What to Expect: The Met Opera Broadcasts Return

On Saturday, December 2, KUSC will continue a tradition that’s been around for 87 years: the Saturday matinee broadcasts of New York’s Metropolitan Opera Company, the longest-running series in the history of American radio! This year’s line-up begins in an unusual way, with a performance not of an opera but of the powerful Requiem Mass of the great opera composer Giuseppe Verdi. James Levine, music director emeritus, will conduct. In the weeks that follow you’ll hear Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Marriage of Figaro. There’s a New Year’s weekend performance of the charming Merry Widow starring Susan Graham. Hear the sound of hammers on anvils in Verdi’s Il Trovatore coming in February. Other highlights include all-time favorites Madame Butterfly, La Boheme, Turandot and Lucia di Lammermoor. Generating a ton of buzz is the new opera by Thomas Ades, The Exterminating Angel, based on the film by Luis Bunuel. You can hear it on KUSC April 21st. The world’s greatest singers and conductors grace the stage of the MET each year and KUSC brings all of the excitement to you each Saturday morning beginning at 10am.