cendrillon

JULES MASSENET

conductor Opera in four acts

Bertrand de Billy
Libretto by Henri Cain, based on
production
Laurent Pelly the fairy tale by Charles Perrault

set designer Saturday, April 28, 2018

Barbara de Limburg 1:00–3:50 pm
costume designer
Laurent Pelly New Production
lighting designer
Duane Schuler
choreographer
The production of Cendrillon was
Laura Scozzi
made possible by a generous gift from
The Sybil B. Harrington Endowment Fund

Additional funding for this production was received

from Elizabeth M. and Jean-Marie R. Eveillard

Cendrillon is produced in association with the

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London;
general manager
Peter Gelb Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona; Théâtre Royal
de la Monnaie, Brussels; and Opéra de Lille.
music director designate
Yannick Nézet-Séguin Original production by The Santa Fe Opera
 2017–18 season

The 5th Metropolitan Opera performance of

cendrillon
JULES MASSENET’S

This performance
is being broadcast
live over The
Toll Brothers–
Metropolitan Opera co n duc to r
International Radio Bertrand de Billy
Network, sponsored
by Toll Brothers, in order of vocal appearance
America’s luxury
®
homebuilder , with pandolfe the fairy godmother
generous long-term Laurent Naouri Kathleen Kim
support from
The Annenberg madame de la haltière the master of ceremonies
Foundation, The Stephanie Blythe* David Leigh**
Neubauer Family
Foundation, the noémie the dean of the faculty
Vincent A. Stabile Ying Fang* Petr Nekoranec**
Endowment for
Broadcast Media, dorothée the prime minister

and contributions Maya Lahyani Jeongcheol Cha

from listeners
worldwide. lucette, known as cendrillon prince charming
Joyce DiDonato Alice Coote
There is no
spirits the king
Toll Brothers–
Metropolitan Lianne Coble-Dispensa Bradley Garvin
Opera Quiz in Sara Heaton
List Hall today. Anne Nonnemacher a herald

Elizabeth Brooks Yohan Belmin

This performance is Christina Thomson
also being broadcast Anderson
live on Metropolitan Rosalie Sullivan
Opera Radio on
SiriusXM channel 75.

Saturday, April 28, 2018, 1:00–3:50PM

 This afternoon’s performance is being transmitted live
in high definition to movie theaters worldwide.
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.

Chorus Master  Donald Palumbo
Assistant Choreographer  Karine Girard
Musical Preparation  Howard Watkins*, Joel Revzen,
Jonathan C. Kelly, and Dimitri Dover*
Assistant Stage Directors  Peter McClintock,
Christian Räth, and J. Knighten Smit
Stage Band Conductor  Gregory Buchalter
Prompter  Jonathan C. Kelly
French Coach  Denise Massé
Met Titles  J. D. McClatchy
Assistant Costume Designer  Jean-Jacques Delmotte
Scenery, properties, and electrical props constructed and
painted by Royal Opera House Production Department
and Metropolitan Opera Shops
Costumes executed by Royal Opera House Production
Department and Metropolitan Opera Costume
Department
Wigs and Makeup executed by Metropolitan Opera
Wig and Makeup Department

This performance is made possible in part by public funds

from the New York State Council on the Arts.

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2017–18 season

A scene from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette

e Metropolitan Opera is pleased to salute

Rolex in recognition of its generous support
during the 2017–18 season.

PHOTO: BRESCIA-AMISANO/LA SCALA

Synopsis

A storybook kingdom. Pandolfe, a country gentleman, has married Madame

de la Haltière, an imperious countess. She and her daughters, Noémie and
Dorothée, bully Pandolfe’s daughter from his first marriage, Lucette—known
as Cendrillon.

Act I
The household prepares for a ball to be given at the royal court that evening.
Pandolfe bemoans his lot: married to a nagging wife who ill-treats his daughter.
Madame de la Haltière enters and instructs her daughters on how to behave at
the ball. She refuses to let Cendrillon attend the festivities or to let her father say
goodbye to her. After her family has left, Cendrillon dreams of the ball, before
falling asleep. Cendrillon’s fairy godmother appears and conjures her a coach,
horses, a beautiful gown, and glass slippers. She tells Cendrillon that she can
go to the ball but must leave before midnight and that the glass slippers will
prevent Cendrillon’s family from recognizing her.

Act II
The royal ballroom is full of guests enjoying themselves, but Prince Charming
is in a melancholy mood. The king orders his son to find a wife, and several
princesses dance for the prince. An unknown beauty, Cendrillon in all her finery,
enters the room to general surprise. The whole court—except Madame de
la Haltière and her daughters—are charmed by the stranger, and the prince
immediately falls in love with her. Left alone with Cendrillon, he tells her of his
feelings. Cendrillon is equally taken with the prince, but at the first stroke of
midnight, she hurries away, remembering the fairy godmother’s words.

Intermission (AT APPROXIMATELY 2:15PM)

Act III
Cendrillon has returned home, crestfallen at having had to leave the prince
behind. She remembers her frightening journey from the royal palace and how
she lost one of her glass slippers as she left the ball. Madame de la Haltière and
her daughters enter, abusing Pandolfe. Madame de la Haltière then describes to
Cendrillon the “unknown stranger” who appeared at the king’s ball, telling her
that the prince spoke contemptuously of the girl and that the court regarded her
with disdain. When Pandolfe tells his wife to be quiet, she turns on him again.
Pandolfe has finally had enough and sends Madame de la Haltière, Noémie,
and Dorothée out of the room. He suggests to Cendrillon that they leave town
and return together to his country estate. Cendrillon agrees, and Pandolfe goes
to prepare for their journey. Alone, Cendrillon decides that she is too sad to
continue living. She bids farewell to her home and leaves, determined to go off
and die in the forest.
Visit metopera.org 35
 Synopsis CONTINUED

Prince Charming and Cendrillon are searching for each other. They pray to the
fairy godmother to ease their pain. Hearing each other’s voices, they reaffirm
their love, and Cendrillon tells the prince her true name, Lucette. The fairy
godmother allows the pair to see each other. They embrace and fall into an
enchanted sleep.

Act IV
Months have passed. Pandolfe has been caring for Cendrillon at home after
finding her asleep. He tells her that she had been talking during her illness of her
adventures at the ball and of Prince Charming. Cendrillon begins to believe that
the whole episode was a dream. Trying to be brave, she greets the spring with
her father. Madame de la Haltière, Noémie, and Dorothée enter excitedly. They
tell Cendrillon and Pandolfe that the king has summoned maidens from all over
the land in the hope that one of them is the unknown beauty whom the prince
met at the ball. Madame de la Haltière is sure that the prince must mean one of
her daughters and is determined to go to the palace. A herald announces that
the prince is insisting that each woman who appears at court must try on the
glass slipper left behind by the unknown beauty, for it will only fit perfectly upon
her foot. Cendrillon resolves to go to the palace as well.

The prince is desperately searching for his beloved among the young women
summoned to the palace. Having not found her, he despairs, until Cendrillon
and the fairy godmother arrive. The prince immediately recognizes Cendrillon,
and the pair declare their love to the court. Pandolfe and the rest of Cendrillon’s
family enter. Everyone rejoices and hails Cendrillon as their future queen.
Synopsis reproduced by kind permission of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

36
In Focus

Jules Massenet

Cendrillon
Premiere: Opéra-Comique, Paris, 1899
Charles Perrault’s 1697 fairy tale, the classic telling of the Cinderella story, is an
excellent source for an opera—providing color, romance, and relatable themes
for audiences of all ages. When, at the height of his fame in the 1890s, Jules
Massenet approached the fable, the choice was a superb marriage of composer
and subject: Massenet’s orchestral colors and his musical finesse were excellent
vehicles for depicting the process of transformation—whether intellectual
(Werther in 1892), sensual (Manon in 1884), or spiritual (Thaïs 1894). In Cendrillon,
the dream-like dimension of transformation lies at the heart of the universally
appealing score. The opera includes many moments in which Massenet is at
his best and most widely accessible, from the pageantry and glowing musical
nostalgia for the French baroque in the court scenes to the otherworldliness of
the love music to the wit and humor that permeate the work as a whole.

The Creators
Jules Massenet (1842–1912), a French composer wildly popular in his day, was
noted for his operas, songs, and oratorios. His somewhat sentimental style
lost popularity in the early 20th century, with only his romantic treasure Manon
maintaining a steady place in the repertory. Many of his other operas, especially
Werther and Thaïs, have found places for themselves in the repertory in the last
few decades. The libretto for Cendrillon was fashioned by Henri Cain (1857–
1937), a dramatist known for providing libretti for operas, including several
by Massenet. The Cinderella story was written by the French author Charles
Perrault (1628–1703). Beyond crafting a number of famous fairy tales, a genre
for which he is often credited as a founder, Perrault was a noted academic of
his time whose influence was felt in such diverse fields as contemporary opera,
architecture, and designs for the famous gardens of Versailles.

The Setting
Perrault’s original story was published at the end of the 17th century, and the
opera and its music preserve references to that era of lavish court entertainments
and clear-cut distinctions of social hierarchies. It is, however, a fairy tale, and as
such, it takes place in an indeterminate past in which magic, whimsy, and love at
first sight are features of everyday life.

Visit metopera.org 37
 In Focus CONTINUED

The Music
Massenet’s score includes a preponderance of the lower female voices—
including a mezzo-soprano as the object of Cendrillon’s affection—that were so
favored by French composers in the 19th century. The result is an otherworldly
yet sensual tonal palette that serves as a rich background for this familiar tale.
As befits a lighthearted fantasy, Massenet sprinkles in moments of charming
comedy—for instance, the bass-baritone Pandolfe’s first number, in which he
complains of his hen-pecked life in phrases ranging from the mock-Wagnerian
to bouncing syncopations that recall music hall entertainments. Madame de la
Haltière, the archetypal evil stepmother, receives music appropriate for the most
formidable contraltos, and her daughters, a soprano and a mezzo-soprano,
complete the family soundscape with chirping relentlessness. Cendrillon’s
fairy godmother expresses the loftiest possibilities of the soprano voice with
coloratura and melismas that evoke her enchanted aura. Massenet conjures
the different worlds of the tale—domestic life, royal court, mystical forest—with
diverse orchestral colors. Counteracting the initial levity, there is superbly dreamy
and faux-Baroque “courtly” music in Acts II and IV (with such nostalgic touches
as a viola d’amore and lute in the pit) and then gossamer instrumentations for
the atmospheric dance music in the magic landscape of Act III, Scene 2. Against
all the fairy-tale wonder of the score, the title character and her love interest
are recognizably human. Cendrillon is introduced with her touching aria “Reste
au foyer, petit grillon,” with its folk idiom and hints of a loftier nature about
to emerge. The Act II love duet between Cendrillon and Prince Charming is a
masterful moment emblematic of Massenet’s elegant style: The prince is lyrically
effusive, while all of Cendrillon’s gushing emotion is expressed in a single refined
yet poignant phrase as she says “You are my Prince Charming,” recalled at other
points throughout the score.

Met History
Laurent Pelly’s new production, which opened on April 12, 2018, and stars Joyce
DiDonato, Alice Coote, Stephanie Blythe, Kathleen Kim, and Laurent Naouri,
conducted by Bertrand de Billy, marks Cendrillon’s Met premiere.

38
Program Note

C
endrillon, Massenet’s retelling of Charles Perrault’s classic 17th-century
fairytale Cinderella, is perhaps the composer’s most magical, elegant,
and subtle opera. However, like most of his works other than the firmly
established Manon, Werther, and Thaïs, it largely fell out of the international
repertoire until the latter half of the 20th century. But then, its exquisite title
role, designed for a plangent lyrical voice lying at the boundary between
mezzo-soprano and soprano, attracted first Frederica von Stade and now Joyce
DiDonato, who have championed the opera and revealed its enchanting appeal.
Part of the reason why Massenet’s operas temporarily fell out of favor was that
he so perfectly represented the time and place in which he flourished: Paris in the
last two decades of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th. Interested
in all the musical currents swirling around Parisian opera—from the lyrical legacy
of Gounod to the radical ideas of Wagner and even, at times, the abrasive edge
of verismo—he was able to graft them into his own personal style while winning
virtually universal acclaim. His melodies were addictive, his theatrical sense
always keen, and his orchestration colorful, inventive, and alert to the nuances
of the voice and the drama. In many ways, Massenet was France’s Puccini, and
like Puccini, he set his fascinating, vulnerable heroines at the center of his operas.
Massenet’s personal traits can be readily sensed in his music. He was
charming, witty, sociable, and eager to please. He was also a phenomenally
hard and disciplined worker, rising nearly every morning at 4AM to compose
for hours before moving on to his many other professional duties. For 30 years,
he taught composition at the Paris Conservatoire, and he was a sensitive and
gifted teacher, encouraging each of his many pupils—including Reynaldo Hahn,
Charles Koechlin, and Gustav Charpentier—to find his own unique style. He
urged them: “Save all your mornings for composing or orchestrating, without
waiting for inspiration, which, otherwise never comes!”
Before the ink was dry on a new opera score, Massenet was always looking
for a new libretto to set. In 1894, while in London attending the Covent Garden
premiere of his verismo opera La Navarraise—with a blood-soaked plot about
as different from Cendrillon as one could conceive—he met with one of his
favorite librettists, Henri Cain (1857–1937), and they quickly settled on Perrault’s
Cinderella, published in 1697. From an artistic family and a painter himself, Cain
collaborated on several extremely varied libretti for Massenet—La Navarraise,
Sapho, Chérubin, and the late masterpiece for Chaliapin, Don Quichotte—as
well as Franco Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac.
Describing the score as being “inscribed upon a pearl from that casket of
jewels Les Contes de Perrault,” Massenet wrote Cendrillon with speed and
enthusiasm mostly during the summer of 1895 at his country estate at Pont-
de-l’Arche outside Rouen. Old and picturesque, Le Vieux Manoir was a perfect
setting for working on Cendrillon. “There was a huge white salon with delicately
carved woodwork, which was lighted by three windows overlooking the terrace.
Visit metopera.org 39
 Program Note CONTINUED

It was a perfectly preserved masterpiece of the 17th century,” he recalled. To

bring his guests from the railroad station, Massenet hired an ideal Cinderella
vehicle—an old landau upholstered in blue satin and drawn by two white horses.
Cendrillon’s premiere at Paris’s Opéra-Comique was delayed until May 24,
1899, first by another Massenet opera taking precedence, then by the death of
the theater’s famous chief Léon Carvalho. However, his successor, Albert Carré,
ultimately assembled all the company’s best resources, including stage effects
specially invented for Cendrillon’s magical transformations. Carré remembered
how Massenet laughed and clapped his hands like a happy child when he saw
them. Not surprisingly, Cendrillon’s premiere was one of Massenet’s greatest
Parisian successes.
Musically and dramatically, Cendrillon is very different from an even more
famous operatic adaptation of the story, Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Rossini was
not exactly a man interested in fairies or otherworldly magic, so his opera turned
the miracle worker into the basso philosopher Alidoro and emphasized broad
humor throughout.
Massenet, too, possessed a lively comical sense, which makes his portrait
of the wicked stepmother, Madame de la Haltière, a delicious sendup both
of Parisian social climbers and grandiose mezzo-soprano divas. But it is his
evocation of the fairy world that produces Cendrillon’s most unforgettable and
original music. Massenet always demonstrated a wonderful ear for color, but
in this score he outdid himself. The orchestra is filled with some very unusual
instruments—lute, crystal flute, viola d’amore, fifes, and gongs—in order to
create a fairy-tale fantasy.
Though the role of Prince Charming is sometimes sung by a tenor, Massenet
and Cain chose a mezzo-soprano instead to add to the delicacy of the vocal
sounds and de-emphasize the erotic element in the love between him and
Cendrillon. Cain also stressed the theme of dreaming in a sophisticated
fashion throughout the text. In the Act III, Scene 2 encounter in the forest, it
is left ambiguous whether Cendrillon and the Prince have actually physically
wandered there or only met each other in their dreams through the power of
mutual yearning.
Though the music moves regularly in and out of aria-like sequences,
Cendrillon is not a score from which discrete arias can be extracted. Instead,
Massenet uses a flexible vocal style, varying between recitative, lyrical song,
and sometimes simply the spoken word. Always the attention is focused on the
perfect expression of the words, a prized virtue for French composers.

Act I
The orchestra’s opening Introduction is like a child’s vision of royalty and splendor:
a grand march in C major, glittering with fanfares and trills. It also suggests
something of the Sun King’s Baroque culture—edged with considerable irony.
40
 Act I is divided into three worlds: the aggressively proud and comical one
of Madame de la Haltière and her two less-than-attractive daughters, alongside
Cendrillon’s more sympathetic, henpecked father, Pandolfe; Cendrillon’s
melancholy prison of drudgery; and the magical world of the fairies. We are
introduced to the beleaguered servants and Pandolfe with music of frantic
speed and feather-light textures. Only when the name of Madame is mentioned
does the music assume solemn weight and a hint of danger.
Announcing to her daughters that they are going to a ball at the king’s palace,
Madame de la Haltière reveals her governing philosophy with the words “Le bal
est un champ de bataille” (“The ball is a field of battle”). The three rehearse
their ballroom maneuvers in a quicksilver minuet.
Next we meet Cendrillon herself. Massenet portrays her melancholy and the
simplicity and goodness of her nature in a lovely aria built around a haunting
minor-mode refrain, “Reste au foyer, petit grillon.” And he surrounds her with
the fragile, poignant instrumental colors of flutes, other high woodwinds, and
muted violins.
As Cendrillon drops off to sleep by the hearth, we encounter the opera’s
third world with the appearance of the fairy godmother. Her silvery high soprano
sparkles in coloratura roulades as she summons her attending spirits; the
orchestra trembles eerily with muted scales in the violins. Particularly enchanting
is a gossamer waltz during which her helpers weave a beautiful ballgown for
Cendrillon out of material no couturier knows about.

Act II
At the king’s palace, we enter a fourth distinct musical world, that of the lonely
prince, who seems to have everything in life but what he needs most: the woman
of his dreams to love. Massenet chooses an ingenious ensemble to paint his
idealistic but depressive character—shimmering crystal flute, romantically warm
viola d’amore, and the delicate plucking of a lute. These instruments join to
create the unique atmosphere of his opening scene, interrupted by the king’s
anxious advisors and a nattering bassoon. After they leave, the orchestra’s
chromatic tones let out a heavy sigh, and two mournful cellos accompany his
plaintive aria “Allez, laissez-moi seul.”
Splendid dance music then ushers in the court and the opportunity for the
corps de ballet to shine—almost an imperative for French opera. Massenet
creates a brilliant suite of contrasting dances for them as the candidates for
the prince’s love present themselves. The sudden entrance of Cendrillon elicits
a grand ensemble of different reactions from the onlookers, Madame de la
Haltière and her daughters among them. Looking at her with both wonder and
recognition, the prince launches an ardent duet, “Toi qui m’es apparue,” in
which he begs her to tell him who she is. She, however, insists that she will
remain “l’Inconnue” (“the Unknown”). She adds that she is only a dream and will
Visit metopera.org 41
 Program Note CONTINUED

disappear without a trace. When she admits that he is her Prince Charming and
she will love him forever, her words are echoed beautifully by a solo oboe, her
signature instrument. Their voices join together in passionate rapture, broken
eventually by the insistent chiming of the clock signaling midnight.

Act III
Arriving home, Cendrillon relives the horror of her midnight journey from the
palace, during which ghostly statues and even her own shadow terrified her.
An episode in which pealing bells interrupted her course brings a dramatic
climax until she realized they were actually comforting. (Massenet slyly plants
the tune of the well-loved French nursery rhyme “Ah! vous dirais-je maman”—
which shares its melody with “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”—among them). In
a heartbreaking coda, she realizes that the ball was all a dream and she must
return to her ash-filled hearth.
Madame de la Haltière, her daughters, and Pandolfe arrive home quarreling,
the women disparaging the mysterious woman at the ball. Massenet now gives
his wicked stepmother full opportunity to display her formidable personality
and her dramatic mezzo arsenal in the deliciously over-the-top aria “Lorsqu’on
a plus de vingt quartiers.”
Pandolfe has had enough, and he finally throws the three bickering ladies
out. Alone with Cendrillon, he expresses his regret over his new marriage and
what it has done to his beloved daughter. They sing a tenderly nostalgic duet,
“Tous les deux,” caressed by bucolic woodwinds, as they promise to return to his
farm and enjoy its simple pleasures together.
Alone, Cendrillon has second thoughts: She does not want to burden her
father with her sorrow. She decides to leave home and die under the Fairy Oak
on the heath. In her most extended and self-revealing aria, “Seule, je partirai,”
she voices the great loneliness and despair that make her the prince’s feminine
counterpart.
The high drama, reminiscent of Werther, with which the scene closes then
merges into perhaps the opera’s most beautiful and original sequence. Here
Massenet perhaps outdoes even Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at
creating the wondrously uncanny world of the fairies. The fairy godmother’s high
coloratura shimmers over a chorus of spirits singing a song of lullaby sweetness,
backed by an ensemble of flutes, harmonium, and celesta. The fairies see two
sorrowing young people approaching, and the godmother conjures a fragrant
hedge between them so they can hear but not see each other. Imploring her
aid, Cendrillon and the prince demonstrate the unity of their hearts in an earnest
unison. Now begins their great love duet, “A deux genoux”—as passionate and
soaring as those given to Werther and Charlotte or Manon and des Grieux. In
an exquisitely lovely coda, the fairy godmother’s voice soars above them as she
lulls them to sleep under the oak.
42
Act IV
Having found Cendrillon unconscious in the forest, Pandolfe has brought his
daughter home and now watchs over her. She has been talking in her sleep
about the prince and the ball, but when she awakens, Pandolfe assures her it
was only a dream, and she sadly agrees.
Still searching for his beloved, the owner of the glass slipper, the prince
has summoned all the princesses of the world to find her. In the “March of the
Princesses,” Massenet’s marvelous ear for color is again on full display with
fifes and exotic percussion added to the orchestra; the middle section unfurls a
superb Romantic melody for the cello section.
Having left his heart at the Fairy Oak, the prince is now fading away. The
voice of the fairy godmother suddenly shimmers above as Cendrillon appears
in all her loveliness. Her avowal of love is once again echoed by the oboe, as it
was in Act II. Even Madame de la Haltière embraces her as the opera joyously
achieves its fairy-tale ending.

—Janet E. Bedell
Janet E. Bedell is a frequent program annotator for Carnegie Hall, specializing in vocal
repertoire, and for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and many other institutions.

Visit metopera.org 43
 KEN HOWARD / MET OPERA

GOUNOD

ROMÉO ET
JULIETTE
APR 23, 27 MAY 1, 5 mat, 9, 12 mat

Tenor Charles Castronovo and soprano Ailyn Pérez (pictured) are

the star-crossed lovers in Gounod’s sensual adaptation of the classic
Shakespearean tragedy. Maestro Plácido Domingo conducts the return
of “Bartlett Sher’s brilliant and inspired production” (Huffington Post).

Tickets from $25

metopera.org
The Cast and Creative Team

Bertrand de Billy
conductor (neuilly sur seine, france)

this season  Cendrillon, Luisa Miller, Tosca, and the National Council Grand Finals Concert at
the Met; Simon Boccanegra and Der Fliegende Holländer at the Bavarian State Opera; Un
Ballo in Maschera at the Paris Opera; and Samson et Dalila in concert in Paris.
met appearances  La Gioconda, Faust, Roméo et Juliette (debut, 1998), Samson et Dalila,
Turandot, La Traviata, and Carmen.
career highlights  He has served as principal guest conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic
since 2014, was principal guest conductor of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne
between 2013 and 2016, and was principal guest conductor of the Frankfurter Opern- und
Museumsorchester until 2015. Between 2002 and 2010, he was music director of the Vienna
Radio Symphony Orchestra, and he was music director of Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu
between 1999 and 2004. His recent operatic credits include L’Elisir d’Amore, Don Carlo, and
Carmen at Covent Garden; Carmen and Iphigénie en Tauride at the Paris Opera; Macbeth
and Capriccio in Vienna; Halévy’s La Juive and Dialogues des Carmélites at the Bavarian
State Opera; Der Fliegende Holländer and Parsifal in Frankfurt; Il Trovatore in Orange; Die
Fledermaus at the Vienna State Opera; and Tannhäuser in Hamburg.

Laurent Pelly
director and costume designer (fontenay- sous - bois , france)

this season  Cendrillon at the Met, Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Paris and Marseille, L’Heure

Espagnole and Gianni Schicchi at the Paris Opera, Candide at the Santa Fe Opera, and
Gozzi’s L’Oiseau Vert at Paris’s Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin.
met productions  Manon and La Fille du Régiment (debut, 2008).
career highlights  He was director of Grenoble’s Centre Dramatique National des Alpes
from 1997 to 2007 and co-director of the Théâtre National de Toulouse between 2008 and
2018, where he created productions of Prévert’s Sur la Tête, Hugo’s Mille Cents Francs de
Récompense and Mangeront-ils?, Levin’s Funérailles d’Hiver, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, L’Oiseau Vert, Ionesco’s La Cantatrice Chauve, and Aristophanes’s
The Birds. His operatic credits include Cendrillon at the Santa Fe Opera, Covent Garden, and in
Barcelona, Brussels, and Lille; Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma in Lyon; Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden
Cockerel in Brussels, Madrid, and Lorraine; Béatrice et Bénédict at the Glyndebourne Festival;
Offenbach’s Le Roi Carotte in Lyon and Lille; L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and L’Heure Espagnole
at the Glyndebourne Festival, Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival, and La Scala; Rameau’s Platée and
L’Elisir d’Amore at the Paris Opera; Don Pasquale at the Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera,
and in Barcelona; and Le Comte Ory in Lyon and at La Scala.
Visit metopera.org 45
 KAREN ALMOND / MET OPERA

DONIZET TI

LUCIA DI
LAMMERMOOR
APR 25, 28 eve MAY 2, 5 eve, 10

Soprano Pretty Yende (pictured) stars in the title role, with its famously
high-flying mad scene, alongside tenor Michael Fabiano as Edgardo.
Roberto Abbado conducts Mary Zimmerman’s chilling staging, which
frames the opera as an eerie Victorian ghost story.

Tickets from $25

metopera.org
The Cast and Creative Team CONTINUED

Barbara de Limburg
set designer (brussels , belgium)

this season  Cendrillon for her debut at the Met, Hänsel und Gretel in Lorraine, and
Agathe Mélinand’s adaptation of Marcel Proust Enfance et Adolescence de Jean Santeuil
in Toulouse.
career highlights  Operatic credits include Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel
in Brussels, Madrid, and Lorraine; Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict at the Glyndebourne
Festival; Idomeneno in Strasbourg; Hänsel und Gretel and La Traviata in Nantes; L’Enfant
et les Sortilèges at the Glyndebourne Festival, Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival, La Scala, and
in Rome; Cendrillon at the Santa Fe Opera, Covent Garden, and in Barcelona, Brussels,
and Lille; Hänsel und Gretel at the Glyndebourne Festival and in Lyon, Madrid, and at
Seattle Opera; Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini in Nuremberg;
Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in Toulouse; Massenet’s Don Quichotte
in Brussels and Palermo; The Cunning Little Vixen at the Saito Kainen Festival and in
Florence; and Mozart’s La Finta Semplice in Vienna. For the theater, she has designed
productions of Satie’s Mémoires d’un Amnésique and Tennessee Williams’s Short Stories
in Toulouse, and Sous la Ceinture in Brussels and Bordeaux.

Duane Schuler
lighting designer (elkhart lake, wisconsin)

this season  Cendrillonat the Met, Faust at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Candide at the Santa
Fe Opera, and Rigoletto at the Canadian Opera Company
met productions  Since his 1994 debut with Otello, he has designed for 26 productions,
including La Donna del Lago, Boris Godunov, La Rondine, Thaïs, Don Pasquale, Faust,
William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge, Bellini’s Il Pirata, Wolf-Ferrari’s Sly, Luisa Miller,
La Traviata, and Così fan tutte, as well as the world premieres of Tan Dun’s The First
Emperor and John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby.
career highlights  Recent productions include Die Fledermaus at the Santa Fe Opera;
the world premiere of Jimmy López’s Bel Canto at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Don Pasquale
in Barcelona, and Turandot at La Scala. He has designed at many of the world’s leading
opera companies, including the Salzburg Festival, Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin,
English National Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, Dutch National Opera, Canadian Opera
Company, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, LA Opera, Seattle
Opera, and in Baden-Baden, Lyon, and Dresden. He is also a founding partner of the
theater planning and architectural lighting design firm Schuler Shook.

Visit metopera.org 46A

5REHUWR$ODJQDDQG(OíQD*DUDQÏDDV6DPVRQ
and Dalila, photographed by Vincent Peters

EXPLORE THE
2018–19 SEASON
NEW PRODUC TIONS

SAMSON ET DALILA MARNIE

LA TRAVIATA ADRIANA LECOUVREUR
REPER TORY

LA BOHÈME AIDA LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST

TOSCA CARMEN MEFISTOFELE
LES PÊCHEURS DE PERLES IL TRITTICO OTELLO
THE MAGIC FLUTE PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE
IOLANTA / BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE DON GIOVANNI
LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT RIGOLETTO
FALSTAFF LA CLEMENZA DI TITO
DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES
DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN

DAS RHEINGOLD DIE WALKÜRE

SIEGFRIED GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG
Subscribe today at metopera.org or by calling 212.362.6000.
The Cast and Creative Team CONTINUED

Laura Scozzi
choreographer (milan, italy)

this season  She choreographs Cendrillon at the Met and directs L’Italiana in Algeri in

Nuremberg, Philip Glass’s Akhnaten in Bonn, and Handel’s Semele in Berlin.
met productions  La Fille du Régiment (debut, 2008).
career highlights  In 1994, she founded Opinioni in Movimento, with whom she created
several productions that incorporated contemporary dance, acting, and singing. She
regularly collaborates on productions by Laurent Pelly, including Rameau’s Platée
and Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, and works
regularly with Coline Serreau, Jean-Louis Grinda, and Emmanuelle Bastet. She directed
and choreographed productions of Die Zauberflöte and Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes
in Nuremberg, Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini in Bonn, and Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers
in Marseille; directed L’Italiana in Algeri in Toulouse; and choreographed La Fille du
Régiment at the Vienna State Opera and in Barcelona and Madrid, Prokofiev’s The Love
for Three Oranges in Essen, Cendrillon in Barcelona and at the Santa Fe Opera and
Covent Garden, La Dolce Vita in Geneva, and The Seven Deadly Sins in Paris.

Stephanie Blythe
mezzo - soprano (mongaup valley, new york )

this season  Madame de la Haltière in Cendrillon at the Met, Cornelia in Giulio Cesare

at Houston Grand Opera, and the Marquise of Berkenfield in La Fille du Régiment at
Atlanta Opera.
met appearances  Since her 1995 debut as the Alto Soloist in Parsifal, she has sung more
than 200 performances of 26 roles, including Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress, Mistress
Quickly in Falstaff, Fricka in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera,
Amneris in Aida, Eduige in Rodelinda, La Principessa in Suor Angelica, Ježibaba in Rusalka,
and Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice.
career highlights  Recent performances include Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance at
Palm Beach Opera, Dido and the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas with the Mark Morris
Dance Group at Brooklyn Academy of Music, the title role of Rossini’s Tancredi at Opera
Philadelphia, and Nettie Fowler in Carousel at Houston Grand Opera. She has also
appeared at Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, San Francisco Opera,
Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera, among many others. She
is a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Visit metopera.org 46C

 Christopher Maltman and
Isabel Leonard in Marnie

VINCENT PETERS / MET OPERA

CREATE YOUR
OWN SERIES
Curate the Met’s exciting 2018–19 season yourself with our popular
Create Create Your Own series.

Save 10% compared to the cost of single tickets when you create
your own series of five or more operas. Save 5% if you select three
or four performances.*

Learn more at metopera.org/cyo.

*Ring cycle performances are not available within a CYO series and must be purchased as a full cycle.
The Cast and Creative Team CONTINUED

Alice Coote
mezzo - soprano (frodsham, england)

this season  Prince Charming in Cendrillon and Leonora Palma in Thomas Adès’s The

Exterminating Angel at the Met and Sara in Roberto Devereux in Frankfurt.
met appearances  Idamante in Idomeneo, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Anne Strawson
in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys, Sesto in Giulio Cesare, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, and
Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro (debut, 2006).
career highlights  Recent performances include Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito at the
Glyndebourne Festival, the title role of Ariodante at the Canadian Opera Company
and in concert in Vienna, Octavian at Convent Garden and Lyric Opera of Chicago, the
Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Bavarian State Opera and in Paris, and Dejanira in
Handel’s Hercules on tour with The English Concert. She has also sung Prince Charming
in Barcelona and at Covent Garden; Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel in Madrid; Ruggiero
in Alcina on tour with The English Concert; the title role of Xerxes at English National
Opera; Dejanira at the Canadian Opera Company; Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hofmann,
Idamante, and Charlotte in Werther at San Francisco Opera; and Octavian at the Bavarian
State Opera, Vienna State Opera, LA Opera, Seattle Opera, and in Geneva.

Joyce DiDonato
mezzo - soprano (k ansas city, k ansas)

this season  The title role of Cendrillon and Adalgisa in Norma at the Met, the title role of
Semiramide at Covent Garden, Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking
in Madrid and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and concert appearances in Rotterdam,
Berlin, London, and Kansas City.
met appearances  Elena in La Donna del Lago, the title roles of La Cenerentola and Maria
Stuarda, Sycorax in The Enchanted Island, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Isolier
in Le Comte Ory, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette, and
Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro (debut, 2005).
career highlights  Recent performances include Semiramide at the Bavarian State Opera,
Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito and Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust in concert in
Baden-Baden, Charlotte in Werther at Covent Garden, Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi
at Deutsche Oper Berlin and in Zurich, Arden Scott in the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s
Great Scott at the Dallas Opera, and Cendrillon at Covent Garden, the Santa Fe Opera,
and in Barcelona. She was the 2007 recipient of the Met’s Beverly Sills Artist Award,
established by Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman.

Visit metopera.org 46E

 Now Available: Anna Netrebko
in Eugene Onegin (2017)

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PHOTO: MARTY SOHL / METROPOLITAN OPERA

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The Cast and Creative Team CONTINUED

Kathleen Kim
soprano (seoul , south korea )

this season  The Fairy Godmother in Cendrillon at the Met, Gilda in Rigoletto at Korea

National Opera, Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Bavarian State Opera,
and Josephine Young in the world premiere of Huang Ruo’s An American Soldier at Opera
Theatre of Saint Louis.
met appearances  Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Blondchen, Tytania in A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Chiang
Ch’ing in John Adams’s Nixon in China, Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Papagena in
Die Zauberflöte, the First Wood Nymph in Rusalka, and Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro
(debut, 2007).
career highlights  Recent performances include Chiang Ch’ing with the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, Tytania at the Glyndebourne Festival, Zerbinetta at Palm Beach Opera,
and Oscar in Brussels. She has also sung Chiang Ch’ing and Oscar at San Diego Opera,
Zerbinetta in Frankfurt, the Fire/the Princess/the Nightingale in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges
in Rome and at the Glyndebourne Festival, the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera
North, the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte at the Bavarian State and Lyric Opera of
Chicago, and the Fairy Godmother in Lille.

Laurent Naouri
bass - baritone (paris , france)

this season  Pandolfe in Cendrillon, Capulet in Roméo et Juliette, and the Four Villains in

Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Met; the High Priest in Samson et Dalila in concert in Paris;
and Don Gaspar in Donizetti’s L’Ange de Nisida in concert in London.
met appearances  Sharpless in Madama Butterfly (debut, 2012).
career highlights  Recent performances include Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust
in concert at Festival Berlioz and the BBC Proms, Agata in Donizetti’s Le Convenienze ed
Inconvenienze Teatrali and Ruprecht in Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel in Lyon, Don Alfonso in
Così fan tutte in Geneva, Marquis de Grenvil in the world premiere of Luca Francesconi’s
Trompe-la-Mort at the Paris Opera, Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande in Aix-en-Provence,
and the Marquis de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites at the Bavarian State Opera.
He has also sung the Four Villains in Zurich and at the Bavarian State Opera, Pandolfe in
Barcelona, Méphistophélès in Lyon, Fieramosca in Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini at Dutch
National Opera, Albert in Werther at La Scala, Roland Cassard in Michel Legrand’s The
Umbrellas of Cherbourg in Paris, Iago in Otello in Bordeaux, and Polifemo in Handel’s Aci,
Galatea e Polifemo in Paris.
Visit metopera.org 46G
Facilities and Services
THE ARNOLD AND MARIE SCHWARTZ GALLERY MET
Art gallery located in the South Lobby featuring leading artists. Open Monday through Friday,
6pm through last intermission; Saturday, noon through last intermission of evening performances.
ASSISTIVE LISTENING SYSTEM AND BINOCULARS
Wireless headsets, which work with the FM assistive listening system to amplify sound, are available at
the coat check station on the South Concourse level before performances. Binoculars are also available
for rental at the coat check station on the South Concourse level. The rental cost is $5. A major credit
card or driver’s license is required as deposit.
BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED
Large print programs are available free of charge from the ushers. Braille synopses of many operas are
available free of charge. Please contact an usher. Tickets for no-view score desk seats may be purchased
by calling the Metropolitan Opera Guild at 212-769-7028.
BOX OFFICE
Monday–Saturday, 10am–8pm; Sunday, noon–6pm. The Box Office closes at 8pm on non-performance
evenings or on evenings with no intermission. Box Office Information: 212-362-6000.
CHECK ROOM
On Concourse level (Founders Hall).
FIRST AID
Doctor in attendance during performances; contact an usher for assistance.
LECTURE SERIES
Opera-related courses, pre-performance lectures, master classes, and more are held throughout the
performance season at the Opera Learning Center. For tickets and information, call 212-769-7028.
LOST AND FOUND
Security office at Stage Door. Monday–Friday, 2pm–4pm; 212-799-3100, ext. 2499.
MET OPERA SHOP
The Met Opera Shop is adjacent to the North Box Office, 212-580-4090. Open Monday–Saturday,
10am–final intermission; Sunday, noon–6pm.
PUBLIC TELEPHONES
Telephones with volume controls and TTY Public Telephone located in Founders Hall on the Concourse
level.­­
RESTAURANT AND REFRESHMENT FACILITIES
The Grand Tier Restaurant features creative contemporary American cuisine, and the Revlon Bar offers
panini, crostini, and a full service bar. Both are open two hours prior to the Met Opera curtain time to
any Lincoln Center ticket holder for pre-curtain dining. Pre-ordered intermission dining is also available
for Met ticket holders. For reservations please call 212-799-3400.
RESTROOMS
Wheelchair-accessible restrooms are on the Dress Circle, Grand Tier, Parterre, and Founders Hall levels.
SEAT CUSHIONS
Available in the South Check Room. Major credit card or driver’s license required for deposit.
SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS
For information contact the Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Department, 212-769-7022.
SCORE-DESK TICKET PROGRAM
Tickets for score desk seats in the Family Circle boxes may be purchased by calling the Met Opera Guild
at 212-769-7028. These no-view seats provide an affordable way for music students to study an opera’s
score during a live performance.
TOUR GUIDE SERVICE
Backstage tours of the Opera House are held during the Met season on most weekdays at 3:15pm, and
on select Sundays at 10:30am and/or 1:30pm. For tickets and information, call 212-769-7028. Tours of
Lincoln Center daily; call 212-875-5351 for availability.
WEBSITE
www.metopera.org
WHEELCHAIR ACCOMMODATIONS
Telephone 212-799-3100, ext. 2204. Wheelchair entrance at Concourse level.

The exits indicated by a red light and the sign nearest the The photographing or sound recording of any
seat you occupy are the shortest routes to the street. In the performance, or the possession of any device for such
event of fire or other emergency, please do not run—walk photographing or sound recording inside this theater,
to that exit. without the written permission of the management, is
prohibited by law. Offenders may be ejected and liable
In compliance with New York City Department of Health for damages and other lawful remedies.
regulations, smoking is prohibited in all areas of this theater.
Use of cellular telephones and electronic devices for any
Patrons are reminded that in deference to the performing purpose, including email and texting, is prohibited in the
artists and the seated audience, those who leave the auditorium at all times. Please be sure to turn off all
auditorium during the performance will not be readmitted devices before entering the auditorium.
while the performance is in progress.