Yonghoon Lee Set for Met Opera's CARMEN, 3/4

Jonas Kaufmann has canceled his performance as Don José in Bizet's Carmen for this Wednesday, March 4, because he is suffering from the flu and was unable to travel to New York as scheduled on Sunday. He hopes to recover in time to fly here later this week and perform as schedule on Saturday, March 7 matinee. In his place, Yonghoon Lee, who will be singing the title role in Verdi's Don Carlo later this month, has agreed to sing Don José on Wednesday.

Lee made an acclaimed Met role debut as Don José in the company's 2012-13 season; he has also sung the role with the Bavarian State Opera, Lyon Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Deutsche Oper Berlin. He made his Met debut as Don Carlo in 2010 and has also sung Ismaele in Verdi's Nabucco with the company. This fall, he will sing his first Met performances of Manrico in Verdi's Il Trovatore opposite Anna Netrebko in her North American role debut as Leonora.

The March 4 performance of Carmen, conducted by Louis Langrée, also stars El?na Garan?a in the title role, Ailyn Pérez as Micaëla, and Gábor Bretz as Escamillo.