Renewal Will Bring the
Two Organizations to a Two-Decade Milestone
DENVER and NEW
YORK, Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fathom
Events and the Metropolitan Opera announced an agreement today to
renew The Met: Live in HD series, extending a cultural
tradition that has delivered scores of performances from the Met's
stage at New York's Lincoln Center
directly to cinema screens nationwide since 2006.
The partnership between the country's largest performing arts
institution and leading event-cinema distributor will be renewed
through the 2025–26 season, culminating in the 20th anniversary of
the Live in HD program. The program renewal demonstrates how
live performances can drive the return of audiences to movie
theaters following the worst periods of the Covid
pandemic.
The announcement comes ahead of the Dec.
10 Live in HD transmission of The Hours by
Kevin Puts, based on the novel by Michael
Cunningham and subsequent movie of the same title. The Met
is presenting the world premiere staging of the work. It is one of
seven new Met productions presented in the 2022-23 season,
including the opening Live in HD performance, the Met
premiere of Cherubini's Medea. The other new productions are
Giordano's Fedora; Wagner's Lohengrin; Mozart's
Don Giovanni and Die
Zauberflöte; and Terence
Blanchard's Champion. Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in
My Bones, transmitted live to
movie screens in 2021, was the first opera at the Met by a Black
composer. The HD season will also feature performances of Verdi's
Falstaff and Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.
"The Met is a cultural touchstone and one of the most iconic
global performing-arts brands," said Ray
Nutt, Fathom Events chief executive officer. "As
exceptional and distinctly special is the work that The Met brings
to audiences, Peter and his team are just as exceptional.
They have been an enormously valuable partner in our own growth at
Fathom Events. During the term of this new agreement,
we will have been partnered for two decades, and we look forward to
continuing to work with the Met to bring more high-quality
performances to fans around the country."
"The Met's Live in HD series has brought the beauty and
power of opera to millions of people who ordinarily would not have
access to it," Peter Gelb, the Met's
General Manager, said. "We are grateful to have such an excellent
partner in Fathom and look forward to continuing our shared mission
of making world-class opera available to cinema audiences
throughout the United States and
beyond."
The partnership that began with fewer than 100 theaters has
grown to an average of 725 theaters annually and an estimated
audience of more than 580,000 annually - widely broadening the
reach of The Met's performances. The partnership has seen a
total revenue of over $205 million
which translates to approximately 10 million tickets sold.
Today, Fathom's events with The Met consistently rank among the
top-10 in box office on the event date, according to Comscore data,
and The Met now accounts for fully half of Fathom Events'
live-event box office revenue.
Tickets for the 2022–23 season of The Met: Live in HD
series are on sale at participating theater box offices and through
Fathom Events.com.
2022–23 Live in HD Season
at a Glance:
The Live in HD season began on October 22, 2022, with Medea and continued
with La Traviata (November 5), The
Hours (December 10), Fedora (January 14), Lohengrin (March 18),
Falstaff (April 1), Der Rosenkavalier
(April 15), Champion
(April 29), Don Giovanni (May 20), and Die
Zauberflöte (June 3). All
performances will be Saturday matinees transmitted live from the
Met stage.
A special encore screening of
Mozart's The Magic Flute
will also be presented on December 3.
The Met: Live in HD 2022–23 Schedule
Cherubini's Medea—MET PREMIERE
Live in HD date: October
22, 2022
Production: David McVicar
Set Designer: David McVicar
Costume Designer: Doey Lüthi
Lighting Designer: Paule
Constable
Projection Designer: S. Katy Tucker
Movement Director: Jo Meredith
Carlo Rizzi (Conductor); Sondra Radvanovsky (Medea),
Janai Brugger (Glauce), Ekaterina
Gubanova (Neris), Matthew
Polenzani (Giasone), Michele
Pertusi (Creonte)
Having triumphed at the Met in some of the repertory's fiercest
soprano roles, Sondra
Radvanovsky stars as the mythic sorceress who will stop at nothing
in her quest for vengeance.
Joining Radvanovsky in
the Met-premiere production of
Cherubini's rarely performed masterpiece is tenor
Matthew Polenzani as Medea's
Argonaut husband, Giasone; soprano Janai
Brugger as her rival for his love,
Glauce; bass Michele
Pertusi as her father, Creonte,
the King of Corinth; and
mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova as
Medea's confidante, Neris.
Verdi's La Traviata—REVIVAL
Live in HD date: November
5, 2022
Production: Michael Mayer
Set Designer: Christine Jones
Costume Designer: Susan Hilferty
Lighting Designer: Kevin Adams
Choreographer: Lorin Latarro
Daniele Callegari (Conductor); Nadine Sierra (Violetta
Valéry), Stephen Costello (Alfredo Germont), Luca
Salsi (Giorgio Germont)
Soprano Nadine Sierra
stars as the self-sacrificing courtesan
Violetta—one of opera's ultimate heroines—in Michael Mayer's vibrant production of Verdi's
beloved tragedy. Tenor Stephen
Costello is her self-centered lover, Alfredo, alongside
baritone Luca Salsi as his
disapproving father and Maestro Daniele Callegari on the
podium.
Kevin Puts's The Hours—WORLD-PREMIERE PRODUCTION
Live in HD date: December
10, 2022
Librettist: Greg Pierce
Production: Phelim McDermott
Set and Costume Designer: Tom Pye
Lighting Designer: Bruno Poet
Projection Designer: Finn Ross
Choreographer: Annie-B Parson
Dramaturg: Paul Cremo
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Conductor); Renée Fleming (Clarissa Vaughan), Kelli O'Hara
(Laura
Brown), Joyce DiDonato
(Virginia Woolf), Sean Panikkar (Leonard Woolf), William Burden (Louis),
Kyle Ketelsen (Richard),
Brandon Cedel (Dan Brown)
The world-premiere staging of Kevin Puts's The Hours,
adapted from Michael Cunningham's
acclaimed novel, which also served as the inspiration for the
Oscar-winning film, arrives in cinemas this December.
In her highly anticipated return
to the Met, soprano Renée Fleming joins
soprano Kelli O'Hara
and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato to portray three women from different
eras who grapple with their inner demons and their roles in
society. Phelim McDermott, who
recently created the Met's acclaimed production of Philip Glass's Akhnaten, directs this
compelling drama, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium to
conduct Puts's powerful score.
Giordano's Fedora—NEW PRODUCTION
Live in HD date: January
14, 2023
Production: David McVicar, Set Designer: Charles Edwards,
Costume Designer: Brigitte Reiffenstuel, Lighting
Designer: Adam Silverman
Marco Armiliato (Conductor); Sonya Yoncheva (Fedora),
Rosa Feola (Olga), Piotr Beczała (Loris Ipanoff),
Artur Ruciński (De Siriex)
Giordano's exhilarating drama Fedora returns to the Met
for the first time in 25 years, starring soprano Sonya Yoncheva in
the title role of the 19th-century princess who falls in love with
her
fiancé's murderer, Count Loris, sung by tenor Piotr Beczała. Soprano Rosa Feola is the Countess
Olga, Fedora's confidante, and baritone Artur Ruciński is the
diplomat De Siriex. Marco Armiliato
conducts David McVicar's intricate
production, with a fixed set that unfolds to reveal the opera's
settings: a palace in St.
Petersburg, a fashionable Parisian salon, and a picturesque
villa in the Swiss Alps.
Wagner's Lohengrin—NEW PRODUCTION
Live in HD date: March
18, 2023
Production: François Girard,
Set and Costume Designer: Tim Yip,
Lighting Designer: David Finn,
Projection Designer: Peter Flaherty,
Choreographer: TBA
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Conductor); Tamara Wilson (Elsa),
Christine Goerke (Ortrud), Piotr Beczała (Lohengrin),
Evgeny Nikitin (Telramund),
Brian Mulligan (Herald), Günther
Groissböck (Heinrich)
Wagner's Lohengrin returns to the Met stage after an absence
of 17 years with this atmospheric new staging
by François Girard. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a cast led by
tenor Piotr Beczała in the title role of the mysterious swan
knight. Soprano Tamara Wilson is the
virtuous duchess Elsa, falsely accused of murder, going
head-to-head with soprano Christine
Goerke as the cunning sorceress
Ortrud. Bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin is Ortrud's power-hungry husband,
Telramund, and bass Günther Groissböck is King Heinrich.
Verdi's Falstaff—REVIVAL
Live in HD date: April
1, 2023
Production: Robert Carsen
Set Designer: Paul Steinberg
Costume Designer: Brigitte Reiffenstuel
Lighting Designers: Robert Carsen and Peter Van Praet
Daniele Rustioni (Conductor); Hera Hyesang Park (Nannetta); Ailyn
Pérez (Alice Ford); Marie-Nicole
Lemieux (Mistress Quickly); Jennifer
Johnson Cano (Meg Page);
Bogdan Volkov (Fenton); Michael
Volle (Falstaff); Christopher
Maltman (Ford)
Verdi's Shakespearean comedy features a brilliant ensemble cast
in Robert Carsen's celebrated
staging. Baritone Michael Volle
sings his first Verdi role at the Met as the caddish knight
Falstaff, gleefully tormented by a trio of clever women who
deliver his comeuppance. Reuniting after their acclaimed
performances in the production's 2019 run are soprano Ailyn
Pérez as Alice Ford, soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano as Meg Page, and contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Mistress Quickly.
Soprano Hera Hyesang Park and tenor Bogdan
Volkov are the young couple Nannetta and Fenton, and Daniele
Rustioni conducts.
Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier—REVIVAL
Live in HD date: April 15, 2023
Production: Robert Carsen
Set Designer: Paul Steinberg
Costume Designer: Brigitte Reiffenstuel
Lighting Designers: Robert Carsen and Peter Van Praet
Choreographer: Philippe Giraudeau
Simone Young (Conductor); Lise Davidsen (Marschallin), Isabel Leonard (Octavian), Erin
Morley (Sophie), Katharine Goeldner
(Annina), René Barbera (Italian Singer), Thomas Ebenstein (Valzacchi), Markus Brück
(Faninal), Günther Groissböck (Baron
Ochs)
A stellar trio assembles to take on the lead roles of Strauss's
comedy, with soprano Lise Davidsen
in her Met role debut as the Marschallin, opposite
mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard in
her Met role debut as Octavian and soprano Erin Morley as Sophie. Bass
Günther Groissböck returns as
Baron Ochs, and Markus Brück is Sophie's
father, Faninal. Maestro Simone Young takes the
podium to oversee Robert Carsen's
fin-de-siècle staging.
Terence Blanchard's Champion—MET PREMIERE
Live in HD date: April 29, 2023
Librettist: Michael Cristofer
Production: James Robinson
Set Designer: Allen Moyer
Costume Designer: Paul Tazewell
Lighting Designer: Donald Holder
Projection Designer: Greg Emetaz
Choreographer: Camille A. Brown
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Conductor); Latonia Moore (Emelda
Griffith), Stephanie Blythe (Kathy Hagan),
Ryan Speedo Green (Young Emile Griffith), Eric Owens (Emile
Griffith)
Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard
brings his first opera to the Met after
his Fire Shut Up in My Bones
made history in the 2021–22 season. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is the young boxer
Emile Griffith, who rises from
obscurity to become a world champion, and bass-baritone
Eric Owens portrays Griffith's older
self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda
Griffith, the boxer's estranged mother, and mezzo-soprano
Stephanie Blythe is the bar owner
Kathy Hagan. Yannick Nézet-Séguin returns to the podium to conduct
Blanchard's second Met premiere. Director James Robinson, whose productions of Fire
Shut Up in My Bones and Porgy
and Bess brought down the house, oversees the staging.
Camille A. Brown, whose choreography
electrified audiences in Fire and Porgy, also
returns.
Mozart's Don Giovanni—NEW PRODUCTION
Live in HD date: May 20, 2023
Production: Ivo van Hove
Set and Lighting Designer: Jan Versweyveld
Costume Designer: An D'Huys
Projection Designer: Christopher Ash
Choreographer: Sara Erde
Nathalie Stutzmann (Conductor);
Federica Lombardi (Donna Anna), Ana María Martínez (Donna Elvira), Ying
Fang (Zerlina), Ben Bliss
(Don Ottavio), Peter Mattei (Don
Giovanni), Adam Plachetka (Leporello), Alfred
Walker (Masetto), Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Commendatore)
Tony Award–winning director Ivo van
Hove makes his Met debut with a new staging of Mozart's
tragicomedy Don Giovanni. The
tale of deceit and damnation is set in an abstract architectural
landscape that explores the dark corners of the story and its
characters. Nathalie Stutzmann makes her Met debut
conducting a star-studded cast led by baritone Peter Mattei as a
magnetic Don Giovanni, alongside the
Leporello of bass-baritone Adam
Plachetka. Sopranos Federica
Lombardi, Ana María Martínez, and Ying Fang are Giovanni's conquests—Donna Anna,
Donna Elvira, and Zerlina—and tenor
Ben Bliss sings Don Ottavio.
Mozart's Die Zauberflöte—NEW PRODUCTION
Live in HD date: June 3, 2023
Production and Choreography: Simon McBurney
Set Designer: Michael Levine
Costume Designer: Nicky Gillibrand
Lighting Designer: Jean Kalman
Projection Designer: Finn Ross
Sound Designer: Gareth Fry
Nathalie Stutzmann (Conductor); Erin Morley (Pamina), Kathryn Lewek (Queen of the Night),
Lawrence Brownlee (Tamino),
Thomas Oliemans (Papageno),
Alan Held (Speaker), Stephen Milling (Sarastro), Brenton Ryan (Monostatos)
Nathalie Stutzmann conducts
her second Mozart work this season with a new production
of Die
Zauberflöte. In his Met-debut staging, Simon McBurney
incorporates projections, sound effects, and acrobatics
to match the spectacle and drama of Mozart's fable. The brilliant
cast includes soprano Erin Morley as
Pamina, tenor Lawrence Brownlee as
Tamino, baritone Thomas
Oliemans in his Met debut as Papageno, soprano
Kathryn
Lewek as the Queen of the Night, and
bass Stephen Milling as
Sarastro.
Mozart's The Magic Flute—SPECIAL ENCORE
PRESENTATION
Originally transmitted live on December
30, 2006
Live in HD Encore Date: December 3, 2022
Production: Julie Taymor
Set Designer: George Tsypin
Costume Designer: Julie Taymor
Lighting Designer: Donald Holder
Puppet Designers: Julie Taymor and Michael Curry
Choreographer: Mark Dendy
English Adaptation: J.D. McClatchy
James Levine
(Conductor); Ying Huang (Pamina), Erika
Miklósa (Queen of the Night), Matthew Polenzani (Tamino), Greg Fedderly (Monostatos), Nathan Gunn (Papageno), David Pittsinger (Speaker), René Pape
(Sarastro)
The Met made history in December
2006 when it presented its first Live in HD
transmission to cinemas worldwide—the abridged English-language
version of Mozart's The Magic Flute. Julie Taymor's whimsical production features a
winning ensemble, including tenor Matthew
Polenzani, baritone Nathan
Gunn, and bass René Pape. The opera
returns to select movie theaters in a special encore
presentation during the holiday season.
About Fathom Events
Fathom is a recognized leader in the entertainment industry as
one of the top distributors of content to movie theaters in
North America. Owned by AMC
Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: AMC); Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:
CNK); and Regal, a subsidiary of the Cineworld Group (LSE: CINE.L),
Fathom operates the largest cinema distribution network, delivering
a wide variety of programming and experiences to cinema audiences
in all of the top U.S. markets and to more than 45 countries. For
more information, visit www.FathomEvents.com.
About The Met: Live in HD
The Met: Live in HD series has made 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 began in December 2006, the
Met was the first arts company to experiment with alternative
cinema content. Since then, the program has expanded, with more
than 29.7 million tickets sold to date and robust attendance in
the United States, Germany, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom.
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, the series has made world-class
performances accessible to millions of opera lovers each
season.
Met artists serve as hosts for the Live in HD
series, providing background on the operas,
introducing exciting behind-the-scenes features,
and conducting live interviews with stars, crew,
and production teams.
The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous
grant from its founding sponsor, the Neubauer Family
Foundation. Digital
support of The Met: Live in HD is provided
by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Met: Live in HD series is
supported by Rolex. The HD broadcasts are also supported by Toll
Brothers, America's luxury homebuilder®.
Within months of their initial
live transmissions, the Live in HD programs
are shown on PBS in the United
States. The PBS series Great Performances at the Met
is produced in association with PBS and WNET, with support from
Toll Brothers, America's luxury homebuilder®.
For more information about The Met: Live in HD, visit metopera.org/hd.
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