Opera on WNED Classical

Enjoy complete performances of world famous operas from Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and many more Saturdays at 1pm.

For many years, radio broadcasts from "The Metropolitan Opera" have been a Saturday tradition in many American households. Met Opera broadcasts are usually performed live from Lincoln Center in New York City and can be heard from December through May on WNED Classical.    

The WFMT Radio Network Opera series complements the Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, filling in the schedule to complete the year. From Milan to New York, Barcelona to Chicago, you'll have  a front-row seat to performances from some of the world’s greatest opera companies and performers.

The 2024-2025 The Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast Series, runs December 7 through June 7, 2025. listeners can hear thrilling performances by today’s most celebrated artists as well as legendary stars from the past, captured in live broadcasts spanning nine decades of Met history. 

Broadcasts can be heard on WNED Classical at 1pm every Saturday except as noted.

Tune in at 94.5 FM in Buffalo or anywhere in the world our website's live player or WNED Classical app.

See what’s coming up below:

A deliciously festive holiday tradition, the Met’s English-language staging of Humperdinck’s sweeping interpretation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale returns, complete with giant cartoon chefs, singing trees, and a wicked witch’s kitchen you’ll never forget. Soprano Hera Hyesang Park and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong headline as the siblings lost in the woods, and tenor John Daszak (in fright wig and fat suit) appears as their over-the-top nemesis, the Witch. Edward Gardner conducts. 

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MUSIC 

The score of Hänsel and Gretel combines accessible charm with subtle sophistication. Like Wagner, Humperdinck assigns musical themes to certain ideas and then transforms the themes according to new developments in the drama. Unlike Wagner, however, Humperdinck uses separate songs (with real folk songs among them) within his scheme. The music, like the children, seems to grow up over the course of the evening. 

Composer: Engelbert Humperdinck 

Conductor: Thomas Fulton 

Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC 

CAST: 

Hänsel: Frederica von Stade 

Gretel: Judith Blegen 

Gertrud: Jean Kraft 

Peter: Michael Devlin 

Witch: Rsalind Elias 

Sandman: Diane Kesling 

Dew Fairy: Betsy Norden 

An ensemble of leading lights takes the stage for Offenbach’s fantastical final work, headlined by tenor Benjamin Bernheim in the title role of the tormented poet. Hoffmann’s trio of lovers are sung by soprano Erin Morley as the mechanical doll Olympia, soprano Pretty Yende as the plagued diva Antonia, and mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine as the Venetian seductress Giulietta. Marco Armiliato conducts Bartlett Sher’s evocative production, which also features bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as the Four Villains and mezzo-soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya in an important company debut as Hoffmann’s friend Nicklausse. 

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MUSIC 

Offenbach’s music is diverse, ranging seamlessly from refined lyricism to a broader sort of vaudeville, with the extreme and fantastic moods of the story reflected in the eclectic score. The composer’s operetta background is apparent in the students’ drinking songs in the prologue and epilogue, in the servant’s comic song in Act II, and in Act I’s glittering entr’acte and chorus. The juxtaposition of beauty and grotesquerie, which is such a striking feature of the drama, is also found throughout the music. 

Composer: Jacques Offenbach 

Conductor: Marco Armiliato 

Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC 

CAST: 

Olympia: Erin Morley 

Antonia/Stella: Pretty Yende 

Giulietta: Clémentine Margaine 

Nicklausse/The Muse: Vasilisa Berzhanskaya 

Hoffmann: Benjamin Bernheim 

Four Servants: Aaron Blake  

Four Villains: Christian Van Horn 

Verdi’s heartbreaking masterpiece returns, with reigning Verdi baritone Quinn Kelsey reprising his devastating portrayal of the hunchbacked court jester. Radiant soprano Nadine Sierra is his naïve daughter, Gilda, and tenor Stephen Costello is the rakish Duke of Mantua, with Maestro Pier Giorgio Morandi on the podium to conduct Bartlett Sher’s Weimar-inspired production. A second run of performances features the Met debut of rising tenor Pene Pati, alongside soprano Erin Morley and baritone Luca Salsi, conducted by Daniele Callegari. 

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MUSIC 

Rigoletto contains a wealth of melody, including one that is among the world’s most famous: “La donna è mobile.” All the opera’s solos are rich with character insight and dramatic development. The famous Act III quartet, “Bella figlia dell’amore,” is an ingenious musical analysis of the diverging reactions of the four principals in the same moment: the Duke’s music rises with urgency and impatience, Gilda’s droops with disappointment, Rigoletto’s remains measured and paternal, while the promiscuous Maddalena is literally all over the place. In the context of the opera, the merely lovely music becomes inspired drama. 

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi 

Conductor: Daniele Callegari 

Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC 

CAST: 

Rigoletto: Luca Salsi   

Gilda: Erin Morley 

Maddalena: Rihab Chaieb 

Duke of Mantua: Pene Pati 

Sparafucile: Soloman Howard 

Three thrilling leading ladies trade off as the volatile diva Floria Tosca. First, soprano Aleksandra Kurzak reprises her riveting portrayal of the title role, starring alongside tenor SeokJong Baek as her revolutionary lover, Cavaradossi, and baritone George Gagnidze as the sadistic chief of police Scarpia. Later in the season, the extraordinary Lise Davidsen sings Tosca for her first time at the Met, alongside tenor Freddie De Tommaso in his eagerly anticipated company debut and powerhouse baritone Quinn Kelsey. And in the winter, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and tenor Brian Jagde reunite following their acclaimed 2021 performances of the lead pair, joining forces with legendary bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, who returns to the Met after more than a decade. Maestro Xian Zhang and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin trade off on the podium. 

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MUSIC 

The score of Tosca (if not the drama) itself is considered a prime example of the style of verismo, an elusive term usually translated as “realism.” The typical musical features of the verismo tradition are prominent in Tosca: short arias with an uninhibited flood of raw melody, ambient sounds that blur the distinctions between life and art, and the use of parlato—words spoken instead of sung—at moments of tension. 

Composer: Giacomo Puccini

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC 

CAST: 

Tosca: Lise Davidsen 

Cavaradossi: Freddie De Tommaso 

Scarpia: Quinn Kelsey 

Sacristan: Patrick Carfizzi 

Soprano Angel Blue makes her long-awaited Met role debut as the Ethiopian princess torn between love and country, one of opera’s defining roles. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for the New Year’s Eve premiere of Michael Mayer’s spectacular new staging, which brings audiences inside the towering pyramids and gilded tombs of ancient Egypt with intricate projections and dazzling animations. Mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi, following her 2024 debut in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, is Aida’s Egyptian rival Amneris, sharing the role with Elīna Garanča, who returns to the Met for the first time since 2020. Leading tenors Piotr Beczała and Brian Jagde alternate as the soldier Radamès, who completes the greatest love triangle in the repertory. The all-star cast also features baritones Quinn Kelsey, Amartuvshin Enkhbat, and Roman Burdenko as Amonasro and basses Dmitry Belosselskiy, Alexander Vinogradov, and Morris Robinson as Ramfis. Christina Nilsson makes her Met debut in the title role in March, and Alexander Soddy shares conducting duties. 

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MUSIC 

The score of Aida is a sophisticated example of Italian Romanticism, imbued with a convincingly mysterious and exotic hue. Making no claims to authenticity, Verdi created a unique musical palette for this opera. The grandeur of the subject is aptly conveyed with huge patriotic choruses, most notably the unforgettable Triumphal Scene in Act II. These public moments often serve as frames for the solos of the leading tenor and soprano: his soaring “Celeste Aida” right at the beginning of Act I, her impassioned “Ritorna vincitor!” that follows, and her great internal journey, “Qui Radamès verrà!…O patria mia” in Act III. 

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC 

CAST: 

Aida: Angel Blue 

Radamès: Piotr Beczała 

Amneris: Judit Kutasi 

Amonasro: Quinn Kelsey 

Ramfis: Dmitry Belosselskiy 

King: Morris Robinson