The Metropolitan Opera Announces Verdi’s Requiem: The Met Remembers 9/11

The Met commemorates the 20th anniversary of September 11 with a pre-season performance of Verdi’s Requiem, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Met Orchestra and Chorus and soloists Ailyn Pérez, Elīna Garanča, Matthew Polenzani, and Eric Owens

 The concert on September 11, 2021, at 7:45pm ET marks the first performance inside the Metropolitan Opera House since the March 2020 closure

Live transmission of the concert to be presented by Great Performances on PBS, hosted by Misty Copeland

New York, NY (August 20, 2021)—The Metropolitan Opera will present a pre-season performance of Verdi’s Requiem to commemorate the 20th anniversary of September 11. On Saturday, September 11, 2021, at 7:45pm ET, Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct the Met Orchestra and Chorus with a quartet of star soloists: soprano Ailyn Pérez, mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, tenor Matthew Polenzani, and bass-baritone Eric Owens. The concert marks the first performance inside the Metropolitan Opera House since the March 2020 closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Audiences in New York City and beyond will also be able to see and hear live transmissions of Verdi’s Requiem: The Met Remembers 9/11. The performance will be transmitted live with closed captioning as part of Great Performances on PBS, with ballet star Misty Copeland hosting the program from nearby the site of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. The Great Performances program premieres Saturday, September 11 at 8:00pm ET on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/gperf and the PBS Video app.

Live audio from the performance will also be broadcast directly outside the Met in Lincoln Center Plaza. As part of a citywide remembrance, the Met will be participating in the 9/11 Tribute in Lights, bathing its façade in sky blue light. The English-language text of the Requiem will be projected onto the façade of the opera house during the performance.

The live broadcast, a special presentation of the Met as part of The WNET Group’s Great Performances series, is being produced in association with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The broadcast will include footage from the archives of the Museum, as well as exterior shots featuring the two beams of the Tribute in Light.

The Met has made 500 free tickets available to families of the victims of 9/11 to attend the concert. Remaining tickets are $25 and go on sale on August 27. Since the Met is a fully vaccinated house, audience members must provide in-person verification of vaccination against Covid-19. For this concert, audience members must also wear masks.

The Verdi Requiem concert and broadcast are made possible by a generous gift from C. Graham Berwind, III.