Mozart's Così fan tutte
Saturday, April 26 at 1:00pm
James Levine Returns to the Met to Conduct Mozart’s Così fan tutte
The cast for the Met Music Director’s first opera performance since 2011 includes Susanna Phillips, Isabel Leonard, Danielle de Niese, Matthew Polenzani, Rodion Pogossov, and Maurizio Muraro.
New York, NY (September 24, 2013) – Met Music Director James Levine returns to the podium September 24 to lead a revival of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, his first opera performance since April 2011. The ensemble cast assembled for Mozart’s comic opera about the romantic complications that ensue when a pair of friends decide to test their fiancées’ fidelity includes Susanna Phillips in her company role debut as Fiordiligi; Isabel Leonard as her passionate sister Dorabella; Danielle de Niese as the sisters’ feisty maid, Despina; Matthew Polenzani as Ferrando; Rodion Pogossov in his company role debut as Guglielmo; and Maurizio Muraro in his first Met performances as the cynical Don Alfonso. The revival of Lesley Koenig’s production will play through October 5, then return in April for five additional performances. Guanqun Yu, who made an acclaimed Met debut last season as Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, will sing her first Met Fiordiligi performances on May 3 and 8. The April 26 matinee will be transmitted live as part of the Met’s Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 1,950 movie theaters in 64 countries around the world.
James Levine has led an unparalleled 2,442 Met performances (as of April 2011) over the course of his 42-year Met career. Among the many highlights of his work with the company are the first-ever Met performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito; Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess; Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex; Verdi’s I Vespri Siciliani, I Lombardi and Stiffelio; Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny; Schoenberg’s Erwartung and Moses und Aron; Berg’s Lulu; Rossini’s La Cenerentola; and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, as well as the world premieres of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. He has conducted Così fan tutte 52 times with the company, first in 1982 and most recently in 2006. Later this season, he will conduct a new production of Verdi’s Falstaff and a revival of Berg’s Wozzeck.
About Danielle De Niese
Danielle de Niese, a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, sang her first Despina with the company in the 2010-11 season. Her other Met roles have included Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and both Barbarina and Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. She made her Met debut, at 19 years old, in the former role. She created the role of Ariel in the world premiere of the Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island and will reprise it later this season when the work has its first Met revival.