Karen Almond

Puccini’s passionate love story La Rondine will make a rare appearance in the Metropolitan Opera’s 2023–24 Live in HD season. See when you can watch!

The first night of the Met’s revival of Puccini’s LA RONDINE (THE SWALLOW) was filled with surprises of one sort or another, under the baton of that smart conductor, Speranza Scappucci. She knows her way around Puccini and deserves to be heard more frequently at the house. The production had glamour through Art Deco-ish scenic design by Ezio Frigerio, with lighting by Duana Schuler and costumes by Franca Squarciapino.

The Metropolitan Opera’s first new staging of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino in nearly 30 years will be transmitted as part of the 2023–24 Live in HD season. Learn how to watch.

Much was made of the fact that it’s been almost 20 years since Verdi’s LA FORZA DEL DESTINO was last seen at the Met. For its heralded return, they picked a choice cast (starting with Lise Davidsen), a fine conductor (Music Director Yannick Nezet Seguin) and a director (Mariusz Trelinski) who’s, well,… Two out of three ain’t bad, considering the cast. So we might as well start there.

Critics have now weighed in on The Met's new production of La Forza Del Destino. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Mariusz Treliński’s new production of Verdi’s epic tale of ill-fated love and deadly vendetta. Check out the reviews and all-new images of the production.

The Met kicks off the holiday season with Julie Taymor’s family-friendly production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Notable company role debuts and the annual Holiday Open House make this a must-see event for all ages.

Get ready for the opening of The Met: Live in HD 2023–24 season with a live transmission of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking. Join the worldwide audience as Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a star-studded cast, including Joyce DiDonato and Ryan McKinny, on October 21.

It’s rather surprising, really, for the audience to embrace a contemporary piece like DEAD MAN WALKING, no matter how easily it falls upon the ears, considering the subject matter. In this Ivo van Hove production, it starts with a rape and double murder in a rather graphic piece of film, the use of video being one of van Hove’s trademarks. It ends with a death by lethal injection, also graphically shown in live video.

xThe reviews are in for the premiere production of the new Met season, Dead Man Walking. American composer Jake Heggie’s masterpiece, the most widely performed new opera of the last 20 years, has its highly anticipated Met premiere, in a haunting new production by Ivo van Hove.

The Young People’s Chorus of New York City , fresh off an international tour that included five gold medal wins - three as World Champions - at the World Choir Games, will make its Metropolitan Opera debut when it performs in the company premiere of Jake Heggie’s masterpiece Dead Man Walking on Tuesday, September 26, at 6:30PM.

The Metropolitan Opera somehow managed to upstage itself on Thursday, when it offered audiences a spectacular recital by Norwegian soprano Lisa Davidsen, with her excellent musical partner James Baillieu, on piano, 12 days before the company’s official opening night (the Jake Heggie-Terrence McNally DEAD MAN WALKING on the 26th). It’ll be a hard act to follow.

Beginning Wednesday, July 26, the Metropolitan Opera will present Summer Encores of past performances from its acclaimed Live in HD series of cinema presentations.

Of all the theatre directors that the Met has marshalled into its forces, Simon McBurney--who brought his version of Mozart’s DIE ZAUBERFLOTE (THE MAGIC FLUTE) to the Met on Friday in his house debut--may be the most successful in melding music and theatre, storytelling and visual elements.

While I’ve always been bothered by the cruelties and misogyny of the main character, Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI has (musically) been my favorite of the composer’s operas, though either casting or design has been a regular issue in bringing off the work at its best. Happily, the Met’s new production by Belgian provocateur Ivo van Hove is a success for me, with a cast filled with wonderful singers--and the Met orchestra and chorus sounding great under debutante Nathalie Stutzmann.

Verdi’s exuberant final opera, Falstaff, brought down the house with laughter and applause at its opening on Sunday, 12th March, and audiences around the world are invited to experience the production live in cinemas on Saturday 1st April. Check out all new photos from the production here!

Combine a supreme farceur with a stentorian voice that thrills and you get baritone Michael Volle’s portrayal of the title role in Verdi’s FALSTAFF, which breezed into town late last week for a limited run at the Met. While we’ve had dramatic singers in the role before, they were mostly from Italian repertoire; I don’t know when the last time a Wagnerian--a Wotan from the Ring, for instance--took on this role around here, but Volle did himself proud.

On the second night of the new season, the Met went for Mozart, with his early success, IDOMENEO, in a fluid and elegant performance, but it was hardly 'business as usual.'

Is there another Shakespearean drama filled with as many quotable quotes as “Hamlet” (even when they’re used out of context and given a foreign meaning)? But “To be or not to be” is surely the most referenced and, certainly, in the new operatic HAMLET currently at the Met by Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn, in Neil Armfield’s thoughtful, urgent production, it's given the best showcase. Indeed, it helps shed a different light on the hero of the story.

Dallas Theater Center brings the well-known, beloved story of The Sound of Music to Wyly Theatre for a short while longer. Don't miss out on the songs you know and love, performed by this skilled, multicultural cast. March 26-April 24. Read our critic's review.

Learn about Liz Mikel's current role in OUR TOWN and her upcoming role as John Hancock in the revival of 1776.