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These will be Racette's first performances of Tosca at the Met, although she has already been invited to sing the role at the Met in a future season. She recently sang Tosca on stage for the first time at the Houston Grand Opera. She also performed it in concert at the Hollywood Bowl with Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2006.
Earlier this season, Racette sang all three heroines in Puccini's Il Trittico, a trilogy consisting of Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi. Last season at the Met the American soprano portrayed the title role in Anthony Minghella's production of Madama Butterfly, which was transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series. She also sang the role of Roberta Alden in the 2005 world premiere of Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy at the Met and was Ellen Orford in a new production of Peter Grimes in 2008, also shown live in HD. Since her 1995 Met debut as Musetta in La Bohme, Racette has sung Nedda in Pagliacci, Blanche in Dialogues des Carm_lites, Antonia and Stella in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, MimÐ in La Bohme, Elizabeth in Don Carlo, Alice Ford in Falstaff and Violetta in La Traviata.
James Levine conducts Tosca in this season's new production directed by Luc Bondy. Jonas Kaufmann is Cavaradossi and Bryn Terfel is Scarpia, both adding new roles to their Met repertoires.
The production will play additional performances in May with Daniela DessÐ as Tosca, Marcello Giordani as Cavaradossi, George Gagnidze as Scarpia and Paul Plishka as Sacristan.Visit the Metropolitan Opera.
