The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts, is launching its 20th season exclusively at select Ster-Kinekor and Cinema Nouveau cinemas. With eight productions screening from October to July 2027, the 2026-27 Live in HD season promises a feast of spectacular opera performances featuring some of the world’s supreme opera stars.
“With The Met: Live in HD productions screening in our cinemas, local audiences get to experience some of the world’s best-loved opera productions in a near-live situation, from The Met’s opulent stage to our big screens. The theatre-like setting enables cinemagoers to become an extension of the live production’s audience, making these world-class productions from the Met in New York accessible to anyone who enjoys and appreciates great opera,” says Lynne Wylie, chief marketing officer at Ster-Kinekor Theatres.
The 2026–27 season screening in cinema reflects how opera is changing at the Met, where timeless classics are being balanced with accessible new works that are advancing the art form and attracting younger and more diverse audiences.
Twenty Years of the Met in Cinemas: An Anniversary Celebration
Screening Dates: 27 & 29 September 2026
Twenty Years of the Met in Cinemas is a celebration of the Met’s two decades of onstage glory as experienced in movie theatres across the globe, including at Ster-Kinekor, and features highlights from the company’s collection of more than 185 extraordinary onscreen performances.
With star soprano Renée Fleming as host, this special presentation will showcase unforgettable moments from some of opera’s greatest stars, culled from the series’ vast archive of transmissions. This special celebration features performances from such remarkable artists as Lise Davidsen, Natalie Dessay, Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, El?na Garan?a, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Jonas Kaufmann, Peter Mattei, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Nadine Sierra, and, of course, Fleming herself.
Watch the trailer here
Don’t miss these world-class opera productions, filmed and transmitted from the Met stage to the big screen at Cinema Nouveau and select Ster-Kinekor cinemas: Cresta and Rosebank Nouveau in Johannesburg; Brooklyn in Tshwane; Garden Route Mall in George; Somerset Mall in Somerset West; and Blue Route and V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. The productions will also be screened at Maerua Mall in Windhoek, Namibia. Loyalty card discounts apply, as does Ster-Kinekor’s Half-Price Tuesdays ticket price offering.
Bookings are open, with each production limited to two screenings only. Book your tickets now on the new-look Ster-Kinekor website at www.sterkinekor.com or download the new SK App on your smartphone. For news and updates, go to Facebook: Ster-Kinekor Theatres | follow Ster-Kinekor on Twitter: @Ster-Kinekor. For all queries, call Ticketline on 0861-Movies (668 437).
The 2026-27 Met: Live in HD season at a glance:
TITLE SK SCREENING DATES
TWENTY YEARS OF THE MET IN CINEMAS: AN ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, featuring highlights from unforgettable onscreen performances, for exhibitions 27-Sept-26
Tentative run time: 210 minutes 29-Sept-26
COSÌ FAN TUTTE (Mozart) 11-Oct
Tentative run time: 237 minutes 13-Oct
MACBETH (Verdi) 01-Nov
209 minutes 03-Nov
SAMSON ET DALILA (Saint-Saëns) 13-Dec
234 minutes 15-Dec
LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST (Puccini) 07-Feb-27
195 minutes 09-Feb-27
SILENT NIGHT (Music by Kevin Puts / Libretto by Mark Campbell) 28-Mar-27
180 minutes 30-Mar-27
MANON (Massenet) 11-Apr-27
264 minutes 13-Apr-27
OTELLO (Verdi) 02-May-27
201 minutes 04-May-27
PARSIFAL (Wagner) 04-Jul-27
365 minutes 06-Jul-27
Mozart – Così fan tutte
Screening dates: 11 & 13 October 2026
The Met: Live in HD season kicks off with Mozart’s satirical comedy of fickle young love, one of the composer’s most sublime creations. Phelim McDermott’s “colorful, inventive” (The New York Times) staging, inspired by Coney Island in the 1950s, sets the uproarious story at a boardwalk amusement park, where the two pairs of lovers at the heart of the tale find themselves on one emotional – and literal – thrill ride after another. Soprano Federica Lombardi and mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey sing Fiordiligi and Dorabella, opposite tenor Duke Kim and baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Ferrando and Guglielmo. Bass-baritone Gerald Finley reprises his portrayal of the cynical Don Alfonso, with soprano Ana María Martínez as the witty maid Despina.
Verdi – Macbeth
Screening dates: 01 & 03 November 2026
Two of opera’s most extraordinary artists return to The Met: Live in HD for Verdi’s thrilling take on the immortal Shakespearean tale of the scheming couple determined to seize power at any cost. Following past triumphs in many of Verdi’s signature baritone roles, Quinn Kelsey is the Scottish king haunted by the ghosts of his murderous ascent to the throne, opposite Lise Davidsen, the world’s reigning dramatic soprano, as the power-mad Lady Macbeth, whose ruinous ambition damns them both. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for a penetrating production by Louisa Proske, a brilliant young director making waves around the world. Rounding out the all-star cast are tenor Freddie De Tommaso as the heroic Macduff and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as Macbeth’s friend-turned-victim Banquo.
Saint-Saëns – Samson et Dalila
Screening dates: 13 & 15 December 2026
Sacred, scandalous, and irresistibly alluring, Saint-Saëns’s spectacular take on the biblical hero of legendary strength and the seductive Philistine whose beauty overpowers him returns in the Met’s larger-than-life production. Featuring a large orchestra and chorus and some of opera’s most spellbinding tunes, this masterpiece of French grand opera is a feast for the eyes and ears. Giacomo Sagripanti conducts an electrifying cast led by the formidable star pairing of mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina and tenor Clay Hilley.
Puccini – La Fanciulla del West
Screening dates: 07 & 09 February 2027
Puccini’s exhilarating drama of the Wild West returns in a new staging by celebrated British director Richard Jones, marking the company’s first new production of La Fanciulla del West in more than 30 years. Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky adds to her already remarkable Met repertoire, making her role debut as Minnie, the tough tavern owner with a heart of gold who finds love when she least expects it. Tenor SeokJong Baek is the dashing bandit who rambles into the remote California mining town to steal her heart, opposite baritone Christopher Maltman as the lawman determined to deliver rough justice – and win Minnie for himself. Maestro Keri-Lynn Wilson takes the podium to conduct one of opera’s most action-packed adventures, transmitted from the Met stage to cinemas worldwide.
Kevin Puts / Libretto by Mark Campbell – Silent Night
Screening dates: 28 & 30 March 2027
Following his smash-hit company debut with The Hours, composer Kevin Puts returns to the Met with his Pulitzer Prize-winning first opera, inspired by the true events of the 1914 Christmas truce, when soldiers spontaneously set aside the horrors of the First World War and crossed the trenches to mingle, exchange gifts, and sing carols with the enemy. A poignant depiction of shared humanity in the most inhumane circumstances, Puts’s grand, cinematic opera – with a libretto by Mark Campbell based on the film Joyeux Noël – has been widely acclaimed since its 2011 premiere, and hailed as “an overwhelming emotive experience” by The Guardian. Silent Night receives an evocative staging by James Robinson that takes the audience directly to the battlefields of the Western Front. The star-studded cast, featuring South African soprano Elza van den Heever and tenors Ben Bliss and Rolando Villazón, among many others, is conducted by debuting maestro Dalia Stasevska, from the Met stage to cinemas worldwide.
Massenet – Manon
Screening dates: 11 & 13 April 2027
Following her radiant performance in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette – which garnered raves for “high notes that spun like liquid gold … Sierra touched the operatic firmament” (The New York Times), superstar soprano Nadine Sierra takes on another alluring French heroine, the irresistible title character of Massenet’s passionate drama. Leading tenor Matthew Polenzani is her idealistic lover, the Chevalier des Grieux, with rising-star baritone Andrzej Filo?czyk as her stalwart cousin, Lescaut, in a breathtaking Belle Époque staging by director Laurent Pelly.
Verdi – Otello
Screening dates: 02 & 04 May 2027
One of today’s leading dramatic tenors, Brian Jagde takes on the tour-de-force title role of what many consider the ultimate Italian opera, screened to cinemas worldwide. Verdi’s monumental Shakespearean tragedy also features soprano Ailyn Pérez in her company role debut as the long-suffering Desdemona, alongside baritone Artur Ruci?ski as the sinister Iago. Michele Mariotti leads the full forces of the Met Orchestra and Chorus in this exhilarating score.
Wagner – Parsifal
Screening dates: 04 & 06 July 2027
A profoundly philosophical meditation on compassion and reconciliation, this transcendent rendering of a medieval knight’s heroic quest for the Holy Grail returns to the big screen in François Girard’s celebrated production, a “thoughtful and intrepid staging, full of striking imagery” (The New York Times). Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a cast of Wagnerian superstars, including tenor Piotr Becza?a in the title role, mezzo-soprano El?na Garan?a as the enigmatic Kundry, baritone Peter Mattei as the ailing Amfortas, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the sorcerer Klingsor, and bass Jongmin Park as the wise Gurnemanz.
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