The Met’s 2013-14 Season Will Feature 26 Operas
With Six New Productions, Including a U.S. Premiere
Music Director James Levine returns to the Met podium to conduct a new staging of Falstaff, directed by Robert Carsen, and revivals of Così fan tutte and Wozzeck
Nico Muhly’s Two Boys, a Met commission, will have its American premiere
conducted by David Robertson and directed by Bartlett Sher
Three major directors make Met debuts: Deborah Warner with Opening Night’s Eugene Onegin, Jeremy Sams with a new English-language version of Die Fledermaus, and Dmitri Tcherniakov with Borodin’s Prince Igor;
Richard Eyre returns to the Met to direct a new production of Massenet’s Werther
The eighth season of The Met: Live in HD series will feature 10 live transmissions,
beginning October 5 with Eugene Onegin
New York, NY (February 26, 2013, update April 2)—The Metropolitan Opera’s 2013-14 season will feature many of the world’s greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi’s final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Berg’s Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
Ten of the new season’s more than 200 performances will be transmitted live around the world as part of the popular Met: Live in HD series of movie theater simulcasts, offering a significant portion of the Met season to opera lovers in 64 countries. (A separate release, focused on the HD transmissions, is also available.)
The six new productions will include three debuts by directors new to the Met: Deborah Warner, with a new Eugene Onegin on opening night, September 23, starring Anna Netrebko, Mariusz Kwiecien, and Piotr Beczala and conducted by Valery Gergiev; Jeremy Sams, whose staging of Die Fledermaus will open on New Year’s Eve, conducted by Adam Fischer and featuring new dialogue by playwright Douglas Carter Beane; and Dmitri Tcherniakov, with Borodin’s Prince Igor on February 6, 2014, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and starring Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role. Nico Muhly’s opera Two Boys, a Met commission, will have its American premiere October 21 in a production conducted by David Robertson and directed by Bartlett Sher. Robert Carsen returns to the Met with a new Falstaff, opening December 6, and Richard Eyre stages the final new production of the season, Massenet’s Werther, starring Jonas Kaufmann and Elīna Garanča, opening February 18.
The repertory productions for the season will include a mix of rarely performed works and longtime audience favorites, both featuring some of the world’s greatest stars. The 2013-14 repertory operas include Richard Strauss’s Arabella, Die Frau ohne Schatten, and Der Rosenkavalier (with Garanča in her first Met performances of Octavian). Five bel canto operas are part of the season, including Bellini’s I Puritani, Norma (with Sondra Radvanovsky), and La Sonnambula (with Diana Damrau); Fabio Luisi leads Rossini’s La Cenerentola, with Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez; and Anna Netrebko reprises her Adina opposite Ramón Vargas as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore. Three of Puccini’s most-performed works are part of the season: casts led by Joseph Calleja and Vittorio Grigolo star in La Bohème; Patricia Racette and Radvanovsky take the title role of Tosca; and Madama Butterfly returns, with rotating casts including Kristine Opolais in her Met role debut as Cio-Cio-San. Mozart is represented in the season with both Così fan tutte and a holiday presentation of The Magic Flute. Renée Fleming returns to the title role in Dvořák’s Rusalka, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Racette and Marcelo Álvarez star in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier. The season features the first Met revivals of The Enchanted Island (with Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo) and the William Kentridge production of Shostakovich’s The Nose (conducted by Gergiev), as well as the return of Michael Mayer’s new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto, starring Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the title role. Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream returns to commemorate the composer’s centennial in a revival conducted by James Conlon, and Deborah Voigt and Thomas Hampson make Met role debuts in another twentieth-century masterpiece, Berg’s Wozzeck.
The 2013-14 season was announced by Met General Manager Peter Gelb and Met Music Director James Levine. “With this new season, we continue our mission for the Met as a center of musical and theatrical creativity, hopefully stimulating our veteran audience, while also capturing the imagination of the next generation,” Gelb said.
“I am delighted to be back with the great Met company, conducting three operas I love with our incomparable orchestra and chorus,” said Levine.
New Productions
Eugene Onegin – Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Premiere: September 23, 2013
Conductor: Valery Gergiev/Pavel Smelkov/Alexander Vedernikov
Production: Deborah Warner
Live in HD: October 5, 2013
The season opens on September 23 with a new production of Tchaikovsky’s romantic tragedy Eugene Onegin. Valery Gergiev returns to the Met to conduct the opening performances of this production, staged by acclaimed English director Deborah Warner in her Met debut. Mariusz Kwiecien sings his first Met performances as the imperious title character, a much-admired interpretation he has sung in many of the world’s leading opera houses, opposite Anna Netrebko as Tatiana, in her third consecutive Met opening night and her first company performances as the naïve heroine from Pushkin’s classic novel. Piotr Beczala reprises his performance as Onegin’s friend turned rival, Lenski. A second cast, conducted by Alexander Vedernikov in his Met debut, features Peter Mattei as Onegin, Marina Poplavskaya as Tatiana, and, in his first Met performances since the 2008-09 season, Rolando Villazón as Lenski; all three singers will be making their company role debuts. Reviewing Warner’s production when it premiered at English National Opera, the Sunday Telegraph praised its “mixture of haunting visual and emotional impact: cutting straight to the heart of the work, [Warner] shows how Onegin is simultaneously about two colliding Russian societies—rustic provincialism and cosmopolitan decadence—and three wasted lives.”
Two Boys – Nico Muhly
U.S. Premiere
Premiere: October 21, 2013
Libretto: Craig Lucas
Conductor: David Robertson
Production: Bartlett Sher
"A work of dark beauty...a landmark in the career of an important artist" (The New York Times)," Two Boys marked the "auspicious operatic debut" (London Independent) of American composer Nico Muhly, who was 29 when the Met commission premiered in London in the fall of 2011. With a libretto by celebrated playwright Craig Lucas, Two Boys explores the shadowy world of the internet as a detective (Alice Coote) takes on what initially seems to be to be a straightforward case—the stabbing of one teenage boy by another—and discovers a tangled web of online intrigue. Paul Appleby co-stars as Brian in this striking new work, staged by Bartlett Sher. Although young, Muhly is a prolific composer, having already written acclaimed compositions for major orchestras, choruses, dance companies, chamber ensembles, and the opera Dark Sisters, as well as film scores and pop songs.
Falstaff - Giuseppe Verdi
Premiere: December 6, 2013
Conductor: James Levine
Production: Robert Carsen
Live in HD: December 14, 2013
Verdi’s brilliant final masterpiece Falstaff has its first new Met production in nearly 50 years, conducted by James Levine and directed by Robert Carsen. Ambrogio Maestri and Nicola Alaimo take on the iconic basso buffo role of Sir John Falstaff, the boorish, blustery character originally seen in Shakespeare’s Henry IV and Merry Wives of Windsor. Angela Meade sings Alice Ford, one of many objects of Falstaff’s affection, and Stephanie Blythe is the sharp-tongued Mistress Quickly in a cast that also includes Lisette Oropesa as Nannetta, Jennifer Johnson Cano as Meg Page, Paolo Fanale in his Met debut as Fenton, and Franco Vassallo as Ford. The International Herald Tribune praised Carsen’s staging, first seen at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, as a “production of eye-catching ingenuity.”
Die Fledermaus – Johann Strauss, Jr.
Premiere: December 31, 2013
Conductor: Adam Fischer
Production: Jeremy Sams
Lyrics by: Jeremy Sams
Dialogue by: Douglas Carter Beane
A new production of Johann Strauss’s sparkling comedy Die Fledermaus premieres on New Year’s Eve. Adam Fischer conducts the new staging by Jeremy Sams, which sets the farcical story of romantic intrigue and mistaken identity in Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century. The new production of the quintessential Viennese comedy will feature new English-language lyrics by Sams and dialogue by award-winning Broadway playwright Douglas Carter Beane. Susanna Phillips sings Rosalinde, with Christopher Maltman as her husband, Eisenstein; Christine Schäfer and Jane Archibald as her clever maid, Adele; Michael Fabiano and Alexander Lewis as Alfred, her clandestine lover; Paulo Szot as the scheming notary Dr. Falke, Patrick Carfizzi as the warden Frank; and Anthony Roth Costanzo as the consummate party host, Prince Orlofsky.
Prince Igor - Alexander Borodin
Premiere: February 6, 2014
Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda/Pavel Smelkov
Production: Dmitri Tcherniakov
Live in HD: March 1, 2014
Alexander Borodin’s epic Prince Igor has its first Met performances since 1917 in a new production staged by noted Russian opera director Dmitri Tcherniakov in his Met debut. Gianandrea Noseda and Pavel Smelkov conduct the lush score, famous for its celebrated “Polovtsian Dances.” Ildar Abdrazakov sings the title role, a Russian hero whose military maneuvers are complicated by romantic intrigue, political rivalries, and familial disputes. The cast also includes Oksana Dyka in her Met debut as Yaroslavna, Igor’s emotionally vulnerable second wife; Anita Rachvelishvili as the fiery Polovtsian princess Konchakovna; Sergey Semishkur in his Met debut as Vladimir Igorevich, Igor’s son and Konchakovna’s lover; Mikhail Petrenko as Prince Galitsky, Yaroslavna’s brother; and Štefan Kocán as the warlord Khan Konchak. Left unfinished at the composer’s death, Prince Igor does not have a definitive performing version. Noseda and Tcherniakov have constructed a new version using recent research that incorporates all the known music and orchestration by Borodin, changes the order of some scenes, and includes three pieces of newly orchestrated material by Pavel Smelkov, the Russian composer and conductor who also leads the February 21 performance.
Werther – Jules Massenet
Premiere: February 18, 2014
Conductor: Alain Altinoglu
Production: Richard Eyre
Live in HD: March 15, 2014
Director Richard Eyre, whose hit staging of Carmen premiered at the Met in 2009, returns with a new production of Massenet’s Werther, starring Jonas Kaufmann and Elīna Garanča in their first Met performances as the brooding poet Werther and his unattainable love, Charlotte. Lisette Oropesa sings the role of Sophie, Charlotte’s sister; David Bižić makes his Met debut as Charlotte’s fiancé, Albert; and Jonathan Summers is Charlotte’s father, Le Bailli. Alain Altinoglu conducts the first new Met production of the opera in more than 40 years.
Casting News
Major Met Debuts
Notable Met debuts this season, in chronological order, include American baritoneChristopher Bolducas Jake inTwo Boys(October 21); German sopranoAnne Schwanewilmsas the Empress inDie Frau ohne Schatten(November 7); Spanish conductorPablo Heras-CasadoleadingRigoletto(November 11); Russian conductorAlexander VedernikovleadingEugene Onegin(November 23); Russian mezzo-sopranoElena Maximovaas Olga inEugene Onegin(November 23); German mezzo-sopranoDaniela Sindramas Octavian inDer Rosenkavalier(December 3); Italian tenorPaolo Fanaleas Fenton inFalstaff(December 6); British conductorJane GloverleadingThe Magic Flute(December 16); American sopranoKathryn Lewekas the Queen of the Night inThe Magic Flute(December 28); Moldovan sopranoIrina Lunguas Musetta inLa Bohème(January 14); South African sopranoAmanda Echalazas Cio-Cio-San inMadama Butterfly(January 16); American baritoneScott Hendricksas Sharpless inMadamaButterfly(January 16); American sopranoEmily Mageeas the Foreign Princess inRusalka(January 23); Ukrainian sopranoOksana Dykaas Yaroslavna inPrince Igor(February 6); Russian tenorSergey Semishkuras Vladimir Igorevich inPrince Igor(February 6); Serbian bass-baritoneDavid Bižićas Albert inWerther(February 18); Canadian sopranoAndriana Chuchmanas Miranda inThe Enchanted Island(February 26); English bassClive Bayleyas the Doctor inWozzeck(March 6); Romanian sopranoAnita Hartigas Mimì inLa Bohème(March 19); American sopranoJennifer Rowleyas Musetta inLa Bohème(March 19); French bass-baritoneNicolas Testéas Colline inLa Bohème(March 19); German tenorRoberto Saccàas Matteo inArabella(April 3); German baritoneMichael Volleas Mandryka inArabella(April 3); Austrian bass-baritone Martin Winkler as Waldner (April 3); Russian sopranoOlga Peretyatkoas Elvira inI Puritani(April 17); and Italian baritonePietro Spagnolias Dandini inLa Cenerentola(April 21).
Repertory
The Met’s 2013-14 season will feature 20 revivals of a varied repertory, ranging from rarely performed works to perennial audience favorites.
To commemorate Benjamin Britten’s centennial, the Met will present a revival of his A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which had its Met premiere in 1996. James Conlon conducts an ensemble that includes Iestyn Davies and Kathleen Kim as Oberon and Tytania, king and queen of the fairies; Erin Wall (Helena), Elizabeth DeShong (Hermia), Joseph Kaiser (Lysander), and Michael Todd Simpson (Demetrius) as the quartet of mismatched lovers; and Matthew Rose as the weaver-turned-amateur-actor Bottom.
Dvořák’s Rusalka, a lushly romantic adaptation of the Czech folk tales Hans Christian Andersen used as the basis for The Little Mermaid, returns to the Met in January 2014. The opera had its Met premiere in 1993 and the central character of the water spirit who falls in love with a human prince is a touchstone role for Renée Fleming. This season, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a cast led by Fleming and including Piotr Beczala as the Prince, Emily Magee in her Met debut as the Foreign Princess, John Relyea as the Water Sprite, and Dolora Zajick as the witch Ježibaba.
Andrea Chénier, Giordano’s tale of heroism and sacrifice during the French Revolution, returns to the repertory with Gianandrea Noseda conducting and Marcelo Álvarez taking the title part for the first time with the company. Also making Met role debuts are Patricia Racette as Maddalena, the young aristocrat who loses everything but her love for Chénier, and Željko Lučić as Gérard, the household servant who rises to become a revolutionary leader.
Berg’s Wozzeck returns this season conducted by James Levine, who has led more than 40 performances of the opera since 1974. Two major Met stars make company role debuts in the central roles: Thomas Hampson sings the title role, a soldier so abused by society that he turns to murder, and Deborah Voigt is his unfaithful lover and victim, Marie.
Two Mozart operas are part of the repertory this season. Maestro Levine conducts Così fan tutte, with Susanna Phillips and Guanqun Yu as the conflicted Fiordiligi; Isabel Leonard as her sister, Dorabella; Danielle de Niese as their feisty maid, Despina; Matthew Polenzani and Rodion Pogossov as the sisters’ fiancés, Ferrando and Guglielmo; and Maurizio Muraro as the cynical Don Alfonso.