Streaming for 23 hours, until 6:30pm the next day.

When the most voluptuous, sought-after courtesan in the world meets an ascetic monk whose life is devoted to God, you know erotic sparks are going to fly. And when the clash takes place in a glorious, but rarely performed, opera by Massenet, it’s a delight to the ear just as much as to the eye. Renée Fleming is every inch the glamorous Thais, swathed in elegant gowns designed by Christian Lacroix. Thomas Hampson is the tortured man of God. This production by John Cox, which premiered in December 2008, brilliantly sets the stage for a confrontation as old as civilization itself.

Link: MET

Streaming for 23 hours, until 6:30pm the next day.

A stellar cast brings Puccini’s spellbinding opera to life, seizing every opportunity to thrill the audience. Luciano Pavarotti is Cavaradossi, the painter and political revolutionary in love with the beautiful and famous singer Tosca (the riveting Shirley Verrett). Rome’s diabolical chief of police, Baron Scarpia (Cornell MacNeil), wants Tosca for himself—but he underestimates the fury of a woman in love. With torture, murder, and a suicide in its final moments, Tosca packs more dramatic punches than most other operas—and this classic telecast captures them all. James Conlon conducts in a production by the incomparable Tito Gobbi, one of the great Scarpias of the 20th century.

Link: MET

Streaming for 23 hours, until 6:30pm the next day.

Conducted by James Levine, Robert Lepage’s stunning production—with its brilliant marriage of art and technology—thrilled HD audiences around the world. In Berlioz’s rarely performed vision of the immortal Faust legend, Marcello Giordani is a fiery title hero whose impulsive bargain with Méphistophélès (a commanding John Relyea) proves fatal. Susan Graham is a lovely and tragic Marguerite, the woman who gives everything to the man she loves.

Link: MET

Streaming for 23 hrs., until 6:30pm the next day.

A beautiful ingénue with a taste for the finer things makes her way to Paris, where she becomes irresistible to the men around her—including the passionate Chevalier des Grieux, whose all-consuming love for her leads to ruin. Based on the same scandalous 18th-century novella that inspired Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Massenet’s version features one of the all-time most challenging, and most beguiling, roles for soprano, as well as the composer’s trademark combination of sophistication and sensuality.

Link: MET