Fans Vote Online for Favorite Met 'Great Performances'

In honor of the Met's 30th anniversary on PBS, Thirteen/WNET New York's "Great Performances at the Met" series presents "Great Moments at the Met: Viewer's Choice," a showcase of fans' favorite televised Met moments, chosen through online voting. Opera diva Renée Fleming will host an exciting line-up of some of the most unforgettable scenes from the past 30 years of broadcasts on this special countdown show, which airs this December on PBS.

Voting for "Great Moments at the Met: Viewer's Choice" begins September 17 online at the Great Performances website (www.pbs.org/gperf) where a selection of excerpts from Met telecasts spanning three decades will be available for screening. Viewers are invited to cast their votes for their top-ten favorites (one time only) and will be able to rank their choices from 1 to 10. Voting ends October 12.

Viewers will be able to choose from a wide range of stunning performances, beginning with the very first Live from the Met telecast of La Bohéme in 1977, starring the young Luciano Pavarotti. Other highlights include such incomparable performances as Plácido Domingo in Verdi's Otello, Leontyne Price in her farewell performance of Aida, Joan Sutherland as the tragic heroine of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and Birgit Nilsson in Strauss' Elektra.

In addition, audiences will be able to vote for highlights from last season's "Great Performances at the Met" – Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, with the riveting pairing of Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky; Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, featuring the vocal fireworks of Juan Diego Flórez and Joyce di Donato; and Bellini's I Puritani, led by the stunning Anna Netrebko – fresh from the inaugural season of the Met's groundbreaking and highly successful Live in High Definition series.

"Great Performances at the Met" begins its second season in spring 2008 with Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel with Alice Coote and Christine Schäfer, followed by Gounod's Roméo et Juliette with Netrebko and Rolando Villazón; Verdi's Macbeth with Lado Ataneli, conducted by Met Music Director James Levine; Puccini's Manon Lescaut, starring Karita Mattila and also conducted by Maestro Levine; Britten's Peter Grimes with Anthony Dean Griffey; Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, starring Deborah Voigt and Ben Heppner, conducted by Levine; Puccini's La Bohéme with Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas; and Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment, with Flórez and Natalie Dessay.