Nightly Opera Streams, August 17–23

Explore passionate romances, historical epics, a classic comedy, and one of the world’s most popular fairy tales with a guide to this week’s streams.

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

Peter Mattei, who starred in the title role of Eugene Onegin in 2017, discusses Tchaikovsky’s enigmatic antihero who professes love too late.

Beloved mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias, who passed away in May 2020, plays the Witch in this week’s stream of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.

Puccini’s operatic thrill ride Tosca features a fictional diva that’s one of the ultimate showcases for the real thing. But at a time when the term “diva” is thrown around seemingly willy-nilly, what exactly did the composer have in mind?

Take a look back at the history of the Met on TV, which extends all the way back to experimental broadcasts nearly 80 years ago.

In more than 300 Met performances, great Italian soprano Renata Scotto, who stars in this week’s stream of Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini, riveted audiences with her idiomatic singing and powerful acting.

For almost 90 years, millions of listeners have tuned in to the Met’s Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcasts, beginning with a 1931 performance of Hänsel und Gretel. Explore some of the noteworthy events in the annals of the longest-running continuous classical music program in American broadcast history.

In the storied history of the Metropolitan Opera, Luciano Pavarotti holds a secure place as one of the company’s most celebrated tenors.

The Met has presented nearly 1,000 performances of Puccini’s Tosca, starting with the work’s U.S. premiere in 1901. Explore the opera’s fascinating history at the Met.

For director Deborah Warner, Eugene Onegin’s principal characters are as flesh-and-blood as anything in Shakespeare or Chekhov.

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

Superstar soprano Anna Netrebko has appeared in more Live in HD transmissions than any other principal artist. Watch highlights from a dozen of her roles, including this week’s stream of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur.

Tchaikovsky’s romantic adaptation of Pushkin got a slow start at the Metropolitan, but, especially in recent decades, it has become the most popular Russian opera in the company’s repertoire.

Beloved bass-baritone James Morris—who appears in this week’s stream of Puccini’s La Bohème—reflects on singing more than 1,000 performances on the Met stage.

Celebrated soprano Kathleen Battle, who stars in this week’s stream of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, mesmerized Met audiences with the purity and beauty of her voice. Read about her career with the company.

The epitome of Italianate style, Leo Nucci appeared in many of the repertory’s most captivating baritone roles—especially those of his countryman Giuseppe Verdi—over the course of his two-and-a-half decade Met career.

Despite rare appearances on the Met stage, Zandonai’s sweeping adaptation of Dante, Francesca da Rimini, has never failed to thrill audiences.

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