Metropolitan Opera 2012-13 Season

Airs Saturday, April 6 at 12 noon. The 2012-13 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold, led by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi. Luisi will lead three complete cycles of Wagner’s epic Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Met this season in honor of the composer’s bicentennial, with each of the four operas receiving a worldwide radio broadcast. Das Rheingold, the first opera in the cycle, will feature company role debuts by Mark Delavan as Wotan and Meredith Arwady as Erda. Eric Owens (Alberich), Stephanie Blythe (Fricka), Stefan Margita (Loge), Hans-Peter König (Fafner), Franz-Josef Selig (Fasolt), Gerhard Siegel (Mime), and Wendy Bryn Harmer (Freia) reprise their acclaimed portrayals from previous Ring cycles at the Met.

Airs Saturday, March 30 at 12 noon.  The 2012-13 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Verdi’s La Traviata, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin in his first Met performances of the Verdi tragedy. This run of performances marks Diana Damrau’s first time ever singing the role of the courtesan Violetta. Saimir Pirgu is Violetta’s lover Alfredo. And Plácido Domingo adds the baritone role of Alfredo’s father, Giorgio Germont, to his vast repertoire. La Traviata will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12:00 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 30. 

Airs Saturday, March 23 at 12 noon.  The 2012-13 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with an archival broadcast of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino from March 12, 1977. Met Music Director James Levine conducts an all-star cast led by soprano Leontyne Price as Leonora, tenor Plácido Domingo as Don Alvaro, baritone Cornell MacNeil as Don Carlo, mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias as Preziosilla, baritone Renato Capecchi as Melitone, and bass Martti Talvela as the Padre Guardiano. La Forza del Destino will be heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 23.

Airs Saturday, March 16 at 12 noon.  The 2012-13 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini. Riccardo Zandonai’s opera, based on an episode from Dante’s Inferno, has its first company performances since 1986 this season. Soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek stars as the beautiful noblewoman Francesca; tenor Marcello Giordani is Paolo, the man she loves at first sight; baritone Mark Delavan is Paolo’s brother Gianciotto, to whom Francesca is unhappily married; tenor Robert Brubaker is the jealous Malatestino; and Marco Armiliato conducts his first Met performances of the opera, which is presented in Piero Faggioni’s grand 1984 production. Francesca da Rimini will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 16. 

Airs Saturday, March 9 at 12 noon. The 2012-13 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Verdi’s Don Carlo, led by renowned conductor Lorin Maazel in his first Verdi performance with the company. Tenor Ramón Vargas sings his first Met performances of the title role, opposite soprano Barbara Frittoli, also in her house role debut, as Elisabeth de Valois. Reprising their roles from previous Met seasons are mezzo-soprano Anna Smirnova as the jealous Princess Eboli; baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky as the revolutionary Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa; bass Ferruccio Furlanetto as the tormented King Philip II; and bass Eric Halfvarson as the Grand Inquisitor. Don Carlo will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 9.