Opera on IPR

The 2019-20 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Richard Strauss’s masterwork Der Rosenkavalier. Sir Simon Rattle, music director of the London Symphony Orchestra, conducts one of Strauss’s most beloved scores.

The 2019-20 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Mozart’s classic fairy tale The Magic Flute, an abridged English-language adaptation that carries on the Met’s tradition of presenting opera for audiences of all ages at the holidays.

Lothar Koenigs conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus in this beloved opera about the triumph of love and virtue.

The 2019-20 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Verdi’s Macbeth, a performance taped live on September 25, 2019.

Anna Netrebko and Željko Lučić reunited as Shakespeare’s ruthlessly ambitious Scottish couple, after having won tremendous acclaim for their portrayals at the Met in 2014.

The revival also starred Matthew Polenzani as Macduff and Ildar Abdrazakov as Banquo, with Marco Armiliato on the podium, leading the Met Orchestra and Chorus.

The 2019-20 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Tchaikovsky’s thriller The Queen of Spades.

Join Classical IPR host Keith Brown to experience the Metropolitan Opera’s LIVE HD Broadcast of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess on Saturday, February 1 at the historic Ramsdell Theater in Manistee. 

The 2019-20 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season opens with Philip Glass’s Akhnaten—the first time the Saturday matinee broadcast season has begun with an opera by a living composer.

American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo stars in the title role of the iconoclastic pharaoh who introduced the concept of monotheism to ancient Egypt.

Classical IPR wants to hear from you! What is your favorite opera and why?

As the new season of the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts approaches, we want to share excerpts of our listeners' favorite operas on the air. 

Listen to the broadcast on Classical IPR on Saturday, June 15 at 1 p.m. ET.

Listen to the broadcast on Classical IPR on Saturday, June 8 at 1 p.m. ET.

Listen to the broadcast on Classical IPR on Saturday, June 1 at 1 p.m. ET.

Listen to the broadcast on Classical IPR on Saturday, May 25 at 1 p.m. ET.

Baritone Ambrogio Maestri brings his larger-than-life portrayal of the title role back for the first time since his Met role debut in the 2013–14 season. Robert Carsen’s insightful production—which moves the action to postwar England in the 1950s—features an exceptional cast that includes soprano Ailyn Pérez as Alice Ford and soprano Golda Schultz as Nannetta.

A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London; the Canadian Opera Company, Toronto; and De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam. 

Please note: this week's broadcast begins at 11:00 a.m. and will end at approximately 4:45 p.m. with two intermissions.

The 2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Mozart’s opera set in ancient Rome, La Clemenza di Tito. Tenor Matthew Polenzani stars in the title role as the compassionate Emperor Tito. Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato sings the trouser role of Sesto, Tito’s devoted friend, and soprano Elza van den Heever is Vitellia, Sesto’s lover, who covets the throne and orders him to assassinate the Emperor.

PLEASE NOTE: this week's broadcast begins at 11:30 a.m. and will run to approximately 4:50 p.m.

The 2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Puccini’s celebrated tragedy Tosca, conducted by Carlo Rizzi. The performance will be heard live over Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 6. Jennifer Rowley sings the title role of the diva heroine, opposite Joseph Calleja, who sings the role of Tosca’s lover Cavaradossi, and Wolfgang Koch portrays the villainous Scarpia.

PLEASE NOTE: this week's broadcast begins at 12:00 p.m. and will run to approximately 5:20 p.m.

The 2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Samson et Dalila, Saint-Saëns’s dramatic opera based on the biblical tale of Samson and Delilah. Mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili and tenor Gregory Kunde star as the Philistine seductress and the Hebrew leader whose love and strength she betrays. Bass-baritone Laurent Naouri is the High Priest of Dagon, bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny is the Philistine commander Abimélech, and bass Günther Groissböck is the Old Hebrew.

The 2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Falstaff, Verdi’s exuberant final opera, based on Shakespeare. Fresh off his much-lauded performance as Michonnet in the Met’s performances of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, baritone Ambrogio Maestri stars in the title role of the notorious glutton who tries to seduce two married ladies. Maestri won great acclaim for his portrayal of this role when the Met’s production had its premiere run in the 2013–14 season.

The 2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Das Rheingold, the first opera of Wagner’s four-part cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.

The 2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Donizetti’s comedy La Fille du Régiment. Soprano Pretty Yende stars in the title role as Marie, the young girl taken in and raised as a daughter by a regiment of French soldiers. Tenor Javier Camarena is Tonio, the boy who enlists just to marry her – and sings the show-stopping aria “Ah! mes amis,” famous for its remarkable nine high Cs.

The 2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Verdi’s gripping tragedy Rigoletto. The cast stars soprano Nadine Sierra as the innocent Gilda, tenor Vittorio Grigolo as the lascivious Duke, and baritone Roberto Frontali in the title role as the embittered jester who tries to shield his daughter from a corrupt world. Bass Štefan Kocán is the assassin Sparafucile, and mezzo-soprano Ramona Zaharia is his sister Maddalena.

The 2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Don Giovanni, Mozart’s dark comedy based on the legend of Don Juan. Luca Pisaroni stars as the rakish and unrepentant title character, with Ildar Abdrazakov as his put-upon servant Leporello, and Rachel Willis-Sørensen as the wronged noblewoman Donna Anna. Making their network broadcast debuts are Federica Lombardi as Donna Elvira, Aida Garifullina as Zerlina, and Stanislas de Barbeyrac as Don Ottavio.

PLEASE NOTE: this week's broadcast begins at 12:30 p.m. 

The 2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a double bill of rarely performed one-act operas, Tchaikovsky’s romantic fairy tale Iolanta and Bartók’s harrowing Bluebeard’s Castle. The single intermission will include artist interviews.

Listen to the live broadcast on Classical IPR on Saturday, February 9 at 12:30 p.m. ET.

The 2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with one of the most beloved operas in the repertory, Georges Bizet’s Carmen. Clémentine Margaine stars as the free-spirited gypsy, having made her celebrated Met debut singing this title role in 2017.  Roberto Alagna sings the role of the soldier Don José, Carmen’s jealous lover. Aleksandra Kurzak plays the virtuous Micaëla, and Alexander Vinogradov is the toreador Escamillo. Conductor Louis Langrée leads the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in Bizet’s famous score.