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Matthew Polenzani (Alfredo in last season’s La Traviata on Great Performances at the Met) is seen in his Met role debut as the lovelorn peasant Nemorino, who wins Adina’s heart with the help of a mysterious “elixir of love” that bears a suspicious resemblance to French wine.

Although L’Elisir d’Amore is one of the most popular comic operas in the repertory, this production marks the first time it has been performed on a Met’s opening night.

Bartlett Sher (Tony Award-winning stage director of South Pacific) has directed three previous productions at the Met: Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia (2006), Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (2009), and Rossini’s Le Comte Ory (2011).

The broadcast preserves Anna Netrebko’s Met role debut as Adina, though she sang a portion of the opera in a 2006 Met gala and has performed the role to acclaim at the Mariinsky Theatre, Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, and Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Netrebko opened the Met’s 2011-12 season with a celebrated performance in the fiery title role of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and returned in the spring as the title character in a new production of Massenet’s Manon, both on Great Performances at the Met.

Charismatic baritone Mariusz Kwiecien sings Belcore, Nemorino’s swaggering rival, and Ambrogio Maestri is the potion-peddling traveling salesman Doctor Dulcamara. Conductor  Maurizio Benini made his Met debut leading L’Elisir d’Amore in 1998 and also directed a 2009 revival of the opera.

“A handsome and insightful new staging…Anna Netrebko’s singing is feisty and earthy one moment, poignant and shimmering the next,” reported Anthony Tommasini of the The New York Times in reviewing this production.

“Anna Netrebko was lovely to listen to and riveting to watch, as always,” enthused Mike Silverman of Associated Press who found Matthew Polenzani’s “show-stopping aria, ‘Una furtiva lagrima,’ especially winning.”

L’Elisir d’Amore was originally seen live in movie theaters on October 13 as part of the groundbreaking The Met: Live in HD series, which transmits live performances to more than 1900 movie theaters and performing arts centers in 64 countries around the world.

Great Performances at the Met is a presentation of THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. For 50 years, THIRTEEN has been making the most of the rich resources and passionate people of New York and the world, reaching millions of people with on-air and online programming that celebrates arts and culture, offers insightful commentary on the news of the day, explores the worlds of science and nature, and invites students of all ages to have fun while learning.

Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is provided by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury home builder®. Additional funding is provided by Mrs. Charles B. Wrightsman.  This Great Performances presentation is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Irene Diamond Fund, Vivian Milstein, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, The Agnes Varis Trust, and public television viewers.

For the Met, Gary Halvorson directs the telecast. Jay David Saks is Music Producer, Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park are Supervising Producers, and Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik are Producers. Peter Gelb is Executive Producer.  For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is Series Producer; David Horn is Executive Producer.

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Matthew Polenzani co-stars as Alfredo Germont, a young man from a good family who is willing to risk everything for Violetta. Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father, who disapproves of Violetta’s lifestyle, but is moved by her plight.

Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads Verdi’s romantic tragedy, one of the most beloved operas of all time, in Willy Decker’s highly theatrical production, a hit when it premiered at the Met in 2010.

In recent seasons, Dessay has sung the role at the Vienna State Opera, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and the Santa Fe Opera. Her numerous Met appearances include four new production premieres: Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (2005), the title roles in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (2007) and La Fille du Régiment (2008), and the title role in Bellini’s La Sonnambula (2009). Next season, she will make her Met role debut as Cleopatra in a new production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare.

Polenzani sang Alfredo in the 2010 premiere of Decker’s production. He first sang the role at the Met in the 2007-08 season. His Met repertory includes numerous Mozart roles, as well as Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Roméo in Roméo et Juliette, David in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff.

Giorgio Germont is one of six Verdi roles in Hvorostovsky’s Met repertory. In February, he sang his first performances of Don Carlo in Ernani, which aired recently on Great Performances at the Met; Met audiences have also heard him as the title character in Simon Boccanegra, Rodrigo in Don Carlo, Renato in Un Ballo in Maschera, and di Luna in Il Trovatore. He has sung the elder Germont, one of his most acclaimed interpretations, more than 20 times at the Met over the past decade. Next season, he stars in a new production of Un Ballo in Maschera and a revival of Don Carlo.

In addition to La Traviata, Luisi conducts the new production premiere of Massenet’s Manon (also airing this month on Great Performances at the Met) and three complete cycles of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. Earlier this season at the Met, he led the new production premieres of Wagner’s Siegfried and Götterdämmerung and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. He will lead next season’s new production of Un Ballo in Maschera, revivals of Verdi’s Aida and Berlioz’s Les Troyens, and three additional Ring cycles.

In April, Associated Press observed, “Dessay provided what this brilliant production so urgently requires — the star power of a singing actress whose magnetic personality and physical agility can involve us deeply in Violetta’s tragic struggle for happiness.”

La Traviata was originally seen live in movie theaters on April 14 as part of the groundbreaking The Met: Live in HD series, which transmits live performances to more than 1700 movie theaters and performing arts centers in 54 countries around the world.

Great Performances at the Met is a presentation of THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. For nearly 50 years, WNET has been producing and broadcasting national and local arts programming to the New York community.

Soprano Deborah Voigt hosts the transmission. Gary Halvorson  directs the telecast.

Great Performances is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Irene Diamond Fund and the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation. Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is provided by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury home builder®.

For the Met, Jay Saks is Music Producer, Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park are Supervising Producers, and Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik are Producers. Peter Gelb is Executive Producer. For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is Series Producer; David Horn is Executive Producer.