Opera on BTPM Classical
Experience world-class opera on BTPM Classical every Saturday at 1pm! Enjoy full performances of legendary operas by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, and more.
The Metropolitan Opera’s radio broadcasts bring the magic of live opera to our listeners. Airing December through the first weekend of June, listeners can experience thrilling performances from today’s most renowned opera stars alongside legendary voices from the past, spanning over nine decades of Metropolitan Opera history, live from the Lincoln Center in New York City.
The WFMT Radio Network Opera Series extends the season beginning in June, offering an incredible lineup of performances to complete the year. From Milan to New York, Barcelona to Chicago, enjoy front-row access to iconic opera productions from the world’s top stages.
April 4 | La Gioconda | Ponchielli
Celebrating the opera's 150th anniversary with a performance from March 2, 1968
Composer: Amilcare Ponchielli
Conductor: Fausto Cleva
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC
CAST:
La Gioconda: Renata Tebaldi
Enzo: Carlo Bergonzi
Laura: Fiorenza Cossotto
Barnaba: Cornell MacNeil
Alvise: Bonaldo Giaiotti
La Cieca: Mignon Dunn
April 11 | Don Giovanni | Mozart
Performance from September 24, 2025
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Met performances of Mozart’s classic, with bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green in his Met role debut as the licentious Don. Ivo van Hove’s “magnificent” (Financial Times) production also features sopranos Federica Lombardi, Janai Brugger, and HeraHyesangPark as Don Giovanni’s three conquests, with tenor Ben Bliss and bass-baritone AdamPlachetkaas Don Ottavio and Leporello. A second sensational cast then takes the stage foradditionalperformances, led by Principal Guest Conductor DanieleRustioni.
MUSIC
Mozart’s score teems with the elegance and grace that marks his entire output, which isevidentfrom the first measures of the ravishing overture. This combination of musical refinement andextraordinarydramatic expression makes Don Giovanni one of the longest enduring and universally beloved works in the standard repertoire.
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC
CAST:
Don Giovanni: Ryan Speedo Green
Donna Anna: Federica Lombardi
Leporello: Adam Plachetka
Donna Elvira: Janai Brugger
Don Ottavio: Ben Bliss
Zerlina: Hera Hyesang Park
Masetto: William Guanbo Su
Commendatore: Adam Palka
April 18 | Innocence | Saariaho
Depicting the wide web of trauma left in the wake of a school shooting, the late, great Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s final opera is a raw and unflinching cri de coeur in response to the senseless violence of our modern age. Captivating with its eerie, darkly beautiful sound-world and diverse vocal styles, ranging from traditional opera to expressionistic speak-singing to Scandinavian folk music, Innocence, with libretto by prominent Finnish author Sofi Oksanen and Aleksi Barrière, was greeted upon its 2021 premiere by awestruck reviews and hailed as “completely exhilarating” (The New York Times), “a modern masterpiece” (The Telegraph). For its Met premiere—in Simon Stone’s powerfully direct original production—the cast is anchored by mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and Finnish ethno-pop singer Vilma Jääas a grieving mother and the daughter she lost in the shooting, as well as soprano Jacquelyn Stucker and tenor Miles Mykkanenas a young couple whose wedding, a decade after the tragedy, uncovers buried secrets and reopens old wounds. Maestro Susanna Mälkki, a close friend and collaborator of Saariaho’s, conducts what she calls “one of the most important works of our time.”
Composer: Richard Wagner
Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC
CAST:
Isolde: Lise Davidsen
Tristan: Michael Spyres
Brangäne: Ekaterina Gubanova
King Marke: Ryan Speedo Green
Kurwenal: Tomasz Konieczny
April 25 | La Sonnambula | Bellini
Following triumphant Met turns in Roméo et Juliette, La Traviata, and Lucia di Lammermoor, Nadine Sierra summits another peak of the soprano repertoire as Amina, who sleepwalks her way into audiences’ hearts in Bellini’s poignant tale of love lost and found. In his new production, Rolando Villazón—the tenor who has embarked on a brilliant second career as a director—retains the opera’s original setting in the Swiss Alps but uses its somnambulant plot to explore the emotional and psychological valleys of the mind. Tenor Xabier Anduaga returns after his acclaimed 2023 Met debut in L’Elisir d’Amore, co-starring as Amina’s fiancé Elvino, alongside soprano Sydney Mancasola as her rival, Lisa, and bass Alexander Vinogradov as Count Rodolfo. Riccardo Frizza takes the podium for one of opera’s most ravishing works.
MUSIC
The soloists and chorus interact often in this opera, an unusual feature of Bellini’s works and one that successfully reflects the idea of a tight village community. This serves as the background for the solos and duets, in which Bellini achieves a remarkable mastery of vocal expression. The great final scene for the soprano with the cantabile “Ah! noncredeamirarti” and the cabaletta “Ah! nongiungeumanpensiero” has long been famous as a concert and recital piece, but only within the context of the opera does it reveal Bellini’s dramatic accomplishment. It is an astounding depiction of a young girl’s emerging personality.
Composer: Vincenzo Bellini
Conductor: Riccardo Frizza
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC
CAST:
Amina: Nadine Sierra
Elvino: Xabier Anduaga
Rodolfo: Alexander Vinogradov
Lisa: Sydney Mancasola