Revival of Stravinsky's THE RAKE'S PROGRESS Opens 5/1 at the Met

Stravinsky's twentieth-century operatic masterpiece The Rake's Progress will return to the Met stage for a revival of three performances only, opening May 1 and continuing through May 9. Music Director James Levine leads the performances, with rising stars Paul Appleby and Layla Claire in the central roles of the carefree Tom Rakewell and his faithful sweetheart, Anne Trulove; Stephanie Blythe as Baba the Turk, the hot-tempered bearded lady whose life becomes entangled with Tom's; English bass Brindley Sherratt in his Met debut as Anne's father, Trulove; and Gerald Finley as Nick Shadow, the mysterious man who encourages Tom to trade respectability for a life of aimless pleasure.

This season's performances will be a revival of Jonathan Miller's 1997 production, only the second staging of the opera in Met history. The 1952 American premiere of the work was given at the Met in the presence of Stravinsky, in a production conducted by Fritz Reiner and directed by George Balanchine. The opera was revived the following season and then not performed again by the company until Levine conducted the new production premiere more than 40 years later.

James Levine conducted both the premiere of Jonathan Miller's staging in 1997 and the production's only previous revival, in 2002-03. In 1981, to commemorate Stravinsky's centennial, Levine introduced a triple bill of the composer's works to the Met repertory: the ballet Le Sacre du Printemps, the short opera Le Rossignol, and the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex. This season, Levine also led the opening night new production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and revivals of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and Verdi's Ernani. This spring, he also conducts his first performances of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera since 1997 and the final MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall concert of the season, on May 17. Over the course of his 44-year career at the Met, he has led more than 2,450 performances.

Paul Appleby, a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, made his Met debut in 2011 as Brighella in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. In subsequent seasons, he has performed five additional roles with the company, including Demetrius in the world premiere of the Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island, Hylas in Berlioz's Les Troyens, the Chevalier de la Force in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, Brian in the North American premiere of Nico Muhly's Two Boys, and, earlier this season, David in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Next season, he adds another role to his Met repertory as Belmonte in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

Layla Claire, also a graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, made her Met debut as Tebaldo in the 2010 new production premiere of Verdi's Don Carlo. She sang Helena to Appleby's Demetrius in the 2012 world premiere performances of The Enchanted Island and, later that season, sang her first Met performances of Giannetta in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore. Her other performances this season have included Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Glyndebourne Festival and Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites at Washington National Opera.

Stephanie Blythe sang Baba the Turk at the Met in both the 1997-98 and 2002-03 performances of the opera. In 2003, she sang Jocasta in Oedipus Rex during a revival of the Stravinsky triple-bill. She has given 214 Met performances in a varied repertory that includes 27 different roles, which in recent seasons have included Mistress Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff, Fricka in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, Ulrica in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, Amneris in Verdi's Aida, and Eduige in Handel's Rodelinda. Like her colleagues Appleby and Claire, Blythe is a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Gerald Finley sings his first Met performances of Nick Shadow, a role he performed to acclaim at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2000. He has sung six roles at the Met, including three Mozart characters-Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, the title role in Don Giovanni, and Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro; Golaud in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande; Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème; and J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Met premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic.

Brindley Sherratt makes his Met debut as Trulove. His other engagements this season include Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; the King in James MacMillan's Inés de Castro at Scottish Opera; Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at the Dutch National Opera; and Bottom in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Next season, he will sing Geronte in the Met's new production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut.

The May 1 opening performance of The Rake's Progress will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performance on May 9. The May 1 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's Web site, www.metopera.org.

The May 9 performance will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

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