New Season Of Met: Live In HD Features Eight Stunning Opera Productions From The Met Stage To The Big Screen
The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts, continues the 18th season of world-class opera performances exclusively at select Ster-Kinekor and Cinema Nouveau cinema. And, for the first time, Cape Town audiences at Ster-Kinekor V&A Waterfront will enjoy the live stream from the Met together with audiences around the globe. Each production will then enjoy two screenings at select Ster-Kinekor and Cinema Nouveau cinemas at a later date.
The first production, which released with the first livestream at Ster-Kinekor V&A Waterfront on 05 October, was Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann starring acclaimed South African soprano, Pretty Yende.
The 2024–25 Live in HD season has also featured the Met premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s new opera Grounded, starring mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo; new stagings of Strauss’s Salome by director Claus Guth, with a cast led by another leading South African soprano Elza van den Heever and baritone Peter Mattei, and Verdi’s Aida, with soprano Angel Blue and tenor Piotr Beczała, directed by Michael Mayer.
Screening on 11 and 13 May, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro features an all-star cast; then, director Bartlett Sher’s beloved take on Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, features opera’s newest star, mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina, returning to the Met after her hit run this season in the new production of Bizet’s Carmen. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Salome.
Lynne Wylie, chief marketing officer at Ster-Kinekor Theatres, says:
“With The Met: Live in HD productions screening in our cinemas, local audiences can experience some of the world’s best-loved operas from The Met’s opulent stage to the big screen. The theatre-like setting enables cinemagoers to become an extension of the live production’s audience, making these productions accessible to anyone who enjoys and appreciates world-class opera.”
Peter Gelb, the Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager, said:
“From its beginning, The Met: Live in HD was created to connect the Met to a global audience. We’re glad to see audiences around the world beginning to return to cinemas in larger numbers since the end of the pandemic.”
“What began as an experiment 17 years ago has become a staple experience for opera lovers all over the world. Our 2024-25 season in cinemas reflects how opera is changing at the Met, where we’re balancing timeless classics with accessible new work that is advancing the art form and attracting younger and more diverse audiences.”
The Met: Live in HD 2024–25 Schedule:
Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Revival)
Screening dates: 11 and 13 May 2025 (235 minutes)
Conductor and Cast: Joana Mallwitz (Conductor), Federica Lombardi (Countess), Olga Kulchynska (Susanna), Marianne Crebassa (Cherubino), Elizabeth Bishop (Marcellina), Joshua Hopkins (Count), Michael Sumuel (Figaro), Maurizio Muraro (Dr. Bartolo)
Mozart’s timeless comedy returns to cinemas worldwide with a live transmission from the Metropolitan Opera. Conductor Joana Mallwitz, in her Met debut, takes the podium to conduct a stellar ensemble cast including American bass-baritone Michael Sumuel as the clever valet Figaro, Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska as the wily maid Susanna, Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins as the skirt-chasing Count, Italian soprano Federica Lombardi as his anguished wife, and French mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa as the adolescent page Cherubino.
Strauss’s Salome (New Production)
Screening dates: Livestream – 17 May 2025; 01 and 03 June 2025 (135 minutes)
Conductor and Cast: Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Conductor), Elza van den Heever (Salome), Michelle DeYoung (Herodias), Gerhard Siegel (Herod), Piotr Buszewski (Narraboth), Peter Mattei (Jochanaan)
Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium on 17 May to conduct Strauss’s one-act tragedy, which will be transmitted live from the Metropolitan Opera stage to cinemas worldwide. Leading the company’s first new production of the work in 20 years, Claus Guth, one of Europe’s leading opera directors, gives the biblical story a psychologically perceptive Victorian-era setting. South African soprano Elza van den Heever leads a celebrated cast as the abused and unhinged anti-heroine, with Swedish baritone Peter Mattei as the imprisoned prophet Jochanaan; German tenor Gerhard Siegel as Salome’s lecherous stepfather, King Herod; American mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung as his wife, Herodias; and Polish tenor Piotr Buszewski as Narraboth.
Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Revival)
Screening dates: Livestream – 31 May 2025; 29 June and 01 July 2025 (213 minutes)
Conductor and Cast: Giacomo Sagripanti (Conductor), Aigul Akhmetshina (Rosina), Jack Swanson (Count Almaviva), Andrey Zhilikhovsky (Figaro), Peter Kálmán (Dr. Bartolo), Alexander Vinogradov (Don Basilio)
The Metropolitan Opera’s 2024–25 Live in HD season comes to a close with a live transmission of Rossini’s effervescent comedy on 31 May. Russian mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina headlines a winning ensemble as the feisty heroine, Rosina, alongside American tenor Jack Swanson, in his Met debut, as her secret beloved, Count Almaviva. Moldovan baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky stars as Figaro, the ingenious barber of Seville, with Hungarian bass-baritone Peter Kálmán as Dr. Bartolo and Russian bass Alexander Vinogradov as Don Basilio rounding out the principal cast. Giacomo Sagripanti conducts Bartlett Sher’s madcap production.
Don’t miss these world-class opera productions filmed and transmitted from the Met stage to the big screen at Cinema Nouveau and select Ster-Kinekor cinemas: Eastgate and Rosebank Nouveau in Johannesburg; Brooklyn in Tshwane; Garden Route in George; Somerset in Somerset West; and Blue Route and V&A Waterfront (livestream) in Cape Town.
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