Educator Guides to the Operas

Plan an opera study unit for your students based on one of the operas in the
2010-11 Metropolitan Opera season, climaxing with a Night at the Opera in a local movie theater or at your school. The Met Live in HD series offers free opera-specific educational guides you can use to prepare students for viewing the opera performance, including classroom activities, story synopsis, background on the opera and composer, musical highlights with audio clips, post-opera activities, and more.

Note to Teachers: Have your kids write a paragraph on their “Night at the Opera,” and we’ll share some on our blog or website.

Opera in the Classroom Program

 The Metropolitan Opera has partnered with some school districts around the country to bring their HD Live opera productions into schools. Please check to see if your school district participates, as this brings opera free to students. If your school is not participating, contact the Met to see how you can bring the program to your school.

The fifth season of the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series is coming to a movie theater near you! Enjoy front row seats at these live opening night productions. It is so easy to feel more engaged with opera on a large screen, where you can see everything “up close and personal.”  Feel the pre-performance tension as the audience gathers before the conductor appears and the orchestra begins the overture. Then enjoy backstage interviews with the stars during intermission, or take a refreshment break yourself, get a popcorn refill, and mingle with other opera-g0ers in the theater lobby.  What an exciting night of music and drama is in store for you with each performance. And the price of the theater ticket is usually only $15 to $20.  Check the link for the theaters where you can see opening night or Encore performances (subject to change, so verify with your local theater):

Movie Theaters where you can see the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series (listed by state/city, last updated 8/25/2010)

If you miss the simulcast live opening night Metropolitan Opera performances at a theater near you, you can catch the Encore screenings at other movie theaters. These are the Movie Theaters where you can see the Metropolitan Opera Encore performances (listed by state, city).

Educator Guides to the Operas

Plan an opera study unit for your students based on one of the operas in the 2010-11 Met season, climaxing with a Night at the Opera in a local movie theater. The Met Live in HD series offers free opera-specific educational guides you can use to prepare students for viewing the opera performance, including classroom activities, story synopsis, background on the opera and composer, musical highlights with audio clips, post-opera activities, and more.

Note to Teachers: Have your kids write a paragraph on their “Night at the Opera,” and we’ll share some on our blog or website.

Opera in the Classroom Program

 The Metropolitan Opera has also partnered with school districts around the country to bring their HD Live opera productions into schools. Please check to see if your school district participates, as this brings opera free to students in certain districts. If your school is not participating, contact the Met to see how you can bring the program to your school.

METROPOLITAN OPERA: Live in HD in Movie Theaters

                                2010-11 Schedule

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Wagner’s Das Rheingold

October 9, 2010 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours

Two unparalleled artists join forces to create a groundbreaking new Ring for the Met: Maestro James Levine and director Robert Lepage. The cycle launches with Das Rheingold, the prologue to Wagner’s epic drama. “The Ring is not just a story or a series of operas, it’s a cosmos,” says Lepage, who brings cutting-edge technology and his own visionary imagination to the world’s greatest theatrical journey. Bryn Terfel sings the leading role of Wotan for the first time with the company, heading an extraordinary cast.

James Levine; Wendy Bryn Harmer, Stephanie Blythe, Patricia Bardon, Richard Croft, Gerhard Siegel, Bryn Terfel, Eric Owens, Franz-Josef Selig, Hans-Peter König

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Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov

October 23, 2010 at 12:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 5 hours

René Pape takes on one of the greatest bass roles in a new production by Stephen Wadsworth. Valery Gergiev conducts Mussorgsky’s epic spectacle that captures the suffering and ambition of a nation, with Aleksandrs Antonenko, Vladimir Ognovenko, and Ekaterina Semenchuk leading the huge cast.

Valery Gergiev; Ekaterina Semenchuk, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Oleg Balashov, Evgeny Nikitin, René Pape, Mikhail Petrenko, Vladimir Ognovenko

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Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

November 13, 2010 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Anna Netrebko revives her sensational turn in this sophisticated bel canto comedy, opposite Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, and John Del Carlo in the title role. Music Director James Levine conducts. When Otto Schenk’s production premiered in 2006, the New York Times called it “brilliant” and “wonderful.”

James Levine; Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, John Del Carlo

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Verdi’s Don Carlo

December 11, 2010 at 12:30 pm ET
Expected Running time: 4 hours, 30 minutes

Director Nicholas Hytner makes his Met debut with this new production of Verdi’s profound, beautiful, and most ambitious opera. Roberto Alagna leads the cast, and Ferruccio Furlanetto, Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, and Simon Keenlyside also star. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, back after his triumphant debut leading Carmen, conducts. “I think Don Carlo is the quintessential Verdi opera,” Hytner says. “Right through this opera there is, on the one hand, an implacable expression of impending doom and, on the other hand, a succession of the most gloriously open-throated arias, the most fantastically determined music.”

Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, Roberto Alagna, Simon Keenlyside, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Eric Halfvarson

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Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West

January 8, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Puccini’s wild-west opera had its world premiere in 1910 at the Met. Now, on the occasion of its centennial, all-American diva Deborah Voigt sings the title role of the “girl of the golden west,” starring opposite Marcello Giordani. Nicola Luisotti conducts.

Nicola Luisotti; Deborah Voigt, Marcello Giordani, Lucio Gallo

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Adams’s Nixon in China

February 12, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 4 hours

“All of my operas have dealt on deep psychological levels with our American mythology,” says composer John Adams, who conducts the Met premiere of his most famous opera. “The meeting of Nixon and Mao is a mythological moment in world history, particularly American history.” Acclaimed director and longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars makes his Met debut with this groundbreaking 1987 work, an exploration of the human truths beyond the headlines surrounding President Nixon’s 1972 encounter with Communist China. Baritone James Maddalena stars in the title role.

John Adams; Kathleen Kim, Janis Kelly, Robert Brubaker, Russell Braun, James Maddalena, Richard Paul Fink

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Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride

February 26, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo reprise their starring roles in Gluck’s nuanced and elegant interpretation of this primal Greek myth. Tenor Paul Groves also returns to Stephen Wadsworth’s insightful production, first seen in 2007. Patrick Summers conducts.

Patrick Summers; Susan Graham, Plácido Domingo, Paul Groves, Gordon Hawkins

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Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor

March 19, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 4 hours

Natalie Dessay triumphed as the fragile heroine of Donizetti’s masterpiece on Opening Night of the 2007–08 season in Mary Zimmerman’s hit production. Now she returns to the role of the innocent young woman driven to madness, opposite Joseph Calleja, who sings her lover Edgardo.

Patrick Summers; Natalie Dessay, Joseph Calleja, Ludovic Tézier, Kwangchul Youn

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Rossini’s Le Comte Ory

April 9, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours

Rossini’s vocally dazzling comedy stars bel canto sensation Juan Diego Flórez in the title role of this Met premiere production. He vies with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, in the trouser role of Isolier, for the love of the lonely Countess Adèle, sung by soprano Diana Damrau. Bartlett Sher, director of the Met’s hit productions of The Barber of Seville and The Tales of Hoffmann, describes the world of the opera as, “a place where love is dangerous. People get hurt. That can be very funny and very painful. Rossini captures both—with the most beautiful love music Rossini ever wrote.”

Maurizio Benini; Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, Susanne Resmark, Juan Diego Flórez, Stéphane Degout, Michele Pertusi

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Strauss’s Capriccio

April 23, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours

On Opening Night of the 2008–09 season, Renée Fleming dazzled audiences when she sang the final scene of Strauss’s wise and worldly meditation on art and life. Now she performs the entire work, in which the composer explores the essence of opera itself. Joseph Kaiser and Sarah Connolly also star, and Andrew Davis conducts.

Andrew Davis; Renée Fleming, Sarah Connolly, Joseph Kaiser, Russell Braun, Morten Frank Larsen, Peter Rose

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Verdi’s Il Trovatore

April 30, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours

David McVicar’s stirring production of Verdi’s intense drama premiered in the 2008–09 season. James Levine leads this revival, starring four extraordinary singers—Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky—in what might be the composer’s most melodically rich score.

James Levine; Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky

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Wagner’s Die Walküre

May 14, 2011 at 12:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 5 hours, 15 minutes

A stellar cast comes together for this second installment of Robert Lepage’s new production of the Ring cycle, conducted by James Levine. Bryn Terfel is Wotan, lord of the Gods. Deborah Voigt adds the part of Brünnhilde to her extensive Wagnerian repertoire at the Met. Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek star as the twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde, and Stephanie Blythe is Fricka.

James Levine; Deborah Voigt, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Stephanie Blythe, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel, Hans-Peter König

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Don’t Forget to Support Live Music Events in Your Community!

Even though the Met is coming to your neighborhood theater, don’t fail to subscribe to and support your local opera, symphony, ballet, theater, and other performing groups. The experience of attending live musical events is not replaceable by screened performances. The Live in HD series is a boon for those who have no live opera in their communities, but for those who do have local opera companies the Met series should enrich and not replace your live opera-going experiences. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PERFORMANCE COMPANIES, whether in music, dance, or theater, or you may one day find yourself without them. The Met series will hopefully attract a new and bigger audience, who will also become active supporters of their local musical companies.

Don’t underestimate the power of either sports or music when it comes to exciting a crowd. Even as a tormented composer writing under the harsh restrictions and demands of Communism, in his 1929 ballet  The Golden Age big-time soccer fan and sometime soccer referee Shostakovich recreated a soccer match. In this ballet, a communist soccer team travels to the West to compete against the evil “capitalists” (real boiler-plate geo-political plot!).  Listen to his brilliant recreation of a fast-paced soccer match:

I would love to have seen this ballet scene. Wonder if the choreographer was a soccer fan too? Probably so. . .

Tips for Music Teachers:

1. Play this musical soccer match for your students, and see how many can guess what sport is being depicted. 

2. Ask students to guess why the composer chose to include this work in a ballet, rather than a symphony, opera, or choral work.

3. Ask students to choreograph & perform in teams their own interpretation of Shostakovich’s soccer match.

4. Ask students to research other examples where composers have depicted sports events in their music (and share them with us!).

5. Ask students to describe what music and sports have in common.

6. Show students the vuvuzela, the obnoxiously loud, monotone horn used at this year’s World Cup.  This is a great seque to open the discussion on noise pollution and hearing protection! (Hope they ban the horn for the next World Cup!)

There’s a lot more to World Cup soccer music than national anthems and the penetrating blare of “vuvuzela” horns.  WQXR classical FM station, highlights the top 5 soccer pieces from 100 years of soccer-inspired classical music.

A scholar in England just announced his discovery of a secret music code in the writings of Plato.  As a closeted follower of Pythagoras, whose heretical beliefs threatened traditional religion, Plato believed that music and mathematics were closely related, and that music was a reflection of the mathematical principles that governed the universe. Pythagoras codified the mathematical ratios of the musical intervals in the 12-tone Greek scale. Plato, like his mentor Pythagoras,  believed the “harmony of the spheres” resulted from movement of the stars and planets, which orbited according to mathematical equations that created musical pitches. 

Jay Kennedy of Manchester, England, has discovered that every 12th line of Plato’s original manuscript scrolls includes a passage or reference to music, that possibly sent a hidden code to other followers of Pythagoras. Thus the 12-tone Greek scale underpinned Plato’s writings, just as music and mathematics laid the philosophical foundations of the Pythagorean universe.

Read more about this fascinating discovery and its implications on the relationship of music, science, and philosophy that resonate today.

Here are links & dates for jazz festivals around the world, so plan a trip around an  enticing jazz venue that beckons you to kick back and enjoy live jazz at its convivial best.

Jazz Festivals in USA

Jazz Festivals in Canada

UK Jazz Festivals

European Jazz Festivals

Worldwide jazz festivals are also listed geographically, but without dates, in Wikipedia. Their list is admittedly incomplete, but at least there are links to festivals in all countries where you can find more info.

It’s live performances that make jazz so exciting. You can’t step twice into the same river of jazz, because its improvisatory nature makes it ever changing. No artist will ever perform the same piece the same way again. Recordings are wonderful to capture some of these moments, but the excitement of jazz is that each live performance offers infinite opportunities for spontaneous combustion into new, unexpected creations. The mind is an amazing thing; the jazz mind is even more so. Those intricately connected musical wires of the brain operate as though on steroids, combining and creating music “on the fly.” And the most amazing thing about a jazz musician is his ability to listen and to communicate with his fellow musicians during a performance. Duke Ellington really nailed it when he said:

“The most important thing I look for in a musician is if he knows how to listen.”

That same ability to listen is what an audience needs to apply at a live jazz performance, knowing you won’t pass this way again. Throw yourself into the music with the same fervor of the “listening” and performing musicians. Jazz is the essence of Now, so listen with all you’ve got, and savor the fleeting moment.

Bring full-scale Metropolitan Opera productions into your classroom! The free Live in HD school program from the Met is now available in some school districts around the country, and online educational guides put the icing on the cake.  Teaching guides for each Metropolitan opera production include classroom activities, musical highlights, story synopses, accompanying audio clips, post-opera discussion and activities, and student resources—all practical tools to help students prepare for and understand the operas, and to engage fully in their shared opera experience. What an intelligent way for the Met to build future audiences for opera, and we applaud their wonderful program of making opera more widely accessible throughout the country.  Let’s hope this free school program will continue to expand to all schools. Please let the Met know how you feel, and to encourage expansion of this excellent program. Bravo! Encore!

Note to teachers: In case the Metropolitan Opera program is not currently available in your school district, consider taking your class during the coming school year to one of the Live in HD performances in local movie theaters near you. What a treat it is to view these performances, “up close and personal” on the big screen, with all the excitement and anticipation of being at the Met, in front row orchestra seats!

Educational Guides are available for these operas:

Armida

This mythical story of a sorceress who enthralls men in her island prison has inspired operatic settings by a multitude of composers. Renée Fleming stars in the title role of Rossini’s version, opposite no fewer than six tenors. Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman returns to direct this new production of a work she describes as “a buried treasure, a box of jewels.”  The fanciful and magical tale, Zimmerman says, “has an epic, enchanted quality and a tremendous visual element.”

Doctor Atomic

Gerald Finley stars as J. Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams’s contemporary masterpiece exploring a momentous episode of modern history: the creation of the atomic bomb.  Directed by Penny Woolcook.

La Bohème

A magnificent cast comes together for Franco Zeffirelli’s iconic production of the Puccini favorite. The exciting young conductor Nicola Luisotti presides over a glorious vocal ensemble led by the mesmerizing Angela Gheorghiu, who sings Mimì at the Met for the first time in twelve years, opposite golden-toned tenor Ramón Vargas as her lover, Rodolfo.

Carmen

One of the most popular operas of all time, Carmen "is about sex, violence, and racism—and its corollary: freedom," says Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre about his new production of Bizet’s drama. "It is one of the inalienably great works of art. It’s sexy, in every sense. And I think it should be shocking." El?na Garan?a sings the seductive gypsy of the title for the first time at the Met, opposite Roberto Alagna as the obsessed Don José.

La Cenerentola

El?na Garan?a stars in Rossini’s bel canto Cinderella story, with Lawrence Brownlee as her Prince Charming. Veteran baritone Alessandro Corbelli demonstrates his impeccable comic timing to match the gravitas of Met favorite John Relyea.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann

Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific) directs this new production, returning after the triumph of his Met Barber of Seville. Offenbach’s fictionalized take on the life and loves of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann is a fascinating psychological journey. Met Music Director James Levine conducts Joseph Calleja in the tour-de-force title role. Anna Netrebko is the tragic Antonia and Alan Held sings the demonic four villains.

La Fille du Régiment

Experience the “exceedingly yummy operatic cake” that was called “the operatic show of the season” by The Times of London when it opened at Covent Garden this past winter. Audiences were dazzled by Natalie Dessay’s fearless coloratura and impeccable comic timing and by Juan Diego Flórez’s remarkable musicality—complete with the famous high Cs.

Hansel and Gretel

Haunting, charming, and a little wicked, the Met’s production returns as the season’s special holiday presentation for families. Miah Persson and Angelika Kirchschlager are the lost siblings. Philip Langridge reprises his outlandish portrayal of the Witch in Humperdinck’s take on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Sung in English and conducted by Fabio Luisi.

This production was originally created for Welsh National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Lucia di Lammermoor

Anna Netrebko sings the title role of Donizetti’s fragile heroine for the first time at the Met, with tenor Rolando Vilazón as her lover in Mary Zimmerman’s hit production.

Macbeth

Explore this terrorizing classic featuring Željko Lucic and Maria Guleghina as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the new production premiere based on Shakespeare’s original play.

Madama Butterfly

The riveting singing actress Cristina Gallardo-Domâs returns to the title role of Anthony Minghella’s stunning production, a new classic of the Met repertory.

Manon Lescaut

Finnish phenomenon Karita Mattila adds another landmark role to her Met repertory, the free-spirited beauty Manon Lescaut. The story of the magnetic attraction between two young lovers is the perfect vehicle for the soprano’s exhilarating charisma, especially when matched by the ardent tenor of Marcello Giordani.

Peter Grimes

Peter Grimes is under investigation for unthinkable transgressions, yet Benjamin Britten’s probing exploration of the nature of guilt and judgment implicates an entire fishing village. Director John Doyle, a Tony Award® winner for his interpretation of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, makes his Met debut answering the challenges of this modern masterpiece.

Roméo et Juliette

The Metropolitan Opera pairs two of the world’s leading singers, Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna, to bring Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed lovers to thrilling and heartbreaking life.

La Rondine

Opera’s charismatic real-life duo, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna, provides the star power to deliver this ravishing romance from the world’s most popular opera composer. Nicolas Joël directs the new production of this gorgeously melodic look at love.

Tosca

Tosca tells the story of three people—a famous opera singer, a free-thinking painter, and a sadistic chief of police—caught in a net of love and politics. Soprano Karita Mattila, recently seen in last season’s Live in HD presentation of Salome, sings the title role for the first time outside her native Finland. Luc Bondy, acclaimed for his imaginative theater and opera productions, directs. The cast also includes Marcelo Álvarez as Cavaradossi and George Gagnidze as Scarpia. Joseph Colaneri conducts.

Turandot

Director Franco Zeffirelli’s breathtaking production of Puccini’s last opera is a favorite of the Met repertoire. Maria Guleghina plays the ruthless Chinese princess of the title, whose hatred of men is so strong that she has all suitors who can’t solve her riddles beheaded. Marcello Giordani sings Calàf, the unknown prince who eventually wins her love and whose solos include the famous “Nessun dorma.”

These are hard times, especially in nearly bankrupt California. But are we content to see the California legislature gut the heart (i.e., the arts) out of education? The arts and foreign languages are fundamental to education, especially in the world we live in today. If creative thinking and global communications were ever needed in this world, we need them now. And the beleaguered California legislature chooses to eliminate these high school graduation requirements for what reasons? Is there really much money to be saved by going after educational fields that are laughably underfunded to start with? According to the author of this legislation, “the intent … is to increase high school graduation rates, which is an ever-pressing issue.” Is he serious? Is the goal of “graduating” more students overriding the goal of educating them? But this unfortunate piece of legislation passed the California Assembly 76 to 0, and is now headed for the state senate. Email them a copy of our Declaration of Music and the Arts to remind them of all the ways that the arts are essential in education.

Take the LA Times poll on whether California should drop arts and language requirements for high school graduation. Read more about bill AB2446 then send a message to the politicians who are playing with our kids’ education, which seems to be getting dumb and dumber. Even if you are not from California, this is a dangerous trend in education that is not confined to that state. Everyone should rally and send a loud and clear message, like we did in Texas: “Don’t mess with our arts.”

President John F. Kennedy hit the nail on the head on the importance of arts in a nation:

“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose and is a test of the quality of a nation’s civilization." 

Can’t go to the opera? Does your busy schedule or a pinched pocketbook or an illness make you miss the magic of the live performance? While there is nothing like the excitement of being in the theater for the real event, there are now 2 wonderful and affordable alternatives:

Option 1. Opera Night at the Movies with Popcorn

Enjoy Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series or the European Opera & Ballet Cinema series of simulcast performances in local movie theaters near you. Witness opening night live performances or catch the scheduled re-broadcasts, for slightly more than the price of a normal movie ticket.

Option 2. Opera Night in Your Pajamas

Bring opera into your living room or bedroom with the Met Player you can download to your computer. Rent or subscribe to the player, but first enjoy a free 7-day trial.  Oh brave new world. . .that hath such lush, magnificent (and affordable) operas at our fingertips.

The hills are alive with the sound of men singing in Great Britain. Television shows like Glee and The Choir, along with increasing numbers of You Tube videos of barbershop music,  may be contributing to the surge of popularity in Great Britain for close harmony singing. This week over 2500 eager singers are heading to Harrogate, England, to raise their voices in harmony (and competition) at the Barbershop convention. The British Association of Barbershop Singers (“Babs”) has seen their youth membership double in the last 6 months. Membership has increased by 20% in the last 15 months, “Learn to Sing” programs have been oversubscribed, and there are waiting lists for joining the choruses. It’s suddenly cool for guys to sing, and even the jocks are joining the chorus. (Read more about Babs.)

So let’s hope the rising tide of young male singers in Great Britain is also taking place in other countries, including the USA.  (Wales has always had a strong history of male choruses.  And the Cornish sea chantey singers “Fisherman’s Friends” just had their boat land with a one million pounds recording contract.) Will have to look into this young male singing “phenom” to see if it is happening elsewhere too, and if there is a female equivalent taking place also. Any comments from you would be helpful as I do a little more digging in the future about how singing is faring elsewhere in the world. 

In the meantime, treat yourself to “76 Trombones” sung by the Ambassadors of Harmony, 2009 International Barbershop Chorus champions from Missouri: