Giordano’s Fedora, starring Sonya Yoncheva in the title role, returns to the Met in a new production by David McVicar

• The production, which opens with a New Year’s Eve Gala, also stars Rosa Feola, Piotr Beczała, and Lucas Meachem, with Marco Armiliato conducting

• The Met: Live in HD transmission of Fedora will reach audiences in cinemas worldwide on January 14

        New York, NY (December 23, 2023)—A new production of Giordano’s exhilarating verismo drama Fedora rings in the new year at the Met, returning to the house for the first time in 25 years. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva stars as the 19th-century princess who falls in love with her fiancé’s murderer, Count Loris, sung by tenor Piotr Beczała. Soprano Rosa Feola is Countess Olga, Fedora’s confidante, and baritone Lucas Meachem makes his Met role debut as the diplomat De Siriex. Italian baritone Sergio Vitale will also make his Met debut singing De Siriex on January 28. Maestro Marco Armiliato, a favorite among Met audiences who has conducted more than 450 performances, returns to the podium for this premiere.

        David McVicar directs the detailed new staging—his 13th production at the Met—which unfolds like a Russian nesting doll to reveal the opera’s three distinctive settings: a palace in St. Petersburg, a fashionable Parisian salon, and a picturesque villa in the Swiss Alps. Led by McVicar, the world-renowned creative team also includes set designer Charles Edwards, costume designer Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting designer Adam Silverman, and movement director Sara Erde.

Fedora Worldwide Broadcasts in Cinema, Radio, and Online

        The January 14 performance will be transmitted to cinemas worldwide as part of the company’s The Met: Live in HD series, marking the award-winning initiative’s 150th live transmission. The December 31 and January 14 performances of Fedora will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM Channel 355. Audio from the December 31 performance will also be streamed live on the Met’s website, metopera.org. The performance on January 14 will also be broadcast over the Toll Brothers—Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

Fedora Artist Biographies

        Italian conductor Marco Armiliato has led more than 450 performances of 25 operas at the Met since his debut in 1998 leading La Bohème. Other operas he has conducted at the Met include Turandot, Macbeth, La Fanciulla del West, Madama Butterfly, Il Trovatore, Cyrano de Bergerac, Manon Lescaut, Aida, Anna Bolena, La Traviata, La Sonnambula, Tosca, Rigoletto, Francesca da Rimini, Ernani, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and La Fille du Régiment. He has appeared regularly at the Vienna State Opera, where he has conducted Don Pasquale, La Bohème, Aida, Andrea Chénier, La Traviata, Samson et Dalila, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Otello, La Fanciulla del West, Turandot, and Manon Lescaut, among many others. Recent performances also include Tosca at the Salzburg Festival; Il Trovatore in concert in Naples; Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci in Verona; Norma in Madrid; La Rondine in Florence; Tosca, La Traviata, and Andrea Chénier at the Bavarian State Opera; Madama Butterfly in Muscat; and Il Trovatore and Rigoletto at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Later this season, he is scheduled to conduct La Traviata at the Met, Andrea Chénier in Monte Carlo and at La Scala, and Macbeth in Naples.

        Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva makes her Met role debut as Fedora. She made her company debut singing Gilda in Rigoletto in 2013. Also at the Met, she has appeared in leading roles in new productions of Don Carlos, Tosca, and Otello; the title roles of Luisa Miller and Iolanta; Violetta in La Traviata; and Mimì in La Bohème. She also gave a solo recital on the Met stage last season. She has sung Mimì, the title role of Norma, Violetta, Marguerite in Faust, Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and Micaëla in Carmen at Covent Garden; Imogene in Il Pirata in Madrid and at La Scala; Poppea in L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Salzburg Festival; the title role of Cherubini’s Médée  and Violetta at Staatsoper Berlin; Élisabeth de Valois in Don Carlos, Mimì, Iolanta, and Violetta at the Paris Opera; and Tosca at the Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and Staatsoper Berlin. Upcoming engagements include the title role of Norma at the Met, Maddalena di Coigny in Andrea Chénier at La Scala, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly at the Vienna State Opera, and Médée at Staatsoper Berlin.

        Italian soprano Rosa Feola makes her role debut as Olga. She made her company debut in 2019 singing Gilda in Rigoletto, a portrayal she reprised at the Met earlier this season. Other recent performances include Norina in Don Pasquale in Hamburg, Micaëla in Carmen at the Bavarian State Opera, Fiorilla in Il Turco in Italia at La Scala, Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Zurich, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Bavarian State Opera and La Scala, and Susanna in Il Segreto di Susanna in Genoa. She has also sung Violetta in Savona; Ilia in Idomeneo in Rome; Sandrina in La Finta Giardiniera and Fiorilla in Zurich; Musetta in La Bohème and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi at the Bavarian State Opera; Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, Norina, and Ninetta in La Gazza Ladra at La Scala; Dircé in Cherubini’s Médée at the Salzburg Festival; and the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor in Basel. Later this season, she sings Violetta in Toulouse and Venice, Liù in Turandot in Zurich, and concerts in Parma and Rome.

        Polish tenor Piotr Beczała makes his role debut as Loris Ipanoff. He made his Met debut as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto in 2006, a role that he reprised multiple times in subsequent seasons, including in the premieres of new productions of the opera by Michael Mayer in 2013 and Bartlett Sher in 2021. His Met repertory has also included Rodolfo in Luisa Miller and La Bohème, Vaudémont in the company premiere of Iolanta, Lenski in Eugene Onegin, the title role of Faust, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Chevalier des Grieux in Manon, Gustavo in Un Ballo in Maschera, and Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur. Recent performances elsewhere include Edgardo, Chevalier des Grieux, and the title role of Werther in Zurich; Jontek in Halka and Werther at the Polish National Opera; the title role of Lohengrin and the Prince in Rusalka at the Vienna State Opera; Jontek in Vienna; Rodolfo in Luisa Miller in Barcelona and in concert at the Salzburg Festival; and Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival. He has also appeared at Staatsoper Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Scala, Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, among others. Later this season, he sings the title role of Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Met, Calaf in Turandot in Zurich, and gives a solo recital at the Vienna State Opera and a concert with Sondra Radvanovsky in Barcelona.

        American baritone Lucas Meachem will make his Met role debut singing De Siriex. He most recently appeared at the Met as Marcello in La Bohème last season. He made his house debut as General Rayevsky in War and Peace in 2007, followed by appearances as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette, Silvio in Pagliacci, and Robert in Iolanta. Other recent highlights include performances at the Paris Opera as Escamillo in Carmen—a role that he also sang at the Bavarian State Opera, Madrid’s Teatro Real, and the Canadian Opera Company—and at Covent Garden as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. He made his La Scala debut as Athanaël in Thaïs in March 2022. Later this season, he is scheduled to sing Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro at LA Opera, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at the Dallas Opera, and Sharpless at San Francisco Opera.

        Fedora is the 13th production that David McVicar has directed at the Met. He made his company debut with Il Trovatore during the 2008–09 season, followed by stagings of Giulio Cesare, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, Norma, Tosca, and Adriana Lecouvreur. He also directed the Met premieres of Roberto Devereux, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena, Agrippina, Don Carlos, and recently opened this season with Medea. His productions have appeared at many of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including the Vienna State Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, San Francisco Opera, Salzburg Festival, St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, English National Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, among others. He was knighted in the 2012 Diamond Jubilee Honors List and also made Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. This season, his Norma returns to the Met, and he directs Il Trittico at Scottish Opera and Macbeth at the Canadian Opera Company.

        British set designer Charles Edwards has designed three previous productions for the Met, beginning with Il Trovatore during the 2008–09 season. He also designed the sets for the McVicar’s productions of Adriana Lecouvreur, which opened on New Year’s Eve during the 2018–19 season, and Don Carlos, which opened last season. Notable design engagements include Lucia di Lammermoor, Norma, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Makropulos Case, and Káťa Kabanová at English National Opera; Falstaff at the Vienna State Opera; and Adriana Lecouvreur, Faust, and Werther at Covent Garden. His designs have also been seen at Houston Grand Opera, the Dallas Opera, Long Beach Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. This season, he also designs productions of Asrael in Bonn, Otello at Grange Park Opera, Werther at Houston Grand Opera, and Il Trittico at Scottish Opera, and directs and designs Tristan und Isolde at Grange Park Opera.

        German costume designer Brigitte Reiffenstuel has been designing for productions at the Met since her debut with David McVicar’s staging of Il Trovatore during the 2008–09 season. Since then, her designs have appeared at the Met in Giulio Cesare, Un Ballo in Maschera, Der Rosenkavalier, Adriana Lecouvreur, Falstaff, and Don Carlos. Recent credits also include Der Rosenkavalier at Covent Garden and in Buenos Aires, La Rondine at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and in Graz, The Queen of Spades in Zurich and Strasbourg, and Don Giovanni at La Scala. She was given the Oscar della Lirica for Achievement in Costume Design, presented at the international Opera Awards, and the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Costume Design in 2015. She recently made her Broadway debut designing the costumes for Tom Stoppard’s new play, Leopoldstadt.

British lighting designer Adam Silverman made his Met debut with Un Ballo in Maschera during the 2012–13 season, returning for Adriana Lecouvreur in the 2018–19 season and Don Carlos in the 2021–22 season. Notable design engagements include Gloriana in Madrid; Andrea Chénier and Lohengrin at Covent Garden; Otello, Billy Budd, Giulio Cesare, Peter Grimes, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Turn of the Screw, and Jenůfa at English National Opera; and Norma at Opera North. His work has also appeared at San Francisco Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Vienna State Opera, the Bregenz Festival, Dutch National Opera, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Bavarian State Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence . This season, his lighting designs will be featured in Das Rheingold at English National Opera and Wozzeck at Covent Garden.

Since 1996, movement director Sara Erde has served as a revival stage director, assistant stage director, movement coach, and dancer at the Met. In past seasons with the company, she has been choreographer for Lucia di Lammermoor, Manon Lescaut, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Werther; assistant choreographer for Carmen; and movement coordinator for Don Carlo. In addition to Fedora, this season she also serves as choreographer for Ivo van Hove’s new production of Don Giovanni and assistant stage director for Peter Grimes, Rigoletto, Fedora, Falstaff, and Don Giovanni. Other notable opera credits include choreographer for Manon Lescaut in Baden- Baden, Madama Butterfly and Ariadne auf Naxos at Berkshire Opera Festival, Carmen at Washington National Opera and the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy, and Ercole su’l Termodonte at Italy’s Festival dei Due Mondi; associate director and choreographer for Roméo et Juliette and Madama Butterfly at Atlanta Opera; associate director for La Forza del Destino and Don Giovanni at Washington National Opera; and assistant director for Le Nozze di Figaro at the Santa Fe Opera and Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival.

For More Information

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