Stephanie Blythe News

Director-choreographer Mark Morris's much-lauded 2007 production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice returns to the repertoire, with Stephanie Blythe taking on one of the pinnacles of the mezzo-soprano repertory, the role of Orfeo, for the first time in her career. Soprano Danielle de Niese, an acclaimed singer of eighteenth-century music and a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, sings Euridice for the first time at the Met. Heidi Grant Murphy returns as Amor, which she performed at the production's premiere in 2007.

Today, November 29, the Metropolitan Opera Radio Saturday Matinee Broadcasts launches its 78th season of world-class opera heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network with the network premiere of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust.

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 125th anniversary year with a unique gala performance on March 15, 2009 at 6:00 p.m., featuring Met stars in recreations of historic classic productions and high points in the company's past. Music Director James Levine conducts the evening of 26 staged scenes that, with the use of projections, and scenic and costume recreations, will evoke the Met's illustrious history.

On November 29, the Metropolitan Opera Radio Saturday Matinee Broadcasts launches its 78th season of world-class opera heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network with the network premiere of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust.

Tickets for Seattle Opera's 2009 Ring cycles will go on sale to the general public in an online pre-sale beginning at 10:00 a.m. PST on November 12, and by phone and in person beginning Saturday, November 15 at 10:00 a.m. PST.

Under the leadership of General Director Speight Jenkins, Seattle Opera has become known as 'America's Bayreuth,' drawing worldwide audiences to its acclaimed productions of all of Richard Wagner's major works, especially sold-out performances of Der Ring des Nibelungen, the composer's cycle of four epic operas-Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung.

Metropolitan Opera on SIRIUS Satellite Radio channel 78 launches its regular live broadcasts of the company's 2008-09 season with the Opening Night Gala starring Renée Fleming, which airs on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. The third season of Met Opera Radio on SIRIUS features four live broadcasts weekly as the Met celebrates its 125th anniversary with six new productions, including the company premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic, 18 revivals, and the season grand finale of Wagner's epic Ring cycle, conducted by Music Director James Levine.

Tickets for the third season of The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's live transmissions in movie theaters around the world, go on sale to the general public on Friday August 22.

National CineMedia (NCM) LLC, operator of the largest digital in-theatre network in North America for cinema advertising and alternative entertainment and events, and the Metropolitan Opera are proudly partnering to bring a third season of the critically-acclaimed The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD series transmitted live, in high-definition, to more than 440 movie theatres and performing arts centers in the United States.

Tickets for the third season of The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's live transmissions in movie theaters around the world, go on sale to the general public on Friday August 22.

On Tuesday, July 15, during its Annual Meeting at McCaw Hall, Seattle Opera General Director Speight Jenkins announced that the company's Artist of the Year awards went to tenor Lawrence Brownlee, who performed the role of Arturo in Seattle Opera's production of Bellini's I Puritani in May 2008, and to Thomas Lynch, set designer for Seattle Opera's production of Wagner's Flying Dutchman in August 2007 and Seattle Opera's co-production with the Metropolitan Opera of Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris in October 2007.

New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) continues its 20th Anniversary season by presenting Bastianello and Lucrezia, two newly commissioned comic operas by composers John Musto and William Bolcom with libretti by Mark Campbell. The concerts will take place on Tuesday, March 11 and Thursday, March 13 at 8PM, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, West 57th Street and 7th Avenue.

On Saturday, January 5 at 1:30PM (Eastern) audiences can experience the ensemble cast led by renowned Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky sing Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, which will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

On July 1st, Judy Kaye, Lisa Vroman and more will sing the songs of Leonard Bernstein at Caramoor in Katonah, NY

Two new productions of operas by Rossini and Puccini will be helmed, respectively, by The Light in the Piazza's Bartlett Sher and Dirty Rotten Scoundrel's Jack O'Brien as part of the Metropolitan Opera's 2006-2007 season