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The Met's Summer Recital Series includes six concerts in all five boroughs from through August 14. The opening recital kicked off at Central Park SummerStage with baritone Paulo Szot.
Subsequent performances of the Met's Summer Recital Series take place on Friday evenings from July 17 to August 14 at 7:00 pm. Performers will include sopranos Joyce El-Khoury and Ashley Emerson, baritone John Moore, and bass Keith Miller, accompanied by Iftinca.
"The Metropolitan Opera in New York City's parks is a summertime tradition stretching over 40 years," said Commissioner Adrian Benepe. "I would like to thank the Met and City Parks Foundation for bringing world-class performances to free and unique outdoor settings in neighborhood parks across the city. This year's program is sure to be music to the ears of a whole new generation of opera lovers."
SCHEDULE
Friday, July 17, 2009 at 7:00 pm: Crotona Park (Bronx)
John Moore, baritone
Ashley Emerson, soprano
Vlad Iftinca, pianist
Damon Gupton, host
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 7:00 pm: Queensbridge Park (Queens)
John Moore, baritone
Ashley Emerson, soprano
Vlad Iftinca, pianist
Damon Gupton, host
Friday, July 31, 2009 at 7:00 pm: East River Park (Manhattan)
Joyce El-Khoury, soprano
Keith Miller, bass
Vlad Iftinca, pianist
Francois Battiste, host
Friday, August 7, 2009 at 7:00 pm: Tappan Park (Staten Island)
Joyce El-Khoury, soprano
Keith Miller, bass
Vlad Iftinca, pianist
Damon Gupton, host
Friday, August 14, 2009 at 7:00 PM: Coffey Park (Brooklyn)
Joyce El-Khoury, soprano
Keith Miller, bass
Vlad Iftinca, pianist
Damon Gupton, host
All recitals are free and no tickets are required, except for the performance at SummerStage. For information on how to obtain free SummerStage tickets, please check the Met website at www.metopera.org/parks. For additional information, please call (212) 362-6000. There will be no rain dates for these performances.
*****
In a brand new initiative, the Met's Summer HD Festival will feature screenings of ten productions from the Met's Peabody and Emmy Award-winning Live in HD series in Lincoln Center Plaza on consecutive nights, beginning Saturday, August 29. The series opens with Laurent Pelly's acclaimed production of La Fille du R_giment, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Fl‹rez, and closes with Anthony Minghella's staging of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, featuring Patricia Racette and Marcello Giordani, on Labor Day. Three of the HD productions to be shown are conducted by Met Music Director James Levine.
In addition to Fille (August 29) and Butterfly (September 7), the Met's Summer HD Festival will include HD presentations of Gounod's Rom_o et Juliette with Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna (August 30); Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin starring Ren_e Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky (August 31); Verdi's Macbeth with Maria Guleghina and _eljko Lučić, conducted by Levine (September 1); Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Joyce DiDonato and Fl‹rez (September 2); Britten's Peter Grimes starring Anthony Dean Griffey and Racette (September 3); La Bohme featuring Angela Gheorghiu and Ram‹n Vargas (September 4); Orfeo ed Euridice featuring Stephanie Blythe and Danielle de Niese, with Levine conducting (September 5); and Puccini's Il Trittico, which consists of three one-act operas, also conducted by Levine (September 6).
All screenings are free with no tickets required; 2800 seats will be available each night on a first-come, first served basis. There are no rain dates. Screening start times range from 7:30pm to 8:00pm; specific start times for each showing are listed at the end of the release.
**For further schedules and information, visit the Metropolitan Opera.
