WRTI is proud to present the 2022-23 season of Toll Brothers–Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcasts, hosted by Debra Lew Harder. The broadcast, which first aired in 1931, is the longest-running classical music program in American radio history. Listen Saturdays at 1 p.m., at 90.1 FM, here at wrti.org, or the WRTI Mobile App.
In its 2022-23 season, The Met Opera, with music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, revisits touchstones of the repertory — by Puccini, Verdi, Mozart and Strauss — as well as newer creations, like Terence Blanchard's Champion, with bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the tormented young boxer Emile Griffith.
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The season opens with a world premiere: The Hours, which Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Kevin Puts adapted from Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer-winning 1998 novel. Its conceit — which uses Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway as a prism on the lives of three generations of women — serves here as a showcase for three singers: soprano Kelli O'Hara, mezzo Joyce DiDonato, and in her Met Opera return, soprano Renée Fleming.
In advance of the premiere, Debra Lew Harder hosted an hourlong conversation with members of the cast and creative team, including Puts and librettist Greg Pierce; Nézet-Séguin, Fleming, DiDonato and O'Hara; and director Phelim McDermott.
Toll Brothers–Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcast Schedule
Dec. 10, 2022 — Puts: The Hours
Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara, Joyce DiDonato, Kathleen Kim, Sylvia D’Eramo, Denyce Graves, John Holiday, William Burden, Sean Panikkar, Kyle Ketelsen, Brandon Cedel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting.
Dec. 17, 2022 — Verdi: Rigoletto
Lisette Oropesa, Aigul Akhmetshina, Stephen Costello, Luca Salsi, Andrea Mastroni, Speranza Scappucci conducting.
Dec. 24, 2022 — Mozart: The Magic Flute
Joélle Harvey, Aleksandra Olczyk, Ben Bliss, Joshua Hopkins, Alan Held, Soloman Howard, Rodell Rosel, Duncan Ward conducting.
Dec. 31, 2022 — Met Debuts On The Air
Highlights of artists making their Metropolitan Opera debuts during live broadcasts.
Jan. 7, 2023 — Cherubini: Medea
Sondra Radvanovsky, Janai Brugger, Ekaterina Gubanova, Matthew Polenzani, Michele Pertusi, Carlo Rizzi conducting. Performance from October 22, 2022.
Jan. 14, 2023 — Giordano: Fedora
Sonya Yoncheva, Rosa Feola, Piotr Beczała, Artur Ruciński, Marco Armiliato conducting.
Jan. 21, 2023 — Donizetti: L’Elisir d’Amore
Golda Schultz, Javier Camarena, Davide Luciano, Ambrogio Maestri, Michele Gamba conducting.
Jan. 28, 2023 — Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmélites
Ailyn Pérez, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Sabine Devieilhe, Jamie Barton, Alice Coote, Piotr Buszewski, Laurent Naouri, Bertrand de Billy conducting.
Feb. 4, 2023 — Verdi: Macbeth
Martina Arroyo, Franco Tagliavinii, Sherrill Milnes, Ruggero Raimondi, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli conducting. Performance from February 3, 1973.
Feb. 11, 2023 — Celebrating Franco Zeffirelli
The Met commemorates the centenary of Franco Zeffirelli’s birth with a special presentation drawn from the company’s radio archives.
Feb. 18, 2023 — Verdi: Don Carlo
Eleonora Buratto, Anita Rachvelishvili, Russell Thomas, Peter Mattei, Günther Groissböck, John Relyea, Carlo Rizzi conducting. Performance from Fall 2022.
Feb. 25, 2023 — Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Eva-Maria Westbroek, Brandon Jovanovich, Nikolai Schukoff, John Relyea, Maria Barakova, Rodell Rosel, Goran Jurić, Alexey Shishlyaev, Alexander Tsymbalyuk, Keri-Lynn Wilson conducting. Performance from Fall 2022.
March 4, 2023 — Listeners' Choice: Great Met Broadcasts — Donizetti: La Favorita, broadcast from 1978
Starring Shirley Verrett and Luciano Pavarotti in a historic performance from 1978. Verrett sang the title role of the king’s favorite, Leonora, opposite Pavarotti as the naïve young Fernando, who falls in love with her before he knows about her past. The cast also featured Sherrill Milnes as King Alfonso of Castile and Bonaldo Giaiotti as the powerful father superior Baldassarre. Maestro Jesús López-Cobos conducted the Met orchestra and chorus in this bel canto rarity
March 11, 2023 — Verdi: La Traviata
Nicola Luisotti; Angel Blue, Dmytro Popov, Artur Ruciński.
March 18, 2023 — Wagner: Lohengrin
Tamara Wilson, Christine Goerke, Piotr Beczała, Evgeny Nikitin, Brian Mulligan, Günther Groissböck, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting.
March 25, 2023 — Bellini: Norma
Sonya Yoncheva, Ekaterina Gubanova, Michael Spyres, Christian Van Horn, Maurizio Benini conducting.
April 1, 2023 — Verdi: Falstaff
Hera Hyesang Park, Ailyn Pérez, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Bogdan Volkov, Michael Volle, Christopher Maltman, Daniele Rustioni conducting.
April 8, 2023 — Puccini: Tosca
Angela Gheorghiu, Yusif Eyvazov, Željko Lučić, Patrick Carfizzi, Domingo Hindoyan conducting.
April 15, 2023 — Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
Lise Davidsen, Isabel Leonard, Erin Morley, Katharine Goeldner, René Barbera, Thomas Ebenstein, Markus Brück, Günther Groissböck, Simone Young conducting.
April 22, 2023 — Mozart: Idomeneo
Ying Fang, Federica Lombardi, Kate Lindsey, Michael Spyres, Paolo Fanale, Issachah Savage, Manfred Honeck conducting. Performance from Fall 2022.
April 29, 2023 — Britten: Peter Grimes
Nicholas Carter, Allan Clayton, Nicole Car, Adam Plachetka. Performance from Nov. 9, 2022.
May 6, 2023 — Puccini: La Bohème
Eleonora Buratto, Kristina Mkhitaryan, Stephen Costello, Davide Luciano, Alexey Lavrov, Christian Van Horn, Donald Maxwell, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting.
May 13, 2023 — Verdi: Aida
Michelle Bradley, Olesya Petrova, Marcelo Álvarez, George Gagnidze, Christian Van Horn, Krzysztof Bączyk, Paolo Carignani conducting.
May 20, 2023 — Mozart: Don Giovanni
Federica Lombardi, Ana María Martínez, Ying Fang, Ben Bliss, Peter Mattei, Adam Plachetka, Alfred Walker, Alexander Tsymbalyuk, Nathalie Stutzmann conducting.
May 27, 2023 — Blanchard: Champion
Latonia Moore, Ryan Speedo Green, Eric Owens, Stephanie Blythe, Paul Groves, Eric Greene, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting. Performance from April 29. 2023.
June 3, 2023 — Mozart: Die Zauberflöte
Erin Morley, Kathryn Lewek, Lawrence Brownlee, Thomas Oliemans, Alan Held, Stephen Milling, Brenton Ryan, Nathalie Stutzmann conducting.
June 10, 2023 — Wagner: Der Fliegende Holländer
Elza van den Heever, Eric Cutler, Richard Trey Smagur, Tomasz Konieczny, Dmitry Belosselskiy, Thomas Guggeis conducting.