Nightly Opera Streams, April 13–19

Read on for a guide to navigating this week’s thrilling and diverse lineup of productions.

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

In advance of the April 19 free Nightly Opera Stream of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, General Manager Peter Gelb, soprano Renée Fleming, and mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča gathered for a virtual panel discussion.

Dive into the details of the Marschallin’s monologue on the passing of time with Renée Fleming and host Rhiannon Giddens in this episode of our Aria Code podcast, a collaboration with WQXR.

Go behind the scenes of the creation of Bartlett Sher’s Met-premiere staging of Rossini’s whimsical comedy Le Comte Ory.

Puccini’s beloved tragedy had its Met premiere in 1907 and has since starred numerous legendary sopranos in the title role. And though the company has performed the work nearly 900 times, it has presented only five different productions.

Watch a heartwarming tribute to the contributions of animal performers on the Met stage, originally featured as part of the 2017 Live in HD transmission of Der Rosenkavalier.

According to director Stephen Wadsworth, Mussorgsky’s epic tsarist masterwork Boris Godunov contains three intertwined sagas. In this 2010 video about his production, he describes the opera’s historical and human dimensions.

A clash of cultures and the heartless abandonment of a naïve young Japanese geisha lead to one of opera’s most devastating and emotionally direct tragedies. Learn more about Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with our In Focus podcast.

In 2008, Giacomo Puccini's sumptuous yet tragic love story La Rondine returned to the Met stage for the first time in more than 70 years, in a spirited production by Nicolas Joël.

The director of the Met’s vivacious staging of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory discusses his take on the opera in this video looking forward to the production’s 2011 premiere.

In his production of Der Rosenkavalier, director Robert Carsen examines the deeply affecting blend of comedy, melancholy, and nostalgia in Strauss’s most popular opera.

Han Feng, who created the costumes for the Met’s production of Madama Butterfly, explains how she went from being a successful fashion designer to working with director Anthony Minghella on his celebrated staging.

An unparalleled showcase for the bass taking on the title role, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov has brought a long line of legendary stars to the Met stage.

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.

Renée Fleming, one of the most celebrated exponents of the title role of Dvořák’s Rusalka, discusses the impact the lonely water sprite has had on her career in this 2014 Live in HD interview with host Susan Graham.

Robert Carsen’s insightful and lavish staging of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier caused a sensation when it premiered in 2017. In this video looking forward to that occasion, the director discusses his decision to update the opera’s setting to the final years of the Habsburg Empire.

A passionate, larger-than-life stage actress vies with a conniving princess for the love of the same dashing count. Learn more about Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur with our In Focus podcast.

Anthony Minghella’s production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly incorporates stunning puppets inspired by traditional Japanese Bunraku puppetry.

As he prepared to star as Ruggero in La Rondine—in a production that marked the work’s first Met performances in more than 70 years—tenor Roberto Alagna spoke about Puccini’s unappreciated gem.

On New Year’s Eve 2018, Anna Netrebko took on the title role of Adriana Lecouvreur in Sir David McVicar’s new production, which embraced Cilea’s glamorous 18th-century Parisian setting while also mining for deeper artistic significance. 

As he prepared to take the podium for the 2014 revival of Rusalka, Yannick Nézet-Séguin discussed his love for Dvořák’s dark fairy-tale opera.