Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala Star in a New Production of Massenet’s Manon for the Metropolitan Opera

Anna Netrebko will make her Met role debut as the tragic heroine of Massenet's Manonin a new production directed by Laurent Pelly. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will conduct the opera for the first time at the Met, and Piotr Beczala makes his role debut as the ardent Chevalier des Grieux. 

Paulo Szot sings Manon's cousin Lescaut and David Pittsinger sings the Chevalier's father, the Comte des Grieux. Pelly's staging of Manon, a success when it premiered at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden in 2010, is his second Met production; he also directed the new production of La Fille du Régiment that premiered in the Met's 2007-08 season. Manon features Pelly's costume designs, scenic design by ChantAl Thomas, lighting design by Joël Adam, and choreography by Lionel Hoche in his Met debut. Pelly's production, set in the late 19^th century, is a co-production of the Met, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse. The April 7 matinee will be transmitted live around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 1,700 movie theaters in 54 countries.

These will be Netrebko's first complete Met performances of the hedonistic and irresistible Manon, though she sang a portion of the opera (Act 3, Scene 2, the famous scene set in Paris's Saint-Sulpice church) in a 2007 Met gala.  In recent years, she has sung Manon to critical acclaim at the Vienna State Opera and in the premiere of Pelly's staging at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. She opened the current Met season with another house role debut, the title character in the company premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, and will make her Met role debut as Adina in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore on opening night of the 2012-13 season. Since her Met debut in Prokofiev's War and Peace in 2002, she has sung ten additional roles with the company, including Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale (2006 new production premiere), Musetta and Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème, Antonia in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann (2009 new production premiere), the title character in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Elvira in Bellini's I Puritani, Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, and Zerlina and Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Beczala sings his first-ever performances of the Chevalier des Grieux in this production. Since his 2006 Met debut as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto (a role he reprises in a new production at the Met next season), he has sung Edgardo inLucia di Lammermoor (including a Live in HD performance, opposite Netrebko), Lenski in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Rodolfo in La Bohème, and Roméo in Roméo et Juliette.

Szot starred as Kovalyov in the 2010 Met premiere of Shostakovich's The Nose and returned last season as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen. He won a 2008 Tony Award for his portrayal of Emile de Becque in Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific.

This season, Luisi has led a diverse repertory of acclaimed performances at the Met, including the new production premieres of Don Giovanni and Wagner's Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. In addition to Manon, Luisi's spring Met engagements include a revival of Verdi's La Traviata and three complete cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen. Next season, he will conduct a new production of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, revivals of Verdi's Aida and Berlioz's Les Troyens, and complete Ring cycles.

Pelly, a noted French opera and theater director, made his Met debut in 2008 with a highly praised new production of Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment. He is the co-director of the Théâtre National de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées and has directed Theater Productions at, among many others, the Comédie Française and Odéon in Paris and the Avignon Festival. His recent opera productions include Massenet's Cendrillon, seen at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels; Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges at the Glyndebourne Festival; and Massenet's Don Quichotte in Brussels and at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo.

Manon Live in HD and on the Radio

The April 7 12 p.m. matinee of Manon, hosted by Natalie Dessay, will be transmitted live as part of The Met: Live in HD series, which is now seen in more than 1,700 movie theaters in 54 countries around the world.

The March 26 opening performance will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performances on April 7, 11, and 17. The March 26 and April 17 performances will also be streamed live on the Met's Web site, www.metopera.org.

The April 7 matinee at 12 p.m. will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.