The Metropolitan Opera announced eight new productions Tuesday for its 2009-2010 season — including a rarely heard Verdi work with costumes by Italian fashion legend Miuccia Prada — but said it was dropping four others and slashing salaries because of the economy. Met General Manager Peter Gelb told a news ...

The Metropolitan Opera is giving up "The Ghosts." Cutting costs in the wake of the economic downturn, the Met is dropping next season's highly anticipated revival of John Corigliano's "The Ghosts of Versailles" that was to feature the company debut of Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth. Angela ...

To prepare for his Metropolitan Opera debut, Robert Lepage went to Las Vegas. The Canadian director perfected "the toys," as he called his technological gadgets, while preparing Cirque du Soleil's "KA" at the MGM Grand four years ago. The audience was not exactly the jewel- and ...

It is unclear whether Giacomo Puccini would have been weeping or cheering in his grave. He might well have been dismayed by the acoustic competition his Madame Butterfly was facing from honking New York taxi drivers. He would have winced at the visual clash between the singers' Japanese costumes and flashing neon adverts for Yahoo! and Budweiser. But he surely ...