The Metropolitan Opera opens its 2008-09 season on September 22 with a gala performance that kicks off its 125^th anniversary starring Renée Fleming in three fully-staged scenes, including some of her most acclaimed portrayals.

The Met’s 125th anniversary season kicks off on September 22 with the Opening Night Gala starring Renée Fleming in fully staged excerpts from Verdi’s La Traviata, Massenet’s Manon, and Strauss’s Capriccio.

Costumes for Fleming have been specially created for each of the scenes in the Opening Night Gala by three of the world’s legendary fashion designers: John Galliano, Christian Lacroix, and Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel.

The opening night performance will be transmitted live to multiple giant screens in Times Square, with free seating for 2,000 people. Screens that will carry the transmission include the Astrovision (Panasonic), Reuters, Nasdaq, and MTV screens. Gala performance to be transmitted live in HD to 600 theaters in North and South America as well as to Times Square and Fordham University’s Lincoln Center Plaza, and broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio SIRIUS channel 78.

In this occasion Met launches the italian co-management of the restaurant, that will be given to the florentine restaurant Le Murate, for the whole Season. An exhibition of Dante’s portraits by the renowned photographer Oliviero Toscani, opens at Met on the same day.