The Metropolitan Opera Announces New Year's Eve Gala

The Metropolitan Opera announced plans today to live-stream a pay-per-view New Year's Eve Gala, featuring performances by Met stars Angel Blue, Javier Camarena, Matthew Polenzani, and Pretty Yende, from the Parktheater, a stunning example of neo-Baroque architecture situated in Augsburg, Germany. The concert, part of the Met Stars Live in Concert series, will be streamed live on the Met's website at 4pm EST/10pm CET, and then be available on demand for 14 days.

The New Year's Eve Gala program will include arias, duets, and ensembles from Donizetti to Puccini, as well as arrangements of operetta and Neapolitan songs. The complete program will be announced soon. The ornate Parktheater, a marvel of glass and cast-iron, opened in 1886 and was designed to evoke the English pleasure gardens of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The gala will be shot with multiple cameras, linked by satellite to a control room in New York City, where host Christine Goerke will be situated. Gary Halvorson, the Met's award-winning director of the company's Live in HD cinema transmissions, will direct.

The New Year's Eve Gala replaces the previously scheduled concert by Ms. Yende and Mr. Camarena that was postponed last month; ticket-holders to that performance will automatically be moved into the gala on December 31. Ms. Blue's solo concert, previously scheduled for December 19, will be postponed to a later date, to be announced soon.

The Met Stars Live in Concert series, which features a lineup of some of opera's leading artists performing in striking locations across Europe and the United States has presented several concerts since its inception in the summer. They include tenor Jonas Kaufmann from Polling, Bavaria, on July 18; soprano Renée Fleming in Washington, D.C., on August 1; tenor Roberto Alagna and soprano Aleksandra Kurzak in Èze, France, on August 16; soprano Lise Davidsen in Oslo, Norway, on August 29; mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in Bochum, Germany, on September 12; and soprano Diana Damrau and tenor Joseph Calleja in Caserta, Italy, on October 24. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva's rescheduled upcoming concert is on Saturday, November 28, from the Schussenried Cloister in Bad Schussenried, Germany. Future concerts will feature Bryn Terfel (December 12), Sondra Radvanovsky and Piotr Beczała (January 23), Anna Netrebko (February 6), and Angel Blue (TBA).

Tickets for the Met Stars Live in Concert: New Year's Eve Gala are $20 and can be purchased on the Met's website at metopera.org. Gala Committee tickets, with enhanced benefits, are also available at a range of donation levels. The performances will be available for on-demand viewing for 14 days following the live event. The programs can be viewed on a computer, mobile device, or home entertainment system (via Chromecast or AirPlay).

The Met Stars Live in Concert: New Year's Eve Gala is part of the Met's fundraising campaign to support the company and protect its future.

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