Nightly Opera Streams, January 18–24

This week, re-live unforgettable past performances from some of your favorite leading ladies. Explore the full lineup with this guide.

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

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?

In advance of her role debut as Manon, soprano Lisette Oropesa spoke about her ever-expanding repertoire and her empathy for Massenet's fascinating heroine.

Throwing herself wholly into every role she played, French soprano Natalie Dessay was one of the Met’s most magnetic artists for more than two decades.

Offering access to more than 700 complete performances of more than 150 operas, Met Opera on Demand allows subscribers to sift through 85 years of company history—including a dozen performances of La Traviata.

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.

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

Before taking on the formidable title role of Norma, a powerful Druid priestess struggling to balance her public and personal identities, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky spoke about her character and her career—and the connections between the two.

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.

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.

Wagner’s use and development of musical themes known as leitmotifs create a symbolic undercurrent of meaning throughout the Ring cycle. In this video, members of the Met Orchestra play and discuss some of the themes.

Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece is an unsurpassed showcase for vocal virtuosity, especially for the sopranos who dare to tackle the fearsome title role. Learn about some of the great artists who have taken on the challenge at the Met over the last 130 years.

Few operatic conventions are more thrilling to behold than the “mad scene,” and the one in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is definitive.

She’s one of opera’s iconic heroines, the irresistible Gypsy seductress who leads her jealous lover to tragedy. Learn more about Bizet’s Carmen with our In Focus podcast.

The Met’s 2017 new production of Norma lavished Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece with an exceptional cast and evocative visuals. In this video, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and director Sir David McVicar discuss the work’s transcendent music and the production’s depiction of druidic history. 

Donizetti’s riveting bel canto showcase for virtuoso coloratura sopranos has been a consistent presence in the Met repertory since the company’s very first season, with several legendary artists singing the title role.

The Met’s technical director explains to Live in HD host Renée Fleming how the stage crew changes the massive sets for Lucia di Lammermoor.

The quest for the all-powerful ring continues with the second installment of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. Learn more about Die Walküre with our In Focus podcast.

Learn about the storied history of Wagner’s operas at the Met, from the house’s opening season in 1883 to the present day.

Learn about the Met career of great American baritone Cornell MacNeil, one of the great singers of the second half of the 20th century, who stars in this week’s stream of Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini.

The operas of Giuseppe Verdi have been performed around 5,700 times at the Metropolitan Opera, more than those of any other composer by a wide margin.

Few artists have had a greater impact on Met history than Franco Zeffirelli, the beloved director and designer who died in 2019.

Love, heartbreak, and death: a classic tragedy and a classic opera. Learn more about Verdi’s La Traviata with our In Focus podcast

Discover some of the great divas who have thrilled and terrified Met audiences with their mad scenes over the past half-century.

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