“Salome” and “The Barber of Seville” round off the current season of live broadcasts from New York’s Metropolitan Opera
The last two broadcasts of the 18th season of live opera performances from New York’s The Met: Live in HD 2024/2025, will feature a new production of Richard Strauss’s “Salome“ (May 17) and a revival of Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville“ (May 31), shown on cinema screens around the world.
Richard Strauss’s “Salome,“ which premiered in Dresden in 1905, is receiving its first new staging at the Met in over 20 years. The libretto for this biblical tale of loneliness was written by the composer himself, based on Oscar Wilde’s play. The ascetic prophet Jochanaan (John the Baptist), who preaches repentance, seems to offer Salome (the Judean princess, daughter of Herodias) an escape from her world. He rejects her advances towards him. In a fit of immature rage, Salome demands his head. When she kisses the prophet’s bloodied lips, her stepfather Herod orders her to be killed. In this new MET production, Elza van den Heever stars as Salome, Gerhard Siegel plays Herod, Michelle DeYoung is Herodias, and Polish tenor Piotr Buszewski sings the role of Narraboth. Peter Mattei takes on the role of Jochanaan.
The final broadcast of the season will be “The Barber of Seville“ by Gioachino Rossini — a humorous love story based on the comedy by Beaumarchais. Figaro, the clever barber, helps Count Almaviva win the heart of his beloved Rosina. She is kept under lock and key by her guardian, Doctor Bartolo, who plans to marry her himself. Thanks to clever schemes, love wins. The performance on May 31 comes from Bartlett Sher’s directorial debut production, first staged in 2006. The cast includes Aigul Akhmetshina (Rosina), Andrey Zhilikhovsky (Figaro), Jack Swanson (Count Almaviva), Peter Kálmán (Doctor Bartolo), and Alexander Vinogradov (Don Basilio).
The Met: Live in HD is a unique project redefining the experience of opera, transporting cinema audiences to the world’s most prestigious opera stage. Thanks to live transmissions, audiences can not only enjoy performances in top-quality production but also experience the intimacy of the theater — peeking behind the scenes and getting to know the artists in a more personal light. Information about the titles for the upcoming 2025-26 season can be found [here].
A full list of cinemas, theaters, opera houses, and philharmonics where the broadcasts will take place is available here.