**METROPOLITAN OPERA RADIO BROADCAST ALERT**
James Levine Conducts a Rare Performance of
Verdi’s Requiem in a Live Met Broadcast
Saturday, December 2 at 1:00 p.m. ET
The 2017-18 Metropolitan Opera season of live Saturday matinee radio broadcasts opens on December 2 with Verdi’s Requiem, performed on stage at the Met for the first time since 2008, conducted by Met Music Director Emeritus James Levine. Levine will lead the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, along with Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova, Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk, Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko, and Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto. The Met presented the Requiem a total of 49 times between its 1901 company premiere and the current season. Maestro Levine led 13 of these, including the 2008 performance, which was given in memory of Luciano Pavarotti. Verdi’s Requiem will be heard live over Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, December 2.
Over the course of his career, James Levine has conducted more than 2,560 performances at the Met in a broad-ranging repertory. He served as the company’s Music Director from 1976 to 2016 before retiring to become the Met’s first Music Director Emeritus. Later this season, he will conduct revivals of Verdi’s Il Trovatore and Luisa Miller, and a new production of Puccini’s Tosca.
Krassimira Stoyanova has previously sung Verdi’s Requiem in concert at the Zurich Opera and with the Köln Philharmonic Orchestra. She made her Met debut as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, followed by Liù in Puccini’s Turandot, Nedda in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Micaela in Bizet’s Carmen, Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème, and Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello. Last season, she starred in the Met’s live broadcast of Verdi’s Aida.
Ekaterina Semenchuk has sung Verdi’s Requiem at the Mariinsky Theatre and with the Gothenburg Symphony. Since her 2002 Met debut as Sonya in the company premiere of Prokofiev’s War and Peace, she has returned in three other roles: Paulina in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and Marina in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. She will sing Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana with the company later this season.
Aleksandrs Antonenko’s most recent Met performances were as Calàf in Puccini’s Turandot earlier this season. He starred in the title role of Verdi’s Otello on Opening Night of the Met’s 2015-16 season. His other company repertory includes Don José in Carmen, Pollione in Bellini’s Norma, Grigory in Boris Godunov, and the Prince in Dvořák’s Rusalka.
Ferruccio Furlanetto has sung Verdi’s Requiem at the Mariinsky Theatre and with San Diego Opera. Since making his Met debut in 1980 as the Grand Inquisitor in Verdi’s Don Carlo, he has sung over 200 performances with the company, including other Verdi roles such as Jacopo Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, Philip II in Don Carlo, and de Silva in Verdi’s Ernani, as well as the title roles in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro.
The Requiem will be performed with no intermission.
THE STARS OF VERDI’S REQUIEM
PHOTOS AND VIDEOS
Click here to download photos and videos from Verdi’s Requiem.
About the Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts
The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 87th season of Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts—the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history. Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts have brought opera into millions of homes and enriched the lives of many, playing a vital and unparalleled role in the development and appreciation of opera in this country. Mary Jo Heath hosts, joined each week in the broadcast booth by commentator Ira Siff.
The broadcasts are heard worldwide, reaching millions of opera lovers in more than 35 countries.
Listeners can visit www.metopera.org/SaturdayMatineeBroadcasts for information about the Met broadcasts. Details about all Met performances this season, as well as ticket information, are available on the Met’s website at www.metopera.org.
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Contact: Michelle Zelman
Metropolitan Opera
(212) 870-7457