NEW YORK - The Metropolitan Opera will simulcast its opening-night gala featuring Renee Fleming to theatres in North America as its program of high-definition broadcasts expands from eight to 11 next season.

The Sept. 22 broadcast will feature Fleming in the second act of Verdi's "La Traviata," the third act of Massenet's "Manon" and the final scene of Strauss' "Capriccio."

Opening night will be televised in North America only, the Met said Tuesday. The rest of the series will add theatres in Argentina, Costa Rica, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Mexico and Serbia.

The Met expects the current season's series, which concludes this weekend with Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment," to be viewed by 900,000 people.

The Saturday afternoon simulcast schedule opens Oct. 11, with Karita Mattila in Strauss' "Salome." It continues Nov. 8 with the new production of John Adams' "Doctor Atomic" and Nov. 22 with music director James Levine conducting Susan Graham and Marcello Giordani in the company's first staging of Berlioz's "Le Damnation de Faust" since the 1906-07 season.

Massenet's "Thais" will be broadcast Dec. 20 with Fleming and Thomas Hampson in the production that appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2002-3, and Puccini's "La Rondine" follows on Jan. 10, 2009, with the wife-and-husband team of Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna in a much-travelled staging.

Levine conducts the Mark Morris staging of Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice" on Jan. 24, 2009, with Danielle de Niese and Stephanie Blythe. Anna Netrebko, who withdrew from autumn performances because she is pregnant, returns in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" on Feb. 7, 2009, with Rolando Villazon.

The hit production of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" by the late Anthony Minghella will be broadcast on March 7, 2009, with Patrick Summers conducting the original co-stars, Cristina Gallardo-Domas and Giordani. The final two broadcasts: the new production of Bellini's "La Sonnambula" with Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez on March 21, 2009, and Rossini's "La Cenerentola" and Elina Garanca and Lawrence Brownlee in May 9, 2009.