The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of high-definition cinema simulcasts, is launching its 18th season exclusively at select Ster-Kinekor and Cinema Nouveau cinemas.
With eight productions screening from October to mid-June 2026, the 2025–26 Live in HD season features one premiere, three new productions of much-loved operas, and four revivals. Consequently, the series brings world-class opera performances to the big screen, allowing audiences to experience the Metropolitan Opera’s productions in stunning high definition.
“What began as an experiment 18 years ago has become a staple experience for opera lovers all over the world.”
~ Peter Gelb, the Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager
Lynne Wylie, chief marketing officer at Ster-Kinekor Theatres, explains that, as a result, local audiences can now experience some of the world’s best-loved opera productions in a near-live situation. In this way, The Met’s opulent stage performances seamlessly make their way from New York to local 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.”
~Lynne Wylie, chief marketing officer at Ster-Kinekor Theatres
2025–26 Season Overview: Timeless Classics and New Work
The 2025–26 season in cinemas reflects how opera is evolving at the Met, balancing timeless classics with accessible new works that advance the art form and attract younger and more diverse audiences. Notably, Peter Gelb underscored this inclusive approach.
In addition, The Met: Live in HD season offers eight productions, each limited to just two screenings. As a result, you should not miss this world-class opera experience, filmed and transmitted from the Met stage to the big screen at Cinema Nouveau and select Ster-Kinekor cinemas.
Specifically, South African venues include: Eastgate and Rosebank Nouveau in Johannesburg, Brooklyn in Tshwane, Watercrest in Hillcrest, Garden Route in George, Somerset in Somerset West, and Blue Route and V&A Waterfront (with live streams) in Cape Town. Additionally, loyalty card discounts are applicable, as is Ster-Kinekor’s Half-Price Tuesdays ticket price offering.
Productions and Screening Dates
The 2025–26 Met: Live in HD season features these eight exciting productions:
La Sonnambula – Bellini (New Production)
Following triumphant Live in HD performances in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Nadine Sierra summits another peak of the soprano repertoire as Amina. Amina sleepwalks her way into audiences’ hearts in Bellini’s poignant tale of love lost and found.
Furthermore, Rolando Villazón, the tenor who has embarked on a brilliant second career as a director, retains the opera’s original setting in the Swiss Alps, but uses its somnambulant plot to explore the emotional and psychological valleys of the mind.
Similarly, Tenor Xabier Anduaga co-stars as Amina’s fiancé, Elvino, alongside soprano Sydney Mancasola as her rival, Lisa, and bass Alexander Vinogradov as Count Rodolfo. Ultimately, Riccardo Frizza conducts one of opera’s most ravishing works, which will be transmitted live from the Met stage to cinemas on 18 October, including at Ster-Kinekor V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.
Screening dates: 18 October (livestream at V&A Waterfront); 02 and 04 November 2025 Running time: 3h 15min
La Bohème – Puccini (Revival)
With its enchanting setting and spellbinding score, the world’s most popular opera remains as timeless as it is heartbreaking. Moreover, Franco Zeffirelli’s picture-perfect production vividly brings 19th-century Paris to the Met stage, where Puccini’s young friends and lovers navigate both the joys and struggles of bohemian life.
In contrast, soprano Juliana Grigoryan is the feeble seamstress Mimì, opposite tenor Freddie De Tommaso as the ardent poet Rodolfo. Clearly, Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts the 08 November performance, which transmits live from the Met stage to cinemas worldwide, including Ster-Kinekor V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.
Screening dates: 08 November (livestream at V&A Waterfront); 23 and 25 November 2025 Running time: 3h 29min
Arabella – Strauss (Revival)
Strauss’s elegant romance brings the glamour and enchantment of 19th-century Vienna to cinemas worldwide in a sumptuous production by legendary director Otto Schenk. The New York Times said this staging “is as beautiful as one could hope.” For example, soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen stars as the title heroine, a young noblewoman in search of love on her own terms. Radiant soprano Louise Alder is her sister, Zdenka, and bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny is the dashing count who sweeps Arabella off her feet.
Screening dates: 07 and 09 December 2025 Running time: 4h 12min
Andrea Chénier – Giordano (Revival)
Giordano’s passionate tragedy stars tenor Piotr Beczała as the virtuous poet who falls victim to the intrigue and violence of the French Revolution. Following their celebrated recent partnership in Giordano’s Fedora in the 2022–23 Live in HD season, Beczała reunites with soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Chénier’s aristocratic lover, Maddalena di Coigny.
Similarly, baritone Igor Golovatenko plays Carlo Gérard, the agent of the Reign of Terror who seals their fates. Met Principal Guest Conductor Daniele Rustioni leads Nicolas Joël’s gripping staging. Therefore, this revival promises gripping theatre.
Screening dates: 13 December 2025 (livestream at V&A Waterfront); 04 and 06 January 2026 Running time: 3h 31min
I Puritani – Bellini (New Production)
For gorgeous melody, spellbinding coloratura, and virtuoso vocal fireworks, I Puritani has few equals. The first new Met production of Bellini’s final masterpiece in nearly 50 years, a striking staging by Charles Edwards, arrives in cinemas worldwide.
Moreover, the Met has assembled a world-beating quartet of stars, conducted by Marco Armiliato, for the demanding principal roles. Soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Lawrence Brownlee are Elvira and Arturo, brought together by love and torn apart by the political rifts of the English Civil War.
Screening dates: 10 January (livestream at V&A Waterfront); 08 and 10 February 2026 Running time: 3h 31min
Tristan und Isolde – Wagner (New Production)
After years of anticipation, a truly unmissable event arrives in cinemas as the electrifying Lise Davidsen tackles one of the ultimate roles for dramatic soprano: the Irish princess Isolde in Wagner’s transcendent meditation on love and death. Heroic tenor Michael Spyres stars opposite Davidsen as the love-drunk Tristan.
The momentous occasion also marks the advent of a new, Met-debut staging by Yuval Sharon, as well as Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s first time leading Tristan und Isolde at the Met.
Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova reprises her portrayal of Brangäne, alongside bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny. Ultimately, this promises to be a landmark production.
Screening dates: 05 and 07 April 2026 Running time: 5h 12min
Eugene Onegin – Tchaikovsky (Revival)
Following her acclaimed 2024 company debut in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, soprano Asmik Grigorian returns to the Met as Tatiana, the lovestruck young heroine in this ardent operatic adaptation of Pushkin.
Baritone Igor Golovatenko reprises his portrayal of the urbane Onegin, who realises his affection for her all too late. Finally, the Met’s evocative production, directed by Tony Award–winner Deborah Warner, “offers a beautifully detailed reading of … Tchaikovsky’s lyrical romance” (The Telegraph).
Screening dates: 02 May (livestream at V&A Waterfront); 17 and 19 May 2026 Running time: 4h 05min
El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego – Frank (Metropolitan Opera Premiere)
On 30 May, the Metropolitan Opera’s 2025–26 Live in HD season comes to a close with a live transmission (only at V&A Waterfront) of American composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s first opera.
This is a magical-realist portrait of Mexico’s painterly power couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, with libretto by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Nilo Cruz. Consequently, the story, fashioned as a reversal of the Orpheus and Euridice myth, depicts Frida, sung by leading mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, leaving the underworld on the Day of the Dead and reuniting with Diego, portrayed by baritone Carlos Álvarez.
Music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Met-premiere staging of Frank’s opera, a “confident, richly imagined score” (The New Yorker).
Screening dates: 30 May (livestream at V&A Waterfront); 14 and 16 June 2026 Running time: 2h 48min
Booking and Contact Details
Bookings are open. 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 or follow Ster-Kinekor on Twitter: @Ster-Kinekor. If you have any queries, you can call Ticketline on 0861-Movies (668 437).
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