Launched in 1931, the Met’s Saturday Matinee Broadcastsare the longest-running classical radio series in American broadcast history. That rich tradition continues unbroken in the 2020–21 season with an expanded schedule of encore broadcasts selected from the company’s audio archives and aired over the Toll Brothers–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.
Remarkable moments from recent and past seasons include the radio broadcast debuts of Anna Netrebko, Leontyne Price, and Franco Corelli, as well as Renée Fleming’s final bow as Strauss’s Marschallin. Host Mary Jo Heath and commentator Ira Siff return with insightful commentary and intermission features, including interviews with Met stars.
12/5 Prokofiev: War and Peace (March 2, 2002)
Valery Gergiev; Anna Netrebko (Natasha Rostova), Ekaterina Semenchuk (Sonya), Elena Obraztsova (Mme. Akhrosimova), Gegam Grigorian (Count Pierre Bezukhov), Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Prince Andrei), Vassily Gerello (Napoleon Bonaparte), Samuel Ramey (Field Marshal Kutuzov)
12/12 Beethoven: Fidelio (April 1, 2017)
The 2020-21 Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcast season continues with Beethoven’s Fidelio, a performance from 2017 starring Adrianne Pieczonka as Leonore and Klaus Florian Vogt as Florestan. This encore broadcast of Beethoven’s only opera is presented in honor of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The opera is the story of Leonore, who disguises herself as a young man named Fidelio in order to rescue her husband Florestan, a political prisoner. The cast also includes Falk Struckmann as the jailer Rocco; Greer Grimsley as Don Pizarro, the corrupt governor of the prison; Günther Groissböck as Don Fernando, the minister of state; Hanna-Elisabeth Müller as Rocco’s daughter Marzelline; and David Portillo as Rocco’s assistant Jaquino. Sebastian Weigle conducted the Met orchestra and chorus in this performance from April 1, 2017
12/19 Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel (January 6, 2018)
Donald Runnicles; Lisette Oropesa (Gretel), Tara Erraught (Hansel), Dolora Zajick (Gertrude), Gerhard Siegel (Witch), Quinn Kelsey (Peter)
12/26 Mozart: The Magic Flute (December 21, 2010)
Erik Nielsen; Susanna Phillips (Pamina), Erika Miklósa (Queen of the Night), Russell Thomas (Tamino), Alan Oke (Monostatos), Nathan Gunn (Papageno), Morris Robinson (Sarastro)
