LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER Will Air 2012 Richard Tucker Opera Gala This Thursday

Many of today's biggest names in opera – such as baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Gerald Finley; mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina; tenors Stephen Costello, Marcello Giordani, and Giuseppe Filianoti; bass Ildar Abdrazakov; and bass-baritone Erwin Schrott – will light up TV screens across the country on Thursday, December 13 at 8 pm (check local listings) for the national broadcast of the Richard Tucker Opera Gala on PBS's Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center.

Twelve top singers join Maestro Patrick Summers, members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Choral Society, and the 2012 Richard Tucker Award-winner, soprano Ailyn Pérez (the first Latina singer to be so honored) for a concert of favorite arias and ensembles by Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Massenet, Mascagni, Handel, Wagner, and more. Live from Lincoln Center: The Richard Tucker Opera Gala will be hosted by five-time Tony Award-winning singer and actress Audra McDonald, and will also present a feature on Pérez as well as exclusive backstage interviews with the artists.

The complete list of singers appearing on the gala program includes Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov, who sings the title roles in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni this season at the Metropolitan Opera; mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, a 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant recipient; Russian mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina, who plays Amneris in the Met's revival of Aida; tenor Stephen Costello, the 2009 Richard Tucker Award-winner and husband of Pérez; Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, in her American debut; Canadian baritone Gerald Finley, who recently sang Count Almaviva opposite Abdrazakov's Figaro; Italian tenor Marcello Giordani, who portrayed Calàf in the Met's Turandot this season; Siberian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who stars in the Met's new production of Un ballo in maschera and later in its revival of Don Carlo; baritone Quinn Kelsey, a 2006 Richard Tucker Career Grant recipient and 2004 Sara Tucker Study Grant winner; Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska, who made her Met debut in title role opposite Borodina in Aida; and Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott, who at the Met this season sings Leporello to Abdrazakov's Don Giovanni and Dulcamara in L'elisir d'amore opposite his real-life partner, Anna Netrebko.