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Back to Press Release List > 11/16/2009 - James Levine Leads Musicians from The MET Orchestra in Four Programs at Carnegie Hall

JAMES LEVINE LEADS MUSICIANS FROM THE
METROPOLITAN OPERA ORCHESTRA IN FOUR PROGRAMS
AT CARNEGIE HALL THIS DECEMBER AND JANUARY

The MET Chamber Ensemble Performs Works by Mozart, Strauss, Sessions,
Carter, and Babbitt over Two Concerts, December 6 and January 10

The MET Orchestra Performs Elgar’s Sea Pictures with Mezzo-Soprano
Stephanie Blythe and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 on December 20;
Series Continues January 24 with Soprano Diana Damrau Singing Strauss Lieder,
Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5

James Levine will lead musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in four concert programs at Carnegie Hall this December and January. Mr. Levine leads The MET Chamber Ensemble in Weill Recital Hall on Sunday, December 6 at 5:00 p.m. in works by Pierre Boulez—including Improvisation sur Mallarmé I and II with soprano Jo Ellen Miller—as well as Mozart’s Divertimento in B-flat Major. Two weeks later, Maestro Levine returns to conduct The MET Orchestra in a performance of Elgar’s song cycle Sea Pictures with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 on Sunday, December 20 at 3:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage.

The MET Chamber Ensemble and James Levine return on Sunday, January 10 at 5:00 p.m. for a Zankel Hall program that features Roger Sessions’ Concertino for Chamber Orchestra, Milton Babbitt’s The Head of the Bed, Elliott Carter’s Syringa, and Richard Strauss’ Der Bürger als Edelmann Suite. Soprano Judith Bettina, mezzo-soprano Kristin Hoff, and bass-baritone Evan Hughes are featured soloists. Soprano Diana Damrau then joins Maestro Levine and The MET Orchestra on Sunday, January 24 at 3:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage for lieder by Richard Strauss on a program that also features Schubert’s Symphony No.8 in B Minor and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor.

The MET Orchestra’s final Carnegie Hall concert of the season features Pierre Boulez conducting Bartók’s The Wooden Prince and Schoenberg’s Erwartung with soprano Deborah Polaski on Sunday, May 16 at 3:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage.


About the Artists
Soprano Jo Ellen Miller is currently a Spectrum Resident Artist at Virginia Opera. In August 2009, she performed at Opera North in Lebanon, NH, singing Micaëla in Carmen. This year also marked her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performing Elliott Carter's A Mirror on Which to Dwell, conducted by Pierre Boulez. Last summer she sang the same piece at Tanglewood, with members of the Tanglewood Orchestra conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky. Recently, Ms. Miller made her Library of Congress debut in Washington DC, performing Charles Wuorinen's A Winter's Tale with Mr. Wuorinen conducting. She has been a finalist with the Joyce Dutka Competition and the Gerda Lissner Foundation. In 2006, she was awarded the Grace B. Jackson Prize for Vocal Fellows for her achievements at Tanglewood Music Center. She holds a master’s degree in music from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Carnegie Mellon University.

Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe has sung in many of the renowned opera houses in the U.S. and Europe including the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and the Opera National de Paris. Ms. Blythe has also appeared with many of the world's finest orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra (in Boston and at Tanglewood), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Opera Orchestra of New York, Minnesota Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Orchestre de Paris. A frequent recitalist, Ms. Blythe has been presented in recital with her collaborative partner, Warren Jones, in Zankel Hall, Lincoln Center's Great Performers Series at Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Vocal Arts Society and at the Supreme Court at the invitation of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in Washington, DC; the Cleveland Art Song Festival, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Shriver Hall in Baltimore. Ms. Blythe was recently named Musical America's 2009 Vocalist of the Year. Her other awards include the 2007 Opera News Award and the 1999 Richard Tucker Award. Stephanie Blythe sings three roles in Puccini’s Il Trittico (Frugola in Il Tabarro, La Principessa in Suor Angelica, and Zita in Gianni Schicchi) at the Metropolitan Opera this fall from November 20 through December 12. On Monday, April 5 at 8:00 p.m., Ms. Blythe will sing Mendelssohn’s Elijah with James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage.

Soprano Judith Bettina, hailed for her proficiency in a wide range of musical styles, has appeared as guest soloist with such orchestras as the Houston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Munich Philharmonic. She has appeared with chamber groups throughout the United States and Europe, including appearances with the Bach Chamber Soloists, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Continuum, Bard Music Festival, New York Philmusica, Parnassus, Speculum Musicae, The Geneva Music Festival, Ensemble 21, Boston Musica Viva, San Francisco Contemporary Chamber players, the Monadnock Music Festival, and the Library of Congress. Her recordings with pianist James Goldsworthy of Chester Biscardi's The Gift of Life, David Rakowski's Three Songs on Poems of Louise Bogan, and a new release of songs by Otto Luening are on Composers Recordings, Inc. She has also recorded works by Milton Babbitt and Mel Powell on New World Records and Musicmasters, respectively.

Canadian mezzo-soprano Kristin Hoff is fast becoming a sought after performer of contemporary music. In 2008, she appeared in the role of Mrs. Anderson in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music with the Boston Pops; Keith Lockhart conducting. As part of the Tanglewood Music Center Contemporary Music Festival of 2008, which celebrated Elliott Carter's 100th birthday, Ms. Hoff sang Carter's Syringa under the baton of noted conductor, Stefan Asbury, as well as Schubert's song, Erlkönig, and the Brahms Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes with the Mark Morris Dance Company. Also in 2008, she performed in Claude Vivier's contemporary opera, Kopernikus. Orchestral appearances include Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with conductor Jean-François Rivest and Bach's Cantata 163 with composer/conductor John Harbison at Tanglewood.

A native of Santa Barbara, California, bass-baritone Evan Hughes is currently a masters degree student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studies with Marlena Malas. He received his bachelors degree in music from the University of California in Los Angeles in 2006. After graduating, he spent a second summer at the Music Academy of the West, in Montecito, California studying with Marilyn Horne and performing the role of Lord Sidney in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims. While at the Music Academy in 2005, he participated in the Marilyn Horne Foundation Awards, where he received an encouragement award. As soloist, he has performed Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s Cantata #42 Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats; also, he was soloist for Theadorakis’ Canto General with the Santa Barbara Master Chorale. Mr. Hughes sang the role of Wagner in Gounod’s Faust with the Santa Barbara Opera in 2004, and the role of Jamie in Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years with Interstate Five productions. He has recorded for Disney and Kodak.

Soprano Diana Damrau was born in Germany and studied at the Musikhochschule Würzburg with Carmen Hanganu and in Salzburg with Hanna Ludwig. In 2002, Ms. Damrau’s international freelance career was launched and she was invited to sing at important theatres in Munich, Berlin, Dresden, and Hamburg. Soon thereafter, she made appearances in Vienna, Brussels, Washington and London and at the Salzburg Festival. Ms. Damrau has sung under the direction of renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Riccardo Muti, Ivor Bolton, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Pierre Boulez and Peter Schneider, both in operatic productions and in concert. She has performed in new productions at the Metropolitan Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper München, at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the opera Geneve and the opera in Vienna. After having made many recordings of the German lieder repertoire for Telos Music and ORFEO, she now has an exclusive contract with Virgin/EMI Classics. Her first CD of opera arias—Arie di bravura—featuring music by Mozart, Salieri and Righini, was released in 2007. Her latest release of arias from operas by Gounod, Verdi, Strauss, Rossini, Stravinsky, Puccini, and Donizetti is set for November 2009. In February 2010, Ms. Damrau sings her first Marie in La Fille du Régiment and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Metroplitan Opera.

Since his June 5, 1971 debut at the Metropolitan Opera with Tosca, Music Director James Levine has developed a relationship with the company that is unparalleled in its history and unique in the musical world today. He conducted 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. All told, he has led nearly 2,500 performances of 85 different operas at The Met. Maestro Levine inaugurated the "Metropolitan Opera Presents" television series for PBS in 1977, founded the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in 1980, returned Wagner's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen to the repertoire in 1989 (in the first integral cycles in over 35 years there), and has reinstated recitals and concerts with Met artists at the opera house. Expanding on that tradition, he and the MET Orchestra began touring in concert in 1991, and since then have performed around the world as well as in its own subscription series at Carnegie Hall. Since 1998, Maestro Levine and the MET Chamber Ensemble have also performed three concerts annually at Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall. This season, in addition to the new Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Mr. Levine conducts the new production of Tosca, which opened the season and returns to the repertory in April, as well as revivals of Lulu, Der Rosenkavalier and Simon Boccanegra. He conducts three of this season’s The Met: Live in HD transmissions into movie theaters around the world: Les Contes d’Hoffmann on December 19, Der Rosenkavalier on January 9, and Simon Boccanegra on February 6. Mr. Levine is also currently in his fifth season as music director for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is today regarded as one of the world’s finest orchestras. From the time of the company’s inception in 1883, the ensemble has worked with leading conductors in both opera and concert performances and has developed into an orchestra of enormous technical polish and style. The MET Orchestra maintains a demanding schedule of performances and rehearsals during the 33-week 2008–09 season. The MET Orchestra maintains a demanding schedule of performances and rehearsals during the 34-week 2009–10 season. The company performs seven times a week in repertory that encompasses 26 operas, including eight new productions, four of which are company premieres. In the spring of 1991, the Orchestra under the leadership of James Levine began concert touring, taking them across the US and to Europe several times. The orchestra appears annually in concert at Carnegie Hall.


Program Information
Sunday, December 6, 2009 at 5:00 p.m.
Weill Recital Hall
THE MET CHAMBER ENSEMBLE
James Levine, Artistic Director and Conductor
Jo Ellen Miller, Soprano

PIERRE BOULEZ Mémoriale (…explosante-fixe…Originel)
PIERRE BOULEZ Dérive 1
PIERRE BOULEZ Improvisation sur Mallarmé I
PIERRE BOULEZ Improvisation sur Mallarmé II
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Divertimento in B-flat Major, K. 287

Tickets: $95
________________________________

Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
THE MET ORCHESTRA
James Levine, Music Director and Conductor
Stephanie Blythe, Mezzo-Soprano

EDWARD ELGAR Sea Pictures, Op. 37
GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor

Tickets: $53, $64, $82, $112, $153, $169
________________________________

Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 5:00 p.m.
Zankel Hall
THE MET CHAMBER ENSEMBLE
James Levine, Artistic Director and Conductor
Judith Bettina, Soprano
Kristin Hoff, Mezzo-Soprano
Evan Hughes, Bass-Baritone

ROGER SESSIONS Concertino for Chamber Orchestra
MILTON BABBITT The Head of the Bed
ELLIOTT CARTER Syringa
RICHARD STRAUSS Der Bürger als Edelmann Suite, Op. 60

Tickets: $56, $72
________________________________

Sunday, January 24, 2010 at 3:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
THE MET ORCHESTRA
James Levine, Music Director and Conductor
Diana Damrau, Soprano

FRANZ SCHUBERT Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759, "Unfinished"
RICHARD STRAUSS "Das Bächlein," Op. 88, No. 1
RICHARD STRAUSS "Ich wollt’ ein Sträusslein binden," Op. 68, No. 2
RICHARD STRAUSS "Allerseelen," Op. 10, No. 8
RICHARD STRAUSS "Zueignung," Op. 10, No. 1
RICHARD STRAUSS "Morgen," Op. 27, No. 4
RICHARD STRAUSS "Ständchen," Op. 17, No. 2
RICHARD STRAUSS "Wiegenlied," Op. 41, No. 1
RICHARD STRAUSS "Amor," Op. 68, No. 5
RICHARD STRAUSS "Grossmächtige Prinzessin" from Ariadne auf Naxos
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67

Tickets: $53, $64, $82, $112, $153, $169
________________________________

Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 3:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
THE MET ORCHESTRA
Pierre Boulez, Conductor
Deborah Polaski, Soprano

BÉLA BARTÓK The Wooden Prince, Op. 13
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG Erwartung, Op. 17

Tickets: $53, $64, $82, $112, $153, $169


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