The Met: Live in HD’s 2017-18 Season Kicks Off October 7 With A New Production of Bellini’s Norma
The season will feature ten transmissions, live from the Met stage, including five new productions and starry revivals featuring the world’s leading artists
The series will reach 71 countries on six continents in 2017-18, as well as more than 750 theaters in the United States
The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of high-definition live cinema simulcasts, will begin its 12th season on October 7, with a new production of Bellini’s Norma directed by Sir David McVicar and conducted by Carlo Rizzi, starring one of the world’s most acclaimed Normas, Sondra Radvanovsky.
Live in HD audiences around the world will see ten live performances from the Met’s 2017-18 season. The Met: Live in HD is the largest provider of alternative cinema content in the world, with more than 22 million tickets sold over the first 11 years of the series. The series brings live Met performances to more than 2,000 movie theaters in 71 countries around the world. The 2017-18 HD season was announced by Met General Manager Peter Gelb.
This season, we’re replenishing our core repertoire with new productions of Così fan tutte, Norma, and Tosca, while stretching our horizons with The Exterminating Angel and Cendrillon, said Gelb. The HD schedule includes repertory favorites and stimulating rarities with something for neophytes and aficionados alike.
The 2017-18 Live in HD season will feature the series’ first broadcast of Bellini’s Norma starring Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role; the Met premiere of Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel; Rossini’s Semiramide, which has not been staged at the Met in 25 years; Verdi’s tragedy Luisa Miller starring Sonya Yoncheva and Plácido Domingo; and the Met premiere of Massenet’s Cendrillon, starring Joyce DiDonato in the title role. In addition to the productions new to Live in HD, audiences can see the Met’s new stagings of Puccini’s Tosca, starring Sonya Yoncheva and Vitorio Grigolo; Mozart’s Così fan tutte set in the 1950s in Coney Island, with an ensemble cast including Tony Award winner Kelli O’Hara. The season will also feature Mozart’s full-length German opera Die Zauberflöte conducted by Met Music Director Emeritus James Levine (the abridged version of The Magic Flute was the first Live in HD transmission in the series); Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, starring Pretty Yende in her first Met performances as the spirited Adina with Matthew Polenzani reprising Nemorino, and Puccini’s La Bohème featuring Sonya Yoncheva and Michael Fabiano as the young Parisian lovers, Mimì and Rodolfo.
Complete details, including casting, are available below.
Season at a Glance:
The Met: Live in HD 2017-18 The HD season will begin on Saturday, October 7 at 12:55 p.m. with Norma.
Future transmissions are as follows: Die Zauberflöte (October 14 at 12:55 p.m.); The Exterminating Angel (November 18 at 12:55 p.m.); Tosca (January 27 at 12:55 p.m.); L’Elisir d’Amore (February 10 at 12:00 p.m.); La Bohème (February 24 at 12:30 p.m.); Semiramide (March 10 at 12:55 p.m.); Così fan tutte (March 31 at 12:55 p.m.);Luisa Miller (April 14 at 12:30 p.m.); and Cendrillon (April 28 at 12:55 p.m.).
All ten operas will be Saturday matinee performances, transmitted live from the Met stage. All start times are Eastern Time; for local start times and rebroadcast information, please visit www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/.
About The Met:Live in HD
The Met: Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 2,000 theaters in 71 countries, makes the Met the world’s leading provider of alternative cinema content and the only arts institution with an ongoing global series of this scale. When the series launched in 2006, the Met was the first arts company to experiment with alternative cinema content. Since then, the program has grown every season, with more than 22 million tickets sold to date.
The Met: Live in HD series has increased accessibility to Met performances for audiences around the world. With a global average ticket price of $23 in the 2016-17 season, the series has made world-class performances accessible to millions of opera lovers each season.
Met stars serve as hosts for the HD series, conducting live interviews with cast, crew, and production teams, and introducing popular behind-the-scenes features.
Tickets for the 10 transmissions in the 2017-18 Live in HD season will go on sale on July 19, 2017 in the U.S. and Canada, with Met Members offered priority before tickets are made available to the general public. International ticket sales dates and details on ordering tickets for the 2017-18 Live in HD series 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. Global sponsorship of The Met: Live in HD is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. 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.
Within months of their initial live transmissions, the Live in HD programs are shown on PBS. The PBS series, Great Performances at the Met, is produced in association with PBS and WNET, with support from Toll Brothers, America’s luxury home builder®. Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
