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Rodelinda also stars Andreas Scholl as the exiled king Bertarido and Stephanie Blythe as his sister Eduige. English countertenor Iestyn Davies makes his Met debut as Bertarido’s faithful friend Unulfo, and, in Met role debuts, Joseph Kaiser sings the usurper Grimoaldo and Shenyang the corrupt royal advisor Garibaldo.

The program was originally seen live in movie theaters on December 3 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.

Handel’s opera, based on the life of a seventh-century queen of Lombardy, premiered at the Met in 2004 with Fleming in the title role. The opera, in which Rodelinda’s love for her exiled husband remains steadfast despite the romantic and political machinations of his enemies, is a showcase for some of Handel’s most extraordinary arias and duets.

Bicket made his Met debut leading the new production premiere of Rodelinda in 2004, and has since conducted Met revivals of Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito. He is also the director of The English Concert, a Baroque orchestra that uses period instruments and tours throughout the United Kingdom and the United States. Wadsworth, whose staging of the opera has been praised for its clarity and fluidity, has also directed new productions of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at the Met, as well as a new staging of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, co-produced with The Juilliard School.

Rodelinda is the sole Baroque heroine in Fleming’s extensive Met repertory of twenty-one roles. Her recent Met performances include the Countess in the first-ever Met revival of Strauss’s Capriccio; the title character in the Met premiere of Rossini’s Armida; the Marschallin in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier; and the title characters in Massenet’s Thaïs and Dvořák’s Rusalka.

Blythe, like Fleming, starred in Rodelinda’s Met premiere and a subsequent revival in the 2005-06 season. Scholl made his Met debut as Bertarido in the 2006 revival of Rodelinda, and also starred in a high-profile 1998 Glyndebourne production of the opera, conducted by William Christie.

Davies is a prominent performer in recital and opera in his native England, specializing in the Baroque repertory. Kaiser co-starred with Fleming last season as Flamand in Strauss’s Capriccio. Shenyang has appeared at the Met as Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème and Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

Soprano Deborah Voigt hosts. Matthew Diamond directs the telecast.

This Great Performances presentation is funded by the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation. Major support for the Rodelinda telecast is provided by Mr. and Mrs. Wilmer J. Thomas, Jr. Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is provided by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury home builder®.

For the Met, 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.

Watch a preview:

The program was originally seen live in movie theaters on October 29, 2011 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.

The classic tale of lust, heartbreak, and revenge stars charismatic Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien in his first-ever Met performances of the notorious title character. For the first time with Don Giovanni at the Met, Luisi conducts the performance from a cembalo in the orchestra pit.

Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka and German soprano Mojca Erdmann make their Met debuts as two of Giovanni’s female conquests, Donna Anna and Zerlina, opposite distinguished Mozartean Barbara Frittoli as the fiery Donna Elvira. Tenor Ramón Vargas sings the role of Donna Anna’s fiancé, the nobleman Don Ottavio, and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni is Giovanni’s hapless manservant Leporello. Joshua Bloom sings the shepherd Masetto and Štefan Kocán is the vengeful Commendatore.

Grandage, the longtime artistic director of London’s Donmar Warehouse, won a 2010 Tony Award for directing John Logan’s drama Red. Last season, he directed new productions of Billy Budd at Glyndebourne and Madama Butterfly at Houston Grand Opera. His other Broadway credits include Peter Morgan’s docudrama Frost/Nixon, a 2009 staging of Hamlet starring Jude Law, and an upcoming revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita in spring 2012.

Grandage’s design team includes his longtime collaborator Christopher Oram (sets and costumes), also a recent Tony Award winner for Red; lighting designer Paule Constable, who also designed this season’s Anna Bolena and Satyagraha; and choreographer Ben Wright, whose credits include numerous operas and musicals in England and Scotland. Oram and Wright make their Met debuts with this production.

Luisi, who was elevated to the position of Principal Conductor in September, led performances of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro in the Met’s 2009-10 season and has a Met repertory that includes critically acclaimed performances of Verdi’s Don Carlo, Rigoletto, and Simon Boccanegra; Puccini’s La Bohème, Tosca, and Turandot; Richard Strauss’s Die Ägyptische Helena (the 2007 new production premiere), Elektra, and Ariadne auf Naxos; Berg’s Lulu; and Wagner’s Das Rheingold. He is also conducting Wagner’s Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, Massenet’s Manon, as well as a revival of Verdi’s La Traviata, all coming up on Great Performances at the Met.

Kwiecien has sung Don Giovanni at numerous international opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Munich State Opera; San Francisco Opera; Santa Fe Opera; and Warsaw Opera, earning praise for his accomplished vocalism and seductive interpretation. Don Giovanni is his fourth leading role in a new production at the Met, following his performances as Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale (2006), and Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor (2007), all seen on Great Performances at the Met, as well as Escamillo in Carmen (2009).

Rebeka sang the role of Donna Anna last season at the Deutsche Oper Berlin under the baton of Roberto Abbado. Fellow debuting artist Erdmann sang Zerlina at the 2011 Baden-Baden Festival in a production conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Frittoli last sang Donna Elvira at the Met in the 2008-09 season.

Vargas makes his Met role debut as Don Ottavio, a role he last performed in Covent Garden’s 2008-09 season. Bloom made his Met debut as Masetto in the 2008-09 season. Slovakian bass Kocán will make his Met role debut as the Commendatore.

Renée Fleming hosts. Barbara Willis Sweete directs the telecast.

Great Performances is funded by Vivian Milstein, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, and Annaliese Soros. Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is provided by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury home builder®.

For the Met, 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.

In New York, THIRTEEN will premiere the production in primetime on Thursday, August 18 at 8 p.m with an encore presentation for the local SundayArts programming block August 21st at 12:30 p.m. The telecast was originally seen live in movie theaters on April 23, 2011 as part of the groundbreaking series, The Met: Live in HD, which transmits live performances to more than 1500 movie theaters and performing arts centers in 46 countries around the world.

Watch a preview:

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

Capriccio also stars Joseph Kaiser as the composer Flamand, Russell Braun as the poet Olivier, Sarah Connolly as Clairon, Morten Frank Larsen in his Met debut as the Count, Peter Rose as the flamboyant La Roche, and Barry Banks and Olga Makarina as a temperamental Italian tenor and soprano; all are making Met role debuts.

In Capriccio, Strauss uses the romantic indecision of the widowed Countess—who is pursued by both a composer and a poet—as the opportunity for a sophisticated, breezy examination of aesthetics. The Countess wonders which is more important to musical drama: the music or the written word? The opera’s supporting characters, including the actress Clairon, the stage director La Roche, and the Countess’s love-struck brother, amplify and explore this central artistic question.

The New York Times, reviewing the current revival, said Fleming “sang splendidly… [her] voice was plush and alluring; her phrasing noble…the performance over all, sensitively conducted by Andrew Davis and featuring a winning cast, made an excellent case for this Strauss curiosity.” The Associated Press added “[Fleming’s] performance has a grace and charisma that are quite winning…bringing to life the poignant dilemma of a woman who must choose between two suitors and in doing so pronounce a verdict on their art.”

John Cox’s production, which updates the setting to the twentieth century, was created for the opera’s 1998 Met premiere. The staging features sets by Mauro Pagano, interior décor and costume design by Robert Perdziola, and lighting design by Duane Schuler.

Joyce DiDonato, star of the Met’s hit new production of Le Comte Ory, also seen on Great Performances at the Met this summer, is the host for Capriccio. Gary Halvorson directs the transmission and Jay David Saks is music producer.

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

For the Met, 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.

Great Performances at the Met is a presentation of THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers.

Dessay’s acclaimed portrayal was first seen on the Met stage in the 2007 premiere of Mary Zimmerman’s production, which was the Met’s opening night gala of that season. For this broadcast, she stars opposite the remarkable young tenor Joseph Calleja as Edgardo. They are joined by Ludovic Tézier as Enrico and Kwangchul Youn as Raimondo. Patrick Summers, the Music Director of Houston Grand Opera, conducts.

Dessay’s 2007 Met role debut, simulcast live on video screens in Times Square and Lincoln Center Plaza, earned the soprano excellent reviews that praised her dramatic commitment as well as her vocal performance in the demanding role. Now viewers nationally will be able to see the performance that the Associated Press called “a lesson in the art of a superb singing actress.” Dessay’s recent Great Performances at the Met appearances include Amina in La Sonnambula and Marie in La Fille du Régiment.

“Joseph Calleja was sensationally ardent as Lucia’s lover, Edgardo” (The New York Times), the sixth role in his growing Met repertory. His performances in the house have included the title character in Bartlett Sher’s new production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann (a Great Performances at the Met broadcast) and the lead tenor roles in this season’s revivals of Rigoletto and La Bohème.

French baritone Ludovic Tézier sings Enrico, the villainous brother who forces Lucia into an arranged marriage for his own gain. Korean bass Kwangchul Youn is the chaplain Raimondo. Maestro Summers, who led the Iphigénie en Tauride broadcast in May, has conducted a varied repertory at the Met that includes recent revivals of Madama Butterfly, Salome, I Puritani, and Rodelinda.

Renée Fleming, who stars in the Great Performances at the Met telecast of Capriccio on August 14, is the host for Lucia di Lammermoor. Barbara Willis Sweete directs the broadcast and Jay David Saks is music producer.

Major funding for Great Performances at the Met: Lucia di Lammermoor was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Great Performances is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, and Joseph A. Wilson. Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is provided by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury home builder®.

For the Met, 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.

Produced by
BERNHARD FLEISCHER

Producer for Gorky Studio
STANISLAV ERSHOV

Producer and Creative Concept
CONSTANTINE ORBELIAN

Written by
KATRINE WOOLSEY AMES

Director of Photography
HENNING BRÜMMER

Camera
TOBIAS ALBRECHT
KONSTANTIN BOCHIN
TILL BRAUNE
CHRISTIAN GÖCKE
JOACHIM HADULLA
DMITRY IGOSHIN
PIOTR MIKOV

Dolly Operator
OLEG TROFIMOV

Dolly Assistant
ILJA PETUHOV

Crane Operator
IGOR MANOHIN

Crane Assistant
KONSTANTIN BISTROV

Steadycam Operator
VALERY PETROV

Assistant Steadycam
DMITRY AHMEDGALIEV

Focus Puller
RAFKAT GABITOV

Assistant to the Video Director
TILO KRAUSE

Vision Mixer
ANTJE LÜDTKE-SCHÖNMANN

Technical Supervisor Video
CHRISTIAN VORKÖTTER

HD Facilities Manager
TATIANA NIKOLAENKO

HD Truck Administrator
MARINA PETROVA

Chief Technician
ANDREY SERGEEV

Assistant Technician
SVIATOSLAV OLENIN

Video Technicians
ILJA HMELEV
VIACHESLAV LEONOV
IVAN NIKONOV
IGOR PETROV
MIHAIL TUFANOV

Video Engineer
PAVEL FILLIPOV

Microports
RAINER SCHWARTE

Sound Assistants
CAROLINE SIEGERS
VLADIMIR SCHUSTER

Audio Technicians
VLADIMIR BEGUNKOV
EGOR IVANOV

Audio Engineer
PAVEL BELETNIKOV

Recording Engineer & Sound Mix
PETER HECKER

Recording Producer
AREND PROHMANN

Unit Coordinator
LEONID PASHKOVSKY

Administrator
KONSTANTIN SMIRNOV

2nd Unit Director of Photography
GÜNTER EURINGER

Camera Assistants
SERGEI GAVRILUK
ALEXEY HOLOPOV
DMITRY PASHENKO
MIHAIL VISHNIAKOV

Dolly Operators
DANIIL MAZURKEVICH
ARTUR NESTEROV

Coordinators
TATIANA ISHINA
ALEKSANDR NAMOCHILIN

Chief Gaffer
DMITRY SOKOLOV

Gaffers
DENIS AMOSENKO
VLADIMIR AMOSENKO
SERGEY BALUEV
DMITRY FOMICHEV
ANDREI IZOTIKOV
JAROSLAV JAKOVLEV
VLADIMIR LIPANOV
IVAN SHILOV
NIKOLAI VASSILIEV

Chief Rigger
GUERA MAKOVSKY

Costume Assistants
OLESIA AKSUTICHEVA
JANA HANIKOVA

Continuity
MYRIAM HOYER

Make-Up
NANCY McNAMARA
ELENA KOZLOVA

Assistant to Ms. Fleming
ALEXANDRA DAY

Ms. Fleming’s wardrobe by
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

Ms. Fleming’s jewelry by
ANN ZIFF for Tamsen Z

Still Photographer
VLADIMIR SEMENIKHIN

Olga Kern appears by courtesy of
HARMONIA MUNDI

Production Assistance
NIKA BELYACHENKOVA

Executives in charge of production
RAUF ATAMALIBEKOV
VICTOR GELMAN

Production Manager
KATHARINA BRUNER

Editor
ROBERT HENTSCHEL

Colourist
MIGUEL A. LOPEZ

Post Production Supervisor
JOCHEN HERMANN

Special thanks to
LUDMILA KUDRAYVTSEVA
NATALIAY PAKHOMOVA
NINA BEZHANOVA, PETERHOF
NATALIA KATONOVA, THE STATE HERMITAGE ORCHESTRA
THE DIRECTORATE OF THE YUSUPOV PALACE
THE DIRECTORATE OF THE HERMITAGE THEATRE

FOR GREAT PERFORMANCES

Producer
JOHN WALKER

Associate Producer
BILL KABEL

Editor
MICHIEL PILGRAM

Post Production Audio
ED CAMPBELL

Graphic Design
B.T. WHITEHILL

Great Performances Theme Music by
JOHN WILLIAMS

Series Producer
BILL O’DONNELL

Executive Producer
DAVID HORN

A Gorky Studio Production for Bernhard Fleischer Moving Images / Moscow Chamber Orchestra Inc. in association with THIRTEEN for WNET.org

© 2009 Moscow Chamber Orchestra Inc. All rights reserved

Viewers are treated to exclusive access to the Hermitage, Catherine the Great’s theater at the Winter Palace, the spectacular golden fountains and Golden Ballroom of the lavish Peterhof Palace, and the White Column Ball Room of the splendid Yusupov Palace. Orbelian and the State Hermitage Orchestra accompany Fleming and Hvorostovky in stirring performances of selections from Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” and “Il Trovatore,” as well as Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” “Queen of Spades” and “The Oprichnik,” with additional selections by Rachmaninov and Medtner accompanied by pianists Olga Kern (Fleming) and Ivari Ilja (Hvorostovsky). Between performances, viewers accompany the two acclaimed singers for romantic boat trips through St. Petersburg’s extensive canal system, revealing the city’s many scenic wonders.

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Great Performances is a production of THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG – one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. Recorded in high definition television and directed by Brian Large, the film—a thrilling blend of history, art and music—was conceived and produced by American conductor Constantine Orbelian, founder of the “Palaces of St. Petersburg” festival, and the only American in history to become Music Director of a Russian orchestra.

Viewers are treated to exclusive access to the Hermitage, Catherine the Great’s theater at the Winter Palace, the spectacular golden fountains and Golden Ballroom of the lavish Peterhof Palace, and the White Column Ball Room of the splendid Yusupov Palace. Orbelian and the State Hermitage Orchestra accompany Fleming and Hvorostovky in stirring performances of selections from Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” and “Il Trovatore,” as well as Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” “Queen of Spades” and “The Oprichnik,” with additional selections by Rachmaninov and Medtner accompanied by pianists Olga Kern (Fleming) and Ivari Ilja (Hvorostovsky). Between performances, viewers accompany the two acclaimed singers for romantic boat trips through St. Petersburg’s extensive canal system, revealing the city’s many scenic wonders.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers, and PBS. Major support for the telecast is also provided by The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund. For Great Performances, John Walker is producer and Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.

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Directed by Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman and conducted by Riccardo Frizza, the production showcases Fleming’s vocal prowess in what The New York Times describes as a “tour de force” role for the soprano who can “combine alluring long-spun lyrical singing with dazzling, sometimes demonic, coloratura flight.” Fleming leads a cast of multiple tenors including Lawrence Brownlee as Rinaldo, a knight of the Crusade who falls into the clutches of Armida; Barry Banks and Kobie van Rensburg as Carlo and Ubaldo, two knights who attempt to rescue Rinaldo; and John Osborn as their commander Goffredo.

Armida is based on 16th-century Italian poet Torquato Tasso’s epic Gerusalemme Liberata (“Jerusalem Delivered”), a tale of the scorned seductress that has inspired more than 100 operas and ballets, including Handel’s Rinaldo and Haydn’s Armida. Rossini’s opera is particularly noted for its six tenor roles, which were shared by four singers for the opera’s 1817 premiere at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. (In this presentation, five tenors will sing these roles.) Armida garnered popular attention when Maria Callas sang the title role in Florence in 1952.

Great Performances at the Met: Armida is directed for television by Gary Halvorson and hosted by Deborah Voigt. Jay David Saks is the audio producer. Sets and costumes are by Richard Hudson, and the lighting is by Brian MacDevitt. Graciela Daniele is the choreographer and Daniel Pelzig is the associate choreographer. Great Performances at the Met: Armida is the tenth and final production airing during the 2009-2010 season of Great Performances at the Met. The performance is sung in Italian with English surtitles.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers and PBS. Major support for the production was provided by the Sybil B. Harrington Endowment Fund. Corporate support for Great Performances at The Met is provided by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury home-builder®.

For the Met, 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.