Since 1931, New York’s Metropolitan Opera has offered live, coast-to-coast radio broadcasts of it weekly Saturday matinees. It is the longest continuously-running classical radio series in the history of American broadcasting. This week begins the 87 th season of Saturday broadcasts and they will once again be heard in Cleveland on WCLV 104.9ideastream.All but two of this season’s operas will be live performances with all broadcastsbeginning at 1 p.m. with the one exception of Wagner’s Parsifal on February 17 th, which will begin at Noon because of its length. Here is the complete season listing (with details available at the Met wibsite: http://www.metopera.org/Season/Radio/Saturday-Matinee-Broadcasts/ )
Dec. 2 – Verdi Requiem
Dec. 9 – Mozart The Magic Flute
Dec. 16—Bellini Norma NEW PRODUCTION
Dec. 23—Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro
Dec. 30—Lehár The Merry Widow
Jan. 6—Humperdinck Hansel and Gretel
Jan. 13—Mascagni /Leoncavallo Cavalleria Rusticana& Pagliacci
Jan. 20—Massenet Thaïs
Jan. 27—Puccini Tosca NEW PRODUCTION
Feb. 3 —Verdi IlTrovatore
Feb. 10—Donizetti L’ElisirD’Amore
Feb. 17—Wagner Parsifal (12 Noon Start Time)
Feb. 24—Puccini La bohème
Mar. 3 —Puccini Madama Butterfly
Mar. 10—Rossini Semiramide
Mar. 17—R. Strauss Elektra
Mar. 24—Puccini Turandot
Mar. 31—Mozart Cosi Fan Tutte NEW PRODUCTION
Apr. 7 —Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor
Apr. 14—Verdi Luisa Miller
Apr. 21—Adès The Exterminating Angel NEW PRODUCTION
Apr. 28—Massenet Cendrillon NEW PRODUCTION/MET PREMIERE
May 5—Gounod Romeo et Juliette
HISTORY OF THE MET ON RADIO:
It all began on Christmas Day, 1931,a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, a holiday favorite that has been presented many times over the years and will be heard again this season on January 6 th. Broadcasts started during the uncertain times of the Great Depression and proved to be successful means of increasing the audience for opera in America. At first only portions of operas were broadcast butfrom the beginning of the 1933-34 season to the present,complete operas have been broadcast.
The Met was first broadcast by the NBC network, then by ABC during the forties, and CBS during the 1950s. Beginning as a sustaining service on NBC, it was variously sponsored on commercial radio by the American Tobacco Company, Lambert Pharmaceuticals, and then RCA, until Texaco began a 63-year association in 1940, which remains the longest continuous sponsorship in broadcast history. As the age of television brought changes to network radio, the Met began its own independent Metropolitan Opera Radio Network in 1960. The sixties also brought the rise of FM radio, eventually eclipsing AM as the dominant source of radio entertainment. WCLV can proudly claim to have become, in 1969, the first FM-only station to carry Met broadcasts.
In 2005, the homebuilding company Toll Brothers stepped in to become the primary sponsor, along with additional support from the Annenberg Foundation, the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media, and contributions from listeners around the world. The Met is now heard on radio stations globally, on over 300 stations in the United States, and stations in 40 countries on five continents (Canada, Mexico,five South American countries, 27 European countries, plus China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand). WCLV and ideastream are proud to be a part of the Met’s glorious broadcasting tradition.
The contents of broadcasts from The Metropolitan Opera are copyrighted by The Metropolitan Opera, all rights reserved, and any use or reproduction of any of the material herein without permission of The Metropolitan Opera is strictly prohibited and will be prosecuted.