The Metropolitan Opera commemorates Black History Month with two weeks of curated free programming, streaming throughout the first half of February. The lineup, the latest in the company’s Nightly Met Streams series, starts with The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess; Angel Blue and Eric Owens star in the new production filmed in 2020 just a few weeks before the coronavirus-caused shutdown.
Throughout the next 14 days, the Met will showcase performances that served as star vehicles for such renowned Black classical singers as Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, and Lawrence Brownlee.
The free streams are available starting at 7:30 PM ET each night at MetOpera.org for 23 hours each. Check out the new two weeks’ complete schedule below.
February 1: The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Starring Angel Blue, Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore, Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, Eric Owens, Alfred Walker, and Donovan Singletary, conducted by David Robertson. Production by James Robinson. Originally broadcast February 1, 2020.
February 2: Verdi’s La Forza del Destino
Starring Leontyne Price, Isola Jones, Giuseppe Giacomini, Leo Nucci, and Bonaldo Giaiotti, conducted by James Levine. Production by John Dexter. Originally broadcast March 24, 1984.
February 3: Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites
Starring Maria Ewing, Jessye Norman, Betsy Norden, Régine Crespin, and Florence Quivar, conducted by Manuel Rosenthal. Production by John Dexter. Originally broadcast April 4, 1987.
February 4: Rossini’s La Cenerentola
Starring Elina Garanča, Lawrence Brownlee, Simone Alberghini, Alessandro Corbelli, and John Relyea, conducted by Maurizio Benini. Production by Cesare Lievi. Originally broadcast May 9, 2009.
February 5: Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro
Starring Carol Vaness, Kathleen Battle, Frederica von Stade, Thomas Allen, and Ruggero Raimondi, conducted by James Levine. Production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. Originally broadcast December 14, 1985.
February 6: Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos
Starring Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, Tatiana Troyanos, and James King, conducted by James Levine. Production by Bodo Igesz. Originally broadcast March 12, 1988.
February 7: Puccini’s Tosca
Starring Shirley Verrett, Luciano Pavarotti, and Cornell MacNeil, conducted by James Conlon. Directed by Tito Gobbi. Originally broadcast December 19, 1978.
February 8: Wagner’s Das Rheingold
Starring Wendy Bryn Harmer, Stephanie Blythe, Patricia Bardon, Richard Croft, Gerhard Siegel, Dwayne Croft, Bryn Terfel, Eric Owens, Franz-Josef Selig, and Hans-Peter König, conducted by James Levine. Production by Robert Lepage. Originally broadcast October 9, 2010.
February 9: Verdi’s Ernani
Starring Leona Mitchell, Luciano Pavarotti, Sherrill Milnes, and Ruggero Raimondi, conducted by James Levine. Production by Pier Luigi Samaritani. Originally broadcast December 17, 1983.
February 10: Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Starring Kathleen Battle, Rockwell Blake, Leo Nucci, Enzo Dara, and Ferruccio Furlanetto, conducted by Ralf Weikert. Production by John Cox. Originally broadcast December 3, 1988.
February 11: Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera
Starring Aprile Millo, Harolyn Blackwell, Florence Quivar, Luciano Pavarotti, and Leo Nucci, conducted by James Levine. Production by Piero Faggioni. Originally broadcast January 26, 1991.
February 12: Philip Glass’s Akhnaten
Starring Dísella Lárusdóttir, J’Nai Bridges, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Aaron Blake, Will Liverman, Richard Bernstein, and Zachary James, conducted by Karen Kamensek. Production by Phelim McDermott. Originally broadcast November 23, 2019.
February 13: Berlioz’s Les Troyens
Starring Tatiana Troyanos, Jessye Norman, Plácido Domingo, and Allan Monk, conducted by James Levine. Production by Fabrizio Melano. Originally broadcast October 8, 1983.
February 14: Wagner’s Die Walküre
Starring Hildegard Behrens, Jessye Norman, Christa Ludwig, Gary Lakes, James Morris, and Kurt Moll, conducted by James Levine. Production by Otto Schenk. Originally broadcast April 8, 1989.
