In recent years, Kathleen Turner has begun to show off her singing chops, bringing her surprisingly wistful contralto at Broadway Backwards and the cabaret stage, including at the Café Carlyle. Now, she’s ready to make her Metropolitan Opera debut—but not quite as a singer.
The Oscar and Tony nominee will make a non-singing cameo as the Duchess of Krakenthorp in this season’s repertory revival of Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment. Performances run February 7, 2019 through March 2 at the New York house.
Previously, the late Jane White, Bea Arthur, and Marian Seldes have taken on the part at the Met. In 2016, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—an avid opera aficionado—made a special, one-night-only appearance in the role at Washington National Opera.
Leading the cast in the Laurent Pelly staging are Pretty Yende and Javier Camarena as Marie and Tonio, with Stephanie Blythe as Marquise of Berkenfield and Alessandro Corbelli and Maurizio Muraro sharing the role of Sergeant Sulpice.
The Met routinely looks to New York stage talent for roles primarily spoken in select operas. In recent years, Tony nominees Danny Burstein and Christopher Fitzgerald and Betsy Wolfe have appeared in the company's Die Fledermaus.