First up will be the Bartlett Sher staging of Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), which will be presented nationwide July 29 at 7 PM in all time zones. Rossini's opera features Juan Diego Flórez as Count Almaviva, Joyce DiDonato as Rosina and Peter Mattei in the title role.
Mozart's The Magic Flute, staged by Julie Taymor, is scheduled to be screened Aug. 5 at 7 PM nationwide. Metropolitan Opera music director James Levine conducts the production, which marked Taymor's Met debut as a director. The work features puppets, kites, stilts and kaleidoscopic sets.
The Met will also offer its first annual free "Summer HD Festival" of opera screenings in the Lincoln Center Plaza beginning Aug. 29.
The schedule follows: La Fille du Régiment (Aug. 29 at 8 PM); Roméo et Juliette (Aug. 30 at 7:30 PM); Eugene Onegin (Aug. 31 at 7:45 PM); Macbeth (Sept. 1 at 8 PM); Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Sept. 2 at 7:45 PM); Peter Grimes (Sept. 3 at 7:45 PM); La Bohème (Sept. 4 at 8 PM); Orfeo ed Euridice (Sept. 5 at 8 PM); Il Trittico (Sept. 6 at 7:30 PM) and Madama Butterfly (Sept. 7 at 8 PM).
The series will make 2,800 free seats available for each performance on a first-come, first-served basis. No rain dates are scheduled. Visit MetOpera for further information.