Puccini’s Majestic Turandot Returns to the Met on October 12

Christine Goerke and Anna Netrebko share the title role of the legendary princess, with Netrebko making her Met role debut in the second run of performances beginning in April 2022
Franco Zeffirelli’s dazzling production, conducted by Marco Armiliato, also stars Yusif Eyvazov and Yonghoon Lee as Calàf; Gabriella Reyes, Michelle Bradley, and Ermonela Jaho as Liù; and James Morris, Alexander Tsymbalyuk, and Ferruccio Furlanetto as Timur
Turandot will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world on Saturday, May 7, 2022, as part of The Met: Live in HD series

New York, NY (October 8, 2021)—Puccini’s majestic Turandot returns to the Met with nine performances beginning October 12, 2021, and five additional performances beginning April 30, 2022. Conducted by Marco Armiliato, Turandot features two of opera’s most thrilling voices sharing the title role of the legendary princess: Christine Goerke and Anna Netrebko. Ms. Goerke returns to the Met for the October and November performances after singing the role of Turandot in triumphant performances in 2019 and 2015. Ms. Netrebko previewed the role of Turandot when she sang the second act from the opera to great acclaim during the 2019 New Year’s Eve Gala, and she makes her anticipated Met role debut in April 2022. Franco Zeffirelli’s extravagant production also stars Yusif Eyvazov and Yonghoon Lee as Calàf, the princess’s suitor, who sings “Nessun dorma,” one of the most famous arias in all of opera. Gabriella Reyes, Michelle Bradley, and Ermonela Jaho sing the role of the devoted servant Liù, while James Morris, Alexander Tsymbalyuk, and Ferruccio Furlanetto sing Calàf ’s father, the deposed king Timur.

Turandot Broadcasts in Cinema, Radio, and Online

The performance of Turandot on Saturday, May 7, 2022, will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the globe as part of the Met’s Live in HD series.

The October 12 and 29, 2021, performances of Turandot, as well as the May 7, 2022, performance, will be broadcast live on Met Opera Radio on SiriusXM Channel 355. The May 7, 2022, performance will also be broadcast over the Toll Brothers–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

Audio from the October 12, 2021, and May 7, 2022, performances will be streamed live on the Met’s website, metopera.org.

Turandot Artist Biographies

American soprano Christine Goerke previously sang Turandot in 2019 at the Met. Since her 1995 debut in the Ensemble of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, she has sung more than 100 performances of 14 roles at the Met, including Brünnhilde in the Ring cycle, the title role of Elektra, Turandot, the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten, and Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites. She has sung Brünnhilde at Houston Grand Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, and in concert at the Edinburgh International Festival. In recent seasons, she has appeared at the Bayreuth Festival, Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival, and Latvia’s Riga Jurmala Music Festival. In 2021, she was named associate artistic director of Michigan Opera Theatre. She is a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. This season she also sings Sieglinde in the first act of Die Walküre in concert with the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

Russian soprano Anna Netrebko makes her Met role debut as Turandot. Since making her debut in 2002, as Natasha in the company premiere of War and Peace, she has sung 23 roles at the Met, including her role debuts as the title characters of Tosca and Manon Lescaut; as well as performances as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin; Leonora in Il Trovatore; the title roles of Iolanta, Adriana Lecouvreur, and Aida; and also headlined the Met’s 2019 New Year’s Eve Gala, performing in fully staged acts from three different Puccini operas, conducted by Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

American soprano Gabriella Reyes reprises Liù, a role that she performed at the Met in 2019. She made her house debut singing the Priestess in Aida, followed by performances as Nella in Gianni Schicchi and the First Lady in The Magic Flute. She has sung the Priestess at the Paris Opera; Musetta in La Bohème at the Santa Fe Opera; the First Lady in excerpts of Die Zauberflöte with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the soprano in Philip Glass’s Hydrogen Jukebox, the title role of Tobias Picker’s Emmeline, the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Minskwoman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, and a Greek Woman and a Priestess in Iphigénie en Tauride at Boston University’s Opera Institute; and the Princess in Montsalvatge’s El Gato con Botas with OperaHub. She has also appeared in concert with the New York Choral Society, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Montclair Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra She is a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Also this season, she sings Musetta at the Met.

American soprano Michelle Bradley made her house debut as a Woman of Crete in Idomeneo in 2017, followed by performances as the Priestess in Aida and Clotilde in Norma. She was a 2018 graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and has appeared at the Vienna State Opera as Leonora in Il Trovatore, San Francisco Opera as Elvira in Ernani, and San Diego Opera in the title role of Aida.

Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho makes her company role debut as Liù. She made her Met debut as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata in 2008 and returned as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly in 2018, a role that she has also performed at Washington National Opera and Teatro Real in Madrid. Other roles this season include reprising the role of Cio-Cio-San at Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, the Bavarian State Opera, and Staatsoper Hamburg; the title role of Adriana Lecouvreur at the Vienna State Opera and Opera de Oviedo; Mimi in La Bohème at Teatro Real in Madrid; and Nedda in Pagliacci at Covent Garden.

Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov reprises Calàf, the role in which he made his Met debut in 2015. His other Met performances include Hermann in The Queen of Spades, Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West, and Cavaradossi opposite his wife, Anna Netrebko, in Tosca. He regularly appears at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, where his roles have included Hermann, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, Calàf, the title role of Don Carlo, Chevalier des Grieux, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, and Manrico in Il Trovatore. Recent performances also include Cavaradossi at the Salzburg Festival and in Madrid; Calàf, Turiddu, and Canio in Pagliacci in Verona; Manrico and Cavaradossi in concert in Naples; Don Carlo at the Bolshoi Theatre; Calàf at the Bavarian State Opera; Manrico and the title role of Andrea Chénier at the Vienna State Opera; and Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino at Covent Garden. Other roles this season include Rodolfo in La Bohème at the Met.

South Korean tenor Yonghoon Lee makes his Met role debut as Calàf. He made his company debut in the title role of Don Carlo in 2010, and other Met roles include Ismaele in Nabucco, Manrico in Il Trovatore, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, Don José in Carmen, and Radamès in Aida.

American bass James Morris last sang Timur at the Met in 2019. He has sung more than 1,000 company performances of 60 roles, including Wotan in the Ring cycle, Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Claggart in Billy Budd, Jacopo Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, Scarpia in Tosca, Philip II in Don Carlo, Iago in Otello, Méphistophélès in Faust, and the title roles of Der Fliegende Holländer, Boris Godunov, and Don Giovanni. In recent seasons, he has sung Timur in Buenos Aires, Ben in Blitzstein’s Regina at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Dr. Schön / Jack the Ripper in Lulu and the Doctor in Wozzeck at English National Opera, the Old Doctor in Vanessa at the Santa Fe Opera, and the Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Alexander Tsymbalyuk has previously sung Timur at the Met, La Scala, and Staatsoper Hamburg. He made his Met debut in 2010 as Ferrando in Il Trovatore and later sang Lodovico in Otello in 2013. This season at the Met, he will also sing the Night Watchman in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto makes his company role debut as Timur. After making his Met debut in 1980 as the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo, he has sung more than 200 performances with the company, including Jacopo Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, Philip II in Don Carlo, the title roles of Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro, and Don Ruy Gomez de Silva in Ernani. He was last seen at the Met in 2017 performances of Verdi’s Requiem and in 2019 as Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande.

Italian maestro Marco Armiliato has conducted more than 450 performances of 25 operas at the Met since his debut in 1998, including 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 appears 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 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. Also this season, he leads the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition at the Met.