I Puritani screens free at the Met Summer HD Festival, September 4

Lisette's celebrated Metropolitan Opera Elvira is coming back to Lincoln Center — this time on a giant screen, under the open sky, and free to anyone who shows up. Bellini's I Puritani screens as part of the Met's Summer HD Festival on Friday, September 4, 2026, one of six nights of free outdoor opera on the Lincoln Center plaza from September 2 to 7.

The screening captures the Met's Live in HD broadcast of this season's new production — the company's first new staging of I Puritani in nearly fifty years. Director Charles Edwards set Bellini's Puritan-versus-Royalist tragedy in the world of the English Civil War, with Marco Armiliato conducting and a cast led by Lisette opposite tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Arturo and Christian Van Horn as Giorgio. With Artur Ruciński indisposed on the day of the telecast, Puerto Rican baritone Ricardo José Rivera stepped in as Riccardo — so it's his performance you'll see on the plaza.

The role — and the mad scene

Elvira is one of the great proving grounds for a coloratura soprano: a young woman undone by the belief that the man she loves has abandoned her, unspooling across an opera that asks for both fragile delicacy and stratospheric fireworks. Lisette's Elvira drew rave reactions through the run, the long Act 2 mad scene — “Qui la voce sua soave” — singled out as its centerpiece. The Wall Street Journal called the production “a marvelous vocal showcase for stars Lisette Oropesa and Lawrence Brownlee.” She had first sung a staged Elvira earlier in 2025 in Paris, again with Brownlee, before bringing the role to the Met.

How to go

The Summer HD Festival screenings are free and open to the public, projected on a screen mounted on the façade of the Metropolitan Opera House. Seating on the plaza is first-come, first-served — no tickets and no reservations. For start times and the full six-night lineup, see the Met's festival page.

For the full cast and the original performance dates of the Met run, see the I Puritani run page.