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The Metropolitan Opera is closed for the rest of this year, but the grand house continues to entertain opera fans around the world with free nightly streams of full productions from its archives. The lineup from August 24 through August 30 is devoted to works by a single composer: the 19th-century Italian master Giuseppe Verdi. All seven of this week's recordings were recorded in high definition in the past 15 years as part of the Met's Live in HD series. (Click here to see the Met's schedule for October 12 through October 18.)
Each stream goes live on the Met's website at 7:30pm EDT (12:30am BST) and remains available until 6:30pm EDT the next day. The productions can also be viewed through the Met Opera on Demand app. A full schedule for Week 24 is below.
Anna Netrebko in Il Trovatore | Photograph: Marty Sohl
On the lineup are several of Verdi's most enduringly popular works: Rigoletto, in a neon-lit 2013 production of directed by Broadway’s Michael Mayer that moves the action to 1960 Las Vegas; Il Trovatore, with Anna Netrebko and Yonghoon Lee in a tragic story of love, revenge, witch-burning and one stolen baby; and La Traviata, a tale of conspicuous consumption starring Diana Damrau as a Parisian courtesan. To help you choose among these offerings, the Met provides a handy quick guide to the works as well a more in-depth collection of articles and podcasts.
In addition to its nightly supply of operas, the Met also streams new pay-per-view virtual concerts every other week. The third of these, which features Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak performing from the south of France, is available through August 27; the fourth, in which Lise Davidsen sings live from the Oscarshall Palace in Oslo, premieres at 1pm EDT (6pm BST) on Saturday, August 29.
This week's Metropolitan Opera nightly streaming schedule:
Monday, August 24: Rigoletto
Starring Diana Damrau, Oksana Volkova, Piotr Beczała, Željko Lučić and Štefan Kocán. Conducted by Michele Mariotti. Transmitted live on February 16, 2013.
Tuesday, August 25: Il Trovatore
Starring Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Yonghoon Lee, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Štefan Kocán. Conducted by Marco Armiliato. Transmitted live on October 3, 2015.
Wednesday, August 26: Luisa Miller
Starring Sonya Yoncheva, Olesya Petrova, Piotr Beczała, Plácido Domingo, Alexander Vinogradov and Dmitry Belosselskiy. Conducted by Bertrand de Billy. Transmitted live on April 14, 2018.
Thursday, August 27: Un Ballo in Maschera
Starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Kathleen Kim, Stephanie Blythe, Marcelo Álvarez and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Conducted by Fabio Luisi. Transmitted live on December 8, 2012.
Friday, August 28: La Traviata
Starring Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez and Quinn Kelsey. Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Transmitted live on December 15, 2018.
Saturday, August 29: Don Carlo
Starring Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, Roberto Alagna, Simon Keenlyside, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Eric Halfvarson. Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Transmitted live on December 11, 2010.
Sunday, August 30: Falstaff
Starring Lisette Oropesa, Angela Meade, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Paolo Fanale, Ambrogio Maestri and Franco Vassallo. Conducted by James Levine. Transmitted live on December 14, 2013.
RECOMMENDED: Our day-by-day roundup of the best theater, opera and dance to stream online
Rigoletto | Photograph: Ken Howard
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