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.
January 3 | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay | Bates
In this exhilarating new adaptation of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, set shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, two Jewish cousins invent an anti-fascist superhero and launch their own comic-book series, hoping to recruit America into the fight against Nazism. Incorporating scintillating electronic elements and a variety of musical styles, composer Mason Bates’s eclectic score moves seamlessly among the three worlds of Gene Scheer’s libretto: Nazi-occupied Prague, the bustling streets of New York City, and the technicolor realm of comic-book fantasy. Bartlett Sher’s production provides spectacular visuals to match, with towering sets and proscenium-filling projections designed by Jenny Melville and Mark Grimmer of 59 Studio. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Opening Night premiere, and baritone Andrzej Filończyk makes his Met debut as the artist Joe Kavalier, who flees Czechoslovakia and arrives at the Brooklyn doorstep of writer Sam Clay, sung by tenor Miles Mykkanen.
MUSIC
Bates draws upon an eclectic musical palette to depict the opera’s sweeping story and diverse settings. The New York scenes feature inflections of jazz and big band, while the music for Prague is noticeably darker and more somber. His trademark use of electronica reaches its full fruition in the scenes set in the comic-book realm, but synthesizers and other electronic instruments provide further sonic color in subtler ways throughout the score. And for all his mastery of the orchestra, Bates never loses sight of the human beings at the heart of this epic, stopping time in soaring arias and poignant ensembles for all of the principal characters.
Composer: Mason Bates
Libretto: Gene Scheer
Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC
CAST:
Joe Kavalier: Andrzej Filończyk
Sam Clay: Miles Mykkanen
Rosa Saks: Sun-Ly Pierce
Sarah Kavalier: Lauren Snouffer
Tracy Bacon: Edward Nelson
Sheldon Anapol: Patrick Carfizzi
Gerhard: Craig Colclough
January 10 | I Puritani | Bellini
For gorgeous melody, spellbinding coloratura, and virtuoso vocal fireworks, I Puritani has few equals. On New Year’s Eve, the curtain goes up on the first new Met production of Bellini’s final masterpiece in nearly 50 years—a striking staging by Charles Edwards, who makes his company directorial debut after many successes as a set designer. The Met has assembled a world-beating quartet of stars, conducted by Marco Armiliato, for the demanding principal roles. Soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Lawrence Brownlee are Elvira and Arturo, brought together by love and torn apart by the political rifts of the English Civil War, with baritone Artur Rucińskias Riccardo, betrothed to Elvira against her will, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Elvira’s sympathetic uncle, Giorgio.
MUSIC
Too often, bel canto (literally, “beautiful singing”) is explained as a succession of vocal gymnastics. On the contrary, operas written in this style center on long lyric lines, such as in the tenor’s Act I solo, which develops into the celebrated quartet “Ate, ocara.” The soprano’s ravishing Act IIaria “Qui la voce sua soave” works the same way and depends entirely on the singer’s ability to spin forth an elegant vocal line. And no one can deny Bellini’s unique mastery of melody, as in the rousing martial duet “Suonila tromba, e intrepido” in Act II and the bass’s gorgeous showpiece in Act II, “Cinta di fiori.”
Composer: Vincenzo Bellini
Conductor: Marco Armiliato
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC
CAST:
Elvira Walton: Lisette Oropesa
Lord Arturo Talbot: Lawrence Brownlee
Riccardo Forth: Artur Ruciński
Giorgio Walton: Christian Van Horn
January 17 | Carmen | Bizet
Bizet’s fiery masterpiece of seduction, obsession, and tragedy stars two of today’s leading mezzo-sopranos as Carmen, whose irresistible allure drives the soldier Don José to destruction. Isabel Leonard brings her smoldering take to the Met for the first time, opposite tenors Michael Fabiano and Matthew Polenzani, and Aigul Akhmetshina, praised by The New Yorker for the “fresh, ferocious energy” of her Carmen in the 2023–24 season, reprises her star-making portrayal, alongside tenor Michael Fabiano.
MUSIC
The score of Carmen contains so many instantly recognizable tunes that it can be easy to overlook how well constructed it is. The major solos are excellent combinations of arresting melody and dramatic purpose—from the baritone’s famous Toreador Song to the tenor’s wrenching Flower Song to the title character’s alluring Habanera and Seguidilla—and the duets and ensembles are equally beguiling.
Composer: Georges Bizet
Conductor: Pier Giorgio Morandi
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC
CAST:
Carmen: Aigul Akhmetshina
Don José: Michael Fabiano
Micaëla: Janai Brugger
Escamillo: Christian Van Horn
January 24 | Porgy and Bess |The Gershwins’
Bass-baritone Alfred Walker and soprano Brittany Renee headline one of the defining works of American music theater. With its fusion of opera, jazz, and Broadway, the Gershwins’ enduring masterpiece features a number of tunes whose popularity has transcended the opera house, including the classics “Summertime” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” Hailed by The Washington Post as “a Porgy of its time that speaks to ours,” James Robinson’s vivid staging features electrifying choreography by Camille A. Brown, with an all-star ensemble portraying the community of Catfish Row.
MUSIC
Far beyond being a compendium of classic songs, the score of Porgy and Bess maintains a level of musical unity and a rich, descriptive language that compares with the greatest operatic achievements. Much of the work’s dynamism comes from Gershwin’s explorations of the Gullah music of Tidewater Carolina, melded with his mastery of jazz and Eastern European Jewish roots to create a personal, idiomatic, brilliant, and thoroughly convincing musical canvas.
Composer: George Gershwin, Ida Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, and Dorothy Heyward
Conductor: Kwamé Ryan
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC
CAST:
Porgy: Alfred Walker
Bess: Brittany Renee
Crown: Ryan Speedo Green
Sportin’ Life: Frederick Ballentine
Serena: Leah Hawkins
Clara: Vuvu Mpofu
Maria: Denyce Graves
Jake: Benjamin Taylor
January 31 | Arabella | Strauss
Strauss’s elegant romance brings the glamour and enchantment of 19th-century Vienna to the Met stage in a sumptuous production by legendary director Otto Schenk that “is as beautiful as one could hope” (The New York Times). Compelling soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen makes her role debut as Arabella, a young noble woman in search of love on her own terms. Soprano Louise Alder makes her Met debut as her sister, Zdenka, and bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny is the dashing count who sweeps Arabella off her feet.
MUSIC
The score of Arabella is beautiful and charming, with a wealth of lyrical melody perfectly attuned to the demands of the story and characters. Strauss’s most exalted domains—his writing for the soprano voice and for the orchestra—are magnificently apparent throughout this score, with the title character’s introspective soliloquy in Act I being just one stunning example. He also calls upon the orchestra to create unforgettable effects, nowhere more notable than in the touching final scene, in which the listener is transported into a musical experience of forgiveness, wisdom, and the burgeoning of true love.
Composer: Richard Strauss
Conductor: Nicholas Carter
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC
CAST:
Arabella: Rachel Willis-Sørensen
Mandryka: Tomasz Konieczny
Zdenka: Louise Alder
Matteo: Pavol Breslik
Waldner: Brindley Sherratt