The Met’s Free Summer HD Festival Returns to Lincoln Center Plaza, Featuring Ten Outdoor Opera Screenings August 27 through Labor Day

 

Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning West Side Story will be presented in a special pre-festival screening on Friday, August 26

The festival opens with the Met’s Grammy Award-winning production of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and ends with Terence Blanchard’s sensational Fire Shut Up in My Bones

 

Featured artists include Angel Blue, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Lise Davidsen, Will Liverman, Latonia Moore, Nadine Sierra, Lisette Oropesa, Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena, Isabel Leonard, and Liudmyla Monastyrska

 

Approximately 3,000 seats will be available nightly with no tickets required 

 

New York, NY (July 18, 2022)—The Metropolitan Opera’s popular Summer HD Festival returns on Saturday, August 27, to Lincoln Center Plaza, featuring a lineup of ten free encore presentations from the company’s acclaimed Live in HD series, as well as a special pre-festival screening of Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film West Side Story on Friday, August 26. Running through Monday, September 5, the festival highlights some of the Met’s most celebrated new productions from recent years, including the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, and Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones.

 

The festival begins with a screening of the Met’s Grammy Award-winning production of Porgy and Bess, starring Angel Blue and Eric Owens in the title roles. Many of the Met’s leading artists will be featured during the event’s ten nights, including Anthony Roth Costanzo in Akhnaten, Lise Davidsen in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Nadine Sierra and Javier Camarena in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Liudmyla Monastyrska in Puccini’s Turandot, and Will Liverman, Latonia Moore, and Angel Blue in Fire Shut Up in My Bones. A complete listing of operas and start times can be found below.

 

The Summer HD Festival is generously supported by The Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust.

 

The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor, the Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital support of The Met: Live in HD is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Met: Live in HD is supported by Rolex.

 

Classical New York 105.9FM WQXR is a media partner for the 2022 Summer HD Festival.

 

For each performance, approximately 3,000 seats will be available on the plaza on a first-come-first-served basis, as well as additional space for overflow crowds. No tickets are required, and there are no rain dates. Because the performances are outdoors, masks and proof of vaccination are not required. For more information please visit metopera.org/HDFestival.

 

 

SCHEDULE

 

Friday, August 26, at 8PM          West Side Story (2021)

Co-presentation with Film at Lincoln Center, Courtesy of 20th Century Studios / Disney

 

Saturday, August 27, at 7:30PM     The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess

Bass-baritone Eric Owens and soprano Angel Blue star as the title couple of the Gershwins’ great American opera.

Original transmission: February 1, 2020, Approximate running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes

 

Sunday, August 28, at 8PM          Philip Glass’s Akhnaten

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo stars as the revolutionary title pharaoh in a dazzling staging by innovative director Phelim McDermott.

Original transmission: November 23, 2019, Approximate running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes

 

Monday, August 29, at 8PM        Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov

Commanding bass René Pape gives a stirring portrayal of the tortured title czar, headlining the Met’s first-ever performances of the original 1869 version of Mussorgsky’s historical epic.

Original transmission: October 9, 2021, Approximate running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes

 

Tuesday, August 30, at 8PM        Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos

Soprano Lise Davidsen gives a soaring performance as the mythic heroine of Strauss’s enchanting chamber opera, going head to head with soprano Brenda Rae as the comic spitfire Zerbinetta.

Original transmission: March 12, 2022, Approximate running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

 

Wednesday, August 31, at 8PM    Massenet’s Manon

Soprano Lisette Oropesa stars as Massenet’s beguiling heroine, who must choose between a life of luxury and the man she loves.

Original transmission: October 26, 2019, Approximate running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

 

Thursday, September 1, at 8PM    Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment

Soprano Pretty Yende and tenor Javier Camarena are the smitten young lovers Marie and Tonio in Donizetti’s zany bel canto comedy.

Original transmission: March 2, 2019, Approximate running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes

 

Friday, September 2, at 8PM      Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor

Soprano Nadine Sierra gives a tour-de-force performance as the young heroine driven to madness, headlining a gripping modern-day staging by director Simon Stone.

Original transmission: May 21, 2022, Approximate running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes

 

Saturday, September 3, at 8PM    Massenet’s Cinderella

Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard stars as the rags-to-richest heroine of Massenet’s fairy-tale opera, presented in an abridged, English-language version.

Original transmission: January 1, 2022, Approximate running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes

 

Sunday, September 4, at 8PM     Puccini’s Turandot

Franco Zeffirelli’s breathtaking production stars soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska as the icy title princess and tenor Yonghoon Lee as the mysterious prince determined to win her love.

Original transmission: May 7, 2022, Approximate running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

 

Monday, September 5, at 7:30PM      Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones

Baritone Will Liverman gives a heartbreaking performance as a young man fighting to overcome a life of trauma and abuse, headlining the first opera by a Black composer ever performed by the Met.

Original transmission: October 23, 2021, Approximate running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes