News from the Met

Odd ends from recent press releases.

• Free tickets to the final dress rehearsal for opening night are again available. This year, it's Tosca, starring Karita Mattila, Marcelo Alvarez, and Juha Uusitala. I've seen Mattila sing Puccini, and she was...interesting. She's a great singer, beyond doubt, but that cool Nordic tone doesn't sound any more right in Puccini than Birgit Nilsson's did. Uusitala was a decent Dutchman and an inaudible Pizarro in San Francisco (I missed his last appearance, as the High Priest of Dagon). Still, free! tickets! You can get them in person only at the Met box office, starting at noon on September 13. The dress rehearsal itself is on Thursday, Sept. 17, at 11 a.m.; doors open that day at 10:30.
• The new Tosca production, by Luc Bondy, can be seen on HD broadcast on Saturday, Oct. 10.
• There will be two additional open dress rehearsals later this year: for Tales of Hoffman on Monday, November 30 (with Joseph Calleja, Alan Held, and Anna Netrebko) and for Rossini's Armida on Friday, April 9 (a new Mary Zimmerman production with Renee Fleming).
• On October 24, the Met HD telecast of Aida will star Violetta Urmana, Dolora Zajick, and Johan Botha, conducted by Daniele Gatti. It's the long-running, turquoise and white, double-decker Sonja Frisell production, a real spectacle and lots of fun.