The 2013-14 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of the Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island Saturday, March 8 at noon on KLRE Classical 90.5.
New cast members Susan Graham (Sycorax) and Andriana Chuchman (Miranda) join many of the principal singers who appeared in the work’s world premiere at the Met two seasons ago: David Daniels as Prospero, Plácido Domingo as Neptune, Danielle de Niese as Ariel, Luca Pisaroni as Caliban, and Anthony Roth Costanzo as Ferdinand. The Enchanted Island will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 8.
Patrick Summers conducts the work, a pastiche in the Baroque tradition that combines plot elements of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest with music by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and other leading composers of the era, set to an English libretto. In keeping with pastiche tradition, this season’s revival will interpolate two Handel arias not heard in the work’s premiere, “Sta nell’ircana” from Alcina for Sycorax and “Empio, per farti guerra” from Tamerlano for Neptune. Jeremy Sams, who devised The Enchanted Island and wrote the libretto, has worked with Summers and director Phelim McDermott to oversee other adaptations for this revival.
Susan Graham’s more than 140 performances with the Met include Dido in last season’s revival of Berlioz’s Les Troyens; Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, which she has sung 25 times with the company, and the Composer in his Ariadne auf Naxos; Marguerite in the new production premiere of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust; the title role in the new production premiere of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride; Sesto in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito; and Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther.
David Daniels sang the title role in last season’s new production premiere of Handel’s Giulio Cesare. He made his Met debut as Sesto in that opera in 1999, and has since appeared with the company as Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bertarido in the Met premiere of Handel’s Rodelinda, and Orfeo in the 2007 new production premiere of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.
Plácido Domingo added a new role to his vast, ever-expanding Met repertory last season when he sang his first performances as Giorgio Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata. Other recent Met performances include Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride, the title character in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, Maurizio in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, and Emperor Qin in the world premiere of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor.
Danielle de Niese sang Despina earlier this season, under Maestro James Levine, in an acclaimed revival of Mozart's Così fan tutte that returns to the Met stage in April. A graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, her other Met roles have included Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, Euridice in 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.
Luca Pisaroni made his Met debut in 2005 as Publio in La Clemenza di Tito and has gone on to appear with the company in the title role of Le Nozze di Figaro and as Leporello in the new production premiere of Don Giovanni. His other engagements this season include Figaro at both Covent Garden and the Vienna State Opera. This April, he will sing Alidoro in the Met's revival of Rossini’s La Cenerentola.
Andriana Chuchman made an acclaimed Met debut as Adina in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore earlier this season, substituting for an ailing Anna Netrebko. The Canadian soprano’s recent performances with other opera companies have included Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel with Glyndebourne, Olympia in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Canadian Opera Company, and Valencienne in Lehar's The Merry Widow with Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Anthony Roth Costanzo was heard earlier this broadcast season singing Prince Orlofsky in the Met’s new production of Johann Strauss Jr.’s Die Fledermaus. He made his Met debut in 2011 as Unulfo in Rodelinda, and later the same season, he originated the role of Ferdinand in The Enchanted Island and also sang some performances in the role of Prospero. Later this season, he sings Eustazio in Handel’s Rinaldo at Glyndebourne.
The broadcast's single intermission will include live, backstage interviews with the stars.