A Double-Bill of Two Rarely Performed Operas,
Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle,
Opens at the Met January 26
Beginning January 26, the Met will present a double-bill of two rarely performed one-act operas: Tchaikovsky’s romantic fairy tale Iolanta, with Anna Netrebko in the title role of a blind princess and Piotr Beczala as Count Vaudémont, a knight who loves her; and Bartók’s harrowing Bluebeard’s Castle, with Nadja Michael as a bride who discovers the terrifying truth about her new husband, sung by Mikhail Petrenko. Valery Gergiev returns to the Met to conduct both operas, which will be presented in a production by acclaimed Polish director Mariusz Treliński in his Met debut. This season’s performances will be the company premiere of Iolanta, Tchaikovsky’s final opera, and the Met’s first-ever staged performances of Bluebeard’s Castle in the original Hungarian. The February 14 matinee performance will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met’s Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 2,000 movie theaters in 69 countries around the world.
Iolanta will also star Aleksei Markov as Robert, the duke who has been promised Iolanta’s hand in marriage; Alexei Tanovitski as King René, Iolanta’s father; Azerbaijani baritone Elchin Azizov in his Met debut as the physician Ibn-Hakia. In Bluebeard’s Castle, which has only two singing roles, Petrenko and Michael will star in all performances with the exception of February 18, when Michaela Martens will sing Judith. Russian conductor Pavel Smelkov leads the double-bill on February 18 and 21.
Further information, including biographies of the principal artists, is available in our online press room here.
Performances: January 26, 29, February 3, 7, 10, 14mat, 18, 21. Curtain times vary: complete schedule here. Running time: 3 hours, 15 minutes, including one intermission.
Tickets begin at $25; for prices, more information, or to place an order, please call (212) 362-6000 or visit www.metopera.org. Special rates for groups of 10 or more are available by calling (212) 341-5410 or visiting www.metopera.org/groups.
Same-day $25 rush tickets for all performances of Iolanta /Bluebeard’s Castle are available on a first-come, first-served basis on the Met’s Web site. Tickets will go on sale for performances Monday-Friday at noon, matinees four hours before curtain, and Saturday evenings at 2pm. To enter, click here.
