Great Performances at the Met Returns for 20th Season Featuring Lisette Oropesa, Nadine Sierra, Piotr Beczała, Sonya Yoncheva, Lise Davidsen and more on PBS
Great Performances at the Met raises the curtain on its 20th season with productions both returning and new. The season features company members in various roles, including a new production of La Sonnambula directed by tenor Rolando Villazón who uses the opera’s original setting in the Swiss Alps to explore the emotional and psychological valleys of the mind; as well as I Puritani, featuring staging by Charles Edwards who makes his directorial debut after success as a set designer. Met Opera debuts include composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s production of El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, which offers a magical-realist portrait of painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera featuring a libretto by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Nilo Cruz.
Primetime productions include Puccini’s classic La Bohème premiering Friday, March 20 on PBS, and Tchaikovsky’s adaptation of Pushkin’s novel, Eugene Onegin, premiering Friday, August 21 on PBS. Following each broadcast, the operas will be available to stream at pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app.
Great Performances at the Met Season 20 Operas:
La Bohème
Premieres Friday, March 20 at 9/8c on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Franco Zeffirelli’s production brings 19th-century Paris to the Met stage as Puccini’s young friends and lovers navigate the joy and struggle of bohemian life. Soprano Juliana Grigoryan stars as the seamstress Mimì opposite tenor Freddie De Tommaso as the ardent poet Rodolfo. Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Available beginning Wednesday, April 1 on pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
In this new adaptation of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel set shortly before the outbreak of World War II, two Jewish cousins invent an anti-fascist superhero and launch their own comic-book series, hoping to recruit America into the fight against Nazism. Incorporating electronic design elements and a variety of musical styles, composer Mason Bates’ score moves among the three worlds of Gene Scheer’s libretto: Nazi-occupied Prague, the bustling streets of New York City, and the realm of comic-book fantasy. Bartlett Sher’s production features towering sets and proscenium-filling projections designed by Jenny Melville and Mark Grimmer of 59 Studio. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts, and baritone Andrzej Filończyk makes his Met debut as the artist Joe Kavalier, who flees Czechoslovakia and arrives at the Brooklyn doorstep of writer Sam Clay, sung by tenor Miles Mykkanen.
La Sonnambula
Premieres beginning Sunday, April 12 (check local listings) on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Nadine Sierra stars as Amina in Bellini’s tale of love lost and found. This new production by Rolando Villazón—the tenor who has embarked on a second career as a director—retains the opera’s original setting in the Swiss Alps but uses its plot to explore the emotional and psychological valleys of the mind. Tenor Xabier Anduaga co-stars as Amina’s fiancé Elvino, alongside soprano Sydney Mancasola as her rival, Lisa, and bass Alexander Vinogradov as Count Rodolfo. Riccardo Frizza conducts.
Arabella
Premieres beginning Sunday, May 17 (check local listings) on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Strauss’ romance brings the glamour of 19th-century Vienna to the Met stage in a production by legendary Otto Schenk. Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen makes her role debut as Arabella, a young noblewoman in search of love on her own terms. Soprano Louise Alder makes her Met debut as her sister, Zdenka, and bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny is the count who sweeps Arabella off her feet.
Andrea Chénier
Premieres Sunday, June 14 at 9/8c on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Giordano’s tragedy stars tenor Piotr Beczała as the virtuous poet who falls victim to the intrigue and violence of the French Revolution. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva stars as Chénier’s aristocratic lover, Maddalena di Coigny, with baritone Igor Golovatenko as Carlo Gérard. Daniele Rustioni takes the podium to lead Nicolas Joël’s staging.
I Puritani
Premieres beginning Sunday, July 12 (check local listings) on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Charles Edwards makes his company directorial debut after many successes as a set designer, while soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Lawrence Brownlee star as Elvira and Arturo, brought together by love and torn apart by the political rifts of the English Civil War. Marco Armiliato conducts with baritone Artur Ruciński as Riccardo and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn portraying Elvira’s sympathetic uncle, Giorgio.
Eugene Onegin
Premieres Friday, August 21 at 9/8c on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Soprano Asmik Grigorian returns to the Met as Tatiana, the lovestruck young heroine in Tchaikovsky’s opera adaptation of Pushkin’s novel. Baritone Igor Golovatenko reprises his portrayal of Onegin, who realizes his affection for her all too late. Tony Award winner Deborah Warner directs.
Tristan Und Isolde
Premieres beginning Sunday, September 13 (check local listings) on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Soprano Lise Davidsen stars as the Irish princess Isolde in Wagner’s meditation on love and death with tenor Michael Spyres as the love-drunk Tristan. The production features new staging by director Yuval Sharon and is Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s first time leading this opera at the Met. Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova reprises her signature portrayal of Brangäne, alongside bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny who sings Kurwenal and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as King Marke.
El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego
Premieres beginning Sunday, October 18 (check local listings) on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
American composer Gabriela Lena Frank makes her Met debut with her first opera, a magical-realist portrait of painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. With a libretto by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Nilo Cruz, the opera is fashioned as a reversal of the Orpheus and Euridice myth. The story depicts Frida, sung by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, leaving the underworld on the Day of the Dead and reuniting with Diego, portrayed by baritone Carlos Álvarez. The famously feuding pair briefly relive their tumultuous love before bidding the land of the living a final farewell. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the new production inspired by Frida and Diego’s paintings, directed and choreographed by Deborah Colker.