas this season, including the opening night new production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, directed by Richard Eyre, premiering on September 22 On New Year’s Eve, Susan Stroman makes her Met debut directing a new production of Lehár’s The Merry Widow, with Renée Fleming in the title role and Andrew Davis conducting Two double bills of one-act operas receive new productions this season: Iolanta, with Anna Netrebko in the title role, and Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Treliński, premieres January 26, 2015 Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, conducted by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi and directed by David McVicar, receives its first new Met production in 45 years on April 14, 2015 The ninth season of The Met: Live in HD will feature 10 live transmissions, beginning October 11 with Verdi’s Macbeth, starring Anna Netrebko as Lady Macbeth New York, NY (February 12, 2014)—The Metropolitan Opera’s 2014-15 season will feature 26 operas, three of them company premieres, in six new productions and 18 revivals showcasing the talents of the world’s leading singers, conductors, and theater artists. The three operas that will have their first-ever Met performances, each staged by a director making his Met debut, are John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris, opening October 20; Rossini’s La Donna del Lago, conducted by Michele Mariotti and directed by Paul Curran, opening February ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ PRESS DEPARTM ENT The Metropolitan Opera Press: 212.870.7457 [email protected] Lincoln Center General: 212.799.3100 w w w .metopera.org New York, NY 10023 Fax: 212.870.7606 16, 2015; and Tchaikovsky’s one-act opera Iolanta, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Treliński. Iolanta will be presented in a double bill with a new staging of Bartók’s one-act Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, also conducted by Gergiev and directed by Treliński. Met Music Director James Levine, back to full strength, will resume his typical schedule of six operas in the 2014-15 season. His first opera will be Richard Eyre’s new production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, which opens the Met season on September 22. Levine also conducts five revivals next season, leading Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann; Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress; Verdi’s Ernani, which he has not conducted at the Met since 1983, and Un Ballo in Maschera; and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Levine will also conduct all three concerts in the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall series. On New Year’s Eve, Tony Award-winning director Susan Stroman will make her Met debut with a new production of Lehár’s The Merry Widow, conducted by Andrew Davis. The final new production of the season will be another double bill, Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, led by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi and directed by David McVicar. The 2014-15 season was announced by Met General Manager Peter Gelb and Met Music Director James Levine. “With a mix of new offerings, a few repertory rarities, and solid casting of our mainstay revivals, this should prove to be a stimulating season for the Company and for our audience,” said Gelb. “Jim’s return to a full slate of operas is the ideal icing on our cake.” “My return to the company has been one of the most joyful experiences of my life, and I’m delighted to resume a full working schedule of six operas next season for the first time in several years,” said James Levine. The ninth season of The Met: Live in HD, which is the world’s leading alternative cinema content series and currently reaches more than 2,000 theaters in 65 countries, will open on October 11 with Verdi’s Macbeth. The performance, conducted by Fabio Luisi, will star Željko Lučić as Macbeth and Anna Netrebko in the vocally and dramatically demanding role of Lady Macbeth. Nine additional matinee performances, including all six new productions, will be transmitted over the course of the season. Click here and enter the password met13photos for promotional photos of the 2014-15 season. Click here to watch preview videos about the season’s new productions. 2 New Productions Le Nozze di Figaro – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart OPENING NIGHT Opening: September 22, 2014 Conductor: James Levine/Edo de Waart Production: Richard Eyre Set and Costume Design: Rob Howell Lighting Design: Paule Constable Choreographer: Sara Erde Live in HD: October 18, 2014 The season opens with a new production of Mozart’s elegant masterpiece of marital discord, Le Nozze di Figaro. James Levine conducts the new staging by Richard Eyre, whose Met credits include the 2011 hit production of Carmen and the current season’s Werther. Eyre’s staging of the opera, in which the romantic bonds of two couples are tested over the course of one eventful day, is set in a stately manor in 1920s Seville. Ildar Abdrazakov, star of this season’s Prince Igor and an acclaimed Figaro at the Met in the past, sings the title role in the premiere performances. The opening night cast also includes Marlis Petersen as Figaro’s quick-witted bride-to-be, Susanna; Peter Mattei in one of his most acclaimed roles as Count Almaviva; Marina Poplavskaya in her role debut as Almaviva’s wife, the long-suffering Countess; and Isabel Leonard as the boisterous page Cherubino. A second cast, led by Edo de Waart, takes the leading roles starting December 4. Three artists who have sung their roles to acclaim in past Met seasons— Erwin Schrott as Figaro, Danielle de Niese as Susanna, and Mariusz Kwiecien as Count Almaviva—star opposite two debuting artists, American soprano Amanda Majeski as the Countess and Italian mezzo-soprano Serena Malfi as Cherubino. The Death of Klinghoffer – John Adams MET PREMIERE Opening: October 20, 2014 Conductor: David Robertson Production: Tom Morris Set Design: Tom Pye Costume Design: Laura Hopkins Lighting Design: Jean Kalman Video Design: Finn Ross Sound Design: Mark Grey Choreographer: Arthur Pita 3 Live in HD: November 15, 2014 John Adams’s meditative work, based on the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and the subsequent murder of an American Jewish passenger, has its Met premiere. The Death of Klinghoffer is the third Adams opera to be presented at the Met in recent seasons, following the success of Doctor Atomic and Nixon in China. The Met premiere, a co-production with English National Opera, is directed by Tom Morris, whose other credits include the international theatrical hit War Horse. David Robertson, who led the 2013 Met premiere of Nico Muhly’s Two Boys, conducts the opera, which will star Paulo Szot as the Captain of the Achille Lauro; Alan Opie as the title character; Michaela Martens as Klinghoffer’s wife, Marilyn; Sean Pannikar as Molqi; Aubrey Allicock in his Met debut as Mamoud; and Ryan Speedo Green as “Rambo.” The Merry Widow – Franz Lehár Opening: December 31, 2014 Conductor: Andrew Davis/Fabio Luisi Production: Susan Stroman Set Design: Julian Crouch Costume Design: William Ivey Long Lighting Design: Paule Constable Choreographer: Susan Stroman English Translation: Jeremy Sams Live in HD: January 17, 2015 Broadway director and choreographer Susan Stroman, whose many credits include the Tony Award-winning musicals Crazy For You, Contact, and The Producers, makes her Met debut with a lavish new staging of Lehár’s effervescent operetta The Merry Widow. The operetta will be performed in English, in a translation by Jeremy Sams. Lehár’s best-known composition has been an audience favorite since its 1905 premiere and features a great deal of well-known music, including “Vilja,” “You’ll Find Me at Maxim’s,” and “The Merry Widow Waltz.” As Hanna, the widowed Parisian millionairess, Renée Fleming will add a new character to her wide-ranging Met repertory of 22 roles. Andrew Davis will conduct a cast that also includes Nathan Gunn as Hanna’s lover, Danilo; Alek Shrader as the young nobleman, Camille de Rosillon; Thomas Allen as the scheming Baron Zeta; and soprano 4 Kelli O’Hara, currently starring on Broadway in the new musical The Bridges of Madison County, in her Met debut as the Baron’s coquettish wife, Valencienne. In April, Fabio Luisi leads a new cast in the principal roles, headed by Susan Graham as Hanna, a role she sang at the Met to acclaim in 2004. The cast also includes Rod Gilfry as Danilo, Stephen Costello as Camille, Alan Opie as Baron Zeta, and Danielle de Niese as Valencienne. Iolanta – Peter Tchaikovsky MET PREMIERE Duke Bluebeard’s Castle – Béla Bartók Opening: January 26, 2015 Conductor: Valery Gergiev/Pavel Smelkov Production: Mariusz Treliński Set Design: Boris Kudlicka Costume Design: Marek Adamski Lighting Design: Marc Heinz Video Projection Design: Bartek Macias Choreographer: Tomasz Wygoda Live in HD: February 14, 2015 Mariusz Treliński, artistic director of Warsaw’s Polish National Opera, makes his Met debut with a double bill of two rarely performed one-act works: Tchaikovsky’s romantic fairy tale Iolanta, about the psychological awakening of a blind princess, and Bartók’s harrowing Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, in which newlywed Judith must open seven locked doors to discover the full depths of her husband’s dark secrets.