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New Productions of Aida, Die Zauberflöte, and Don Giovanni

and Met Premieres of The Fiery Angel and Dead Man Walking

Headline the Metropolitan Opera’s 2020–21 Season

Opening Night features a new Aida, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and starring

Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili, and Piotr Beczała, in a new staging by Michael

Mayer.

Maestro Nézet-Séguin, in his third season as Music Director, will conduct six operas,

including new stagings of Aida, Don Giovanni, and Dead Man Walking, as well as

three classic revivals and two Met Orchestra concerts at Carnegie Hall.

The six operas conducted by Maestro Nézet-Séguin will all be featured in The Met:

Live in HD series—the most transmissions ever led by a single conductor in an HD

season.

Renowned directors Barrie Kosky (The Fiery Angel), Ivo van Hove (Don Giovanni

and Dead Man Walking), and Simon McBurney (Die Zauberflöte) make notable Met

debuts with new productions.

For the first time in recent decades, the Met season will extend into June and will

include no performances in February.

There will be more weekend opera than ever before, with 22 Sunday matinee

performances, plus onstage post-performance discussions with the stars of each

Sunday matinee.

Notable debuts include conductors Hartmut Haenchen, Jakub Hrůša, Giacomo

Sagripanti, Speranza Scappucci, and Lorenzo Viotti and singers Varduhi

Abrahamyan, Benjamin Bernheim, Amartuvshin Enkhbat, Lucia Lucas, Thomas

Oliemans, Svetlana Sozdateleva, and Okka von der Damerau.

Other notable conducting engagements include Harry Bicket (Giulio Cesare),

Gustavo Dudamel (Die Zauberflöte), and Simone Young (Billy Budd), among others.

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New York, NY (February 13, 2020)—Today, the Metropolitan Opera announced its 2020–21

season, the first in which Yannick Nézet-Séguin assumes his full breadth of musical

duties as the company’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, conducting six

productions. His schedule includes the Met premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man

Walking, the first contemporary opera conducted by the maestro on the Met stage, as part

of his ongoing commitment to opera of our time at the Met, which will expand in the

seasons to come.

The season—which includes five new productions and 18 revivals—kicks off on

September 21 with the first new staging of Verdi’s Aida in more than 30 years, directed by

Michael Mayer, conducted by Nézet-Séguin, and starring Anna Netrebko, Anita

Rachvelishvili, and Piotr Beczała. Australian director Barrie Kosky makes his company

debut with the Met-premiere production of Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel, with Michail

Jurowski leading an extraordinary cast in his Met debut. Two Mozart operas will also be

seen in new stagings: an acclaimed production of Die Zauberflöte directed by Simon

McBurney and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and a sophisticated new take on Don

Giovanni, Ivo van Hove’s highly anticipated Met-debut production, conducted by Nézet-

Séguin and starring Peter Mattei, Gerald Finley, Ailyn Pérez, and Isabel Leonard in the

leading roles. And in April, Nézet-Séguin conducts the Met premiere of Jake Heggie’s

21st-century masterpiece Dead Man Walking, with a new staging by van Hove featuring

Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham, Latonia Moore, and Etienne Dupuis.

Following the successful addition of 16 new Sunday matinee performances last

season, the Met will offer even more weekend options in 2020–21, with 22 Sunday

matinee performances. Each Sunday matinee will be followed by an onstage post-

performance discussion with the stars.

For the first time, the Met season will include no performances in February, with

the company instead extending its performance calendar into the month of June.

In his third season as Music Director, in addition to the three new stagings, Nézet-

Séguin conducts revivals of Fidelio, Roméo et Juliette, and Die Frau ohne Schatten, as

well as two of three Met Orchestra concerts at Carnegie Hall in June. (Semyon Bychkov

will conduct the first concert in the Carnegie Hall series, on June 10.)

“This is the season in which the Yannick era hits its stride,” said General Manager

Peter Gelb. “In conducting six operas, he will be present throughout the entire season,

raising the artistic bar for the orchestra, the chorus, and the entire company.”

“The artistic excellence we achieve each season is due to the invaluable

contributions in the pit and on stage by the great Met Orchestra and Chorus,” Music

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Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin said. “This is an exciting time for opera, and I’m thrilled to

be sharing my passion for it with the Met’s discerning and loyal audience, while deepening

my relationship with this great institution. As we look forward to future seasons, we will

not only continue to expand our repertoire with new commissions by living composers but

will also be adding to our artistic ranks with more women on the podium and a greater

emphasis on artistic diversity.”

Dozens of the world’s leading opera stars bring their artistry to 18 repertory

revivals throughout the season, including Marcelo Álvarez, Jamie Barton, Piotr

Beczała, Angel Blue, Stephanie Blythe, J’Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, Javier

Camarena, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Stephen Costello, Diana Damrau, Joyce

DiDonato, Gerald Finley, Angela Gheorghiu, Christine Goerke, Susan Graham,

Greer Grimsley, Günther Groissböck, Ekaterina Gubanova, Anita Hartig, Evelyn

Herlitzius, Quinn Kelsey, Tomasz Konieczny, Isabel Leonard, Peter Mattei, Angela

Meade, Latonia Moore, Erin Morley, Anna Netrebko, Lisette Oropesa, Eric Owens,

Ailyn Pérez, Susanna Phillips, Matthew Polenzani, Anita Rachvelishvili, Brenda Rae,

Golda Schultz, Nadine Sierra, Stuart Skelton, Nina Stemme, Krassimira Stoyanova,

Elza van den Heever, Christian Van Horn, Klaus Florian Vogt, Michael Volle, Pretty

Yende, and Sonya Yoncheva. They perform alongside a number of significant newcomers

to the Met stage, including Benjamin Bernheim, Okka von der Damerau, and Varduhi

Abrahamyan. This is also a remarkable season for new conductors, with Hartmut

Haenchen, Jakub Hrůša, Michail Jurowski, Nimrod David Pfeffer, Giacomo

Sagripanti, Speranza Scappucci, Lorenzo Viotti, and Kensho Watanabe all appearing

for the first time on the podium.

The 2020–21 season will be Peter Gelb’s 15th as the Met’s General Manager.

Click here and enter the password metphotos for promotional photos of the 2020–21 season.

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New Productions

Aida — Giuseppe Verdi ______ OPENING NIGHT

Opening: September 21, 2020

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Production: Michael Mayer

Set Designer: Christine Jones

Costume Designer: Susan Hilferty

Lighting Designer: Kevin Adams

Projection Designer: 59 Productions

Choreographer: Oleg Glushkov

Live in HD: October 10, 2020

Verdi’s opera receives its first new staging at the Met in more than three decades,

with a season-opening premiere production directed by Michael Mayer, whose dazzling

vision of ancient Egypt comes alive with intricate projections and eye-catching animations.

Anna Netrebko and Anita Rachvelishvili portray archrivals Aida and Amneris on

Opening Night—reprising their acclaimed partnership in the same roles from the 2018–19

season—and Piotr Beczała completes the triumvirate as Radamès. Yannick Nézet-Séguin

leads a benchmark cast that also includes Ludovic Tézier as Aida’s father, Amonasro, and

Krzysztof Bączyk in his Met debut as the King of Egypt. A co-production with the

Bolshoi Theatre, this Aida also features Latonia Moore and Hibla Gerzmava in later

performances of the title role, as well as Ekaterina Semenchuk and Marcelo Álvarez as

Amneris and Radamès.

The Fiery Angel — Sergei Prokofiev_________________ __ MET PREMIERE

Opening: November 12, 2020

Conductor: Michail Jurowski

Production: Barrie Kosky

Set Designer: Rebecca Ringst

Costume Designer: Klaus Bruns

Lighting Designer: Joachim Klein

Choreographer: Otto Pichler

Australian director Barrie Kosky, a bright and bold force in the opera world,

makes his long-awaited company debut with the Met premiere production of Prokofiev’s

devilish masterwork, conducted by Michail Jurowski, also in his Met debut. Portraying

the vagabond knight Ruprecht, Evgeny Nikitin stars opposite Svetlana Sozdateleva, who

makes her Met debut in the role of Renata, the pious young woman obsessed with a

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mysterious angelic lover. Kosky’s visually stunning production was hailed by the

Financial Times as “a gripping evening” when it premiered in Munich in 2015.

Die Zauberflöte — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart_______

Opening: December 31, 2020

Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel

Production: Simon McBurney

Set Designer: Michael Levine

Costume Designer: Nicky Gillibrand

Lighting Designer: Jean Kalman

Projection Designer: Finn Ross

Sound Designer: Gareth Fry

Dramaturgs: Simon McBurney and Klaus Bertisch

Live in HD: January 16, 2021

Making a rare appearance on the Met podium, renowned maestro Gustavo

Dudamel conducts English director Simon McBurney’s insightful new staging, declared

“the best production I’ve ever witnessed of Mozart’s opera” by The Wall Street Journal.

Key to McBurney’s interpretation is a torrent of rich theatrical flourishes—a raised pit

rendering the Met Orchestra visible to the audience, ghostly projections, acrobatics—as

well as a brilliant cast of leading Mozarteans. Stanislas de Barbeyrac portrays the intrepid

prince Tamino, opposite soprano Christiane Karg as Pamina, the daughter of the vengeful

Queen of the Night, sung by Kathryn Lewek. Rounding out the cast is Thomas Oliemans

in his Met debut as the bird catcher Papageno and Stephen Milling as the high priest

Sarastro. McBurney, who marks his own Met debut with the production, premiered the

production in Amsterdam. Die Zauberflöte is a co-production of Dutch National Opera,

English National Opera, and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

Don Giovanni — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ___________________

Opening: March 1, 2021

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Production: Ivo van Hove

Set and Lighting Designer: Jan Versweyveld

Costume Designer: An D’Huys

Projection Designer: Christopher Ash

Dramaturg: Jan Vandenhouwe

Live in HD: March 27, 2021

Tony Award-winning director Ivo van Hove, whose Broadway creations have

included A View from the Bridge and the new West Side Story, makes his Met debut with a

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stirring new take on Mozart’s dark comedy. The staging, a co-production with Opéra

National de Paris, sets the tale of deceit and damnation in a timeless architectural setting,

with Yannick Nézet-Séguin bringing Mozart’s score to life from the podium. Leading the

cast, Peter Mattei—an acclaimed interpreter of the title role—headlines as Don Giovanni

alongside the Leporello of Gerald Finley (who takes over the title role later in the season);

Ailyn Pérez as Donna Anna; Isabel Leonard as Donna Elvira; and Hera Hyesang Park

as Zerlina. Tenor Ben Bliss completes the principal cast as Don Ottavio.

Dead Man Walking — Jake Heggie MET PREMIERE

Opening: April 8, 2021

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Production: Ivo van Hove

Set and Lighting Designer: Jan Versweyveld

Costume Designer: An D’Huys

Projection Designer: Christopher Ash

Live in HD: April 17, 2021

Based on Sister Helen Prejean’s bestselling memoir exploring the morality and

personal impact of the death penalty, American composer Jake Heggie and librettist

Terrence McNally’s modern masterpiece was hailed at its San Francisco premiere as “the

most compelling new American opera in decades” by The Wall Street Journal. This

season, director Ivo van Hove gives Heggie’s masterpiece its Met premiere, conducted by

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and starring Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen. The cast also

features Etienne Dupuis as the condemned inmate Joseph De Rocher, Latonia Moore as

Sister Rose, and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, who sang Prejean at the 2000 world

premiere, as De Rocher’s mother.

Repertory Highlights

Matthew Polenzani stars in Bartlett Sher’s carnivalesque staging of Offenbach’s

comic masterpiece Les Contes d’Hoffmann, which opens September 22, 2020, alongside

Erin Morley as the beguiling living doll Olympia, Olga Kulchynska as the diva

Antonia/Stella, Veronica Simeoni as the hedonistic Giulietta, and Luca Pisaroni as the

four villains, with Daniele Rustioni on the podium.

Reprising their celebrated collaboration from the Met’s 2017 production of Norma,

Angela Meade and Jamie Barton join forces in Roberto Devereux, the final installment

of Donizetti’s Tudor Trilogy, starting September 23, 2020. Maurizio Benini conducts Sir

David McVicar’s rich production, which also features Stephen Costello in the title role of

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a 17th-century earl caught between duty to Queen Elizabeth I (Meade) and his illicit love

for Sara, the duchess of Nottingham (Barton), and Davide Luciano as the Duke of

Nottingham.

J’Nai Bridges, who made her striking Met debut as Nefertiti in Philip Glass’s

Akhnaten last season, returns to portray the Gypsy temptress at the center of Bizet’s

Carmen, in Sir Richard Eyre’s production, which opens October 2, 2020. Making his

Met debut on the podium, Lorenzo Viotti leads a top-shelf rotating cast that later includes

Ramona Zaharia, Clémentine Margaine, and the Met debut of Varduhi Abrahamyan

in the title role; Yonghoon Lee, Marcelo Álvarez, and Russell Thomas as the hot-

blooded soldier Don José; Kyle Ketelsen, Christian Van Horn, and Alexander

Vinogradov as the vain toreador Escamillo; and Nicole Car, Olga Peretyatko, and

Susanna Phillips as the forsaken Micaëla.

On the heels of her acclaimed star turn as Brünnhilde in the Met’s Ring cycle in

2019, Christine Goerke headlines Mariusz Treliński’s compelling production of

Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde opposite Stuart Skelton, starting October 17, 2020.

Hartmut Haenchen makes his Met debut conducting a cast that also includes Günther

Groissböck as King Marke, Ekaterina Gubanova as Isolde’s servant Brangäne, and

Greer Grimsley as Tristan’s loyal henchman Kurwenal.

In a run beginning on October 24, 2020, three sopranos—Ailyn Pérez, Anita

Hartig, and Lisette Oropesa—take on the touchstone role of Violetta Valéry in Michael

Mayer’s staging of Verdi’s La Traviata, with Atalla Ayan and Migran Agadzhanyan

(the latter in his Met debut) trading off as Violetta’s suitor Alfredo, and Christopher

Maltman, Igor Golovatenko, and Met debut artist Amartuvshin Enkhbat portraying his

father, Germont. Carlo Rizzi, Speranza Scappucci (another Met debut), and Daniele

Callegari conduct.

Two casts perform in a revival of Sir David McVicar’s production of Verdi’s Il

Trovatore, conducted by Michele Mariotti and opening on October 30, 2020. Sonya

Yoncheva and Krassimira Stoyanova alternate in the role of the ardent young

noblewoman Leonora, with Roberto Aronica and Russell Thomas portraying the outlaw

Manrico, and Quinn Kelsey and Ludovic Tézier as the menacing Count di Luna.

Performing the vengeful Gypsy Azucena are Ekaterina Semenchuk and Anita

Rachvelishvili, the latter reprising her breakthrough 2018 performance in the role.

Franco Zeffirelli’s definitive staging of Puccini’s La Bohème returns for another

season on November 21, 2020, this time with conductors Domingo Hindoyan, Nimrod

David Pfeffer (in his Met debut), and Marco Armiliato leading three winning casts. Piero

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Pretti, Dmytro Popov, and Matthew Polenzani alternate as the tortured poet Rodolfo,

with Angel Blue (star of last season’s Porgy and Bess), Nicole Car, Angela Gheorghiu,

and Eleonora Buratto starring as the tragic seamstress Mimì.

Soprano Lise Davidsen, who made her acclaimed Met debut last season as Lisa in

The Queen of Spades, returns to sing the Spanish noblewoman Leonore in Beethoven’s

sole opera, Fidelio, which opens November 30, 2020. Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a

starry cast in Jürgen Flimm’s production—returning to the Met in celebration of the 250th

anniversary of the composer’s birth—which includes Brandon Jovanovich as her

incarcerated husband, Florestan, Franz-Josef Selig as the prison warden Rocco, Golda

Schultz as Marzelline, and Alek Shrader as Jaquino. Tomasz Konieczny, last seen as

Alberich in Wagner’s Ring, returns to perform the role of Don Pizarro, governor of the

prison, and Christian Van Horn is Don Fernando.

Bartlett Sher’s production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia comes back to the

Met on December 11, 2020, with Pretty Yende and Lawrence Brownlee heading an

appealing cast as Rosina and Count Almaviva. Andrey Zhilikhovsky and Joshua

Hopkins share the role of Figaro, the self-assured barber of Seville, and Ildar

Abdrazakov and Maurizio Muraro are the scheming Don Basilio and Dr. Bartolo.

Giacomo Sagripanti makes his Met debut conducting.

Ringing in the holiday season, the Met’s English-language staging of

Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel returns to the Met on December 15, 2020, with

conductor Edward Gardner on the podium, Elizabeth DeShong as Hansel, and Hera

Hyesang Park as Gretel. John Daszak appears for the first time as their nemesis, the

wicked witch, for a deliciously entertaining production fit for audiences of all ages. An

open house for families, another holiday tradition, takes place December 19, 2020,

attracting hundreds of young audience members for pre-performance behind-the-scenes

displays and demonstrations.

Starting January 12, 2021, Nézet-Séguin adds another French classic to his Met

repertoire, leading Bartlett Sher’s production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. Nadine

Sierra makes her Met role debut as Juliette, opposite the Roméo of Stephen Costello, who

later cedes the role to Ismael Jordi and Benjamin Bernheim, both making Met debuts,

with Amanda Woodbury stepping into the final performance, as Juliette. Joshua

Hopkins and Elliot Madore share the role of Mercutio, David Portillo portrays Tybalt,

Juliette’s cousin, and Ildar Abdrazkov is Frère Laurent.

Not seen on the Met stage since its premiere in 2013, Sir David McVicar’s

Bollywood-inspired take on Handel’s Giulio Cesare, which transports the tale of Caesar

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and Cleopatra to the age of British imperialism, returns to the Met on March 2, 2021.

Iestyn Davies stars in the title role opposite Kristina Mkhitaryan as his queen, Cleopatra;

Anthony Roth Costanzo—fresh off his performances as Akhnaten last season—is her

Egyptian brother, Ptolemy; Karen Cargill portrays Cornelia, the widow of Pompey; and

Kate Lindsey is Sesto, her stepson. Baroque specialist Harry Bicket conducts.

Following the successful premiere of Wozzeck last season, the Met revisits artist

and director William Kentridge’s 2015 production of Lulu, another Berg masterpiece, on

March 5, 2021. Soprano Brenda Rae—captivating in her Met debut as Poppea in

Agrippina last season—stars as the elusive title character, opposite Matthias Klink as

Alwa, Johan Reuter as Dr. Schön, and Susan Graham reprising her portrayal of the

intrepid Countess Geschwitz. Other Met favorites rounding out the ensemble include

Gerhard Siegel and the legendary James Morris. Sebastian Weigle conducts.

Sonya Yoncheva returns this season to play the luminous water sprite at the center

of Rusalka, Dvořák’s popular take on the Little Mermaid fable, in Mary Zimmerman’s

staging, which opens March 16, 2021. Piotr Beczała is her smitten prince, Okka von der

Damerau makes her Met debut as the sorceress Ježibaba, and Eric Owens returns to

portray her father, the Vodník. Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša appears on the Met podium

for the first time.

Anna Netrebko makes a highly anticipated role debut as Abigaille, the

bloodthirsty Babylonian princess at the center of Verdi’s Nabucco; Oksana Dyka begins

the run as Abigaille, opening March 26, 2021. Elijah Moshinsky’s production, conducted

by Marco Armiliato, also serves as a towering backdrop for the performances of George

Gagnidze as the tyrannical ruler of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar; Varduhi Abrahamyan as

his other daughter, Fenena; Najmiddin Mavlyanov as Ismaele, the king of Jerusalem’s

nephew; and Morris Robinson and Dmitry Belosselskiy as Zaccaria, the stormy high

priest of the Israelites.

Starting April 16, 2021, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Strauss’s otherworldly vision of

selfless love, returns to the Met, with Nézet-Séguin overseeing a cast of remarkable

dramatic voices: Klaus Florian Vogt and Elza van den Heever are the Emperor and

shadowless Empress of the title; Michael Volle and Nina Stemme are the earthbound

Barak and his long-suffering wife; and Evelyn Herlitzius portrays the sinister nurse.

Herbert Wernicke’s production offers visual thrills to support these commanding

performers.

Soprano Diana Damrau stars in a rare revival of John Copley’s production of Il

Pirata, Bellini’s showcase for bel canto fireworks, which opens on May 7, 2021. Maurizio

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Benini conducts this work—last seen at the Met in 2003—about a woman driven mad by

love for an exiled pirate, which also features Javier Camarena in the title role and

Christopher Maltman as the villainous Ernesto who thwarts their affair.

For the final production of the season, opening on May 21, 2021, John Dexter’s

staging of Britten’s Billy Budd returns with an exceptional ensemble cast. Joshua

Hopkins headlines as the innocent title character, wrongly accused of mutiny by the

malevolent master-at-arms Claggart, performed by Matthew Rose, with Matthew

Polenzani starring as Captain Vere, the honest commander forced to decide Billy’s fate.

Conductor Simone Young conducts Britten’s unforgettable adaptation of Melville’s

classic novel.

The Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

The Met Orchestra continues its highly acclaimed annual series at Carnegie Hall,

launched in 1991, with three concerts. On June 10, 2021, Semyon Bychkov conducts a

program that includes Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, featuring Waltraud Meier, plus

Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in C Major.

The program for the June 17, 2021 concert, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin,

includes selections from Berlioz’s Les Troyens, featuring Joyce DiDonato, as well as the

composer’s Symphonie Fantastique.

The final concert of the season, on June 24, 2021, also conducted by Nézet-Séguin,

features the first act of Wagner’s Die Walküre and includes three star singers: Christine

Goerke, Brandon Jovanovich, and Günther Groissböck. Also on the program are Missy

Mazzoli’s Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) and Strauss’s tone poem Don Juan.

Two of the seven pieces—Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 and Mazzoli’s Sinfonia

(for Orbiting Spheres)—are performed by the Met Orchestra for the first time.

For tickets and additional information on the Met Orchestra concerts at Carnegie

Hall, visit carnegiehall.org or call 212.247.7800.

Met Debuts

The many Met debuts this season include Polish bass Krzysztof Bączyk as the

King in Aida (September 21); Swiss conductor Lorenzo Viotti leading Carmen (October

2); German conductor Hartmut Haenchen leading Tristan und Isolde (October 17);

Russian conductor Michail Jurowski leading The Fiery Angel with Russian soprano

Svetlana Sozdateleva as Renata, and Croatian bass Ante Jerkunica as the Inquisitor

(November 12); Ukrainian baritone Iurii Samoilov as Schaunard in La Bohème

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(November 21); Italian conductor Giacomo Sagripanti leading Il Barbiere di Siviglia

(December 11); Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte

(December 31); Italian conductor Speranza Scappucci leading La Traviata (January 13);

Israeli conductor Nimrod David Pfeffer leading La Bohème (January 21); Armenian

mezzo-soprano Varduhi Abrahamyan in the title role of Carmen (March 3); American

tenor Robert Watson as the Painter/African Prince in Lulu (March 5); Czech conductor

Jakub Hrůša leading Rusalka with German mezzo-soprano Okka von der Damerau as

Ježibaba (March 16); French tenor Benjamin Bernheim as Roméo in Roméo et Juliette

(April 10); Belarussian tenor Migran Agadzhanyan as Alfredo Germont, and Mongolian

baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat as Germont in La Traviata (April 23); Armenian tenor

Liparit Avetisyan as Don Ottavio and Italian bass Alex Esposito as Leporello in Don

Giovanni (May 10); and American baritone Lucia Lucas as Bosun in Billy Budd (May 21).

The Met: Live in HD 2020–21

The 2020–21 season of The Met: Live in HD kicks off its 15th consecutive season

on October 10 with Aida and continues with Il Trovatore (November 7), Fidelio

(December 12), Die Zauberflöte (January 16), Roméo et Juliette (January 30), Don

Giovanni (March 27), Dead Man Walking (April 17), Die Frau ohne Schatten (April 24),

Nabucco (May 8), and Il Pirata (May 22).

In addition to the ten live transmissions, the Met will continue to offer a special

holiday-time encore presentation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute (originally transmitted in

2006), on December 5. And for the first time, the company will offer an additional encore,

on February 27, of Lehár’s The Merry Widow (originally transmitted in 2015), which will

also be featured as part of the HD Live in Schools program (see below). Dates of encore

screenings vary from country to country.

A touchstone media program, The Met: Live in HD reaches more than 2,200

theaters in 73 countries. The series has sold more than 28.7 million tickets to date, with

robust attendance in the world’s five largest cinema markets: the United States, Germany,

Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. In North America, weekend box office ratings

also remain strong, often placing Live in HD presentations among the weekend’s top 15

grossing films.

A separate press release about the 2020–21 Live in HD season is also available.

Tickets for the 12 transmissions in the 2020–21 Live in HD season go on sale

Wednesday, July 15, 2020, in the U.S. and Canada, with Met members offered advance

access before tickets are made available to the general public. International ticket sales

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dates and ordering details vary from country to country and will be announced separately

by individual distributors.

The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding

sponsor, the Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital support of The Met: Live in HD is

provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Met: Live in HD series is supported by Rolex.

Transmission of The Met: Live in HD in Canada is made possible thanks to the generosity

of Jacqueline Desmarais, in memory of Paul G. Desmarais Sr. The HD broadcasts are also

supported by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury homebuilder®.

Within months of their initial live transmissions, the Live in HD programs are

shown on PBS in the United States. The PBS series Great Performances at the Met is

produced in association with PBS and WNET, with support from Toll Brothers, America’s

luxury homebuilder®. Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the

Arts.

The Met: HD Live in Schools

The Met’s HD Live in Schools program continues for its 14th season, bringing the

Met’s live HD transmissions to students and teachers in more than 50 school districts

across the country. This season, Aida (October 10), Fidelio (December 12), Roméo et

Juliette (January 30), The Merry Widow (February 27, in an encore screening originally

captured in 2015), and Dead Man Walking (April 17) are included in the program. The

Met’s HD education program includes backstage visits for students, who learn how

costumes and scenery are constructed; Q&As with artists; access to final dress rehearsals;

in-school workshops; and teacher training workshops. Program and curriculum guides are

created for in-school use in conjunction with HD screenings. Program support for HD Live

in Schools is provided through a partnership with the New York City Department of

Education.

Live Simulcasts and Summer Events

In keeping with a tradition begun on Opening Night in 2006, the September 21

season premiere performance of Aida will be transmitted live to numerous large screens in

Times Square. The Times Square relay of the Opening Night performance is presented in

cooperation with the City of New York and Times Square Alliance. Leadership support of

the Opening Night Times Square relay is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Additional funding is provided by the Metropolitan Opera Guild and Opera News. This

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program is also supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of

Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

In Summer 2020, the Met’s two free summer series will return. The Summer

Recital Series will again present Met artists in each of the five boroughs, and the Summer

HD Festival will show operas from the Live in HD series on a large screen at Lincoln

Center Plaza to an audience of approximately 3,000 people per night. Together, the Met’s

summer programs are expected to allow approximately 50,000 New Yorkers to experience

the Met for free.

The Met’s Summer Recital Series is supported, in part, by public funds from the

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and

in collaboration with the Department of Parks and Recreation. Major funding has also been

provided by The Elizabeth B. McGraw Foundation, in honor of Mrs. McGraw.

The Met on the Radio and the Web

The Met’s 90th consecutive Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcast season kicks off on

December 5 with a live broadcast of Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel and continues through

June 5, 2021, with a live performance of Britten’s Billy Budd. The broadcast season will

once again be heard over the Toll Brothers–Metropolitan Opera International Radio

Network. Mary Jo Heath returns for her sixth season as host and Ira Siff returns for his

14th season as commentator for the broadcasts, which feature a range of dynamic

intermission features, live backstage interviews with artists, and the ever-popular Opera

Quiz. The 2020–21 Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcast season will be

sponsored by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury homebuilder®, with generous long-term

support from the Annenberg Foundation and GRoW @ Annenberg, The Neubauer Family

Foundation, and the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media, and through

contributions from listeners worldwide.

Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM Channel 75 will present its 15th season as

the country’s premier subscription radio channel dedicated to opera. Up to three live

performances will be broadcast each week during the season, hosted by Mary Jo Heath

with commentator William Berger, as well as historic broadcasts from the Met’s vast

collection, stretching back to 1931. The channel also features lively interviews and

previews of upcoming Met performances. The live broadcast season begins with the Met’s

Opening Night performance of Aida on September 21. Metropolitan Opera Radio on

SiriusXM is available to subscribers in the United States and Canada.

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The Met will continue to offer a free audio stream of one live performance per

week during the 2020–21 season on its website at metopera.org.

Met Opera on Demand

The Met’s exclusive streaming service now features more than 700 full-length Met

performances, available worldwide on multiple platforms that include computers; Amazon

Fire TV and Tablet; iPad, iPhone and Apple TV; Android; Roku; and Samsung Smart TV.

The Met Opera on Demand library includes more than 130 presentations from the Live in

HD series, as well as hundreds of telecasts and radio broadcasts dating back to 1935.

Met Opera on Demand: Student Access allows university and college libraries to

make this digital resource from the Met accessible to their student populations. Now in its

seventh year, Student Access is currently available at nearly 160 schools around the world.

Media Releases

The Met will continue to release performances from its vast archive of current and

historic performances on CD, DVD, Blu-ray, and digital platforms in the 2020–21 season,

with the trademark artistic and production quality that earned the company three

consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Opera Recording.

There are 130 titles currently available for purchase through the iTunes store at

iTunes.com/metopera, including Live in HD and standard definition video performances,

as well as audio performances, with additional titles added throughout the year. Audio

titles are also available to stream on Apple Music, applemusic.com/metopera.

Ticket Information and Audience Development Initiatives

Ticket prices for the 2020–21 season range from $25 to $480 for the 3,800 seats in

the opera house. Approximately 40% of Met tickets cost less than $100, and approximately

60% of Met tickets cost less than $150.

The Met will continue offering Flex Subscriptions, which allow subscribers to

curate their own season.

“Create Your Own” packages, in which three or more performances are discounted

when purchased together, will be released for sale on April 15, 2020.

The Rush Tickets program returns in 2020–21, making more than 30,000 tickets

available to the general public for $25 each. Rush Tickets can be purchased on a first-come

first-served basis by visiting metopera.org at 12 p.m. for weekday performances, 2 p.m. for

Saturday evening performances, and 4 hours before curtain for matinee performances.

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The Met Opera Students program also returns, offering $35 tickets to many operas

to student members of the program. The Students program also offers invitations to artist

lectures, discounts at the Met Opera Shop, and the opportunity to meet other opera lovers

at special student events.

The “Fridays Under 40” audience development program continues for a fifth

season. Participants enjoy discounted tickets to all Friday performances, and themed

receptions before ten shows. “Fridays Under 40” tickets go on sale on June 21 with single

tickets.

For tickets and additional information, visit metopera.org or call 212.362.6000.

Front of House

With the aim of welcoming the public to the opera house during daytime hours,

certain areas of the opera house will be open to the public starting Tuesday, September 22,

free of charge, on weekdays from 10AM to 2PM. On Saturdays, the house is open only to

ticket holders for one of the day’s two performances.

Visitors to the Met may climb the famous grand staircase, admire the iconic crystal

chandeliers, and enjoy the Grand Tier and its terrace. A large monitor gives visitors a live

look at what’s happening on the Met stage—typically, rehearsals for the more than 200

opera performances the company presents each season.

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Contact: Lee Abrahamian / Renata Kapilevich / Michael Solomon

The Metropolitan Opera

(212) 870-7457

[email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]