• We hereby inform all visitors that the broadcast, initially scheduled for 6 pm will begin an hour earlier, at 5 pm.

Richard Wagner‘s masterpiece returns to the Metropolitan Opera after a gap of more than a decade. The New York theatre's relationship with its music director James Levine is unique in the almost 140-year history of the Met, and probably of the world: the 72-year-old conductor has conducted a total of some 2,500 performances of nearly 90 operas here since his debut in 1971. The challenging title role of Tannhäuser will be sung here by a leading Wagnerian tenor of our times, Johan Botha. Holder of the title of Kammersänger at the Vienna State Opera, and a past performer at the Bayreuth Festival and the Metropolitan, the South African has worked regularly with the world's leading conductors for almost three decades. Singing the part of Elisabeth, soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek made her debut at the Met in 2011 in the role of another Wagnerian heroine, Sieglinde in Die Walküre. Following his sensational success in Parsifal some years ago, baritone Peter Mattei here appears as Wolfram, singing the famous aria "Song to the Evening Star”. Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, who plays Venus, the goddess of love, has performed at the Metropolitan since 1992. Likewise recognised as a singer of Wagner, her varied repertoire also includes the role of Judith in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest