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Although the Metropolitan Opera has canceled the rest of its 2019-2020 season, the great world opera house is offering a fifth slate of its its very popular Live in HD series of free streamed performances every night this week. (Click here to see the Met's schedule for October 12 through October 18.)
The lineup for April 13 through April 19 includes classics by Puccini, Rossini, Dvořák, Mussorgsky, Cilea and Richard Strauss. The streams go live each night on the Met's website at 7:30pm (Eastern Daylight Time); you can watch them through the Met Opera on Demand app on multiple devices. Each production remains up for 23 hours until 6:30pm the following day. The full schedule is below.
The revered American soprano Renée Fleming stars in two of this week's operas, Rusalka and Der Rosenkavalier; two others, Madama Butterfly and La Rondine, are by Giacomo Puccini. (The late Anthony Minghella’s gorgeous 2006 staging of Butterfly was selected by popular demand as the series's first Viewers' Choice.) To decide which operas might be right for you, consult the Met's handy thumbnail guide to this week's offerings. For deeper insight into the works, peruse the Met's full page of articles and podcasts.
“We’d like to provide some grand opera solace to opera lovers in these extraordinarily difficult times,” said the Met's general manager, Peter Gelb.
This week's Metropolitan Opera Live in HD schedule:
Monday, April 13: Dvořák’s Rusalka
Starring Renée Fleming and Piotr Beczała
Tuesday, April 14: Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov
Starring René Pape
Wednesday, April 15: Puccini’s La Rondine
Starring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna
Thursday, April 16: Rossini’s Le Comte Ory
Conducted by Maurizio Benini, starring Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez
Friday, April 17: Puccini's Madama Butterfly
Starring Patricia Racette, Marcello Giordani and Dwayne Croft
Saturday, April 18: Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur
Starring Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili, Piotr Beczała and Ambrogio Maestri
Sunday, April 19: Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier
Starring Renée Fleming, Elīna Garanča, Erin Morley and Günther Groissböck
RECOMMENDED: Our daily list of the best theater, opera and dance to steam online
Der Rosenkavalier // Photograph: Courtesy Ken Howard