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The Metropolitan Opera on WRTI: The Complete 2021/2022 Broadcast Schedule Is Here

Debra Lew Harder is the radio host for The Metropolitan Opera
Bella Sandella
Debra Lew Harder is the radio host for The Metropolitan Opera

What's the best way to listen to Saturday matinee broadcasts of The Metropolitan Opera? On WRTI, of course! Join us on Saturdays at 1 PM for the entire 2021/2022 season of opera broadcasts starting on December 4th at 1 PM. Yannick Nézet-Séguin is music director.

Listen on the radio at 90.1 FM, on the popular WRTI Mobile App, on your favorite smart speaker, or stream from our website at WRTI.org

The full schedule is here.

Launched in 1931, the Met’s Saturday matinee broadcasts are the longest-running continuous classical radio series in American broadcast history. Debra Lew Harder is host and Ira Siff is commentator for the broadcasts, which include a range of dynamic intermission features, live backstage interviews with artists, and the ever-popular Opera Quiz. More about the Met Opera is here.

Contribute here to support opera on WRTI throughout the year!

The Schedule:

December 4, 2021
Aucoin’s Eurydice Network Broadcast Premiere
Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Erin Morley (Eurydice), Joshua Hopkins (Orpheus), Jakub Józef Orliński (Orpheus's Double), Nathan Berg (Father), Barry Banks (Hades)

More information is here.

December 11
Puccini’s Tosca
Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Sondra Radvanovsky (Tosca), Brian Jagde (Cavaradossi), George Gagnidze (Scarpia), Patrick Carfizzi (Sacristan)

More information is here.

December 18
Mozart’s The Magic Flute – abridged English-language version
Jane Glover; Matthew Polenzani (Tamino), Hera Hyesang Park (Pamina), Rolando Villazón (Papageno), Morris Robinson (Sarastro), Kathryn Lewek (Queen of the Night), Rodell Rosel (Monostatos), Patrick Carfizzi (Speaker)

More information is here.

December 25
Aida at the Met
Highlights from great Met broadcasts of Verdi’s Aida in celebration of the 90th anniversary of Met broadcasts and the 150th anniversary of Aida

January 1, 2022
Massenet’s Cinderella – abridged English-language version
Emmanuel Villaume; Isabel Leonard (Cinderella), Emily D'Angelo (Prince Charming), Stephanie Blythe (Madame de la Haltière), Laurent Naouri (Pandolfe), Jessica Pratt (Fairy Godmother)

January 8
Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in my Bones Network Broadcast Premiere
Performance from October 23, 2021
Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Will Liverman (Charles), Angel Blue (Destiny/Loneliness/Greta), Latonia Moore (Billie)

More information is here.

Read the playbill.

January 15
Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro
Daniele Rustioni; Ryan McKinny (Figaro), Lucy Crowe (Susanna), Golda Schultz (Countess Almaviva), Christian Gerhaher (Count Almaviva), Isabel Leonard (Cherubino), Elizabeth Bishop (Marcellina), Maurizio Muraro (Dr. Bartolo)

January 22
Puccini’s La Bohème
Carlo Rizzi; Maria Agresta (Mimì), Charles Castronovo (Rodolfo), Gabriella Reyes (Musetta), Lucas Meachem (Marcello), Peter Kellner (Colline), Alexander Birch Elliott (Schaunard), Donald Maxwell (Benoit/Alcindoro)

January 29
Verdi’s Rigoletto
Daniele Rustioni; Quinn Kelsey (Rigoletto), Rosa Feola (Gilda), Piotr Beczała (The Duke of Mantua), Andrea Mastroni (Sparafucile), Varduhi Abrahamyan (Maddalena)

February 5
The Met’s First Decade on the Air
Highlights from historic Met broadcasts

February 12
Verdi’s Requiem
Performance from September 11, 2021
Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Ailyn Pérez, Michelle DeYoung, Matthew Polenzani, Eric Owens

February 19
Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov
Performance from October 9, 2021
Sebastian Weigle; René Pape (Boris), David Butt Philip (Grigory), Ain Anger (Pimen), Maxim Paster (Shuisky), Aleksey Bogdanov (Shchelkalov), Ryan Speedo Green (Varlaam)

February 26
Celebrating Black History Month: Groundbreaking Artists on the Air
Broadcast highlights from some of the Met's most revered African American stars

March 5
Listeners’ Choice: Great Met Broadcasts
Opera TBA

March 12
R. Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos
Marek Janowski; Lise Davidsen (Ariadne), Brandon Jovanovich (Bacchus), Brenda Rae (Zerbinetta), Sean Michael Plumb (Harlequin), Isabel Leonard (Composer), Johannes Martin Kränzle (Music Master), Sir Thomas Allen (The Major-Domo)

March 19 (12 PM)
Handel’s Rodelinda
Harry Bicket; Elza van den Heever (Rodelinda), Iestyn Davies (Bertarido), Paul Appleby (Grimoaldo), Jamie Barton (Eduige), Anthony Roth Costanzo (Unulfo), Adam Plachetka (Garibaldo)

March 26 (12 PM)
Verdi’s Don Carlos – Network Broadcast Premiere of French-language version
Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Matthew Polenzani (Don Carlos), Sonya Yoncheva (Élisabeth de Valois), Eric Owens (Philippe II), Elīna Garanča (La Princesse Eboli), Etienne Dupuis (Rodrigue), John Relyea (Le grand Inquisiteur)

April 2
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
James Gaffigan; Igor Golovatenko (Onegin), Ailyn Pérez (Tatiana), Piotr Beczała (Lenski), Varduhi Abrahamyan (Olga), Ain Anger (Prince Gremin)

April 9
Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro
James Gaffigan; Christian Van Horn (Figaro), Aida Garifullina (Susanna), Federica Lombardi (Countess Almaviva), Gerald Finley (Count Almaviva), Sasha Cooke (Cherubino), Elizabeth Bishop (Marcellina), Maurizio Muraro (Dr. Bartolo)

April 16
R. Strauss’s Elektra
Donald Runnicles; Nina Stemme (Elektra), Lise Davidsen (Chrysothemis), Michaela Schuster (Klytämnestra), Greer Grimsley (Orest), Stefan Vinke (Aegisth)

April 23
The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Performance from Fall 2021
David Robertson; Eric Owens (Porgy), Angel Blue (Bess), Alfred Walker (Crown), Frederick Ballentine (Sportin' Life), Latonia Moore (Serena), Janai Brugger (Clara), Denyce Graves (Maria), Ryan Speedo Green (Jake)

April 30
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly
Alexander Soddy; Eleonora Buratto (Cio-Cio-San), Brian Jagde (Pinkerton), Elizabeth DeShong (Suzuki), David Bizic (Sharpless)

May 7
Puccini’s Turandot
Marco Armiliato; Anna Netrebko (Turandot), Yonghoon Lee (Calàf), Ermonela Jaho (Liù), Ferruccio Furlanetto (Timur)

May 14 (12 PM)
Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Performance from Fall 2021
Antonio Pappano; Michael Volle (Hans Sachs), Klaus Florian Vogt (Walther Von Stolzing), Lise Davidsen (Eva), Johannes Martin Kränzle (Beckmesser), Georg Zeppenfeld (Pogner), Paul Appleby (David), Claudia Mahnke (Magdalene), Martin Gantner (Kothner), Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Nightwatchman)

May 21
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Riccardo Frizza; Nadine Sierra (Lucia), Javier Camarena (Edgardo), Artur Ruciński (Enrico), Matthew Rose (Raimondo)

May 28
Glass’s Akhnaten
Karen Kamensek; Anthony Roth Costanzo (Akhnaten), Rihab Chaieb (Nefertiti), Zachary James (Amenhotep III), Disella Lárusdóttir (Queen Tye), Aaron Blake (High Priest of Amon), Richard Bernstein (Aye), Will Liverman (Horemhab)

June 4
Dean’s Hamlet – Network Broadcast Premiere
Nicholas Carter; Allan Clayton (Hamlet), Brenda Rae (Ophelia), Rod Gilfry (Claudius), Sarah Connolly (Gertrude), William Burden (Polonius), Jacques Imbrailo (Horatio), John Tomlinson (Ghost), David Butt Philip (Laertes), Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (Rosencrantz), Christopher Lowrey (Guildenstern)

June 11
Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress
Susanna Mälkki; Ben Bliss (Tom Rakewell), Golda Schultz (Anne Trulove), Christian Van Horn (Nick Shadow), Alice Coote (Baba the Turk), James Creswell (Trulove)