News

Metropolitan Opera Announces Three Week Tour to Japan From May 30 to June 20, 2011

Performances in Tokyo and Nagoya to include fully-staged performances of La Bohème, Don Carlo, and Lucia di Lammermoor featuring Met stars

The Metropolitan Opera announced plans today to return to Japan for a three-week tour in June 2011, presenting 13 performances of three fully staged operas in Tokyo and Nagoya. The operas will include Puccini’s La Bohème and Verdi’s Don Carlo, both conducted by Met Music Director James Levine, and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

More than 350 solo singers, orchestra, chorus, ballet, and administrative and technical staff will travel to Japan for the tour. Star singers include Ildar Abdrazakov, Piotr Beczala, Olga Borodina, Joseph Calleja, Diana Damrau, Dmitri Hvorostovky, Jonas Kaufmann, Mariusz Kwiecien, Željko Lučić, Anna Netrebko, and René Pape.

Performances will begin on June 4 at the Aichi Prefectural Arts Center in Nagoya with La Bohème, starring Netrebko, Susanna Phillips, Beczala, and Kwiecien. A performance of Don Carlo follows on June 5, with Barbara Frittoli, Borodina, Kaufmann, Hvorostovsky, and Pape in leading roles.

The company then moves to Tokyo for a performance of La Bohème at NHK Hall on June 8 and the first performance of Lucia di Lammermoor on June 9 at the Bunka Kaikan Theater, starring Damrau, Calleja, Lučić, and Abdrazakov.

The Met continues its performances in Tokyo through June 19, with Don Carlo on June 10, 15, and 18 at NHK Hall; La Bohème on June 11, 17, and 19 evening, at NHK Hall; and Lucia di Lammermoor on June 12, 16, and 19 matinee at the Bunka Kaikan Theater.

This will be the Met’s seventh tour to Japan; the first was in 1975, and the most recent was in 2006. The tour is being presented by the Japan Arts Corporation of Tokyo, and the Crown Sponsor is KDDI.

The Met: Live in HD, the company’s groundbreaking transmissions of live performances into movie theaters worldwide, has been shown regularly in Japan since the award-winning series began in 2006. More than 900 theaters in 42 countries around the world are participating in The Met: Live in HD this season, including ten theaters in Japan. A record number of more than 1.8 million Live in HD tickets were sold around the world last season.

Dates & casts

SATURDAY, June 4 (Aichi Prefectural Arts Center, Nagoya) Puccini’s “La Bohème” with James Levine conducting; Anna Netrebko (Mimì), Susanna Phillips (Musetta), Piotr Beczala (Rodolfo), Mariusz Kwiecien (Marcello), Edward Parks (Schaunard), John Relyea (Colline), Paul Plishka (Benoit & Alcindoro).

WEDNESDAY, June 8 (NHK Hall, Tokyo) Puccini’s “La Bohème” with James Levine conducting; Anna Netrebko (Mimì), Susanna Phillips (Musetta), Piotr Beczala (Rodolfo), Mariusz Kwiecien (Marcello), Edward Parks (Schaunard), John Relyea (Colline), Paul Plishka (Benoit & Alcindoro).

SATURDAY, June 11 (NHK Hall, Tokyo) Puccini’s “La Bohème” with James Levine conducting; Anna Netrebko (Mimì), Susanna Phillips (Musetta), Piotr Beczala (Rodolfo), Mariusz Kwiecien (Marcello), Edward Parks (Schaunard), John Relyea (Colline), Paul Plishka (Benoit & Alcindoro).

FRIDAY, June 17 (NHK Hall, Tokyo) Puccini’s “La Bohème” with James Levine conducting; Anna Netrebko (Mimì), Susanna Phillips (Musetta), Joseph Calleja (Rodolfo), Mariusz Kwiecien (Marcello), Edward Parks (Schaunard), John Relyea (Colline), Paul Plishka (Benoit & Alcindoro).

SUNDAY, June 19 (NHK Hall, Tokyo) Puccini’s “La Bohème” with James Levine conducting; Anna Netrebko (Mimì), Susanna Phillips (Musetta), Joseph Calleja (Rodolfo), Mariusz Kwiecien (Marcello), Edward Parks (Schaunard), John Relyea (Colline), Paul Plishka (Benoit & Alcindoro).