Eva-Maria Westbroek News

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to more than 2,000 movie theaters in 65 countries around the world, will feature ten operas in the 2014-15 season, including all six new productions in the Met season. All ten performances, transmitted live from the Met stage, will feature the world's finest singers, conductors, and theatrical artists.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season will feature 26 operas, three of them company premieres, in six new productions and 18 revivals showcasing the talents of the world's leading singers, conductors, and theater artists. The three operas that will have their first-ever Met performances, each staged by a director making his Met debut, are John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris, opening October 20; Rossini's La Donna del Lago, conducted by Michele Mariotti and directed by Paul Curran, opening February 16, 2015; and Tchaikovsky's one-act opera Iolanta, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Treli?ski. Iolanta will be presented in a double bill with a new staging of Bartok's one-act Duke Bluebeard's Castle, also conducted by Gergiev and directed by Treli?ski.

Anna Nicole, the Mark-Anthony Turnage opera surrounding the life events of model and socialite Anna Nicole Smith, comes to New York for its US premiere. Launching the 2013 Next Wave Festival, this co-production between BAM and New York City Opera features Sarah Joy Miller as Anna Nicole, the attention-seeking socialite who married oil mogul J. Howard Marshall II (a man more than 60 years her senior), squirmed her way into celebrity circles, and died as the result of an overdose on prescription drugs. Anna Nicole brings the audience through the annals of the life of a woman many saw as selfish and carefree. However, Anna Nicole is approached from different angles: the incredible tale of a young bombshell who won it all and lived a life of luxury, and the tragedy that took her away when life got too big for her.

Riccardo Zandonai's masterpiece Francesca da Rimini, staged by the Met for the first time in more than a quarter of a century, airs on Great Performances at the Met Sunday, August 18 at 12 noon on PBS (check local listings). (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the opera at 12:30 p.m.) Check out the photos below!

The Met: Live in HD Series continues on Saturday, March 16 at 12pm at the Warner's Nancy Marine Studio Theatre with Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini.

The Met: Live in HD series will present Francesca da Rimini by Riccardo Zandonai, to be broadcast live on the Peterborough Players big screen on Saturday, March 16, 2013, at noon. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students.

We all sat waiting anxiously for the curtain to rise on Riccardo Zandonai's 'Francesca da Rimini' after almost a 27 year hiatus on the Met stage; but with each passing act, one could sense the audience waiting for the closing curtain just as intently. Not to say that the performances or design weren't a wonder to behold. The opera and production as a whole just seemed a bit trivial in comparison. Despite the story however, the musical prowess of Zandonai's score, the meticulously detailed sets, and exquisite costuming gave Monday nights opening of 'Francesca da Rimini' redeeming beauty amid a insipid story.

Riccardo Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini will return to the Met March 4 for its first company performances since 1986.

Robert Lepage's acclaimed new production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, will air on Great Performances at the Met, September 11-14 in primetime each night on PBS stations (check local listings), as a major television event.

Stuart Skelton will sing the role of Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walkure tonight, May 7, replacing Jonas Kaufmann who is ill.

The Met: Live in HD presents the cinematic premiere of Wagner's Ring Cycle and the behind-the-scenes documentary Wagner's Dream. The two-week event begins today May 7 across the U.S. and Canada. See photos from each of the operas below!

The Metropolitan Opera will present worldwide movie theater screenings of Robert Lepage's new production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, as well as Wagner's Dream, a new documentary chronicling the creation of this ambitious new staging. In the United States and Canada, the series will begin tonight, May 7, with a screening of the documentary, directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, and continue on May 9 with Das Rheingold, the first opera in the cycle. The entire four-part Ring cycle and documentary will be screened in many countries this spring and summer, including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Stuart Skelton will sing the role of Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walkure on Monday, May 7, replacing Jonas Kaufmann who is ill.

The Met: Live in HD presents the cinematic premiere of Wagner's Ring Cycle and the behind-the-scenes documentary Wagner's Dream. The two-week event begins May 7 across the U.S. and Canada. See photos from each of the operas below!

Frank van Aken will make his Met debut as Siegmund in Die Walkure at tomorrow's matinee performance, replacing Jonas Kaufmann who is ill.

IL TRITTICO, a screening of a show including Three One-Act Operas from The Royal Opera House in London: IL TABARRO, SUOR ANGELICA, and GIANNI SCHICCHI performs on February 12, at 11am.

IL TRITTICO, a screening of a show including Three One-Act Operas from The Royal Opera House in London: IL TABARRO, SUOR ANGELICA, and GIANNI SCHICCHI performs on February 12, at 11am.

A new production of Gotterdammerung, the final opera in Wagner's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, will open January 27 in a performance led by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi and directed by Robert Lepage.

A new production of Gotterdammerung, the final opera in Wagner's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, will open January 27 in a performance led by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi and directed by Robert Lepage.

Besetzungsänderung in 'Un ballo in maschera'