**METROPOLITAN OPERA RADIO BROADCAST ALERT**

Pretty Yende and Matthew Polenzani Star in

Donizetti’s Romantic Comedy L’Elisir d’Amore

Saturday, February 10 at 12:00 p.m. ET

The 2017-18 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with Donizetti’s comedy L’Elisir d’Amore, starring South African soprano Pretty Yende as the wealthy Adina, opposite American tenor Matthew Polenzani as Nemorino, the poor villager hopelessly in love with her. Italian bass Ildebrando D’Arcangelo sings the role of Dulcamara, the quack doctor who sells Nemorino the “elixir of love,” and Italian baritone Davide Luciano makes his network broadcast debut as the cocky visiting sergeant, Belcore. Venezuelan conductor Domingo Hindoyan also makes his network debut with this performance, which will be heard live over Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, February 10.

Pretty Yende adds a new role to her Met repertory as Adina, a part she has performed at La Scala and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. She made a surprise Met debut in 2013 when she stepped in at short notice to sing her first-ever performances as Adèle in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory. Since then she has appeared with the company as Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani, and Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. Later this season, she will return to the Met in the title role of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, in addition to singing Teresa in Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini at the Paris National Opera and reprising Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore at the Munich Opera Festival.

Matthew Polenzani sang Nemorino when the current production by Bartlett Sher opened the Met’s 2012-13 season. Since his 1997 Met debut, he has sung over 350 performances with the company, in over 35 roles, such as the title role of Mozart’s Idomeneo, Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, the title role of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Nadir in Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles, and the title role of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux. His upcoming engagements include Fernand in Donizetti’s La Favorite at the Bavarian State Opera, Rodolfo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller at the Zurich Opera, and Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

Ildebrando D’Arcangelo has previously sung the role of Dulcamara at the Vienna State Opera and Baden-Baden Festival. He made his Met debut in 1994 as Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and has since returned as Leporello in Don Giovanni and the title character in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Later this season, he will sing Banco in Verdi’s Macbeth and Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, as well as Philip II in Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Davide Luciano made his Met debut this season as Belcore, a role he has also sung at Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he is a member of the ensemble. His other credits with that company include Marcello in La Bohème, the title role in Don Giovanni, Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, and he will return there this summer as Don Profondo in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims. He will also soon appear at the Teatro Regio in Turin and the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

Maestro Domingo Hindoyan made his Met debut this season with L’Elisir d’Amore, which he has also conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Other operas he has led at the Berlin State Opera include Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Verdi’s La Traviata, Puccini’s Tosca and La Bohème, and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. He has also conducted symphonic repertoire with leading ensembles around the world, and next year he will become Principal Guest Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The single intermission will include backstage interviews conducted by Susanna Phillips, who hosts the Live in HD transmission of the performance.

THE STARS OF L’ELISIR D’AMORE

PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

Click here to download photos and videos from L’Elisir d’Amore.

About the Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 87th 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 www.Metopera.org/SaturdayMatineeBroadcasts for a wealth of information about the Met broadcasts. For details about all Met performances this season, as well as ticket information, visit the Met’s website at www.metopera.org.

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Contact: Meg Boyle

Metropolitan Opera

(212) 870-7457