NEW YORK (AP) — Mighty Mouse has come to save the Met.

Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts his first performance as just the third music director in the Metropolitan Opera's 135-year-old history when he mounts the podium of the financially challenged company Tuesday night in a new production of Verdi's "La Traviata" by Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer.

NEW YORK (AP) — Joyce DiDonato was unsure at first how to approach her character of Adalgisa in Bellini's "Norma," but she knew she didn't want to play her as "sort of a stock character who's the good girl and crying all the time."

"I don't do insipid very well," the celebrated American mezzo said with a smile.

NEW YORK (AP) — Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton has been given this year's Beverly Sills Artist Award by the Metropolitan Opera.

The 35-year-old Barton receives $50,000 with the award, which was announced Tuesday. The Rome, Georgia, native made her Met debut in 2009 and is in rehearsals for the company's new production of Dvorak's "Rusalka," which opens Thursday.