The 2013-14 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues Saturday, January 4, 2014 from noon-2 p.m. on KLRE with a live broadcast of the company’s holiday presentation, an abridged, English-language production of Mozart’sThe Magic Flute.
British conductor Jane Glover has made her Met debut this season leading this 100-minute presentation of Julie Taymor’s popular staging of the opera. The performance stars tenor Alek Shrader as Tamino; soprano Heidi Stober as Pamina; baritone Nathan Gunn as the bird-catcher Papageno, and bass-baritone Eric Owens as the mysterious Sarastro. American soprano Kathryn Lewek makes her network broadcast debut as the Queen of the Night. The Magic Flute will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 4.
Jane Glover is a leading Mozart specialist. Her recent performances of his operas have included La Clemenza di Tito at Chicago Opera Theater, Don Giovanni at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Lucio Silla at Bordeaux Opera. Last season, she conducted a semi-staged performance of Gluck’s Armide, a presentation of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in partnership with The Juilliard School. She is the music director of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque ensemble, the artistic director of opera for London’s Royal Academy of Music, and the author of the 2005 book Mozart’s Women: His Family, His Friends, His Music.
Alek Shrader first appeared at the Met as a winner of the 2007 National Council Auditions, a competition documented in Susan Froemke’s film The Audition. He made his company debut last season in the Met premiere of Thomas Adès’s The Tempest, in which he sang the role of Ferdinand. Last winter, he starred as Count Almaviva in the Met premiere of the abridged, English-language holiday staging of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. He has sung Tamino with San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and Bordeaux Opera.
Heidi Stober made her Met debut in 2011 as Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. She has sung Pamina with both San Francisco Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin. Her other performances this season include both Magnolia in Kern's Show Boat and Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff at San Francisco Opera; Adina in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Nathan Gunn sang Papageno at the Met for the first time in 2006 and reprised the role here in three subsequent seasons. Last season, he added a new role to his Met repertory as Raimbaud in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory. A graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, his previous appearances with the company include the title role in Britten’s Billy Budd, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Mercutio in Gounod ‘s Roméo et Juliette, and Clyde Griffiths in the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy.
Eric Owens made his Met debut in 2008 as General Leslie Groves in the company premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic. Later that season, he made his company role debut as Sarastro in The Magic Flute. In 2010, 2011, and 2012, he sang his first-ever performances of Alberich in the new production premieres of Wagner's Das Rheingold, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung, later reprising the role in complete Ring cycles. This season, he sings Alberich with Vienna State Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin; the Water-Sprite in Dvo?ák’s Rusalka with Lyric Opera of Chicago; and the title role in Handel’s Hercules with Canadian Opera Company.
Kathryn Lewek makes her Met debut in this season’s performances of The Magic Flute. She has sung the Queen of the Night with Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Toulon Opera, and the Bregenz Festival. Later this season, she will sing the role at Washington National Opera. Her other recent roles have included Jessica in André Tchaikowsky’s Der Kaufmann von Venedig, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, at the Bregenz Festival; Zerlina in Don Giovanni at Ohio’s Toledo Opera; and Nicoletta in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges at Deutsche Oper Berlin.