The MET Orchestra
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is regarded as one of the world's finest orchestras. From
the time of the company's inception in 1883, the ensemble has worked with leading
conductors in both opera and concert performances and has developed into an orchestra of
enormous technical polish and style. The MET Orchestra (as the ensemble is referred to when
appearing in concert outside the opera house) maintains a demanding schedule of
performances and rehearsals during its 33-week New York season, when the company performs
seven times a week in repertory that this season encompasses approximately 28 operas.
Arturo Toscanini conducted almost 500 performances at the Met, and Gustav Mahler, during
the few years he was in New York, conducted 54 Met performances. More recently, many of the
world's great conductors have led the orchestra: Walter, Beecham, Reiner, Mitropoulos,
Kempe, Szell, Böhm, Solti, Maazel, Bernstein, Mehta, Abbado, Karajan, Dohnányi, Haitink,
Tennstedt, Ozawa, Gergiev, Barenboim, and Muti. Carlos Kleiber's only US opera performances
were with the MET Orchestra.
In addition to its opera schedule, the orchestra has a distinguished history of concert
performances. Toscanini made his American debut as a symphonic conductor with the Met
Orchestra in 1913, and the impressive list of instrumental soloists who appeared with the
orchestra includes Leopold Godowsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arthur Rubinstein, Pablo Casals,
Josef Hofmann, Ferruccio Busoni, Jascha Heifetz, Moritz Rosenthal, and Fritz Kreisler.
Since the orchestra resumed symphonic concerts in 1991, instrumental soloists have included
Itzhak Perlman, Maxim Vengerov, Alfred Brendel, and Evgeny Kissin, and the group has
performed five world premieres: Milton Babbitt's Piano Concerto No. 2 (1998), Wiliam
Bolcom's Symphony No. 7 (2002), Hsueh-Yung Shen's Legend (2002), and Charles
Wuorinen's Theologoumenon (2007) and Time Regained (2009).
The orchestra's high standing led to its first commercial recordings in nearly 20 years:
Wagner's complete Ring cycle, conducted by James Levine. Recorded by Deutsche
Grammophon over a period of three years, Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, and
Götterdämmerung were winners of an unprecedented three consecutive Grammy
Awards in 1989, 1990, and 1991 for Best Opera Recording. Other recordings under Maestro
Levine include L'Elisir d'amore, Idomeneo, Le Nozze di Figaro,
Der fliegende Holländer, Parsifal, Erwartung, Manon
Lescaut, and seven Verdi operas. Maestro Levine has also led the orchestra for
recordings of Wagner overtures, Verdi ballet music, an all-Berg disc with Renée Fleming,
and aria albums with Bryn Terfel, Kathleen Battle, and Ms. Fleming. The orchestra's first
symphonic recordings are pairings of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition with
Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps; Beethoven's "Eroica" with Schubert's
"Unfinished" symphonies; and Richard Strauss's Don Quixote and Tod und
Verklärung.
Fabio Luisi
Fabio Luisi became principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera at the beginning of the
2011-2012 season, and is also chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony and general music
director of the Zurich Opera. This season he conducts a new production of Un Ballo in
Maschera and revivals of Les Troyens, Aida, and Wagner's
Ring cycle at the Met; Don Carlo at La Scala; and
Jenůfa, Tosca, La Bohème, Rigoletto, La
Straniera, and Der Rosenkavalier at the Zurich Opera; in addition, he
conducts concerts with the Vienna Symphony, and embarks on a special initiative programming
and conducting orchestral concert performances with the newly renamed Philharmonia Zurich
(formerly the Orchester der Oper Zürich).
Mr. Luisi made his Met debut in 2005 leading Don Carlo, and his repertoire with
the company includes Don Giovanni, La Traviata, Manon, Le
Nozze di Figaro, Elektra, Hansel and Gretel, Tosca,
Lulu, Simon Boccanegra, Die Ägyptische Helena,
Turandot, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Rigoletto.
Recent highlights include debuts last season at La Scala (Manon), and with
The Cleveland Orchestra and the Filarmonica della Scala, as well as guest engagements with
Florence's Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Oslo Philharmonic, and Genoa Opera
Orchestra. Mr. Luisi's previous appointments include serving as artistic director for
Japan's Pacific Music Festival, general music director of the Staatskapelle Dresden and
Saxon State Opera, artistic director of Leipzig Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, music director of
the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, chief conductor of Vienna's Tonkünstler-Orchester, and
artistic director of the Graz Symphony. He is a frequent guest at the Vienna State Opera,
Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Staatsoper Berlin. He made his debut at the
Salzburg Festival with Richard Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae in
2002, and returned the following season for Strauss's Die
Ägyptische Helena.
Born in Genoa, Mr. Luisi began piano studies at the age of four and received his diploma
from the Conservatorio Nicolò Paganini in 1978. He later attended conducting studies with
Milan Horvat at the Conservatory in Graz.