The Metropolitan Opera Sets 2015 Summer HD Festival Lineup

The Metropolitan Opera's annual Summer HD Festival, which presents free outdoor screenings of operas on Lincoln Center Plaza each summer, will return with 10 screenings of performances featuring the company's leading artists in a varied selection of operas by Bartók, Bizet, Gounod, Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi, running on consecutive nights from August 29 through September 7. In addition, this year's festival will open on Friday, August 28 at 8 p.m. with a special presentation of the classic 1961 movie musical West Side Story. The film, which won 10 Academy Awards and features a score by Leonard Bernstein, is largely set in the neighborhood where Lincoln Center now stands. This screening is co-presented with the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which also co-presented the Met's screening of Moonstruck last summer.

The Summer HD Festival will continue on Saturday, August 29 at 7:45 p.m. with the first of 10 opera screenings: a performance of Bizet's Carmen from 2010, starring El?na Garan?a and Roberto Alagna as the fiery gypsy and her doomed lover, Don José. Several Live in HD performances from the Met's 2014-15 season will be screened this summer, including Verdi's Macbeth with Anna Netrebko as the title character's ruthlessly ambitious bride; Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, starring Vittorio Grigolo as the title poet; and the double bill of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, starring Netrebko as a blind princess, and Bartók's harrowing Bluebeard's Castle. Other screenings will include Mozart's Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni, Puccini's triple-bill Il Trittico, Verdi's La Traviata, and Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, which, like West Side Story, is based on Shakespeare's immortal tragedy of star-crossed love. The festival will conclude on Monday, September 7 at 8 p.m. with a screening of Verdi's grand Aida.

A complete schedule is available below.

Each evening of the festival, more than 3,100 seats on the plaza will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, as well as additional space for overflow crowds. No tickets are required, and there are no rain dates.

The Summer HD Festival is generously supported by The Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust. Additional funding is provided by the Ford Foundation.

The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor, The Neubauer Family Foundation. Global sponsorship of The Met: Live in HD is also provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The Met's 2015 Summer HD Festival Schedule

Friday, August 28, 8:00 PM: WEST SIDE STORY

Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins's classic movie musical stars Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer as Maria and Tony, the star-crossed lovers whose teenage romance ends in tragedy. Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, both in Oscar-winning performances, complete the principal cast. Leonard Bernstein's score includes such unforgettable songs as "Maria," Tonight," "America," and "Somewhere."

A co-presentation of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera

Approximate running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Saturday, August 29, 7:45 PM: CARMEN

El?na Garan?a and Roberto Alagna ignite the screen in the most popular Live in HD presentation since the series' inception. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Bizet's gripping melodrama, which also stars Barbara Frittoli and Teddy Tahu Rhodes. (Original transmission: January 16, 2010).

Approximate running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes

Sunday, August 30, 8:00 PM: MACBETH

Anna Netrebko triumphs as the fearsome Lady Macbeth in Verdi's magnificent Shakespeare adaptation, opposite Željko Lu?i? in the title role. Fabio Luisi conducts a cast that also includes Joseph Calleja as Macduff and René Pape as Banquo. (Original transmission: October 11, 2014).

Approximate running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Monday, August 31, 7:45 PM: LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN

Star tenor Vittorio Grigolo is the poet-adventurer whose string of failed romances are the subject of Offenbach's sparkling operetta. The women he loves and loses are portrayed by Erin Morley as the mechanical doll Olympia, Hibla Gerzmava as the consumptive artist Antonia and the self-absorbed diva Stella, and Christine Rice as the courtesan Giulietta; Kate Lindsey sings Hoffmann's faithful friend Nicklausse and Thomas Hampson sings the Four Villains. James Levine conducts. (Original transmission: January 31, 2015).

Approximate running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes

Tuesday, September 1, 7:30 PM: IOLANTA/BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE

Valery Gergiev conducts and Mariusz Treli?ski directs a provocative and critically acclaimed double bill, beginning with the company premiere of Tchaikovsky's fairy tale Iolanta. Anna Netrebko stars as the title character, a blind princess, with Piotr Beczala as the heroic Vaudémont and Alexey Markov as Robert. Bluebeard's Castle stars Mikhail Petrenko as the forbidding title character and Nadja Michael as Judith, his unlucky new bride. (Original transmission: February 14, 2015).

Approximate running time: 2 hours, 55 minutes

Wednesday, September 2, 7:30 PM: COSÌ FAN TUTTE

James Levine conducts Mozart's brilliant comedy of love, trust, and disguise, featuring a cast of young Met stars, including Susanna Phillips and Isabel Leonard as the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella; Danielle de Niese as their clever maid, Despina; Matthew Polenzani and Rodion Pogossov as the sisters' suitors, Ferrando and Guglielmo; and Maurizio Muraro as the cynical Don Alfonso. (Original transmission: April 26, 2014).

Approximate running time: 3 hours

Thursday, September 3, 7:45 PM: IL TRITTICO
Puccini's classic triple bill is seen in Jack O'Brien's spectacular production, conducted by James Levine. Il Tabarro stars Maria Guleghina as Giorgetta, Salvatore Licitra as Luigi, and Juan Pons as Michele. Barbara Frittoli sings the title role in Suor Angelica, opposite Stephanie Blythe as La Principessa and Heidi Grant Murphy as Genovieffa. Gianni Schicchi features Alessandro Corbelli as the title character, Olga Mykytenko as Lauretta, and Massimo Giordano as Rinuccio. (Original transmission: April 28, 2007).

Approximate running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes

Friday, September 4, 7:45 PM: ROMÉO ET JULIETTE

Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna star as the title lovers in Gounod's gorgeous Shakespeare adaptation, conducted by Plácido Domingo and also starring Isabel Leonard as Stephano, Nathan Gunn as Mercutio, and Robert Lloyd as Friar Laurence. (Original transmission: December 15, 2007).

Approximate running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes

Saturday, September 5, 8:00 PM: LA TRAVIATA

Natalie Dessay stars as the consumptive courtesan Violetta, perhaps opera's most beloved heroine, in Willy Decker's visionary production of Verdi's tragedy. The cast, conducted by Fabio Luisi, also features Matthew Polenzani as Violetta's lover, Alfredo, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as his father, Giorgio Germont. (Original transmission: April 14, 2012).

Approximate running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Sunday, September 6, 7:45 PM: DON GIOVANNI

Mariusz Kwiecien sings the title role of Mozart's legendary lothario, whose relentless womanizing leads to a fiery demise. Fabio Luisi conducts Michael Grandage's production, which also stars Marina Rebeka as Donna Anna, Barbara Frittoli as Donna Elvira, Mojca Erdmann as Zerlina, Ramón Vargas as Don Ottavio, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello, Joshua Bloom as Masetto, and Štefan Kocán as the Commendatore. (Original transmission: October 29, 2011).

Approximate running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes

Monday, September 7, 8:00 PM: AIDA

Verdi's epic of ancient Egypt shows the composer at his most sweeping, especially in the Met's grand-scale staging. Liudmyla Monastyrska stars as the title character, an Ethiopian slave who is secretly a princess, opposite Roberto Alagna as the Egyptian war hero Radamès, Olga Borodina as the spiteful princess Amneris, Štefan Kocán as the high priest Ramfis, and Miklós Sebestyén as the King of Egypt. Fabio Luisi conducts. (Original transmission: December 15, 2012).

Approximate running time: 2 hours. 30 minutes

The Met: Live in HD is produced in association with WNET and PBS.

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