Nightly Opera Streams, April 12–18

Wicked witches, fairy godmothers, and storybook princesses cast their spell in the next week of free Nightly Opera Streams. Learn about all of the fairy tale–inspired operas with this guide.

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

Director Mariusz Trelinski discusses the connections his intriguing double-bill production makes between the complicated heroines of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Bartók’s Bluebeard's Castle.

Cecilia Bartoli is heard in this week’s streams in the title role of La Cenerentola. But in this episode of our Aria Code podcast, another celebrated exponent of the role, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, and Rhiannon Giddens discuss the title character's aria “Naqui all'affanno ... Non più mesta.”

Year in and year out, the 110 artisans in the Met costume shops are responsible for clothing the multitudes that fill the stage night after night—from Chinese ministers to Russian aristocrats to the humble inhabitants of Catfish Row.

Tony Award–winning director Julie Taymor discusses her spectacular production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which has had more than 100 performances at the Met.

Take a look behind the scenes at how the Met’s stage managers, the company’s backstage generals, marshal the vast theatrical forces required for Franco Zeffirelli’s grand staging of Puccini’s Turandot.

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.

In the Met’s 2017 production of Dvořák’s Rusalka, director Mary Zimmerman explored powerful, universal questions by diving below the opera’s fairy-tale veneer.

In his 2015 production of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, starring Anna Netrebko and Nadja Michael, director Mariusz Treliński explored the darker side of a pair of fairy tales with complicated women at the center.

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.

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.

Works by three leading Czech composers—Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, and Leoš Janáček—have gained increasing popularity at the Metropolitan.

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

In ancient China, a princess tests the worthiness of her suitors by posing a series of riddles—killing those who answer incorrectly—until a brave warrior proves he’s up to the challenge. Learn more about Puccini’s Turandot with our In Focus podcast.

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.

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

While Engelbert Humperdinck was only the second composer to have a world premiere of one of his operas given by the company, only his fanciful Hansel and Gretel has remained a mainstay on the Met stage.

Dive into the details of the Queen of the Night’s iconic rage aria “Der Hölle Rache” with soprano Kathryn Lewek and host Rhiannon Giddens in this episode of our Aria Code podcast, a collaboration with WQXR.

Live in HD host Deborah Voigt asks Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez how they mastered the florid bel canto style of La Cenerentola, Rossini’s effervescent take on the Cinderella story.

Arriving at the Met seven months after its world premiere, Puccini’s Turandot has long been a showcase for some of opera’s most exciting artists appearing in equally spectacular stagings.

A behind-the-scenes look at the vision and skill required to create the costumes for Mary Zimmerman’s fantastical new production of Rusalka, with costume designer Mara Blumenfeld, Met costume shop head Elissa Iberti, and Live in HD host Ailyn Pérez.

As part of the 2020 Global Summer Camp, actor and playwright Susan Blackwell spoke to Mary Zimmerman about directing Dvořák's Rusalka at the Met in 2017.

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.

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.

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