All transmissions take place at the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center. Tickets go on sale at the end of August.

EUGENE ONEGIN (Tchaikovksy)
Saturday, Oct 5, 2013, 12 pm 

THE NOSE (Shostakovich)
Saturday, Oct 26, 2013, 12 pm 

TOSCA (Puccini)
Saturday, Nov 9, 2013, 12 pm 

FALSTAFF (Verdi)
Saturday, Dec 14, 2013, 12 pm  

RUSALKA (Dvorak)
Saturday, Feb 8, 2014, 12 pm  

PRINCE IGOR (Borodin)
Saturday, Mar 1, 2014, 11 am 

WERTHER (Massenet)
Saturday, Mar 15, 2014, 12 pm

LA BOHÈME (Puccini)
Saturday, Apr 5 2014, 12 pm

COSÌ FAN TUTTE (Mozart)
Saturday, Apr 26, 2014, 12 pm

LA CENERENTOLA (Rossini)
Saturday, May 10, 2014, 12 pm

Join us for “Meet the Met” at Prairie Wind Coffee in downtown Albert Lea on the Friday prior to each Live in HD transmission.  From 12:15 to 12:45 pm, we'll discuss the up-coming opera, including its singers, synopsis, best-known arias, and other opera tidbits.  Grab a coffee or make it a lunch break with one of PWC's delicious sandwiches during the informal get together.  Meet the Met: Giulio Cesare will be Friday, April 26.  

Click "Read More" to see the full schedule. See you there!

David McVicar’s inventive production—a triumph at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2005—comes to the Met. The Guardian praised the director’s "witty, sexy, and tragic post-colonial framing of Handel’s Caesar and Cleopatra tale," which incorporates elements of Baroque theater and 19th-century British imperialism to illuminate the opera’s ideas of love, war, and empire building. Live in HD: April 27

François Girard’s timeless new vision for Wagner’s final masterpiece explores the many facets of this mystical score, while designer Michael Levine creates a surreal landscape. Live in HD: March 2

The Met's new production of Wagner's final masterpiece opened last week to overwhelming critical acclaim.

François Girard's "breathtaking" production "is a Parsifal to treasure, elevated to the highest musical level by the solemnity and sweep of Daniele Gatti's conducting and the dedication of a dream cast of singing actors" (AP).

"Jonas Kaufmann is in his glory… Handsome and limber, he is a natural onstage. The baritonal colorings of his sound, his clarion top notes, the blend of virility and tenderness in his singing, his refined musicianship — all these strengths come together in his distinctive Parsifal" (New York Times).

As Kundry, "Katarina Dalayman gives a fearless performance." As the noble Gurnemanz, René Pape "pours out unstinting rich, velvety sound… a deeply felt interpretation… The revelation of the night is baritone Peter Mattei, tackling the role of Amfortas for the first time. When has any singer so powerfully expressed the suffering of this tormented character while producing burnished sounds of such breathtaking beauty?" (AP)

"Radiant new Parsifal makes Met glow, audiences cheer… I don't think better singers exist anywhere in the world" (Bloomberg). 

"In imagination, cohesiveness and brilliant execution, this Parsifal honors the composer's concept of total artwork" (Star Ledger).

"A magnificent new production… It is an exquisite pleasure for the eye and ear, it's also food for the soul" (New York Post).

"Arresting, consistently absorbing… a powerhouse cast of singers… amoving, modern vision" (Wall Street Journal).

"A modern new Parsifal for the 21st century" (Huffington Post). 

"Both the production and the performance caught fire, and the Parsifal of Wagner's imagination came vividly to life" (Musical America).


Watch a video of Jonas Kaufmann singing "Amfortas! Die Wunde!" from Act II of Parsifal

Star mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato sang the role of Mary, Queen of Scots, “with plush richness and aching beauty… DiDonato's performance will be pointed to as a model of singing in which all components of the art form — technique, sound, color, nuance, diction — come together in service to expression and eloquence” (New York Times). 

"In a notable Met debut, Elza van den Heever… is a vocally burnished and emotionally tempestuous Elizabeth." Matthew Polenzani brought "melting sound and appealing vulnerability" to the role of Leicester, "singing with verve, crispness and poignancy" (New York Times).

"Bel canto is truly back at the Met. The production was as right as can be," said WQXR of David McVicar's "visually striking and imaginative" (New York Times) production when it premiered on New Year's Eve.

Maurizio Benini drew a “supple and glowing performance from the orchestra and the chorus” (New York Times).

"A luminous performance" (Associated Press).

"A royal treat… visually striking" (Wall Street Journal).

"It was hard to imagine a better New Year's Eve gift to opera lovers than this musically splendid and intensely dramatic performance" (New York Times).

Read the full review
The New York Times
Associated Press
Wall Street Journal
WQXR.org