Puccini's TURANDOT Returns To The Stage 10/28, Broadcast Live Via The Met: Live In HD On 11/7

Franco Zeffirelli's glittering production of Puccini's Turandot returns on October 28 with Maria Guleghina in the title role and Marcello Giordani as Calàf, both singing these demanding roles for the first time in their Met careers. Marina Poplavskaya and Samuel Ramey make company role debuts as Liù and Timur respectively, and conductor Andris Nelsons makes his Met debut.

In later performances, Lise Lindstrom makes her Met debut in the title role, Maija Kovalevska and Grazia Doronzio both sing their first Liùs with the company, Frank Porretta (Met debut), Salvatore Licitra, and Philip Webb sing Calàf, and Hao Jiang Tian is Timur. Julien Salemkour will make his Met debut as conductor on January 28.

With its grand, dazzling sets, the production by Franco Zeffirelli has been an audience favorite since its premiere in 1987. The set designs are also by Zeffirelli, costume designs are by Anna Anni and Dada Saligeri, and the lighting designer is Gil Wechsler. Chiang Ching is the choreographer and supervisor of stylized movement, and the stage director is David Kneuss. Performances run through January 28.

The matinee on Saturday, November 7 will be transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series. Gary Halvorson directs the HD transmission.

About the performers
Russian soprano Maria Guleghina sings Turandot for the first time in her Met career. Since her 1991 debut as Maddalena in Andrea Chénier, she has appeared in four new productions: as Dolly in the Met premiere of Wolf-Ferrari's Sly (2002); Abigaille in Verdi's Nabucco (2001); Giorgetta in Il Tabarro, the first opera in Puccini's trilogy Il Trittico (2007); and Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth (2007). Both Il Trittico and Macbeth were transmitted internationally as part of The Met: Live in HD series, and Macbeth has also been released on DVD. Last season Guleghina added the title role in Adriana Lecouvreur to her company repertory and reprised her portrayal of Lisa in The Queen of Spades. She has also sung the title roles in Aida, Norma, and Tosca at the Met, as well as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana.

Lise Lindstrom makes her Met debut as Turandot, a role she has sung at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, the Cleveland Opera, and the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland. The American soprano's recent performances include the title role in Salome at Turin's Teatro Regio, Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera with the Des Moines Metro Opera, Venus and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser at the Greek National Opera, and the title role in Suor Angelica at Opera Tampa.

Marina Poplavskaya sings Liù this season, making her first appearance at the Met since her acclaimed 2007 debut as Natasha in War and Peace. Raised in Moscow, she was formerly a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Program at London's Royal Opera, Covent Garden, where she has sung such major roles as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin and Elisabetta in Don Carlo. Her appearances elsewhere include Violetta in La Traviata (Los Angeles Opera and Netherlands Opera), Anne Truelove in The Rake's Progress (Bolshoi Opera), Marguerite in Faust (Teatre Liceu, Barcelona; Berlin State Opera), Desdemona in Otello (Salzburg Festival), and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Avignon Opera).

The young Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska makes her Met role debut as Liù. She starred as Euridice in Mark Morris's new production of Orfeo ed Euridice (2007) and has also sung Micaëla in Carmen with the company. Last season she was Mimì in La Bohème, the role of her 2006 Met debut. She won first prize in Plácido Domingo's 2006 Operalia competition and has recently appeared as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin (Glyndebourne Festival), Teresa in Benvenuto Cellini (Salzburg Festival), Mimì (Bavarian State Opera and San Francisco Opera), and Liù (Washington National Opera).

Italian soprano Grazia Doronzio, a recent graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, this season sings Liù, her first major role with the company. Last season she made her Met debut as Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto and performed the songs of Luigi Dallapiccola with the MET Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie's Zankel Hall under James Levine. Future engagements include her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Mozart Requiem under Maestro Levine and appearances with Atlanta Opera, Portland Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company.
Sicilian tenor Marcello Giordani, who is also appearing as Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra and Cavaradossi in Tosca this season, adds another Puccini hero, Calàf, to his Met repertoire. Last season he sang Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and the title role in Robert Lepage's new production of La Damnation de Faust. In addition, just before opening night in 2008 he was the tenor soloist in the Met's performance of the Verdi Requiem in memory of Luciano Pavarotti. Giordani has participated in two Met premieres-as Gualtiero in Il Pirata (2002), and as the title role of Benvenuto Cellini (2003). In addition to last season's La Damnation de Faust, he has appeared in two other new production premieres: as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly (2006) and as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor (2007). All three new productions since 2006 were transmitted globally as part of The Met: Live in HD series. Among his numerous other roles at the Met are Alfredo in La Traviata, the title role in Ernani, the Duke in Rigoletto, Don José in Carmen, Des Grieux in both Puccini's Manon Lescaut (transmitted live in HD) and in Massenet's Manon, the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier, Lenski in Eugene Onegin, Rodolfo in La Bohème, and Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore.
Frank Porretta makes his Met debut as Calàf, a role he has sung at the Berlin State Opera and at Turin's Teatro Regio. The American tenor has appeared in many Verdi and Puccini operas-as Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West (Deutsche Oper, Berlin), Cavaradossi in Tosca (Seattle Opera), Radamès in Aida (Berlin State Opera), Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino (Berlin State Opera)-but his repertoire also includes such roles as Samson (Pittsburgh Opera) and King Arthur, which he sang in the world premiere of Albéniz's Merlin at the Teatro Real, Madrid.

Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra adds the role of Calàf to his Met repertoire this season and reprises his portrayals of Radamès in Aida and of Luigi in Il Tabarro, which he first sang in the new production of Il Trittico (2007) that was transmitted globally on The Met: Live in HD. Licitra made a memorable Met debut in 2002, when he was a last-minute replacement for Luciano Pavarotti as Cavaradossi in a Tosca performance that was relayed to a screen on Lincoln Center Plaza. He has also appeared with the company as Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino, Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera, Canio in Pagliacci, and Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana.

Philip Webb also made a dramatic Met debut, when he replaced the ailing Marcelo Alvárez as Manrico in the middle of a performance of Il Trovatore last March. This season he makes two Met role debuts, as Calàf and as Erik in Der Fliegende Holländer. The American tenor has appeared elsewhere as Rodolfo in La Bohème (Vienna State Opera), Radamès in Aida (Bregenz Festival and Portland Opera), Pollione in Norma (Opera Company of Philadelphia and Opera Colorado), and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly (Vienna State Opera).

After singing almost 300 performances at the Met since his 1984 debut as Argante in the company premiere of Handel's Rinaldo, Samuel Ramey continues to expand his repertoire, singing Timur for the first time on the Met stage. He also reprises one of his signature roles, Don Basilio in IL Barbiere di Siviglia this season. He celebrated his 25th anniversary at the Met last season, singing both Leporello in Don Giovanni and Rambaldo in a new production of La Rondine, which was transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series. The American bass has participated in several Met premieres: as Pagano in I Lombardi (1993), Rev. Olin Blitch in Susannah (1999), and Kutuzov in War and Peace (2002). In addition, he played the four villains in Les Contes d'Hoffmann on Opening Night in 1992 and has appeared in numerous new productions: in the title roles of Bluebeard's Castle (1989), Don Giovanni (1990), and Mefistofele (1999); as Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress (1997); as Assur in Semiramide (1990); and as Zaccaria in Nabucco (2001).

Bass Hao Jiang Tian, a native of Beijing, returns as Timur, a role he first sang at the Met in 1995. In 2006, he was General Wang in the world premiere of The First Emperor, which was transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series. Since his company debut in 1991 as Billy Jackrabbit in the new production premiere of La Fanciulla del West, he has sung over 300 performances including such roles as Oroveso in Norma (new production premiere, 2001), Colline in La Bohème, the King in Aida, Count Walter in Luisa Miller, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Count des Grieux in Manon. He is also the author of a 2008 memoir, Along the Roaring River: My Wild Ride from Mao to the Met.

Conductor Andris Nelsons makes his Met debut leading Turandot. A native of Riga, he began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra and later served as Principal Conductor there from 2003 to 2007. Formerly the Principal Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany, he became Music Director of Britain's City of Birmingham Orchestra last season. He conducts both symphonic and operatic repertoire and has appeared with the Vienna State Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, Berlin's Deutsche Oper, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Cleveland Symphony, and the Orchestre National de France, among others.

Live broadcasts to be heard around the world
Turandot will be experienced by millions of people around the world this season in movie theaters and on the radio and the internet, through distribution platforms the Met has established with various media partners

The season premiere on October 28 as well as performances on November 3, 10, and January 7, 20, and 28 will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78 and XM channel 79. The performances on October 28 and January 28 will also be available via RealNetworks internet streaming at the Met's web site, www.metopera.org.

The Saturday matinee performance on November 7, starring Maria Guleghina, Marina Poplavskaya, Marcello Giordani, and Samuel Ramey, conducted by Andris Nelsons, will be transmitted into movie theaters around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD series. Gary Halvorson directs the transmission.

About the Met
Under the leadership of General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine, the Met has a series of bold initiatives underway that are designed to broaden its audience and revitalize the company's repertory. The Met has made a commitment to presenting modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory, with highly theatrical productions featuring the greatest opera stars in the world.

The Met's 2009-10 season features eight new productions, four of which are Met premieres. Opening night is a new production of Tosca starring Karita Mattila, conducted by Levine and directed by Luc Bondy. The four Met premieres are: Janá?ek's From the House of the Dead, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and directed by Patrice Chéreau, both in Met debuts; Verdi's Attila starring Ildar Abdrazakov, conducted by Riccardo Muti and directed by Pierre Audi, with set and costume design by Miuccia Prada, Jacques Herzog, and Pierre de Meuron, all in their Met debuts; Shostakovich's The Nose featuring Paulo Szot, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed and designed by William Kentridge in his Met debut; and Rossini's Armida with Renée Fleming, conducted by Riccardo Frizza and directed by Mary Zimmerman. Other new productions are Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann starring Joseph Calleja, Anna Netrebko, and Alan Held, conducted by Levine and directed by Bartlett Sher; Carmen with El?na Garan?a and Roberto Alagna, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and directed by Richard Eyre, both in Met debuts; and Thomas's Hamlet with Natalie Dessay and Simon Keenlyside, conducted by Louis Langrée and directed by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser in their Met debuts.

Building on its 78-year radio broadcast history-currently heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network-the Met now uses advanced media distribution platforms and state-of-the-art technology to attract new audiences and reach millions of opera fans around the world.
The Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Met: Live in HD series returns for its fourth season in 2009-10 with nine transmissions, beginning October 10 with the new production of Tosca and ending with the new production of Rossini's Armida on May 1. The productions are seen in more than 900 theaters in 42 countries around the world and last season sold more than 1.8 million tickets. These performances began airing on PBS in March 2008, and nine HD performances are now available on DVD. The Magic Flute was released by the Met and is available at the newly renovated Met Opera Shop. In addition, two classic Met performances from 1978 have recently been released by the Met: Otello, conducted by Levine with Jon Vickers and Renata Scotto; and Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci conducted by Levine, with Tatiana Troyanos and Plácido Domingo in the first part of the double bill and Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes in the latter. The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from the Neubauer Family Foundation. Bloomberg L.P. is the global corporate sponsor of The Met: Live in HD.

HD Live in Schools, the Met's program offering free opera transmissions to New York City schools in partnership with the New York City Department of Education and the Metropolitan Opera Guild, continues for a third season. This season, for the second consecutive year the program will reach public school students and teachers in 18 cities and communities nationwide. HD Live in Schools is made possible by Bank of America.

Continuing its innovative use of electronic media to reach a global audience, the Metropolitan Opera last season introduced Met Player, a new subscription servIce That makes much of the company's extensive video and audio catalog of full-length performances available to the public for the first time online in exceptional, state-of-the-art quality. The new service currently offers over 170 historic audio recordings, and almost 100 full-length opera videos are available, including 24 of the company's acclaimed The Met: Live in HD transmissions, known for their extraordinary sound and picture quality. New content, including HD productions and archival broadcasts, are added monthly.

Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Radio is a subscription-based audio entertainment service broadcasting an unprecedented number of live performances each week throughout the Met's entire season, as well as rare historical performances, newly restored and remastered, spanning the Met's 78-year broadcast history.

In addition to providing audio recordings through the Met on Rhapsody on-demand service, the Met also presents free live audio streaming of performances on its website once every week during the opera season with support from RealNetworks®.

The company's groundbreaking commissioning program in partnership with New York's Lincoln Center Theater (LCT) provides renowned composers and playwrights with the resources to create and develop new works at the Met and at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. The Met's partnership with LCT is part of the company's larger initiative to commission new operas from contemporary composers, present modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory, and provide a venue for artists to nurture their work. A new work by composer Nico Muhly and playwright Craig Lucas goes into workshop this fall.

The Met audience development initiatives include Open House Dress Rehearsals, which are free and open to the public; the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, which exhibits contemporary visual art; the immensely successful Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Rush Ticket program; and an annual Holiday Presentation for families. This season's special Holiday Presentation is Richard Jones's English-language production of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, which is given four matinee performances and four evening performance as a way for families to celebrate the holiday season.

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