It looks certain that many performances will be shutting left, right and centre because of the coronavirus outbreak, but that doesn’t mean the culture has to stop.
The New York Metropolitan Opera has announced it will be streaming performances of Carmen, La Bohème, La Traviata and more for free to help people live out their isolation in style.
The Met’s general manager Peter Gelb said they wanted to “provide some grand opera solace to opera lovers in these extraordinarily difficult times,” adding: “Every night, we’ll be offering a different complete operatic gem from our collection of HD presentations from the past 14 years.”
The free streams will begin with Carmen at 7:30pm EST tonight – that’s 11:30pm our time, but if you’re not a night owl, they will then be available online for 20 hours afterwards.
The first week of performances continues with works by Puccini, Verdi and Tchaikovsky. The full schedule is here:
Monday, March 16 – Bizet’s Carmen
Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Elīna Garanča and Roberto Alagna. Transmitted live on January 16, 2010.
Tuesday, March 17 – Puccini’s La Bohème
Conducted by Nicola Luisotti, starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas. Transmitted live on April 5, 2008.
Wednesday, March 18 – Verdi’s Il Trovatore
Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Yonghoon Lee, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Transmitted live on October 3, 2015.
Thursday, March 19 – Verdi’s La Traviata
Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez, and Quinn Kelsey. Transmitted live on December 15, 2018.
Friday, March 20 – Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment
Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez. Transmitted live on April 26, 2008.
Saturday, March 21 – Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, and Mariusz Kwiecien. Transmitted live on February 7, 2009.
Sunday, March 22 – Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
Conducted by Valery Gergiev, starring Renée Fleming, Ramón Vargas, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Transmitted live on February 24, 2007.
Go to metopera.org to watch.
