In a star-studded event, the Met’s 2007–08 season opened last night with the premiere of a new production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, directed by Tony Award-winner Mary Zimmerman and conducted by James Levine. French soprano Natalie Dessay starred as the doomed title heroine, Marcello Giordani sang her lover Edgardo and Mariusz Kwiecien could be heard in the role of her brother Enrico. With the opera house packed to the ceiling, more than 2000 people had gathered on Lincoln Center Plaza to watch the performance, transmitted live onto a large screen that stretched across the center arches of the front of the opera house. Another several thousand had come to Times Square, which was blocked off to traffic, to enjoy the performance on three giant screens in what was truly a city-wide celebration of opera.

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Lucia live on Lincoln Center Plaza

Natalie Dessay as Lucia and Met Music Director James Levine on the screens in Times Square

The audience in Times Square

At 6 P.M., Zimmerman and Met General Manager Peter Gelb stepped onto the red carpet, where they were interviewed by pre-performance host Joanne Colan. Among the celebrities from the worlds of theater, film, music, and politics who were greeted with cheers and applause by the assembled crowd were actresses Jane Fonda, Blythe Danner, Vera Farmiga, and Mary-Louise Parker, directors Anthony Minghella (whose production of Madama Butterfly opened the last Met season), Bartlett Sher (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), and Adrian Noble (whose Met Macbeth has its premiere on October 22), actors Willem Dafoe and Bob Balaban, TV personalities Barbara Walters, Walter Cronkite, and Charlie Rose, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Met Board member Mercedes Bass, fashion designers Calvin Klein and Zac Posen, publisher Jared Kushner, tennis legend John McEnroe, human rights advocate Bianca Jagger, and opera stars Marilyn Horne, Anna Netrebko, Maria Guleghina, and Plácido Domingo.

Joanne Colan interviewing Anna Netrebko on the red carpet

Plácido Domingo

Maria Guleghina

Anna Netrebko and Peter Gelb

Actress Mary-Louise Parker

Barbara Walters

Michael Bloomberg

Actor Willem Dafoe with his wife, Giada Colagrande

Director Anthony Minghella backstage

From the stage inside the Met, Peter Gelb greeted the audience and announced that the performance would be dedicated to the memory of legendary soprano Beverly Sills (herself a former Met Lucia) who passed away this spring. From the moment the curtain went up on Daniel Ostling’s gorgeous Act I set, audiences were captivated by the drama unfolding on stage. The thunderous applause after Lucia and Edgardo’s love duet that closes the act had hardly died down when intermission host Mary Jo Heath welcomed Zimmerman, Ostling, and costume designer Mara Blumenfeld on the opera house’s Grand Tier for a live interview. In a tribute to Sills and Luciano Pavarotti, images of the two artists in their numerous Met appearances flashed across the screens in and outside the opera house during both intermissions.

Mary Jo Heath and Bartlett Sher

Backstage interview with Mariusz Kwiecien and Marcello Giordani

If audiences had been thrilled by what they were hearing and seeing during the first two acts, Natalie Dessay’s performance of the notorious Mad Scene in Act III brought the excitement to a whole new level, with the applause stopping the show for several minutes. After the final curtain had come down, the soloists and creative team took extra bows on the balcony of the Met’s Grand Tier, where they were cheered by the plaza audience.

Natalie Dessay taking final bows on the balcony and on the Grand Tier in the Met’s lobby

Photos:
Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
Elena Park/Metropolitan Opera
Amy Sussman/Getty Images

In Times Square and on the Plaza in front of the Met, a few thousand people were applauding madly after Natalie Dessay’s stunning performance of the Mad Scene, stopping the show for several minutes. Marcello Giordani then sang his heart-wrenching final aria, and after the curtain came down on Opening Night of the Met’s 2007–08 season, the cast, director Mary Zimmerman and conductor James Levine took an additional bow on the balcony of the Grand Tier.

Right after the curtain came down on the emotional finale of the second act, in which Lucia is forced to sign the wedding contract, audiences on Times Square and Lincoln Center Plaza were taken backstage by Mary Jo Heath, host of tonight’s live transmission from the Met. In the hallway in front of the soloists’ dressing rooms, she was joined by tenor Marcello Giordani and baritone Mariusz Kwiecien, who came directly from the stage, for a brief interview. The two men were walking side by side, seemingly enjoying the performance and not looking like arch-enemies at all. “Only on stage,” Kwiecien said, laughing. Asked about his role, the Polish baritone explained that Enrico is not really a bad guy: “His family has lost its money, and Lucia’s marriage is the only way for him to hold things together. He’s blacking out everything else, he’s almost blind to his sister’s feelings.” Giordani, who stars in a Met season opening for the second time in a row, following last year’s Madama Butterfly, said he was honored to be part of the production. “It’s really wonderful to be here and to have the chance to do this new Lucia.” The Italian tenor will return later in the season for revivals of Manon Lescaut and Ernani. With Kwiecien and Giordani disappearing into their dressing rooms to get ready for the final act, Mary Jo Heath took a moment to remember one of the greatest artists who ever sang at the Met: Luciano Pavarotti, who died this month at age 71. In a clip from a 1981 performance of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, the legendary tenor could be heard singing one of his signature tunes, Nemorino’s aria from the first act, “Una furtiva lagrima.” When his unmistakable voice rang out across the plaza the audience fell completely silent. Pavarotti appeared in seven Met opening nights between 1976 and 1996. With his unique voice and personality, he represented opera for a whole generation. As the clip came to a close the audience cheered heartily.