Jeanine Tesori Among First Female Composers Commissioned By The Met

The Metropolitan Opera is preparing to kick off its 2018-2019 season tomorrow, September 24, under the leadership of new Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin. According to The New York Times, he company is making its future plans, including its first-ever commissions of operas written by women. Among them are new works by Jeanine Tesori and Missy Mazzoli.

Tesori's opera "Grounded," is based on the George Brant play about a fighter pilot sidelined by pregnancy who goes into drone warfare. Mazzoli's piece is based on George Saunders' novel "Lincoln in the Bardo."

Other pieces in the works include an opera by Mason Bates based on Michael Chabon's novel "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay." The Met Orchestra will also perform a Mazzoli chamber opera at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, conducted by Nezet-Seguin.

Nezet-Seguin plans to conduct a new production of Jake Heggie's opera of "Dead Men Walking," based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean, in the 2020-21 season, directed by Ivo van Hove.

The following season, Nezet-Seguin will conduct Matthew Aucoin's opera adaptation of Sarah Ruhl's play "Eurydice."

Other contemporary operas coming to the Met include "Akhnaten" by Philip Glass, to be conducted next season by Karen Kamensek, and "Hamlet," by Brett Dean, coming in the 2021-22 season, conducted by Nicholas Carter.

Read more on The New York Times.