Nightly Opera Streams, September 7–13

Dive into seven French operatic masterpieces—including popular favorites by Massenet, Gounod, Berlioz, and Bizet—with this guide to the week.

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

Last spring mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe joined Executive Stage Director Paula Suozzi and Assistant Director Peter McClintock for a virtual conversation about Cendrillon and took questions about the opera from students.

Drawn from every era of operatic composition, from the Baroque to the modern day, a wide array of enthralling French works have appeared on the Met stage.

Director Laurent Pelly discusses his Impressionism-inspired, Belle-Époque setting for Massenet’s Manon, in which the seductive and naive heroine is seen as a threat by the world of men—one who must be sacrificed.

In this excerpt from the final act of Les Troyens, Berlioz’s monumental adaptation of Virgil’s Aeneid, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham is the tragic Dido, abandoned by Aeneas and haunted by visions as she plans her own death.

Penny Woolcock’s spectacular production of Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles, which premiered in 2015, enlisted projection designers and acrobats to conjure the opera’s evocative aquatic setting. Learn more about the stunning diving sequences in this behind-the-scenes video.

Director Francesco Zambello and stars Susan Graham and Deborah Voigt discuss the 2012 revival of Berlioz’s Les Troyens, in which powerful women dominate the action.

Massenet’s sensuous Goethe adaptation has had an unsteady place in the repertory at the Met, as elsewhere, but has enjoyed periods of great success when brought to life by glamorous singing and stylish interpretations.

A beautiful ingénue with a taste for the finer things makes her way to Paris, where she becomes irresistible to the men around her—including the passionate Chevalier des Grieux, whose all-consuming love for her leads to ruin. Learn more about Massenet’s Manon with our In Focus podcast.

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.

Before the 2008 premiere of his production of La Damnation de Faust, the visionary director Robert Lepage discussed his approach to staging Berlioz’s grand “dramatic legend.”

Diana Damrau, who starred as Leïla in the 2015 premiere of Penny Woolcock’s production of Les Pêcheurs de Perles, explains why Bizet’s heroine is stronger than she seems.

Celebrated mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who stars in Massenet’s Cendrillon, explains how this French take on the Cinderella story sparks joy in Laurent Pelly’s storybook production.

Based on Goethe’s novel, Werther tells of a tortured poet’s unhappy infatuation with a married woman. In this 2014 video, director Richard Eyre describes his effort to capture the poetry, impassioned drama, and “autumnal feel” of Massenet's gripping score.

Marcello Giordani, who passed away in October 2019 and is featured in this week’s stream of Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, was one of the Met’s brightest star tenors in recent decades.

Bizet’s melody-rich Les Pêcheurs de Perles returned to the Met repertory for the first time in 100 years during the 2015–16 season, in a sumptuous production by Penny Woolcock.

Follow along with this week’s stream of Cendrillon with a graphic-novel version of the synopsis—perfect for young opera lovers. 

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.

Tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who starred in the title role of Richard Eyre’s 2014 production of Werther, explains why Massenet and Goethe are such a good fit.

In Laurent Pelly’s 2012 production of Manon, soprano Anna Netrebko explored the extremes of Massenet’s irresistible heroine.

Goethe’s seminal Faust has inspired a number of operatic masterpieces, including Berlioz’s towering La Damnation de Faust, which reappeared on the Met stage in 2008 after more than a century.

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