Two singers at the height of their powers—soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor Benjamin Bernheim—come together as the star crossed lovers in Gounod’s Shakespeare adaptation, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct one of the repertoire’s most romantic scores. Bartlett Sher’s staging also features baritone Will Liverman and tenor Frederick Ballentine as the archrivals Mercutio and Tybalt, mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey as the mischievous pageboy Stéphano, and bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Frère Laurent.
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Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette
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Verdi’s La Forza del Destino
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, with stellar soprano Lise Davidsen, following a string of recent Met triumphs, in her role debut as the noble Leonora. Director Mariusz Treliński delivers the company’s first new Forza in nearly 30 years, setting the scene in a contemporary world. The cast also features tenor Brian Jagde as Don Alvaro, baritone Igor Golovatenko as Don Carlo, mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi as Preziosilla, bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi as Fra Melitone, and bass Soloman Howard as both Leonora’s father and Padre Guardiano.
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Bizet’s Carmen
Acclaimed English director Carrie Cracknell makes her Met debut, reinvigorating the classic story of deadly passion with a staging that moves the action to the present day, amid a band of human traffickers. Mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina leads a powerhouse quartet of stars in the touchstone role of the irresistible femme fatale, alongside tenor Piotr Beczała as Carmen’s lover Don José, soprano Angel Blue as the devoted Micaëla, and bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen as the swaggering Escamillo. Daniele Rustioni conducts Bizet’s heart-pounding score.
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Verdi’s Nabucco
Ancient Babylon comes to life in a classic Met staging of biblical proportions. Baritone George Gagnidze makes his Met role debut as the imperious king Nabucco, alongside Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska reprising her thrilling turn as his vengeful daughter Abigaille. Mezzo-soprano Maria Barakova and tenor SeokJong Baek, in his company debut, are Fenena and Ismaele, and bass Dmitry Belosselskiy repeats his celebrated portrayal of the high priest Zaccaria. Daniele Callegari conducts Verdi’s early masterpiece, which features the ultimate showcase for the great Met Chorus, the moving “Va, pensiero.”
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Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas
Sung in Spanish and inspired by the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez, Mexican composer Daniel Catán’s 1996 opera focuses on an opera diva, Florencia Grimaldi, who returns to her native Brazil to perform and to search for her lost lover, who has vanished into the jungle. The Met premiere stars soprano Ailyn Pérez as Florencia in a new production by Mary Zimmerman that brings the mystical realm of the Amazon to the Met stage. The distinguished ensemble of artists portraying the diva’s fellow travelers on the river boat to Manaus features Gabriella Reyes as the journalist Rosalba, bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as the ship’s captain, baritone Mattia Olivieri as his enigmatic first mate, tenor Mario Chang as the captain’s nephew Arcadio, and mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera and baritone Michael Chioldi as the feuding couple Paula and Álvaro, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium.
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Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X
Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking opera, which premiered in 1986, arrives at the Met at long last. Robert O’Hara, who was nominated for a Tony Award in 2020 for his direction of Slave Play, oversees a new staging that imagines Malcolm as an everyman whose story transcends time and space. A cast of breakout artists take part in the operatic retelling of Malcom X’s life. Baritone Will Liverman, who triumphed in the Met premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, sings Malcolm. Soprano Leah Hawkins plays his mother, Louise; mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis is his sister Ella; bass-baritone Michael Sumuel is his brother Reginald; and tenor Victor Ryan Robertson is the Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. Kazem Abdullah conducts the newly revised score, which provides a layered, jazz-inflected setting for the esteemed writer Thulani Davis’s libretto.
Content Advisory: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X contains strong language.
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Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Conductor), Latonia Moore (Sister Rose), Joyce DiDonato (Sister Helen Prejean), Susan Graham (Mrs. Patrick De Rocher), Ryan McKinny (Joseph De Rocher) Jake Heggie’s powerful work has its highly anticipated Met premiere in a new production by Ivo van Hove. Based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir about her fight for the soul of a condemned murderer, Dead Man Walking matches the high drama of its subject with Heggie’s poignant music and a libretto by Tony and Emmy Award–winner Terrence McNally. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium, with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato starring as Sister Helen. The cast also features bass-baritone Ryan McKinny as the death-row inmate Joseph De Rocher, soprano Latonia Moore as Sister Rose, and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham—who sang Helen Prejean in the opera’s 2000 premiere—as De Rocher’s mother.
Content Advisory: Dead Man Walking contains a depiction of a rape and murder, as well as other adult themes and strong language.
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Die Zauberflöte
Nathalie Stutzmann conducts her second Mozart work this season with a new production of Die Zauberflöte. In his Met-debut staging, Simon McBurney incorporates projections, sound effects, and acrobatics to match the spectacle and drama of Mozart’s fable. The brilliant cast includes soprano Erin Morley as Pamina, tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Tamino, baritone Thomas Oliemans in his Met debut as Papageno, soprano Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, and bass Stephen Milling as Sarastro.
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Don Giovanni
Tony Award–winning director Ivo van Hove makes his Met debut with a new staging of Mozart’s tragicomedy Don Giovanni. The tale of deceit and damnation is set in an abstract architectural landscape that explores the dark corners of the story and its characters. Nathalie Stutzmann makes her Met debut conducting a star-studded cast led by baritone Peter Mattei as a magnetic Don Giovanni, alongside the Leporello of bass-baritone Adam Plachetka. Sopranos Federica Lombardi, Ana María Martínez, and Ying Fang are Giovanni’s conquests—Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina—and tenor Ben Bliss sings Don Ottavio.
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Champion
Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard brings his first opera to the Met after his Fire Shut Up in My Bones made history in the 2021–22 season. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is the young boxer Emile Griffith, who rises from obscurity to become a world champion, and bass-baritone Eric Owens portrays Griffith’s older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda Griffith, the boxer’s estranged mother, and mezzo- soprano Stephanie Blythe is the bar owner Kathy Hagan. Yannick Nézet-Séguin returns to the podium to conduct Blanchard’s second Met premiere. Director James Robinson, whose productions of Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Porgy and Bess brought down the house, oversees the staging. Camille A. Brown, whose choreography electrified audiences in Fire and Porgy, also returns.