Nightly Opera Streams, May 4–10

A fascinating assortment of titles—from Mozart to Saariaho to the Met’s very first telecast in 1977—comprise this week’s selection of Nightly Opera Streams. For help navigating the schedule, read on.

View the Playbills from the original performance dates for each stream, including synopses, program notes, and more.

Take an inside look into the creation and opening of the “new Met” with commentary from key artists and administrators of the time, current Met staff, and archival documents that contain the voices of those no longer with us.

Take a look back at the history of the Met on TV, which extends all the way back to experimental broadcasts nearly 80 years ago.

Watch a trailer for Susan Froemke’s acclaimed 2017 documentary The Opera House, which chronicles the construction of the Met’s iconic home at Lincoln Center, as well as New York’s changing cultural landscape in the 1960s.

On the eve of the 2016 Met premiere of her L’Amour de Loin—the first opera composed by a woman staged at the Met since 1903—Kaija Saariaho discussed creating her contemporary operatic masterpiece.

Though a rarity on the Met stage in the company’s early decades, Mozart’s masterpiece of comedy and social commentary has been a cornerstone of the Met repertory for the past 80 years, brought to life by a parade of great singers and conductors.

Filmmaker Susan Froemke reflects on the creation of her 2017 documentary profiling the construction of the “new Met” at Lincoln Center.

As she prepared to star as Countess Madeleine in a revival of Strauss’s Capriccio in 2011, Renée Fleming discussed why she loves singing the composer’s music.

A breakthrough in 21st-century opera, Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin had its Met premiere in 2016, in a dazzling new production by Robert Lepage that glows with the transcendental power of love.

Before headlining the 2010 new production of Hamlet, which returned Ambroise Thomas’s Shakespeare adaptation to the Met after a nearly 100-year absence, baritone Simon Keenlyside discussed singing the opera’s brooding title character.

In the Met’s 1998 telecast of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli interpolated two of Mozart’s rarely heard alternate arias into her performance as the scheming maid Susanna. Listen to her jaunty rendition of “Un moto di gioia” in Act II.

In his 2015 production of opera’s most popular double bill, Sir David McVicar emphasized the differences of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, revealing new dimensions in each work in the process.

Resources from the Met’s education department are available for many of the operas featured in this streaming series. Designed for use in the classroom, they are perfect for parents whose kids are now learning from home, or for anyone who’d like to know more about opera.

Michael Curry discusses designing the sets and costumes for the breathtaking Met-premiere production of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin.

Take a look at some of the great Met tenors who have thrilled audiences with their signature portrayals of Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana and Canio in Pagliacci.

“It’s kind of simple, but full of meaning.” Watch a preview of Robert Lepage’s visually intoxicating production of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin, featuring interviews with both director and composer.

David McVicar’s electrifying staging of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, which premiered in 2014, gave new life to the beloved verismo pairing at the Met. Hear from the director about his fresh approach to the two operas.