Alagna, Cura Star In RUSTICANA And PAGLIACCI At The MET 3/19

Two star tenors, Roberto Alagna and José Cura, take on the challenge of singing the lead roles in both Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci when the classic double-bill returns to the Met's repertory. At the season premiere on March 19, Alagna sings Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana for the first time on any stage and Canio in Pagliacci in his Met role debut. Waltraud Meier joins him in the Mascagni work as Santuzza, along with Charles Taylor as Alfio. Leoncavallo's opera also features Nuccia Focile as Nedda, Alberto Mastromarino in his Met debut as Tonio, and Christopher Maltman in his company role debut as Silvio.

José Cura also sings both Turiddu and Canio, the latter for the first time at the Met, beginning March 30. He is joined by Ildikó Komlósi in her first Met appearances as Santuzza and by Ambrogio Maestri as Tonio for the final four performances; Vasili Ladyuk sings the role of Silvio at the March 30 performance only. The rest of the cast remains the same as in earlier performances. Pietro Rizzo, who is making his Met debut, conducts all the performances, which run through April 10.

About the performers

Roberto Alagna's Met repertoire expands by three roles this season. On New Year's Eve, he sang his first Ruggero when he co-starred with his wife, Angela Gheorghiu, in a new production of La Rondine; the opera was seen worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD on January 10. The French tenor now adds Turiddu and Canio on the same night. Last season, Alagna sang Roméo opposite Anna Netrebko in Roméo et Juliette, which was also transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD; Radamès in Aida; and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. He also gave a free concert with Gheorghiu and the Met Orchestra in Brooklyn's Prospect Park before a record-breaking crowd of more than 50,000 people. Next season at the Met, Alagna reprises the role of Don José opposite his wife in a new production of Carmen, which has its gala premiere on New Year's Eve and will later be transmitted as part of The Met: Live in HD series. He made his Met debut as Rodolfo in La Bohème in 1996 and has also sung Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore, the Duke in Rigoletto, and two great lyric tenor roles from the French repertoire, Faust and Werther.

With Turiddu, José Cura returns to the role of his Met debut, which he made on opening night of the 1999-2000 season; Canio is a company role debut for him. The Argentinian tenor has appeared in two other operas at the Met, as Cavaradossi in Tosca and as Samson in Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila. Next season, Cura sings the title role in Verdi's Stiffelio, which returns to the Met after an absence of 12 years. Elsewhere this season he sings Calàf in Turandot at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and the Zurich Opera, as well as Stiffelio, Cavaradossi, and Don José at the Vienna State Opera. In addition, Cura, who originally trained as a conductor, leads performances of La Rondine at Bologna's Teatro Comunale.

Waltraud Meier returns to sing the role of Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, which she first performed at the Met in 1993. Perhaps most renowned for her Wagner interpretations-the Ring's Fricka, Kundry in Parsifal, Venus in Tannhauser, and, earlier this season, a tumultuously received Isolde-Meier has also starred at the Met in a new production of Carmen (1996), sung Leonore in Fidelio, and performed Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and Berg's Seven Early Songs in concert with the Met Orchestra. Later this season, the German mezzo-soprano appears in the final performances of Otto Schenk's landmark production of Der Ring des Nibelungen-singing Sieglinde for the first time at the Met in a staged production.

American baritone Charles Taylor, who graduated from the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in 2005, makes two role debuts this season, first as Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana and then as Donner in Das Rheingold. Last season Taylor was Capulet in Roméo et Juliette, which was transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD, as well as Montano in Otello. Among the dozen roles he has performed at the Met are Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Germont in La Traviata, and Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor. Taylor made his Houston Grand Opera debut this season as both Alfio and Tonio.

Soprano Nuccia Focile makes her Met role debut as Nedda. The Sicilian native made her company debut as Mimì in 1995 and later sang Despina in Così fan tutte. Focile appears regularly with leading European and American companies. This season the Italian soprano was Jenůfa at Welsh National Opera and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro at Strasbourg's Opéra du Rhin, and later in the year she sings the title role in La Traviata at Seattle Opera.

Alberto Mastromarino makes his Met debut as Tonio in Pagliacci. Though the Italian baritone has made Verdi something of a specialty, he is singing two other verismo roles this season, Giorgio in Mascagni's Amica at the Rome Opera, and Michonnet in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur at both the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and Turin's Teatro Regio. In addition, he sings Scarpia in Tosca at Tel Aviv's Israeli Opera and at the Teatro Comunale in Florence.

Christopher Maltman, who made his Met debut as Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos in 2005, returns to make his role debut as Silvio. Next season the English baritone, who recently sang Don Giovanni for the first time in his career, brings his interpretation of Mozart's Papageno in Die Zauberflöte to the Met. Maltman sang in the world premiere of Thomas Adès's The Tempest in 2004 and this season appears as Marcello in La Bohème at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride at the Hamburg State Opera, and Creon in L'Anima del Filosofo with Roger Norrington and the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston.

Santuzza is the second new role at the Met this season for Hungarian mezzo-soprano Ildikó Komlósi, who earlier sang Herodias in Salome. Komlósi made her Met debut as Charlotte in Werther and has also sung Preziosilla in La Forza del Destino. Among her engagements this season are Carmen at Prague's National Opera, the Principessa in Adriana Lecouvreuer at Teatro Massimo in Palermo, and Judith in Bluebeard's Castle at the Budapest Spring Festival.

In 2006, Ambrogio Maestri sang Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Met; now the Italian baritone makes a role debut as Pagliacci's Tonio. Maestri, who made his Met debut in 2004 as Amonasro in Aida, has made his mark mostly as a Verdi singer; this season he plays Count di Luna in Il Trovatore at Bilbao, Rigoletto at the Paris Opera, and Falstaff at the Hamburg State Opera.

Vasili Ladyuk, who made his Met debut last year as Prince Andrei in War and Peace, makes his company role debut as Silvio. The young baritone won first prize in Plácido Domingo's opera competition, Operalia, in 2005. A member of Moscow's Novaya Opera Company, Ladyuk has also appeared with Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and Barcelona's Teatre Liceu. His repertoire includes the title role in Eugene Onegin, Germont in La Traviata, Valentin in Faust, and Belcore in L'Elisir d'Amore.

Pietro Rizzo makes his Met debut the Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci double bill. The Italian maestro, who began his career as a violinist, is the principal conductor of the Göteborg Opera in Sweden and was previously chief conductor at the Aalto Theater in Essen, Germany. He made his American debut with La Bohème at Dallas Opera in February, and his other engagements this season include La Bohème and Turandot at Göteborg, and Don Giovanni at Switzerland's Opera Avenches Festival.

Live broadcasts around the world

Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci are being heard by millions of people around the world this season on the radio and via the internet, through distribution platforms the Met has established with various media partners. The Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM channel 78 is broadcasting the premiere on March 19 as well as performances on March 26, April 2 and 7. The March 19 premiere will also be available via RealNetworks internet streaming at the Met's web site, www.metopera.org.

 

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