Nightly Opera Streams, April 6–12

This week of Nightly Opera Streams offers a diverse tasting of operatic flavors. The following guide will help prepare you for the entire menu. 

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

In advance of the April 2020 free Nightly Opera Stream of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, General Manager Peter Gelb, soprano Kelli O’Hara, and baritone Christopher Maltman gathered for a virtual panel discussion.

An epic Egyptian backdrop. An intimate love story. Some of Verdi’s most stirring melodies and ensembles. Learn more about Aida with our In Focus podcast.

An avid cook as well as a leading baritone,  Ambrogio Maestri showed Renée Fleming how he rustles up his signature Risotto Salsiccia e Funghi and discussed singing the title role of Falstaff during the 2013 Live in HD transmission.

Verdi’s grandest opera has also been one of the most frequently performed in the Met’s repertory for the entire history of the company. Learn about some of the notable stars and productions that have brought ancient Egypt to life on the Met stage over the years.

In Phelim McDermott’s production of Così fan tutte, the cast shares the Met stage with sword swallowers, fire-eaters, and a live Burmese python. Set in a carnival fairground inspired by 1950s Coney Island, the director’s imaginative staging explores love, temptation, betrayal, and reconciliation amid the spectacle of the sideshow.

Ever since its premiere in 1882, Wagner’s Parsifal has engendered a kind of all-consuming devotion bordering on the fanatic. Peruse some evocative commentary from a handful of notable devotees of the composer and his final masterpiece.

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.

Verdi’s final masterpiece, Falstaff—with its quicksilver ensembles and vivid characterizations—is a celebration of living in the moment, says director Robert Carsen, who brought a new production of the opera to the Met in 2013.

From an early vogue in the 1890s to a revival of popularity in recent decades, learn about the Met history of Gounod’s soaring Shakespeare adaptation.

Meet the talented troupe of performers, straight off the Coney Island midway, who bring authentic sideshow flair to Phelim McDermott’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.

In his mesmerizing production of Parsifal, which premiered in 2013, Canadian director François Girard explores the diverse spiritual influences of Wagner’s meditative final masterpiece as well as what the piece has to say to modern-day audiences.

A gun-slinging heroine. A romantic tale of the Wild West. The first great opera with an American setting. Learn more about Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West with our In Focus podcast.

Marcello Giordani, who passed away in October 2019 and is featured in this week’s free stream of Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini, was one of the Met’s brightest star tenors in recent decades.

Phelim McDermott discusses his madcap, Coney Island–inspired production of Mozart's Così fan tutte, conducted by David Robertson and starring Kelli O’Hara and Christopher Maltman.

Otto Schenk’s 2006 staging of Donizetti’s bel canto gem Don Pasquale is a dazzling display of comedic prowess from a director better known at the Met for his work in heavier repertoire.

Shakespeare by way of Gounod makes for a decadent, action-packed, and transcendent Roméo et Juliette, says Bartlett Sher. During the 2016–17 season, the Tony Award–winning director unveiled a new production of this sumptuous French opera.

The 1910 world premiere of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West at the Met was an enormous event for the then-young company. This Playbill article from the 2010 performances of the opera takes a look at that historic occasion from a century on.