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**METROPOLITAN OPERA RADIO BROADCAST ALERT**

The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess Stars Eric Owens and Angel Blue

The American masterpiece also features Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore,

Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, Alfred Walker and Donavan Singletary,

conducted by David Robertson

Radio Broadcast: Saturday, February 1 at 1:00 p.m. ET

The 2019-20 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. The great American opera features bass-baritone Eric Owens as the humble Porgy, and soprano Angel Blue as his beloved Bess, a woman struggling to escape abuse and addiction. An acclaimed ensemble cast of opera stars portrays the tight-knit African-American community of Catfish Row. It includes Golda Schultz as the young mother Clara, Latonia Moore as the religious Serena, and Denyce Graves as the matriarch Maria. Frederick Ballentine is the drug dealer Sportin’ Life, Alfred Walker is the brutal Crown, and Donovan Singletary is Clara’s husband Jake. David Robertson conducts the Met Orchestra and the Porgy and Bess Chorus in this unforgettable score. The opera is performed in the new production by James Robinson that opened the Met season in the fall. Broadway star Audra McDonald, who won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Bess in the 2012 Broadway revival of Porgy and Bess, hosts the Live in HD transmission of the opera, and will interview the artists during intermission. The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, February 1.

Eric Owens adds a new role to his Met repertory as Porgy, which he has previously sung at San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, and Dutch National Opera. A winner of the Met’s National Council Auditions in 1996, Owens made his company debut in 2008 as General Leslie Groves in John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, and has returned in roles such as Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Jaufré Rudel in the Met premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin, the Water Gnome in Dvořák’s Rusalka, and both Alberich and Hagen in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. With the 2019–20 season, he takes up a new role with the Curtis Institute of Music, co-leading the Vocal Studies Department and Curtis Opera Theatre. Later this season, he will sing King Marke in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at Santa Fe Opera.

Angel Blue has previously sung the role of Bess at Seattle Opera. She made her Met stage debut in 2017 as Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème and returned last season as Musetta in the same opera. Other recent performances include the title role of Puccini’s Tosca at the Aix-en-Provence Festival; Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata at La Scala and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; and Mimì at Canadian Opera Company and Hamburg State Opera. This season, she also reprises Mimì at Seattle Opera and Violetta at La Scala.

South African soprano Golda Schultz made her 2017 company debut as Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, returning last season as Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff and earlier this season as Sophie in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Other recent roles include the Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Zurich Opera and Vienna State Opera, and Liù in Puccini’s Turandot at Bavarian State Opera. She can be seen in coming months as Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen at Bavarian State Opera, Liù in Vienna, and Madame Lidoine in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at the Glyndebourne Festival.

American soprano Latonia Moore has previously sung Serena at English National Opera and Dutch National Opera, and will reprise the role later this season at Washington National Opera. Moore made her Met debut in 2012 in the title role of Verdi’s Aida, and has also appeared with the company in the title role of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Her other recent credits include the title role of Tosca at Washington National Opera, Aida at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and Madama Butterfly at Hamburg State Opera and San Diego Opera.

American mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves adds the role of Maria to her Met repertory this season. After her 1995 Met debut in the title role of Carmen, she also appeared with the company as Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Dalila in Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, Federica in Verdi’s Luisa Miller, and Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto. Last season, Graves returned to the Met for the first time in more than a decade, to sing the role of Marnie’s Mother in Nico Muhly’s Marnie. Other recent performances include The Old Lady in Bernstein’s Candide at Washington National Opera and Palm Beach Opera, Mrs. De Rocher in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at Minnesota Opera, Grace in the world premiere of Daniel Sonenberg’s The Summer King at Pittsburgh Opera, and Emelda Griffith in Terence Blanchard’s Champion at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Washington National Opera. She will reprise Maria at Washington National Opera later this season.

American tenor Frederick Ballentine makes his Met debut this season as Sportin’ Life, a role he has also sung at English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival. His recent engagments include the High Priest of Amon in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten at LA Opera, Don José in Carmen at Seattle Opera, and the Steersman in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer at Cincinnati Opera. Later this season Ballentine will appear as Charlie Parker in Daniel Schnyder’s Charlie Parker’s Yardbird at Seattle Opera, the title character in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Opera Louisiane, and Sportin’ Life at Washington National Opera.

American bass-baritone Alfred Walker, a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, has sung more than 160 performances with the company since his 1998 debut, in roles such as the Speaker in The Magic Flute, Titurel in Wagner’s Parsifal, and Parsi Rustomji in Philip Glass’s Satyagraha. His recent performances include Porgy in Porgy and Bess and Amonasro in Aida at Seattle Opera, Orest in Strauss’s Elektra at San Francisco Opera, and the title role of Der Fliegende Holländer at Cologne Opera. This season he also sings Porgy at Washington National Opera and Oroveso in Bellini’s Norma at Boston Lyric Opera.

American bass-baritone Donovan Singletary has previously sung the role of Jake at La Scala, Seattle Opera, Dutch National Opera, and English National Opera. A graduate of the Met’s Lindermann Young Artist Development program, he made his company debut in 2008. Singletary’s performances with other companies include Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro at Minnesota Opera and Fort Worth Opera, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Nashville Opera and Kentucky Opera, and the title role of Mefistofele at Knoxville Opera.

American conductor David Robertson has led nine operas at the Met: Janáček’s The Makropulos Case for his company debut in 1996; Bizet’s Carmen; Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Le Nozze di Figaro; Britten’s Billy Budd; Janáček’s Jenůfa; and the Met premieres of Nico Muhly’s Two Boys and John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer. In 2018, Maestro Robertson was named the Director of Conducting Studies at Juilliard. He is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and was previously the Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He is a frequent guest conductor at many of the world’s leading opera companies and orchestras, including La Scala, Bavarian State Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and San Francisco Opera.

PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

Click here to download photos and videos from Porgy and Bess

THE STARS OF PORGY AND BESS

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About the Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 89th season of Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts—the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history. Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts have brought opera into millions of homes and enriched the lives of many, playing a vital and unparalleled role in the development and appreciation of opera in this country. Mary Jo Heath hosts, joined each week in the broadcast booth by commentator Ira Siff. The broadcasts are heard worldwide, reaching millions of opera lovers in more than 35 countries.

Listeners can visit SaturdayMatineeBroadcasts for information about the Met broadcasts. For details about all Met performances this season, as well as ticket information, visit the Met’s website at .

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Contact: Renata Kapilevich

Metropolitan Opera

(212) 870-7457

rkapilevich@

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