Verdi's Popular Masterpiece RIGOLETTO Returns To The Met

Verdi's popular masterpiece Rigoletto returns to the repertory on January 24 with baritone Roberto Frontali making his Met role debut as the hunchback jester and conductor Riccardo Frizza in his company debut.  They are joined by Aleksandra Kurzak as Gilda and Giuseppe Filianoti as the Duke of Mantua, both of whom are also singing their roles for the first time at the Met. Viktoria Vizin makes her Met debut as Maddalena, and Mikhail Petrenko sings his first Sparafucile with the company.

Georgian bass George Gagnidze makes his Met debut on January 27 in the title role and sings the following five performances through February 12. Piotr Beczala, whose performances as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor last fall drew wide acclaim, sings the Duke on February 12.

A second run of performances begins April 1 and features the first Met Gilda of Diana Damrau, who earlier this season created a sensation with her interpretation of the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor.  She will be partnered with Joseph Calleja as the Duke and Roberto Frontali as Rigoletto. Frontali returns for the April performances which run through April 17. Tamara Mumford sings Maddalena and Raymond Aceto is Sparafucile in the April cast.
About the performers

Roberto Frontali sings the title role of Rigoletto for the first time at the Met on January 24, then returns to the cast from April 1 to 17. In February, the Italian baritone also adds the role of Michonnet in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur to his Met repertoire. Frontali has undertaken many major baritone parts at the Met since his 1992 debut as Belcore in L'Elisir d'Amore, half of them by Verdi: Germont in La Traviata; Miller in Luisa Miller; Ford in Falstaff, and Count di Luna in the 2002 new production of Il Trovatore, when The New York Times called his performance "ardent and stylish."

Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak sings Gilda for the first time at the Met.  When she played Blondchen in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail last season, The New York Times reported that her part was "nimbly sung and portrayed with bubbly vivacity." From 2001 to 2007, she was a member of the Hamburg State Opera, where her repertoire ran from Mozart (Blondchen, Susanna, Servilia) to Richard and Johann Strauss (Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier and Adele in Die Fledermaus) to Thomas Adès (the Maid in Powder Her Face). Kurzak, who made her Met debut in 2004 as Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, played two Rossini heroines in Europe earlier this season, the title role of the seldom-staged Matilde di Shabran at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden,  and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Vienna State Opera.

"He has a rich and poignant voice that carries well and a lovely feel for Italianate phrasing," The New York Times said of Giuseppe Filianoti's Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, the role he sang in his 2005 Met debut and repeated last season. The young Italian tenor sings the role of Ruggero in La Rondine at the Met from February 14 through 26 this season. He has also been heard here as Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore, a role he sings at Covent Garden this season. Other appearances this season include Lucia at the Vienna State Opera, Faust at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, and Werther in Reggio Calabria.

Hungarian-born mezzo-soprano Viktoria Vizin makes her Met debut as Maddalena. This season she made her Los Angeles Opera debut as Carmen (the same role of her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2006). "Vocally, Vizin is a rare, real and very centered Carmen. Hers is the sultry mezzo Bizet wrote for," said the Los Angeles Times.  Later this year, Vizin, who has also sung Maddalena at Covent Garden, will perform Carmen at Taiwan's National Opera House and return to her native country for Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle at the State Opera in Budapest.

Returning to the Met after appearing last season as Hunding in Die Walküre,  Mikhail Petrenko makes his role debut as Sparafucile. The Russian bass, who regularly sings with St. Petersburg's Kirov Opera of the Mariinsky Theater, made his Met debut in the company premiere of War and Peace (2002) and played Pistola in Falstaff (2005).

Riccardo Frizza makes his Met debut with Rigoletto and conducts the new production of Il Trovatore in April and May.  From 1994 to 2000, he was a young staff conductor with the symphony of Brescia.  He has worked with major orchestras and opera companies around the world, and though his operatic repertoire ranges from Mozart to Martinů, he specializes in nineteenth-century Italian works. His future engagements include Simon Boccanegra with the Hamburg State Opera and Falstaff at the Seattle Opera.

George Gagnidze, who makes his Met debut as Rigoletto on January 27, sang  Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca with the New York Philharmonic last June. The New York Times said he was "an exceptionally menacing Scarpia, singing with robust, earthy power and seductive lyricism when the villain turns on the charm." Gagnidze made his opera debut in 1996 and has regularly performed dramatic baritone roles such as Scarpia, Rigoletto, the Dutchman in Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer, and Renato in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera in the opera houses of Germany and Eastern Europe. He won first prize in the 2005 Concorso Voci Verdiane (Verdi Voice Competition).

With the Duke of Mantua, Piotr Beczala  returns to the role of his 2006 Met debut. This season he is also singing two roles for the first time with the company: Lenski in Eugene Onegin beginning on January 30, and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, which he performed in the fall. The New York Times said that his "impassioned singing"as Edgardo "had poignant colorings and virile intensity, that ping that opera buffs call squillo." In the spring, the Polish tenor performs throughout Europe. His schedule includes Rodolfo in La Bohème at the Bavarian State Opera; the Duke in Rigoletto and Alfredo in La Traviata at the Zurich Opera; the title role in La Damnation de Faust at Madrid's Teatro Real; Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera at the Berlin State Opera, and the title role in Gounod's Faust at the Vienna State Opera.

Gilda is the second role that Diana Damrau is adding to her Met repertory this season; she sang her career first Lucia at the Met last fall. Since her sensational Met debut in the brilliant coloratura role of Zerbinetta in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos in 2005, the German soprano has appeared with the company as Rosina in the hit 2006 production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, directed by Bartlett Sher, and as Aithra in a new production of Richard Strauss's Die Ägyptische Helena. Last season at the Met, she sang both Pamina and the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, in addition to Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

Joseph Calleja reprises his 2006 Met debut role as the Duke of Mantua on April 1, before singing his first Met performances as Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore later that month. Last season the young Maltese tenor was Macduff in Macbeth. Elsewhere this season he sings the Duke at the Hamburg Opera and Berlin's Deutsche Oper; Edgardo in Lucia (Frankfurt Opera), Rodolfo in La Bohème, (San Francisco Opera and Munich's Bavarian State Opera), and Alfredo in La Traviata (Vienna State Opera and Covent Garden).

Canadian mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, who until recently was a member of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development  Program, also adds a pair of roles to her Met repertoire this season: Maddalena in Rigoletto and the Rhinemaiden Flosshilde in Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung in the final revival of Otto Schenk's staging of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, this spring.

Bass Raymond Aceto, also a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, made his company debut in 1992. He has since sung 17 roles with the company, including one previous performance as Sparafucile in 2006 at a Met in the Parks concert.

Live broadcasts around the world

Rigoletto is 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 channel 78 is broadcasting the matinee  on January 31 as well as performances on February 4 and 12, while the February 12 performance will  also be available via RealNetworks internet streaming through the Met's web site, www.metopera.org. In addition, the Saturday matinee performance on January 31 will heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan International  Radio Network.
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 Metropolitan Opera's 2008-09 season pays tribute to the company's extraordinary history on the occasion of its 125th anniversary, while also emphasizing the Met's renewed commitment to advancing the art form. The season features six new productions, 18 revivals, the final performances of Otto Schenk's production of Wagner's Ring cycle conducted by Levine, and two gala celebrations; the galas include the season-opening performance featuring Renée Fleming as well as a 125th anniversary celebration on March 15.  New productions include the company premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic as well as the Met's first staged production of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust since 1906, Massenet's Thaïs, Puccini's La Rondine, Verdi's Il Trovatore, and Bellini's La Sonnambula.

Building on its 77-year-old 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 Award-winning The Met: Live in HD series reached more than 935,000 people in the 2007-08 season, more than the number of people who saw performances in the opera house.  These performances began airing on PBS in March 2008, and nine of these HD performances are now available on DVD. The most recent, The Magic Flute is released by the Met and is available at the newly renovated Met Shop in the opera house lobby. The other eight are on the EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, and Decca labels.   In the 2008-09 season, the HD series expands to feature 11 live transmissions, starting with the Met's Opening Night Gala and spanning the entire season. The HD productions are seen this season in over 850 theaters in 30 countries around the world. Five new productions are featured, including the Met premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic. The Opening Night transmission was seen in the Americas only; the remaining ten high-definition productions are shown live worldwide on Saturdays through May 9 with encores scheduled at various times.

Live in HD in Schools, the Met's new 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, reached more than 7,000 public school students and teachers during the 2007-08 season. This season, Live in HD in Schools expands to reach schools in 18 cities and communities nationwide.

Continuing its innovative use of electronic media to reach a global audience, the Metropolitan Opera has recently introduced Met Player, a new subscription service that makes its extensive video and audio catalog of full-length performances available to the public for the first time online, and in exceptional, state-of-the-art quality. The new service currently offers 120 historic audio recordings and 50 full-length opera videos, including over a dozen 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, is added monthly.

Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Radio is a subscription-based audio entertainment service broadcasting both 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 77-year broadcast history.

In addition to providing audio recordings through the new 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.

The Met has launched several audience development initiatives such as the company's Open House Dress Rehearsals, which are free and open to the public.  Two are planned for the 2008-09 season: La Damnation de Faust on November 4 and La Sonnambula on February 27.  Just prior to beginning the current season, the Met presented a free performance of the Verdi Requiem on September 18, in tribute to the late Luciano Pavarotti.  Other company initiatives include the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met which exhibits contemporary visual art; the new $25 Weekend Tickets program; the immensely successful Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Rush Ticket program; and an annual Holiday Series presentation for families.  This season's special Holiday Presentation is Julie Taymor's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, an abridged, English-language version of the opera which is given four special matinee performances and one holiday evening performance as a way for families to celebrate the holiday season.

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