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Donizetti's Anna Bolena
Saturday, October 15, 2011 1:00 PM
Anna Netrebko opens the Met season with her portrayal of the ill-fated queen driven insane by her unfaithful king. She sings one of opera's greatest mad scenes in a production that also stars Elina Garanca as her rival, Jane Seymour, and Ildar Abdrazakov as Henry VIII. Marco Armiliato conducts.

Mozart's Don Giovanni
Saturday, October 29, 2011 1:00 PM
Mariusz Kwiecien brings his youthful and sensual interpretation of Mozart's timeless anti-hero to the Met for the first time, under the direction of Tony Award-winning director Michael Grandage and with James Levine conducting. A troupe of refined Mozartians appears in this new production, including Marina Rebeka, Barbara Frittoli, Isabel Leonard, Matthew Polenzani, Ramón Vargas, and John Relyea. Gerald Finley steps into the title role later in the season, and Andrew Davis also conducts.

Wagner's Siegfried
Sunday, November 13, 2011 12:00 PM
In part three of the Ring, Wagner's cosmic vision focuses on his hero's early conquests, while Robert Lepage's revolutionary stage machine transforms itself from bewitched forest to mountaintop love nest. Gary Lehman sings the title role and Deborah Voigt's Brünnhilde is his prize. Bryn Terfel is the Wanderer. James Levine conducts

Glass's Satyagraha
Saturday, November 19, 2011 1:00 PM
The Met's visually extravagant production is back for an encore engagement. Richard Croft once again is Gandhi in Philip Glass's unforgettable opera, which the Washington Post calls "a profound and beautiful work of theater. Philip Glass's landmark 1980 work, set to text from the ancient Sanskrit scripture the Bhagavad Gita, is a moving account of Mahatma Gandhi's formative experiences in South Africa, which transformed him into a great leader.

Handel's Rodelinda
Sunday, December 11, 2011 12:30 PM
Sensational in the 2004 Met premiere of Stephen Wadsworth's much-heralded production, Renée Fleming reprises the title role. She's joined by Stephanie Blythe and countertenor Andreas Scholl, and Baroque specialist Harry Bicket conducts. Handel, the most successful composer of the first half of the 18th century, wrote many of his operas in London. He wrote Rodelinda in 1725, the year after the triumphant success of Giulio Cesare. Based distantly on a play by Corneille, it tells the story of the Queen Rodelinda in seventh century Lombardy, whose throne has been usurped and whose husband has been forced to flee Milan. But he returns in disguise, having spread the rumor that he has died. The production played to great critical and popular acclaim when it opened in 2004

Gounod's Faust
Sunday, December 18, 2011 1:00 PM
With Jonas Kaufmann in the title role, René Pape as the devil, and Marina Poplavskaya as Marguerite, Gounod's classic retelling of the Faust legend couldn't be better served. Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff updates the story to the first half of the 20th century with a production that won praise in London last season. A later run features two other first-tier Fausts: Roberto Alagna and Joseph Calleja, with Ferruccio Furlanetto stepping in as the devil. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts on the heels of his Don Carlo success.

The Enchanted Island
Saturday, January 21, 2012 1:00 PM
In one extraordinary new work, lovers of Baroque opera have it all: the world's best singers, glorious music of the Baroque masters, and a story drawn from Shakespeare. In The Enchanted Island, the lovers from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream are shipwrecked on his other-worldly island of The Tempest. Inspired by the musical pastiches and masques of the 18th century, the work showcases arias and ensembles by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and others, and a new libretto by Jeremy Sams. Eminent conductor William Christie leads an all-star cast with David Daniels (Prospero) and Joyce DiDonato (Sycorax) as the formidable foes, Plácido Domingo as Neptune, Danielle de Niese as Ariel, and Luca Pisaroni as Caliban. Lisette Oropesa and Anthony Roth Costanzo play Miranda and Ferdinand. The dazzling production is directed and designed by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch (Satyagraha and the Met's 125 anniversary gala).

Wagner's Gotterdammerung
Saturday, February 11, 2012 12:00 PM
With its cataclysmic climax, the Met's new Ring cycle, directed by Robert Lepage, comes to its resolution. Deborah Voigt stars as Brünnhilde and Gary Lehman is Siegfried-the star-crossed lovers doomed by fate. James Levine conducts.

Verdi's Ernani
Saturday, February 25, 2012 1:00 PM
Angela Meade takes center stage in Verdi's thrilling early gem. Marcello Giordani is her mismatched lover, and all-star Verdians Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ferruccio Furlanetto round out the cast.

Massenet's Manon
Saturday, April 7, 2012 12:00 PM
Anna Netrebko's dazzling portrayal of the tragic heroine in Laurent Pelly's new production travels to the Met from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Piotr Beczala and Paulo Szot also star, with the Met's Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi on the podium.

Verdi's La Traviata
Saturday, April 14, 2012 1:00 PM
Natalie Dessay will put on the red dress in Willy Decker's stunning production, in her first Violetta at the Met. Matthew Polenzani sings Alfredo, Dmitri Hvorostovsky is Germont, and Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium. Violetta is an outlaw," Decker says. "Society shuts her out and looks down on her as a person without feeling, without love. But the further you look into the piece, you see that it's the other way around: she is the only person in the opera who truly loves, selflessly. Verdi follows her like an obsessed lover throughout the piece, and by the end, our sympathy too is completely on her side.

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