Metropolitan Opera 2012-13 Season

Airs Saturday, December 22 at 12:00 noon.  The 2012-13 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, a new holiday presentation designed to appeal to audiences of all ages. Bartlett Sher’s adaptation of his popular 2006 production will have a running time of approximately two hours and feature an English-language libretto by J. D. McClatchy, the American poet who also provided the translation for the Met’s holiday production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard stars as the feisty heroine Rosina, opposite tenor Alek Shrader as the lovestruck Count Almaviva, and baritone Rodion Pogossov as Figaro, the titular man-about-town. Yves Abel conducts, and the cast also includes bass-baritone John Del Carlo and bass Jordan Bisch. The Barber of Seville will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12:00 Noon CT on Saturday, December 22.

Airs Saturday, December 15 at 12:00 noon. The 2012-13 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Verdi’s Aida, led by Met principal conductor Fabio Luisi and starring Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska makes her broadcast debut in the title role of Aida, Opposite Roberto Alagna as the hero Radamès. Olga Borodina returns to the role of Amneris, Aida’s rival, and George Gagnidze makes his Met role debut as Aida’s father Amonasro. Štefan Kocán sings the priest Ramfis, and Hungarian bass Miklós Sebestyén makes his broadcast debut as the King of Egypt. Aida will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12 noon on Saturday, December 15. The performance will also be transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 1,900 movie theaters in 64 countries.

Airs Saturday, December 8 at 12:00 noon The new season from the Met begins with a live broadcast of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera. The cast is led by three of the Met’s leading Verdi stars: Marcelo Álvarez as King Gustavo; Sondra Radvanovsky as Amelia, the object of his secret passion; and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as his best friend, Amelia’s husband, Count Anckarström. Kathleen Kim sings the coloratura role of Oscar, Gustavo’s page, and Stephanie Blythe is the fortuneteller Madame Ulrica Arvidsson. The new production is conducted by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi and staged by acclaimed opera director David Alden. Un Ballo in Maschera will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12 p.m. CT on Saturday, December 8. The performance will also be transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 1,900 movie theaters in 64 countries.

Airs, Saturday, July 7 at 1:00 p.m.  The Metropolitan Opera presents the winners of the 2012 National Council Auditions. They are: Janai Brugger, soprano from Darien, IL; Anthony Clark Evans, baritone from Owensboro, KY; Matthew Grills, tenor from Newtown, CT; Margaret Mezzacappa, mezzo-soprano from Euclid, OH; and Andrey Nemzer, countertenor from Moscow, Russia. The winners were selected from nine finalists who performed arias with the MET Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Davis. Each winner receives a cash prize of $15,000, as well as invaluable career exposure: the audience for the auditions includes influential opera executives, artist managers, and music critics, and some of the biggest stars in opera received their first major recognition as National Council Winners.

The Grand Finals Concert is hosted by renowned bass-baritone Eric Owens, a 1996 National Council Auditions winner. During the judges’ deliberations, he gave a special performance of “Ella giammai m’amò,” King Philip’s aria from Verdi’s Don Carlo. The Grand Finals Concert was recorded for broadcast at a later date on public radio stations across the United States.

Airs Saturday, May 5 at 12:00 noon. The 2011-12 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season comes to a close with a live broadcast of Janáček’s The Makropulos Case, starring Karita Mattila as the enigmatic diva Emilia Marty. This season’s performances—the first at the Met in more than a decade—are conducted by Czech specialist Jiří Bělohlávek and feature Richard Leech as Emilia’s admirer Albert Gregor, Danish baritone Johan Reuter in his Met debut as Gregor’s aristocratic rival, Jaroslav Prus; and Tom Fox as the lawyer Kolenaty.