Free Opera At Grand Street Campus

Don Pasquale – Donizetti

Saturday, November 13, 2010 (1:00 pm ET)
Expected Running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Anna Netrebko revives her sensational turn in this sophisticated bel canto comedy, opposite Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, and John Del Carlo in the title role. Music Director James Levine conducts. When Otto Schenk's production premiered in 2006, the New York Times called it "brilliant" and "wonderful." 

Don Carlo (New Production) – Verdi

Saturday, December 11, 2010 (12:30 pm ET)
Expected Running time: 4 hours, 30 minutes

Director Nicholas Director Nicholas Hytner makes his Met debut with this new production of Verdi’s profound, beautiful, and most ambitious opera. Roberto Alagna leads the cast, and Ferruccio Furlanetto, Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, and Simon Keenlyside also star. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, back after his triumphant debut leading Carmen, conducts. “I think Don Carlo is the quintessential Verdi opera,” Hytner says. “Right through this opera there is, on the one hand, an implacable expression of impending doom and, on the other hand, a succession of the most gloriously open-throated arias, the most fantastically determined music.”

La Fanciulla del West - Puccini

Saturday, January 8, 2011 (1:00 pm ET)
Expected Running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Puccini’s wild-west opera had its world premiere in 1910 at the Met. Now, on the occasion of its centennial, all-American diva Deborah Voigt sings the title role of the “girl of the golden west,” starring opposite Marcello Giordani. Nicola Luisotti conducts.

Lucia di Lammermoor – Donizetti

Saturday, March 19, 2011 (1:00 pm ET)
Expected Running time: 4 hours

Natalie Dessay triumphed as the fragile heroine of Donizetti’s masterpiece on Opening Night of the 2007–08 season in Mary Zimmerman’s hit production. Now she returns to the role of the innocent young woman driven to madness, opposite Joseph Calleja, who sings her lover Edgardo.

Select Schools only: Long Island City High School (Queens), The Grand Street Campus High Schools (Brooklyn), and Celia Cruz High School of Music at Lehman College (Bronx)

Le Comte Ory (New Production) – Rossini

Saturday, April 9, 2011 (1:00 pm ET)
Expected Running time: 3 hours

Rossini’s vocally dazzling comedy stars bel canto sensation Juan Diego Flórez in the title role of this Met premiere production. He vies with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, in the trouser role of Isolier, for the love of the lonely Countess Adèle, sung by soprano Diana Damrau. Bartlett Sher, director of the Met’s hit productions of The Barber of Seville and The Tales of Hoffmann, describes the world of the opera as, “a place where love is dangerous. People get hurt. That can be very funny and very painful. Rossini captures both—with the most beautiful love music Rossini ever wrote.”

Il Trovatore – Verdi

Saturday, April 30, 2011 (1:00 pm ET)
Expected Running time: 3 hours

David McVicar’s stirring production of Verdi’s intense drama premiered in the 2008–09 season. James Levine leads this revival, starring four extraordinary singers—Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky—in what might be the composer’s most melodically rich score.