Saturday, March 5 at 1: 00 p m. Et

Kristine Opolais recently sang the role of Manon Lescaut to acclaim with the Bavarian State Opera and Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Since her 2013 Met debut as Magda in Puccini’s La Rondine, she has continued to shine in leading Puccini roles with the company. Most notably, she filled in for a sick colleague at the last minute as Mimì in La Bohème in a 2014 HD performance and live radio broadcast – the day after making her Met role debut as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, making history as the first Met artist to debut roles in consecutive performances. Following her appearances as Manon Lescaut, she will reprise the role of Cio-Cio-San in a performance to be broadcast on April 2. Next season, she will star in the Met’s new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka and reprise the role of Mimì.

Roberto Alagna sings his first-ever performances of Des Grieux at the Met this season. Since his house debut in 1996 as Rodolfo in La Bohème, he has appeared in over 100 performances of twelve different roles with the company, including Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca, Radamès in Verdi’s Aida, and the title characters in Gounod’s Faust and Massenet’s Werther. Later this season, Alagna will star opposite Opolais as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and he returns next season in the title role of Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac.

Baritone Massimo Cavalletti adds the role of Lescaut to his Met repertory this season, having sung it previously at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. After making his Met debut in 2010 as Schaunard in La Bohème, he returned to play Marcello in the same opera, and also appeared as Escamillo in Carmen. At La Scala, he has performed Marcello, Escamillo, Belcore in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, and Figaro in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He will return there later this season as Paolo Albiani in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra.

Brindley Sherratt makes his role debut as Geronte with this production, after making his Met debut last season as Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. Credits with other companies include Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at the Vienna State Opera; Creon in Charpentier’s Médée and Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra at the English National Opera; Claggart in Britten’s Billy Budd at the Glyndebourne Festival; and Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto and the Blind Ballad Singer in Britten’s Gloriana at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. He stars as Arkel in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande at the Zurich Opera later this season.

Fabio Luisi has led over 185 performances of 28 operas at the Met since his 2005 company debut. As Met Principal Conductor, some of his most notable performances include Verdi’s Macbeth; Wagner’s Ring cycle; Richard Strauss’s rarely heard Die Ägyptische Helena; Berlioz’s epic Les Troyens; and new productions last season of Lehár’s The Merry Widow and the double bill of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. Later this season, he will conduct Le Nozze di Figaro, which will be broadcast on March 26.

The intermissions will include the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Quiz, featuring tenor Vittorio Grigolo, and backstage interviews led by HD host Deborah Voigt.
MANON LESCAUT LIVE IN HD TRANSMISSION

This performance of Manon Lescaut will also be transmitted live as part of the Met’s Live in HD series of movie theater transmissions, which now reaches more than 2,000 theaters in 70 countries around the world. Soprano Deborah Voigt hosts the live transmission and conducts backstage interviews with the opera’s stars. Since the Live in HD series launched in 2006, more than 16 million tickets have been sold to opera fans around the world. For more information and listings of local theaters, please visit http://www.metopera.org/Season/In-Cinemas/.

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 85th season of Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts—the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history. Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts have brought opera into millions of homes and enriched the lives of many, playing a vital and unparalleled role in the development and appreciation of opera in this country. Mary Jo Heath hosts, joined each week in the broadcast booth by commentator Ira Siff.

Metropolitan Opera