Met Opera Guild Podcast

This episode features a special conversation between Opera News Editor-in-Chief, F. Paul Driscoll, and the Met’s Assistant General Manager for Music Administration John Fisher, providing insight into the Met's 2017-18 season.

Dvořák's Czech masterpiece has opera returned to the Met this season with a new, fantastical production by Mary Zimmerman. Today’s episode features my co-host and Guild lecturer Naomi Barrettara in a pre-performance talk exploring the folklore sources behind the opera plot, as well as the musical fabric that bring this story to life.

Today's episode features an engaging interview with Met Opera chorus master, Donald Palumbo, originally recorded in November 2016. In it, we hear about Maestro Palumbo's path to the Met as well as his approach for preparing one of the world's best opera choruses.

With the Met's new production of Romeo et Juliette coming to theaters around the world this Saturday, January 21st, seasoned stage director Jay Lesenger explores Gounod's operatic adaptation of Shakespeare's most famous play.

In today's episode, a Talking About Opera lecture on Verdi's first big hit, which includes Verdi's path to success and a chorus that became an anthem of the Italian nationalist movement.

In this episode, Guild lecturer Naomi Barrettara takes an in depth look at the musical and dramatic elements of Strauss's Salome, as well as it's scandalous 1907 Met Opera premiere.

Just after it's Met premiere, Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin will be broadcast Live in HD to theaters around the world on Saturday, December 10, 2016. In this episode, we have a pre-performance lecture given by Naomi Barrettara with everything you need to know before seeing this stunning 21st-century opera.

Rossini's final opera, Guillaume Tell, is the grandest of them all. Composer and conductor Victoria Bond talks about the challenges and fireworks incorporated in this work as it comes to the Met stage for the first time in 80 years.

Perhaps Verdi's grandest opera, Aida has been a staple of the opera repertory since its first performance in 1871. Here is Bridget Paolucci talking about the musical and thematic highlights that make this opera an audience favorite.

Composed by Czech nationalist, Leos Janacek, Jenufa incorporates the beauties of Czech music, language, and culture while telling a disturbing story based on true events. Here, Yveta Graff takes us through the opera's plot and music, and the tells the history of its composition and early performances.