Join us for a live broadcast of Giussepe Verdi’s early opera Ernani. Met Music Director James Levine conducts his first company performances of the opera in more than 30 years, with Plácido Domingo as Carlo, King of Spain – a baritone part he has added to his vast repertoire this season. Italian tenor Francesco Meli sings the title role of the bandit Ernani, opposite American soprano Angela Meade in one of her most acclaimed roles, Elvira, and Ukrainian bass Dmitry Belosselskiy is Silva, Ernani’s rival. Saturday, April 4, 1 to 4:30 pm on WRTI.
James Levine led the premiere of the Met's current production of Ernani in 1983. He has conducted Plácido Domingo in more than 300 Met performances, and this spring, he will conduct revivals of both Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, which will be broadcast on May 2, and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, which will be broadcast on May 9. Over the course of his 44-year career at the Met, he has led more than 2,450 performances.
Plácido Domingo has sung more than 650 Met performances since his 1968 company debut, in an expansive, continually growing repertory that includes more than 40 operas in a wide variety of styles. In recent seasons, he has transitioned from the tenor roles of his early career to the baritone repertory, and has also conducted more than 140 Met performances; later this spring, he will lead four performances of Aida. Next season at the Met, he conducts Puccini’s Tosca and reprises the title role in Simon Boccanegra.
Francesco Meli has sung Ernani with Rome Opera under the baton of Riccardo Muti and in concert at Florence’s Teatro Comunale, and he will sing it this summer at the Salzburg Festival, again with Muti conducting. Meli made his Met debut in 2010 as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto.
Academy of Vocal Arts alum Angela Meade made her unexpected Met debut in 2008 as Elvira, filling in for an ailing colleague. She returned to the role in 2012 for an acclaimed series of performances that included a worldwide Live in HD transmission. Her Met repertory also includes the title roles in Bellini’s Norma and Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, Leonora in Il Trovatore, and Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff.
The intermissions will include backstage interviews with the stars and the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Quiz.
Cast:
Conductor: James Levine
Elvira: Angela Meade
Ernani: Francesco Meli
Don Carlo: Plácido Domingo
de Silva: Dimitry Belosselskiy