The Metropolitan Opera announced today its first-ever Met Orchestra Asia Tour this summer, June 19–30, immediately following its annual June residency at Carnegie Hall. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, will conduct the Met Orchestra, with guest artists soprano Lisette Oropesa, mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn. The concerts will take place at the Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, South Korea, on June 19 and 20; the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Hyogo, Japan, on June 22 and 23; Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan, on June 25, 26, and 27; and the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 29 and 30.
The programs will feature a concert performance of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, the overture from Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer, selections from Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, and music by Brahms, Mozart, Mahler, and contemporary composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery.
“At a time of increasing global unrest, the Met offers musical solace to audiences everywhere through our international broadcasts,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager. “But with this first orchestral tour of Asia in our history, we will be bringing our music directly to audiences that, up to now, have only known us from afar.”
“As a conductor, bringing live music and performances to audiences around the world is my passion. It is an absolute joy to lead the wonderful musicians of the Met Orchestra and three of the best opera singers of this generation for audiences in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan for the first time. We look forward to presenting our world-renowned interpretations of Wagner, Debussy, Mozart, and others, but also a new work the world needs now in Jessie Montgomery’s unifying Hymn for Everyone,” said Nézet-Séguin.
The 2024 Asia Tour will immediately follow the Met Orchestra’s annual June residency at Carnegie Hall, which features concerts on June 11, with Oropesa performing two arias by Mozart, and June 14, with Garanča and Van Horn headlining Bluebeard’s Castle.
Although this will be the Met Orchestra’s first Asia tour on its own, the full Metropolitan Opera company has visited Japan previously, most recently in 2011, when it presented fully staged operas in Tokyo and Nagoya. This will be the Met’s first-ever performances in South Korea and Taiwan.
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 maintains a demanding schedule of performances and rehearsals during its 33-week New York season, when the company performs as many as seven times a week in repertory that this season encompasses 19 works.
In addition to its opera schedule, the orchestra has a distinguished history of concert performances. Arturo 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, Moriz Rosenthal, and Fritz Kreisler.
