The 2014-15 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Verdi’s La Traviata on WWNO HD-2. Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka, who made a notable debut as Donna Anna in the 2011 new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, brings her acclaimed Violetta to the Met for the first time. American tenor Stephen Costello stars opposite her as her impetuous lover Alfredo, with American baritone Quinn Kelsey as his disapproving father, Giorgio Germont, and Marco Armiliato conducts. La Traviata will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12:00 p.m. CT on Saturday, December 27.
Stream WWNO HD-2 on your computer here.
Marina Rebeka has sung Violetta at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna State Opera, and Italy’s Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and she will sing the role later this season at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Her other recent performances include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Zurich Opera, Vienna State Opera, and Deutsche Oper Berlin; Mathilde in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Dutch National Opera, and Bavarian State Opera; and Antonia in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Vienna State Opera. This January, she will sing her first Met performances of Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème.
Stephen Costello made his Met debut on opening night of the 2007-08 season, when he sang Arturo in a new production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. He returned in 2011-12 for another season-opening production, the Met premiere of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, in which he played Riccardo Percy. He has performed the role of Alfredo with Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. This April, he will return to the Met as Camille in the new production of Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow.
Quinn Kelsey has appeared in three previous roles at the Met: both Schaunard and Marcello in La Bohème, and Monterone in Verdi’s Rigoletto. He has sung the part of Germont at San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Seoul Arts Center (opposite Marina Rebeka), and he will reprise it later this season at Zurich Opera. His other performances this season include the Count di Luna in Verdi’s Il Trovatore at Lyric Opera of Chicago and the title role of Rigoletto at Santa Fe Opera.
Marco Armiliato has conducted more than 300 Met performances, including La Traviata in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010. He led the company premieres of Anna Bolena, Wolf-Ferrari’s Sly, and Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac, as well as new production premieres of Puccini’s La Rondine and Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment. This season, he also conducts a Met revival of Verdi’s Aida.
The single intermission will include backstage interviews with the stars.
