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As the Metropolitan Opera reaches the end of its planned 2019-2020 season, it continues to provide succor for opera fans at home with its eighth week of free streamed performances every night, drawn from the archives of its popular series Live in HD. The Met slate for May 4 through May 10 includes classics by Mozart, Puccini and Richard Strauss. (Click here for the Met lineup for May 25 through May 31.)
The operas go live each night on the Met's website at 7:30pm EDT; you can also see them through the Met Opera on Demand app on various devices. Each video remains viewable for 23 hours, until 6:30pm EDT the following day. The full schedule for Week 8 is below.
Like last week's Aida, Friday night's Viewer's Choice predates the HD era, and it's a stone-cold classic: Puccini’s La Bohème, starring Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavarotti. Broadcast in 1977, this Bohème was the very first offering of the public-television series Live from the Met. To vote for future Viewers’ Choice selections, go to the Met’s Facebook or Instagram page on Friday night for a link to the ballot.
This week begins with a beloved 1998 performance of Mozart's opera buffa The Marriage of Figaro (not to be confused with Rossini's prequel, The Barber of Seville), starring Bryn Terfel, Cecilia Bartoli and Renée Fleming; it ends with the traditional "Cav & Pag" double bill of two short verismo works, Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. On Wednesday is a Kaija Saariaho 2000 piece L’Amour de Loin, which is only the second opera by a female composer that the Met has ever produced. (The other in 1903.) To mark what would have been the end of its live season on Saturday night, the company is airing The Opera House, a 2017 documentary film that surveys the Met's history through archival footage as well as new interviews, including with a 90-year-old Leontyne Price.
The Met's helpful quickie guide can help you decide which of these operas you might enjoy most. For a deeper dive, peruse the company's page of articles and podcasts about the operas.
This week's Metropolitan Opera Live in HD schedule:
Monday, May 4: Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro
Starring Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Susanne Mentzer, Dwayne Croft and Bryn Terfel
Tuesday, May 5: Thomas’s Hamlet
Starring Marlis Petersen, Jennifer Larmore, Simon Keenlyside and James Morris
Wednesday, May 6: Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin
Starring Susanna Phillips, Tamara Mumford and Eric Owens
Thursday, May 7: R. Strauss’s Capriccio
Starring Renée Fleming, Sarah Connolly, Joseph Kaiser, Russell Braun, Morten Frank Larsen and Peter Rose
Friday, May 8: Puccini’s La Bohème
Starring Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavarotti
Saturday, May 9: The Opera House
Featuring Leontyne Price
Sunday, May 10: Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci
Starring Eva-Maria Westbroek, Patricia Racette, Marcelo Álvarez and George Gagnidze
RECOMMENDED: Our daily round-up of the best theater, opera and dance to stream online
La Bohème // Photograph: Metropolitan Opera Archives
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