Robert Lepage’s production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle with an all-star cast aired on Great Performances at the Met September 11-14, 2012, including the operas Das Rheingold, Die Walkűre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung.

Acclaimed French soprano Natalie Dessay makes her Met role debut as Violetta, the fallen woman who sacrifices her last chance for love, in Verdi’s La Traviata. 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.

Star soprano Anna Netrebko sings her first Met performances of the title role in Manon, Massenet’s opera about a country girl with conflicting desires for love and luxury who is drawn into a life of glamorous — but hollow — Parisian sophistication.

Verdi’s Ernani with Angela Meade, Marcello Giordani, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ferruccio Furlanetto star in Pier Luigi Samaratini’s colorful production, conducted by Marco Armiliato.

The Enchanted Island, a world premiere work that combines Baroque music with a new, English-language libretto featuring characters from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and a starry cast including Danielle de Niese, Joyce DiDonato, David Daniels, Plácido Domingo, and Luca Pisaroni, premiered on Great Performances in May 2012.

Three of the opera world’s leading stars—Jonas Kaufmann, Marina Poplavskaya, and René Pape—sing the principal roles in a new production of Gounod’s Faust, directed by Tony Award winner Des McAnuff in his Met debut.

Renée Fleming reprises one of her most popular interpretations: the title role in Handel’s Rodelinda, under the baton of Baroque specialist Harry Bicket in the revival of Stephen Wadsworth’s acclaimed production. Rodelinda also stars Andreas Scholl as the exiled king Bertarido and Stephanie Blythe as his sister Eduige.

Philip Glass’s inspirational opera Satyagraha (Sanskrit for “truth force”), in the first revival of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s innovative 2008 production, aired on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances at the Met in March 2012. The opera, which earned exceptional praise in its Met premiere, is based on Mahatma Gandhi’s early life in South Africa, where he developed the revolutionary philosophy of non-violent resistance.

A lavish 25th anniversary mounting of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long-running Broadway and West End extravaganza, starring Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess.

The Metropolitan Opera premiere of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, starring soprano Anna Netrebko in her highly anticipated first North American performances of the tour-de-force title role.