Airs Saturday at 11am on Classical 88.7-1
“The great and glamorous Anna Netrebko makes Manon her own… With her rich, gleaming sound and vocal charisma, she was a Manon of rare intensity and emotional depth.” – The New York Times
The Metropolitan Opera broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Jules Massenet’s Manon. Acclaimed soprano Anna Netrebko sings her first Met performances of the title role, with Piotr Beczala in his role debut as Manon’s lover, the Chevalier des Grieux, and Paulo Szot as her cousin, Lescaut. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads the performance of Laurent Pelly’s striking new production, which debuted March 26. The performance will also be transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series, which is now seen in more than 1,700 movie theaters in 54 countries.
In recent years, Netrebko has sung the role of the hedonistic and irresistible Manon to great acclaim at the Vienna State Opera, the Berlin State Opera, and in the premiere of Pelly’s staging at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. On opening night of this season, she sang the title character in the Met premiere of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. Since her Met debut in Prokofiev’s War and Peace in 2002, she has sung ten additional roles with the company, including Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème, Antonia in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, the title character in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, and Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani.
The intermissions will include backstage interviews led by HD host Natalie Dessay, and the popular Toll Brothers-MetropolitanOpera Quiz, featuring tenor Matthew Polenzani.