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By Matthew Westphal
11 Dec 2007
The Metropolitan Opera is expanding the distribution of its high-definition video simulcasts to include pay-per-view television. An agreement, announced late last month, between the Met and iN DEMAND Networks will make each of this season's Saturday matinee simulcasts available to subscribers (in high-definition or standard format) for on-demand television viewing within 30 days of the original transmission into cinemas.
"With this agreement, we are creating the opera equivalent of a Hollywood movie roll-out," said Met general manager Peter Gelb in a statement. "I think opera fans will be thrilled to play our movie theater transmissions at home on their own schedules."
This season's live simulcasts, transmitted all across North America and to a dozen other countries, kick off this coming Saturday, December 15, with Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, starring Roberto Alagna and Anna Netrebko and conducted by Plácido Domingo.
The schedule for the rest of the season is below. Information, including theater locations and links for purchasing tickets, is available at www.metopera.org/hdlive.
- January 1: Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, starring Christine Schäfer and Alice Coote (with tenor Philip Langridge as the Witch) in a new English-language production by Richard Jones conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.
- January 12: Verdi's Macbeth, in a new production by Adrian Noble starring Lado Ataneli and Maria Guleghina, with company music director James Levine on the podium.
- February 16: Puccini's Manon Lescaut, starring Karita Mattila and Marcello Giordani and conducted by Levine.
- March 15: Britten's Peter Grimes, starring Anthony Dean Griffey and Patricia Racette in a new production directed by John Doyle and conducted by Donald Runnicles.
- March 22: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, starring Deborah Voigt and Ben Heppner with Levine conducting.
- April 5: Puccini's La Bohème, with Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas starring in the Franco Zeffirelli production, conducted by Nicola Luisotti.
- April 26: Donizetti's La Fille du régiment, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez in a new production directed by Laurent Pelly and conducted by Marco Armiliato.
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