Dec-7-2009 — The Metropolitan Opera announced today that it plans to embark on a three-week tour of Japan during the summer of 2011, in which the company will present thirteen fully-staged performances of La Bohème, Don Carlo and Lucia di Lammermoor in Tokyo and Nagoya.

"Germont was Zeljko Lucic, who sang Macbeth last season: a real Verdi baritone, with a smooth, mellow sound as large as you could desire, and an actor's judgment of the effect of each word. Most Germonts either stand stiffly or become excessively, even tearfully, sympathetic to the lady with a past whom they encounter in Act II; Lucic's body language showed a provincial's discomfort in this sophisticated milieu, and he had the grace to seem downright embarrassed at the sordid sacrifice he requested of her. A bit of a sob frilled each line of the second verse of 'Di Provenza,' and I thought for a moment they might not cut his cabaletta. Cut it they did; the number is a pointless convenienze, but for once I wanted to keep it in, just to continue reveling in his sound."

The Metropolitan Opera's acclaimed Live in High-Definition series, which projects live performances into theaters across the globe, has met with unprecedented critical and commercial success and has made opera convenient and affordable to millions of viewers worldwide. Now, EMI Classics is proud to collaborate with The Met to release 6 new DVDs made from these broadcast performances.

A new production of Verdi's haunting opera by English director Adrian Noble, conducted by James Levine, and...