The Metropolitan Opera streams new free operas every night this week

The Metropolitan Opera has closed its doors for the rest of 2020, but the great opera house is keeping the flame alive with free recordings of full past productions every night. The lineup from July 20 through July 26 includes complete operas by Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Gounod, Rossini and Strauss. Most of the productions were recorded for release in movie theaters as part of the Met's Live in HD series. (Click here to see the Met's schedule for August 10 through August 16.)

The performances go live on the Met's website at 7:30pm EDT (12:30am BST), where they remain until 6:30pm EDT the following day. The works can also be watched on multiple devices with the Met Opera on Demand app. A full schedule for Week 19 is below. 

This week's lineup includes two classic productions from before the HD era: Wagner’s Tannhäuser on Tuesday, starring Richard Cassilly and Éva Marton; and Guiseppe Verdi’s Falstaff on Friday, starring Paul Plishka, Mirella Freni and Marilyn Horne. The great Russian soprano Anna Netrebko stars in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette on Wednesday, and Met favorite Renée Fleming headlines Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier on Saturday. For more information about these operas, check out the Met's handy thumbnail guide or delve into the company's more comprehensive collection of articles and podcasts.

In addition to this week's free operas, the Met now offers new pay-per-view virtual concerts every two weeks. The inaugural edition, which features superstar German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, is available on demand through July 30. (Kaufmann can also be seen opposite Eva-Maria Westbroek in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West on Sunday.)

This week's Metropolitan Opera Live in HD schedule:  

Monday, July 20: Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Starring Isabel Leonard, Lawrence Brownlee, Christopher Maltman and Maurizio Muraro, conducted by Michele Mariotti. Transmitted live on November 22, 2014.

Tuesday, July 21: Wagner’s Tannhäuser 
Starring Éva Marton, Tatiana Troyanos, Richard Cassilly, Bernd Weikl and John Macurdy. Conducted by James Levine. From December 20, 1982. 

Wednesday, July 22: Verdi’s Macbeth
Starring Maria Guleghina, Dimitri Pittas, Željko Lučić and John Relyea, Conducted by James Levine. Transmitted live on January 12, 2008. 

Thursday, July 23: Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette
Starring Anna Netrebko, Roberto Alagna, Nathan Gunn and Robert Lloyd. Conducted by Plácido Domingo. Transmitted live on December 15, 2007. 

Friday, July 24: Verdi’s Falstaff
Starring Mirella Freni, Barbara Bonney, Marilyn Horne, Bruno Pola and Paul Plishka. Conducted by James Levine. From October 10, 1992.

Saturday, July 25: Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier
Starring Renée Fleming, Christine Schäfer, Susan Graham, and Kristinn Sigmundsson. Conducted by Edo de Waart. Transmitted live on January 9, 2010.

Sunday, July 26: Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West
Starring Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jonas Kaufmann. And Željko Lučić. Conducted by Marco Armiliato. Transmitted live on October 27, 2018. 

RECOMMENDED: Our daily roundup of the best theater, opera and dance to stream online 

Tannhäuser | Photograph: Metropolitan Opera Archives

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