The Metropolitan Opera in New York has announced that it will be streaming 7 operas, for free, on its website to bring comfort to those on lockdown because of the coronavirus.
“We’d like to provide some grand opera solace to opera lovers in these extraordinarily difficult times, so every night, we’ll be offering a different complete operatic gem from our collection of HD presentations from the past 14 years,” said Met General Manager Peter Gelb.
The performances will start streaming at 1930 EDT in New York at https://www.metopera.org/ and will be available on the homepage of the Metropolitan Opera website for 20 hours.
Spain is 5 hours ahead of New York so streaming will begin at 0030 and be available until 1530 the next day.
The homepage link takes you to the Met Opera on Demand Streaming service and you can also watch the performance on any Met Opera On Demand App.
The performance schedule is as follows.
Monday, March 16 – Bizet’s Carmen
Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Elīna Garanča and Roberto Alagna. Transmitted live on January 16, 2010.
Tuesday, March 17 – Puccini’s La Bohème
Conducted by Nicola Luisotti, starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas. Transmitted live on April 5, 2008.
Wednesday, March 18 – Verdi’s Il Trovatore
Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Yonghoon Lee, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Transmitted live on October 3, 2015.
Thursday, March 19 – Verdi’s La Traviata
Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez, and Quinn Kelsey. Transmitted live on December 15, 2018.
Friday, March 20 – Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment
Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez. Transmitted live on April 26, 2008.
Saturday, March 21 – Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, and Mariusz Kwiecien. Transmitted live on February 7, 2009.
Sunday, March 22 – Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
Conducted by Valery Gergiev, starring Renée Fleming, Ramón Vargas, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Transmitted live on February 24, 2007.