Mezzo-soprano star Joyce DiDonato will sing her first Met performances of one of her signature roles, the winsome heroine of Rossini’s adaptation of the Cinderella story, La Cenerentola, beginning April 21. The role of Don Ramiro will be shared by two leading bel canto tenors-rising star Javier Camarena, who made an acclaimed Met role debut last month as Elvino in Bellini’s La Sonnambula, and Juan Diego Flórez, one of the world’s foremost Rossini interpreters. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi returns to the podium to lead his first bel canto opera with the company. The cast also includes Alessandro Corbelli as Don Magnifico, the wicked stepfather; Luca Pisaroni as the wise Alidoro; and Italian baritone Pietro Spagnoli in his Met debut as Don Ramiro’s valet, Dandini. The May 10 matinee of La Cenerentola, in which Flórez stars opposite DiDonato, will be transmitted live as part of the Met’s Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 2,000 movie theaters in 66 countries around the world.

Joyce DiDonato has sung Angelina, the title role in La Cenerentola, at major opera houses all over the world, including La Scala, the Bavarian State Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet, and Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. Angelina is her eighth role at the Met, where her repertory has included the title role in the company premiere of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda; Sycorax in the world premiere of the Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island; Isolier in the company premiere of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory and Rosina in his Il Barbiere di Siviglia; the Composer in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos; Stéphano in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette; and Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Next season at the Met, she will sing the title role in another Met premiere, Rossini’s La Donna del Lago.