New Year’s Eve Gala – December 31, 2020 at 4:00pm

The Program

“Ah! Mes amis … Pour mon âme” from Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment
Javier Camarena

“Chacun le sait” from Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment
Pretty Yende

“Che gelida manina” from Puccini’s La Bohème
Matthew Polenzani

“Sì, mi chiamano Mimì” from Puccini’s La Bohème
Angel Blue

“O soave fanciulla” from Puccini’s La Bohème
Angel Blue, Matthew Polenzani

“Quoi! Vous m’aimez?” from Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment
Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena

“Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso” from Puccini’s La Rondine
Angel Blue, Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena, Matthew Polenzani

“Sì, ritrovarla io giuro” from Rossini’s La Cenerentola
Javier Camarena

“Una voce poco fa” from Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Pretty Yende

“La donna è mobile” from Verdi’s Rigoletto
Matthew Polenzani

“D’amor sull’ali rosee” from Verdi’s Il Trovatore
Angel Blue

“Son geloso del zefiro errante” from Bellini’s La Sonnambula
Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena

“Lippen schweigen” from Lehár’s Die Lustige Witwe
Angel Blue, Matthew Polenzani

“Mattinata” by Ruggero Leonvacallo
Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena

“Torna a Surriento” by Ernesto De Curtis
Angel Blue, Matthew Polenzani

“’O sole mio” by Eduardo di Capua
Angel Blue, Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena, Matthew Polenzani

“Libiamo, ne’ lieti calici” from Verdi’s La Traviata
Angel Blue, Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena, Matthew Polenzani

“Auld Lang Syne” (Traditional)
Angel Blue, Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena, Matthew Polenzani

About the Artists

A graduate of the young artist program at LA Opera, American soprano Angel Blue has quickly become one of the world’s most in-demand opera singers. Most recently at the Met, she starred as Bess in the company’s historic production of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, which opened the 2019–20 season. She made her debut with the company in 2017 as Mimì in La Bohème and returned a year later to appear as Musetta in that same opera. Most recently, she has also sung Mimì in Hamburg, Dresden, and at the Canadian Opera Company; the title role of Tosca in Aix-en-Provence; Violetta in La Traviata at Covent Garden, La Scala, and in Winnipeg; Bess at Seattle Opera; Liù in Turandot at San Diego Opera; and Myrtle Wilson in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby in Dresden. She has appeared at the Vienna State Opera, English National Opera, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Edinburgh International Festival, and with the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, among others. Alongside her musical activities, she is dedicated to the support of inner city youth. She is the founder of the non-profit organization Sylvia’s Kids Foundation, which offers scholarships to help American teenagers continue their studies once they have completed high school.

Since making her professional operatic debut at the Latvian National Theatre in Riga as Micaëla in Carmen, South African soprano Pretty Yende has been seen at nearly all of the major opera houses of the world, including Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Berlin, and the Bavarian State Opera, among many others. She graduated from La Scala’s Young Artists Accademia in 2011, having made her debut with the company in 2010 as Berenice in Rossini’s L’Occasione fa il Ladro. In 2010, she became the first artist in the history of the Belvedere competition to win first prize in every category and went on to win first prize in the 2011 Operalia Competition. She made her Met debut in 2013 as Countess Adèle in Le Comte Ory and has since given performances as Marie in La Fille du Régiment, Leïla in Les Pêcheurs de Perles, the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Elvira in I Puritani, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. Other recent performances include the title role of Manon, Violetta in La Traviata, Norina in Don Pasquale, and Teresa in Benvenuto Cellini at the Paris Opera; Elvira in I Puritani in Barcelona; Amina in La Sonnambula and Lucia at Deutsche Oper Berlin and in Zurich; Lucia at the Bavarian State Opera; Zoraide in Ricciardo e Zoraide at Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Festival; and Marie in Seville.

One of opera’s most celebrated bel canto singers, Mexican tenor Javier Camarena made his Met debut in 2011 as Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He has since appeared with the company as Tonio in La Fille du Régiment, Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Idreno in Semiramide, Arturo in I Puritani, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, and Elvino in La Sonnambula. Between 2007 and 2014, he was a member of the ensemble at the Zurich Opera, where his roles included Nadir, Count Liebenskof in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims, Ernesto, Fenton in Falstaff, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, and the title role of Le Comte Ory, among many others. He has also performed in recent seasons at the Paris Opera, Covent Garden, Bavarian State Opera, Salzburg Festival, LA Opera, and in Madrid, Mexico City, Bilbao, Barcelona, and Las Palmas. He regularly appears in concert and recital in cities throughout Europe and North America. From 2013 to 2016, Lideres Mexicanos included him in their list of Mexico’s most prominent leaders, and during the 2014–15 season, Quién magazine named him as one of 50 leaders transforming the nation.

An audience favorite at the Met for more than two decades, American tenor Matthew Polenzani made his debut in 1997 as Boyar Khrushchov in Boris Godunov. Since then, he has sung nearly 400 performances of 40 roles, including the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier, Macduff in Macbeth, Rodolfo in La Bohème, the Duke in Rigoletto, Tito in La Clemenza di Tito, Vaudémont in Iolanta, Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore, the title roles of Idomeneo and Roberto Devereux, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Hoffmann in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Roberto in Maria Stuarda, and Alfredo in La Traviata. He was the 2008 recipient of the Met’s Beverly Sills Artist Award and sang Tamino in The Magic Flute in the company’s first-ever Live in HD transmission, going on to appear in another ten HD simulcasts. During the 2021–22 season, he will return to the Met as Don Carlos in the company’s new production of Verdi’s original five-act French version of Don Carlos. In recent seasons, he has also appeared to great acclaim at the Bavarian State Opera, San Francisco Opera, Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and in Baden-Baden, Madrid, Palermo, and Zurich.

Met Stars Live in Concert
Opera’s greatest stars perform in a groundbreaking new series of pay-per-view recitals in striking locations around the globe, each live via satellite and shot with multiple cameras. While the Metropolitan Opera House remains dark because of the ongoing health crisis, Met Stars Live in Concert will allow audiences to experience extraordinary solo and duo performances by top singers—streamed live online—from such locations as a former abbey in Bavaria, a Norwegian castle, an outdoor terrace on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, a church in Wales, and a historic mansion in Washington, D.C. The series marries the intimacy of the Met’s virtual At-Home Gala with the high production value of the company’s Live in HD series of cinema transmissions.

Tickets for each recital are $20, and the performances will remain available on demand for 12 days.