Saturday Metropolitan Opera broadcasts are back with the thrilling return to live performance and cherished archival recordings. The longest-running classical music program on-air, the Met Opera starts its 90th radio season with a new host, Debra Lew Harder, who just became the fifth announcer of the international radio series.
This year marks a watershed moment in opera. For the first time in its 138 year existence, the Met presents an opera by an African-American composer. "Fire Shut Up in My Bones" (2019) is by renowned jazz and film composer Terrence Blanchard (Malcolm X, Harriet, Da 5 Bloods). Film actress and director, Kasi Lemmons (Harriet) wrote the libretto, adapted from the memoir by journalist, Charles M. Blow. OperaWire described it as "a triumph not only because of what it represents in a larger social context... but because it is itself, a masterpiece." Listen January 8, 2022 for the closing night performance, recorded October 23, 2021.
"Fire Shut Up in My Bones" is one of four Met premieres this broadcast season. The first kicks-off the series on December 4, 11:00 a.m. M.T. with “Eurydice” by 31-year-old Matthew Aucoin, a 2018 MacArthur Fellow who wrote most of the opera while artist in residence at the L.A. Opera. Met Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts this first of seven productions he'll lead during the broadcast season. Soprano Anna Netrebko also returns in her Met debut as Puccini's Turandot on May 7, 2022.
The twenty-eight week season marks the Met's 90th radio broadcast anniversary on Christmas Day with extraordinary performances from the Met's archives of Verdi's Aida, which itself premiered Christmas Eve 150 years ago. Also, hear iconic voices from the Met's first decade on the air, February 5, 2022.
Met broadcast superfans: Watch the Met's website at the link below for your chance to vote for your favorite broadcast from the past as the Listeners' Choice returns for a second year; the winner will air March 5, 2022.
Explore the entire program from the Met Opera website, including a complete list of performers and broadcast times (in Eastern Time). Most Saturday broadcasts begin on CPR Classical at 11:00 a.m. M.T.
More Metropolitan Opera 2021-22 Saturday Matinee Broadcast Highlights:
- December 11: Giacomo Puccini: Tosca
- January 15: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro (Also April 9)
- February 19: Modest Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
- March 12: Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos
- April 2: Peter Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin
- May 21: Gaetano Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
- June 11: Igor Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress - season finale
View the complete Met Opera Radio Broadcast schedule of performances.
Hear CPR Classical by clicking “Listen Live” at the top on this website. You can also hear CPR Classical at 88.1 FM in Denver, at radio signals around Colorado, on the newly updated Colorado Public Radio app, or ask your smart speaker to “Play CPR Classical."
