**METROPOLITAN OPERA RADIO BROADCAST ALERT**

Met Music Director Emeritus James Levine Conducts the Met’s

Live Broadcast of Mozart’s Early Masterpiece Idomeneo

The cast features Matthew Polenzani as the title character opposite

Nadine Sierra as Ilia, Elza van den Heever as Elettra,

Alice Coote as Idamante, and Alan Opie as Arbace

Saturday, March 25 at 1:00 p.m. ET

Met Music Director Emeritus James Levine conducts his third broadcast of the 2016-17 Metropolitan Radio Broadcast season, Mozart’s early masterpiece Idomeneo. The opera, which Levine first conducted at the Met in 1982, stars tenor Matthew Polenzani in his Met role debut as the king Idomeneo, with soprano Nadine Sierra in her role debut as Ilia, soprano Elza van den Heever as Elettra, mezzo-soprano Alice Coote as Idomeneo’s son Idamante, and baritone Alan Opie as Idomeneo’s confidant Arbace. Idomeneo will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 25.

James Levine has conducted 46 performances of Idomeneo to date, including the Met premiere in 1982. Over the course of his career, Levine has led more than 2,550 performances with the company in a broad-ranging repertory that has included the Mozart operas Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Die Zauberflöte, as well as the Met premiere of La Clemenza di Tito. He served as the company’s Music Director from 1976 to 2016 and retired at the end of last season to become the Met’s first Music Director Emeritus. Earlier this season, he conducted a revival of Verdi’s Nabucco, and next season, he will conduct Die Zauberflöte, concert performances of Verdi’s Requiem, and revivals of Verdi’s Il Trovatore and Luisa Miller.

Matthew Polenzani has previously appeared in the role of Idomeneo at Teatro Regio di Torino and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. He has sung 331 performances with the Met since his company debut in 1997, including as Ferrando in Così fan tutte, the title character in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto. Last season, he made role debuts in two Met premieres: as Nadir in Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles and in the title role of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux. Later this season, he will perform the role of the Italian Singer in the Met’s new production premiere of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, which will be broadcast on May 13. He will also sing Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with the company and be featured as a soloist in the Met’s 50th Anniversary at Lincoln Center Gala. Next season, he will return to reprise the role of Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore.

Nadine Sierra makes her role debut as Ilia. She made her Met debut last season as Gilda in Rigoletto, and earlier this season, she sang Zerlina in Don Giovanni. She is the youngest winner to date of both the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Marilyn Horne Foundation Vocal Competition. Future engagements include Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani at the Zurich Opera, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Gilda in Rigoletto at the Paris Opera. She will return to the Met next season to sing Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro.

Elza van den Heever has sung the role of Elettra at the Frankfurt Opera and Opéra National de Bordeaux. She made her Met debut in 2012 as Elisabetta in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and has also sung Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with the company. Later this season, she will perform the title role of Bellini’s Norma at the Dallas Opera. In the Met’s 2017-18 season, she will appear as Chrysothemis in Strauss’s Elektra.

Alice Coote adds a new role to her Met repertory as Idamante, which she has previously sung at the San Francisco Opera. She made her Met debut in 2006 as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro followed by performances as Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Anne Strawson in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys, and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier. Next season, she will appear in two Met premieres: as Leonora Palma in Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel and as Prince Charming in Massenet’s Cendrillon.

Alan Opie makes his company role debut as Arbace. His Met credits include Baron Zeta in the new production of Lehár’s The Merry Widow, the title role in the company premiere of John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer, Balstrode in Britten’s Peter Grimes, Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, and Fieramosca in the company premiere of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini. Earlier this season, he sang the role of the Gamekeeper in the Met’s new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka.

The intermissions will include artist interviews led by Live in HD host Eric Owens, and the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Quiz, with guest artist Günther Groissböck.

IDOMENEO LIVE IN HD TRANSMISSION

This performance of Idomeneo will also be transmitted live as part of the Met’s Live in HD series of movie theater transmissions, which now reaches more than 2,000 theaters in 71 countries around the world. Bass-baritone Eric Owens hosts the live transmission and conducts backstage interviews with the opera’s stars. Since the Live in HD series launched in 2006, more than 21 million tickets have been sold to opera fans around the world. For more information and listings of local theaters, please visit http://www.metopera.org/Season/In-Cinemas/.

THE STARS OF IDOMENEO

PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

Click here to download photos and videos from Idomeneo

About the Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 86th 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 a wealth of information about the Met broadcasts. For details about all Met performances this season, as well as ticket information, visit the Met’s website at www.metopera.org.

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Contact: Michelle Zelman

Metropolitan Opera

(212) 870-7457