The Met: Live in HD Season Continues with Verdi’s Aida on Saturday, January 25

 

Spectacular new production stars soprano Angel Blue as Aida,      

alongside tenor Piotr Beczała, mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi, and baritone Quinn Kelsey

 

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts

 

The Met: Live in HD is available in more than 1,800 theaters worldwide

 

A scene from Verdi's "Aida". Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera

 

New York, NY (January 6, 2025)—The Metropolitan Opera’s 2024–25 Live in HD season continues with a dazzling new production of Verdi’s Aida on Saturday, January 25, at 12:30 PM ET.

 

Following a series of celebrated cinema turns in the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (2020), Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones (2021), Bizet’s Carmen (2024), and Puccini’s La Rondine (2024), soprano Angel Blue returns to the Live in HD series to sing her first Aida at the Met. Joining the distinguished cast is tenor Piotr Beczała as the soldier Radamès; mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi, who made her 2024 debut in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, as Amneris; baritone Quinn Kelsey as Amonasro; bass Morris Robinson as the King; and bass Dmitry Belosselskiy as Ramfis. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, takes the podium to conduct Tony Award–winner Michael Mayer’s new production. Mayer directed this season’s company-premiere production of Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded, as well as Met stagings of Verdi’s Rigoletto and La Traviata and Nico Muhly’s Marnie.

 

 

 

 

 

A scene from Verdi's "Aida". Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera

 

This is the first new production of Aida on the Met stage in 36 years, replacing the Sonja Frisell production that retired in 2023 after 262 performances. Inspired by French archaeologist Auguste Mariette—who provided the scenario that Verdi and his librettist adapted into Aida—Mayer frames his new production around a group of early–20th-century Egyptologists.

 

Mayer’s creative team includes Broadway veteran set designer Christine Jones, costume designer Susan Hilferty, lighting designer Kevin Adams, projection design by 59, choreographer Oleg Glushkov in his company debut, and production consultant Stephen Pickover. The January 25th broadcast marks the 1,199th Met performance since 1886. With three previous Live in HD transmissions to cinemas worldwide, Aida is the second most performed opera in the company’s repertory.

 

Gary Halvorson will direct the Live in HD presentation for cinemas, and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer and musician Rhiannon Giddens will host the transmission, sharing exclusive behind-the-scenes content and interviews during the intermission.

 

 

 

 

A scene from Verdi's "Aida". Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera

 

The Stars of Aida

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Montreal, Canada

Angel Blue, Aida; Los Angeles, California

Judit Kutasi, Amneris; Timișoara, Romania

Piotr Beczała, Radamès; Czechowice-Dziedzice, Poland

Quinn Kelsey, Amonasro; Honolulu, Hawaii

Dmitry Belosselskiy, Ramfis; Pavlohrad, Ukraine

Morris Robinson, The King; Atlanta, Georgia

 

 

 

A scene from Verdi's "Aida". Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera

 

The 2024–25 Live in HD season continues with Beethoven’s Fidelio (March 15), Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (April 26), Strauss’s Salome (May 17), and Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia (May 31). All performances will be Saturday matinees transmitted live from the Met stage.

https://www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/2024-25-season/aida