The New Year's celebration, again hosted by Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville, will premiere January 1, 2020, at 2:30 PM with an encore performance at 9 PM that evening; check local listings. Featuring the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Andris Nelsons, at Vienna’s famed Musikverein, the concert spotlights the talent of the Vienna State Ballet and the Vienna Philharmonic with waltzes by Strauss and more. Host Bonneville will tour Musikverein’s archives, which hold the largest collection of Beethoven manuscripts in the world, the Beethoven museum, and other locations associated with the composer in honor of his 250th birthday.
On January 5 at noon, the 14th season of Great Performances at the Met will launch with Massenet’s French tale Manon. Soprano Lisette Oropesa stars in the title role, alongside tenor Michael Fabiano as Chevalier des Grieux. They are joined by Artur Ruciński as Lescaut, Brett Polegato as de Brétigny, Kwangchul Youn as Comte des Grieux, and Carlo Bosi as Guillot de Morfontaine. Maurizio Benini conducts, and soprano Nadine Sierra hosts.
Laurent Pelly’s production of Manon is set in France and begins with Lescaut waiting for the arrival of his young cousin Manon, who is on her way to enter a convent.
