Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Puccini opera at the Met: Turandot, starring Christine Goerke, which opens October 3

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Puccini opera at the Met: Turandot, starringChristine Goerke, which opens October 3

• Franco Zeffirelli’s iconic production also stars Yusif Eyvazov and Riccardo Massi as Calàf, Eleonora Buratto as Liù, and James Morris as Timur.

• The performance on October 6 inaugurates the Met’s new series of Sunday matinee performances.

• Turandot will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world on Saturday, October 12, as part of The Met: Live in HD series.

• Later performances in the spring will star Nina Stemme in the title role

New York, NY (September 26, 2019)—Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Metropolitan Opera’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, conducts Puccini’s majestic Turandot, the maestro’s first Puccini opera with the company, in performances beginning October 3, 2019. Christine Goerke, fresh from her triumphant run as Brünnhilde in last season’s cycles of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, stars as the title princess. Yusif Eyvazov and Riccardo Massi share the role of Calàf, the princess’s suitor, whose “Nessun dorma” is one of the most famous arias in all of opera. Eleonora Buratto returns to the Met for the first time since her acclaimed 2016 debut as Norina in Don Pasquale as the slave girl Liù, while bass-baritone James Morris is Liù’s father, the deposed king Timur. The opera is presented in Franco Zeffirelli’sclassic 1987 production, one of the most lavish in the Met’s repertory, and will be the first presentation of a staging by the legendary director at the Met since his death earlier this year.

The performance on Sunday, October 6, marks the first of a new series of 16 Sunday matinees throughout the 2019–20 season. The number of Sunday afternoon performances will increase in the 2020–21 season.

Marco Armiliato conducts the performances on October 23 and October 31. Gabrielle Reyes sings the role of Liù at the October 23 performance.

Turandot returns to the Met stage in April 2020 for five additional performances, conducted by Carlo Rizzi and starring Nina Stemme in the title role, Marco Berti as Calàf, and Hibla Gerzmava as Liù.

Turandot Worldwide Broadcasts in Cinema, Radio, and Online

The performance of Turandot on Saturday, October 12, will be transmitted live to more than 2,200 movie theaters in more than 70 countries as part of the Met’s Live in HD series. The transmission will be hosted by soprano Angel Blue, who stars as Bess in the Met’s new production of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.

The Turandot performances on October 3 and 9 and April 13 and 25will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on Sirius XM Channel 75. Additionally, the April 25 performance will be broadcast over the Toll Brothers–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network, and the October 3 and April 13 performances will be streamed live on the Met’s web site, metopera.org.

Turandot Artist Biographies

American soprano Christine Goerke previously sang Turandot in the 2015–16 season at the Met. Since making her Met debut in 1995 in the ensemble of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, she has sung 11 roles with the company, including Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, the title role of Strauss’s Elektra, the Foreign Princess in Dvořák’s Rusalka, Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the Dyer’s Wife in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, and Madame Lidoine in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites. Recent performances include Elektra at the Canadian Opera Company, Brünnhilde at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Ortrud in Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. This season she also sings Elektra at Vienna State Opera and reprises Brünnhilde in Chicago.

Italian soprano Eleonora Buratto makes her Met role debut as Liù, a role she has previously sung at Arena di Verona and Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. She made her Met debut in 2016 as Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. Her other recent credits include Luisa in Verdi’s Luisa Miller at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Amelia in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at Vienna State Opera, and Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Also this season, she sings Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème at Covent Garden, Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, and Cologne Opera; Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the New National Theatre in Tokyo; and the title role of Dvořák’s Rusalka at Dutch National Opera.

Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov reprises Calàf, the role in which he made his Met debut in 2015. His other Met performances include his role debut last season as Dick Johnson in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West; Cavaradossi opposite his wife, Anna Netrebko, in Puccini’s Tosca; and the Met’s 50 Years at Lincoln Center Gala. This season at the Met, he also sings Hermann in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades and Cavaradossi and Calàf in the New Year’s Eve Gala. Recent past performances include Hermann and the title role of Verdi’s Don Carlo at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, the title role of Giordano’s Andrea Chénier at the Vienna State Opera, and Don Alvaro in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Other roles this season include Maurizio in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur in concert at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Manrico in Verdi’s Il Trovatore at Vienna State Opera.

Italian tenor Riccardo Massi has previously sung Calàf at the Cologne Opera. He made his Met debut in 2012 as Radamès in Verdi’s Aida, a role that he reprised in 2017. Other recent performances include Pollione in Bellini’s Norma at the Munich Opera Festival, des Grieux in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at the Bolshoi Theatre, Radamès at Opera Australia, and Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca at Washington National Opera, Hamburg State Opera, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. This season, he sings Manrico in Verdi’s Il Trovatore at the Bavarian State Opera, des Grieux at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, and Cavaradossi at the Munich Opera Festival. He has also been seen as a stuntman working in such film and television programs as Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, Fox’s Empire, and HBO’s Rome.

American bass James Morris last sang Timur at the Met in 2017. He has sung more than 1,000 company performances, including in Verdi roles such as Lodovico in Otello, Ramfis in Aida, and the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo; Don Fernando in Beethoven’s Fidelio; the Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni; and Hans Sachs in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Wotan in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. Recent performances include Timur at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and Dr. Schön/Jack the Ripper in Berg’s Lulu at English National Opera.

With the start of the 2018–19 season, Yannick Nézet-Séguin became the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director. He made his Met debut in the 2009–10 season, conducting a new production of Bizet’s Carmen. The Canadian conductor has returned in every subsequent season, leading performances of Wagner’s Parsifal and Der Fliegende Holländer, Strauss’s Elektra, Verdi’s Don Carlo, Gounod’s Faust, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Dvořák’s Rusalka. He also led the Opening Night performance of the Met’s 2015–16 season, a new production of Verdi’s Otello. Last season, he conducted the Met’s new production of La Traviata as well as performances of Debussy’s Pélleas et Mélisande and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites. He has conducted a wide breadth of repertoire at a number of the world’s leading companies, including the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Dutch National Opera, the Salzburg Festival, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He is also a frequent guest conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Since 2012, he has been music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is also music director of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain. Also this season at the Met, he conducts a new production of Berg’s Wozzeck, a revival of Massenet’s Werther,and the New Year’s Eve Gala of selected acts from Puccini’s La Bohème, Tosca, and Turandot with Anna Netrebko.

Italian conductor Marco Armiliato has conducted more than 430 performances at the Met since his debut in 1998. In recent seasons, he has conducted performances at the Vienna State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opernhaus Zürich, and Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. Also this season at the Met he leads Verdi’s Macbeth and Puccini’s La Bohème. Other performances this season include Puccini’s Tosca and Verdi’s Aida and Il Trovatore at Vienna State Opera; La Bohème and Aida in Zürich; and La Bohème at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

For More Information

For further details on Turandot, including casting by date, please click here.

Turandot

Music by Giacomo Puccini

Libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni

Thursday, October 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, October 6 at 3:00 p.m.

Wednesday, October 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, October 12 at 1:00 p.m.

Saturday, October 19 at 12:30 p.m.

Wednesday, October 23 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, October 26 at 8:30 p.m.

Thursday, October 31 at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Monday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, April 17 at 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 25 at 1:00 p.m.