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The Met: Live in HD transmits Opening Night for the first time

The Met’s 125th anniversary season kicks off on September 22 with the Opening Night Gala starring Renée Fleming in fully staged excerpts from Verdi’s La Traviata, Massenet’s Manon, and Strauss’s Capriccio.

Met Music Director James Levine conducts the second act of La Traviata, which has two scenes: the first at Violetta’s country house and the second at a grand Parisian mansion in the elaborate staging by Franco Zeffirelli. Ramón Vargas sings the role of Alfredo Germont, and Thomas Hampson that of his father, Giorgio. Christian Lacroix has designed two costumes for Fleming, one for each scene.

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The performance is sold out but there are many ways to be part of this special one-night-only event:

At your local movie theater

The Opening Night Gala launches the third season of The Met: Live in HD and will be transmitted in high definition to movie theaters across North and South America. Buy HD tickets now!

In Times Square

The opening night performance will be transmitted live to multiple giant screens in Times Square, with free seating for 2,000 people. Screens that will carry the transmission include the Astrovision (Panasonic), Reuters, Nasdaq, and MTV screens.

Seating for the Times Square Plazacast will open on Monday at 5 pm. Prior to this time, a pre-show audience queue will be set up on Broadway between 42nd and 43rd Streets. Attendees will be asked to line up in this queue, which will then file directly into the seating area.

At Fordham University

Due to construction on Lincoln Center Plaza, the Opening Night Gala will be presented in a live plazacast on the North Meadow at Fordham University, one block south of Lincoln Center. The Fordham plazacast is free admission, but tickets are required. Tickets will be distributed beginning Sunday, September 21, at noon at the Met Box Office, with a maximum of two per person.

On the Web

The Opening Night Gala will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78. The performance will also be streamed live on the Met’s website.