General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine jointly announced plans for the new season today, which will include six new productions, 18 revivals, the final performances of Otto Schenk's production of Wagner's Ring cycle, conducted by Levine, and two gala celebrations—featuring many of the world's greatest singers, directors, designers, and conductors.
Opening Night on Monday, September 22, will be a gala performance starring Renée Fleming in three of her most acclaimed roles (Violetta in La Traviata, the title role in Massenet's Manon, and the Countess in Capriccio). A gala on Sunday, March 15, will celebrate the company's 125th anniversary, as well as legendary tenor Plácido Domingo's 40th anniversary with the Met. In a pre-season event on Thursday, September 18, Levine will conduct a free performance of the Verdi Requiem to mark the anniversary of the death of Luciano Pavarotti.
The first new production of the season will be the Met premiere of John Adams's contemporary masterpiece Doctor Atomic—the first time a work by Adams has been performed at the Met—in a new production by Penny Woolcock. Other new production highlights include the Met debut of celebrated theater director Robert Lepage with his reconceived production of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust and the return of director Mary Zimmerman with a new production of Bellini's La Sonnambula. These three productions were among those added to the 2008-09 schedule by Gelb. (Gelb's first complete season will be in 2009-10.)
Gelb also announced the expansion of The Met: Live in HD, the company's highly successful series of live opera transmissions into movie theaters around the world. The series will span the entire season, beginning in October, 2008, and will include ten transmissions, up from eight this season (operas and dates will be announced in the coming months). The company's educational program of transmitting live HD performances free of charge into New York City schools will roll out nationally in 2008-09. The Met will also be broadening its visual arts program and will continue to develop its various other audience development initiatives.
"We're celebrating our 125th anniversary, but we're not resting on our laurels," said Gelb. "We want to ensure that the Met will thrive for another 125 years."
Levine said, "This is such a thrilling time at the Met—wonderfully stimulating and artistically challenging, lots of new repertoire and many new productions, as well as such exciting new media initiatives! It's a great surge of energy and imagination."
The first new production of the 2008-09 season, John Adams's Doctor Atomic in a new staging by Penny Woolcock, will feature Gerald Finley in the title role of J. Robert Oppenheimer and conductor Alan Gilbert in his Met debut (October 13). Robert Lepage directs Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, with Marcello Giordani in the title role, Susan Graham, and John Relyea, conducted by James Levine (November 7). Renée Fleming stars in Massenet's Thaïs with Thomas Hampson and Michael Schade in a John Cox production that originated at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Jesús López-Cobos conducts (December 8). Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna star in Puccini's La Rondine, conducted by Marco Armiliato and directed by Nicolas Joël in a production that was originally mounted by the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (December 31). Verdi's Il Trovatore, directed by David McVicar, is a Met co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera, featuring Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Salvatore Licitra, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda (February 16). Mary Zimmerman, who directed Natalie Dessay in this season's new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, returns to the Met to stage Bellini's La Sonnambula, starring Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez, conducted by Evelino Pidò (March 2).
In addition to La Damnation de Faust and the Ring, Levine will conduct the revival of Mark Morris's Orfeo ed Euridice (January 9). The MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall returns for its 19th season, with Levine conducting all three concerts on Sunday, October 5, 2008, Sunday, January 25, 2009, and Thursday, May 21, 2009.
Daniel Barenboim makes his Met debut conducting Wagner's Tristan und Isolde on Friday, November 28, starring Katarina Dalayman, Michelle DeYoung, Peter Seiffert, and René Pape. On Sunday, December 14, Barenboim will perform the first piano recital on the Met stage since Vladimir Horowitz's concerts in the 1980s with an all-Liszt program, including transcriptions from three Verdi operas. Seiji Ozawa returns to the Met for the first time since 1992 to conduct a revival of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades.
The Verdi Requiem features soprano Barbara Frittoli, mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina, tenor Marcello Giordani, and bass James Morris. Three thousand free tickets will be made available to the public; details for ticket distribution will be announced in September. -- www.metoperafamily.org
