The Metropolitan Opera’s Summer HD Festival
Returns August 26 to September 5, Presenting Free Outdoor
Opera Screenings To Approximately 50,000 New Yorkers
Ten past selections from the company’s Live in HD transmissions will be projected on a giant screen on the façade of the opera house
3,100 seats for each screening will be available on Lincoln Center Plaza,
with no tickets required
The series will launch with a special screening of Amadeus on August 26, dedicated to the late Peter Shaffer and co-presented with the Film Society of Lincoln Center
New York, NY (June 21, 2016) — The Metropolitan Opera’s annual Summer HD Festival, which presents free outdoor screenings of operas on Lincoln Center Plaza each summer, will return for its eighth season this summer, with one screening each night from August 26 to September 5. The series will present 10 past performances from the company’s acclaimed Live in HD series of movie theater transmissions, featuring leading Met stars in a varied selection of operas by Bizet, Donizetti, Lehár, Leoncavallo, Mascagni, Mozart, Puccini, Rossini, and Verdi.
For the third year in a row, the Met is collaborating with the Film Society of Lincoln Center to open the festival with an opera-related Hollywood film. This year’s selection, Milos Forman’s Amadeus, will be screened on Friday, August 26 at 7:45 p.m. The movie, which won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture in 1985, is based on Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play. The screening is dedicated to the memory of Peter Shaffer, who died earlier this month.
The Summer HD Festival will continue on Saturday, August 27 at 7:30 p.m. with the first of ten opera screenings: a performance of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro from 2014, starring Amanda Majeski, Marlis Petersen, Isabel Leonard, Peter Mattei, and Ildar Abdrazakov. Several Live in HD performances from the Met’s 2015-16 season will be screened this summer, including Verdi’s Il Trovatore with Anna Netrebko as Leonora and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Count Di Luna; Verdi’s Otello, starring Sonya Yoncheva as Desdemona and Aleksandrs Antonenko in the title role; Puccini’s Turandot starring Nina Stemme as the title character; and Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles, starring Diana Damrau as the priestess Leïla with Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecien as Nadir and Zurga. Other screenings will include Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez and Lucia di Lammermoor with Natalie Dessay and Joseph Calleja; Rossini’s La Cenerentola starring Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez; the double bill of Masagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci featuring Eva-Maria Westbroek, Patricia Racette, Marcelo Álvarez, and George Gagnidze; and Lehár’s The Merry Widow starring Renée Flemming, Kelli O’Hara, and Nathan Gunn.
A complete schedule is available below.
Each evening of the festival, more than 3,100 seats on the plaza will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, as well as additional space for overflow crowds. No tickets are required, and there are no rain dates.
The Summer HD Festival is generously supported by The Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust.
The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor, The Neubauer Family Foundation. Global sponsorship of The Met: Live in HD is also provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
The Met’s 2016 Summer HD Festival Schedule
Friday, August 26, 7:45 PM: AMADEUS
Amadeus won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1985, among seven other Oscars that year, including Best Actor F. Murray Abraham as Salieri. Based on Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play (with an Oscar-winning screenplay by the playwright himself), Amadeus is famous for its bawdy portrayal of the genius composer, for its ravishing art direction, and for the scene in which Austrian Emperor Joseph II dubiously asserts that one particular Mozart composition had “simply too many notes.” A co-presentation of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Saturday, August 27, 7:30 PM: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO
James Levine conducts one of Mozart’s most memorable scores, with an ensemble of rising stars and Met veterans including Amanda Majeski, Marlis Petersen, Isabel Leonard, Peter Mattei, and Ildar Abdrazakov. Director Richard Eyre’s elegant production sets the action in the early 20th century. (Original transmission: October 18, 2014).
Approximate running time: 3 hours
Sunday, August 28, 8:00 PM: IL TROVATORE
Anna Netrebko stars as Leonora in Sir David McVicar’s Goya-inspired production. Dolora Zajick, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Yonghoon Lee complete the quartet of stars in Verdi’s tragedy. (Original transmission: October 3, 2015).
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Monday, August 29, 8:00 PM: OTELLO
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Verdi’s powerful Shakespeare adaptation in Bartlett Sher’s production. Aleksandrs Antonenko sings the towering title role, opposite Sonya Yoncheva as Desdemona and Željko Lučić as Iago. (Original transmission: October 17, 2015).
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Tuesday, August 30, 8:00 PM: LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT
Vocal fireworks meet slapstick comedy in Donizetti’s lighthearted opera. Bel canto stars Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez lead the cast of the Met’s production. (Original transmission: April 26, 2008).
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Wednesday, August 31, 8:00 PM: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
Natalie Dessay sings opera’s most famous mad scene as the unhinged bride of Lammermoor, opposite Joseph Calleja as her faithful lover and Ludovic Tézier as her scheming brother. (Original transmission: March 19, 2011).
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Thursday, September 1, 7:45 PM: LA CENERENTOLA
Joyce DiDonato triumphs in the title role of the unlikely heroine, opposite Juan Diego Flórez as her Prince Charming. Fabio Luisi conducts Rossini’s sparkling take on the Cinderella story. (Original transmission: May 10, 2014).
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Friday, September 2, 7:45 PM: CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA/PAGLIACCI
Opera’s most popular double bill stars Marcelo Álvarez in both leading tenor roles, along with Eva-Maria Westbroek, Patricia Racette, and George Gagnidze. Fabio Luisi leads this production. (Original transmission: April 25, 2015).
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Saturday, September 3, 8:00 PM: THE MERRY WIDOW
Renée Fleming stars in Lehár’s sumptuous operetta, in a production by Broadway director and choreographer Susan Stroman. Nathan Gunn and Tony Award winner Kelli O’Hara, in her Met debut, complete the principal cast. (Original transmission: January 17, 2015).
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Sunday, September 4, 8:00 PM: TURANDOT
Puccini’s final opera is seen in Franco Zeffirelli’s spectacular production, a classic of the Met repertoire. Nina Stemme takes on the title role of the ruthless Chinese princess. (Original transmission: January 30, 2016).
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes
Monday, September 5, 8:00 PM: LES PÊCHEURS DE PERLES
Not seen at the Met in a century, Bizet’s opera returned to the stage last winter, with Diana Damrau in the leading role, and Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecien singing the famous duet “Au fond du temple saint.” Gianandrea Noseda conducts. (Original transmission: December 15, 2012).
Approximate running time: 2 hours
The Met: Live in HD is produced in association with WNET and PBS.
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