[title]
The Metropolitan Opera has canceled live performances for the rest of 2020, but its hugely popular online series of free streaming opera productions continues from June 1 through June 7 with a lineup that includes favorites by Puccini, Verdi, Bellini and Massenet. All of the productions were filmed live, mostly for cinematic release as part of the Met's Live in HD series. (Click here for the Met's lineup for June 15 through June 21.)
Performances in the Nightly Met Opera Streams go up each night on the Met's website at 7:30pm EDT (12:30am BST), and can also be viewed through the Met Opera on Demand app. Each opera remains available until 6:30pm EDT the following day. The full schedule for Week 12 is below.
This week's collection of performances includes one that predates the HD era: Thursday's 1978 TV broadcast of Puccini’s crackling Roman melodrama Tosca, with a cast led by Shirley Verrett, Luciano Pavarotti and Met staple Cornell MacNeil. The great Russian soprano Anna Netrebko kicks off the week in Bellini's I Puritani, and American favorite Renée Fleming wraps it up in Massenet's Thaïs. For those seeking edgier fare, Berg's 12-tone Lulu is back in town on Tuesday (with Marlis Petersen as the fatal fräulein) and Thomas Adès's 2016 opera The Exterminating Angel—in which Audrey Luna sings the single highest note ever performed at the Met—streams on Friday.
For more information about these works, consult the Met's useful quickie guide and its more detailed collection of articles and podcasts.
This week's Metropolitan Opera Live in HD schedule:
Monday, June 1: Bellini’s I Puritani
Conducted by Patrick Summers; starring Anna Netrebko, Eric Cutler, Franco Vassallo and John Relyea. Transmitted live on January 6, 2007.
Tuesday, June 2: Berg’s Lulu
Conducted by Lothar Koenigs; starring Marlis Petersen, Susan Graham, Daniel Brenna, Paul Groves, Johan Reuter and Franz Grundheber. Transmitted live on November 21, 2015.
Wednesday, June 3: Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice
Conducted by James Levine; starring Danielle de Niese, Heidi Grant Murphy and Stephanie Blythe. Transmitted live on January 24, 2009.
Thursday, June 4: Puccini’s Tosca
Conducted by James Conlon; starring Shirley Verrett, Luciano Pavarotti and Cornell MacNeil. Transmitted live on December 19, 1978.
Friday, June 5: Thomas Adès's The Exterminating Angel
Conducted by Thomas Adès; starring Audrey Luna, Amanda Echalaz, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Alice Coote. Transmitted live on November 18, 2017.
Saturday, June 6: Verdi’s Otello
Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; starring Sonya Yoncheva, Aleksandrs Antonenko and Željko Lučić. Transmitted live on October 17, 2015.
Sunday, June 7: Massenet’s Thaïs
Conducted by Jesús López-Cobos; starring Renée Fleming, Michael Schade and Thomas Hampson. Transmitted live on December 20, 2008.
RECOMMENDED: Our daily round-up of the best theater, opera and dance to stream online
Lulu | Photograph: Ken Howard
Most popular on Time Out
- Here’s what will reopen in NYC in Phase 1, according to the mayor
- Secret NYC: Cool places that you probably didn’t know exist
- Mayor de Blasio announces crackdown on outdoor bar hangouts
- This giant new mural is a tribute to the city’s healthcare workers
- The best musicals now streaming on BroadwayHD