GROUNDED by Jeanine Tesori to Open The Metropolitan Opera's 2024–25 Season

The Metropolitan Opera has unveiled the 2024–25 season lineup, which will showcase classics of the operatic repertory in revivals and new productions, alongside four Met premieres. There are six new productions this season—the Met premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded, starring Emily D’Angelo and directed by Michael Mayer, opens the season on September 23; Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, starring Angel Blue and Daniela Mack, in a staging by Deborah Colker in her Met debut; Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, starring Brandon Jovanovich and Peter Mattei, in a staging by Leonard Foglia in his Met debut; John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra, starring Julia Bullock and Gerald Finley, in a staging by Elkhanah Pulitzer in her Met debut; and Strauss’s Salome, starring Elza van den Heever and Peter Mattei, in a staging by Claus Guth in his Met debut. The pandemic-delayed premiere of a new production of Verdi’s Aida, directed by Michael Mayer, is scheduled for the annual New Year’s Eve Gala. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, conducts Grounded, Salome, and Aida. John Adams conducts his own score of Antony and Cleopatra.

A full slate of revivals returns to the Met stage, including works by Verdi, Offenbach, Rossini, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Puccini, as well as Strauss’s rarely performed Die Frau ohne Schatten, conducted by Nézet-Séguin, and Beethoven’s Fidelio, starring Lise Davidsen. In addition, a special gala performance of Puccini’s Tosca on November 12 commemorates the centenary of the composer’s death and marks Davidsen’s Met role debut as the title character.

“At the Met, we’re committed to opera’s evolution as an art form, honoring the classics with revivals and new productions while presenting new works that relate to the times in which we live,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager. “We owe it our audiences, both old and new.”

Maestro Nézet-Séguin added, “I find it so important to open the new season conducting an intensely dramatic Met commission like Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded, which addresses real issues in our world today, and follow that up with great operatic jewels like Salome, Aida, Die Frau ohne Schatten, and La Bohème. This is truly modern—to pay tribute to the essential works of the past while paving the way for an operatic future.”

The season opens with the Met premiere of two-time Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded, an opera commissioned by the Met and based on librettist George Brant’s acclaimed play. Mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo stars as Jess, a hot-shot fighter pilot whose pregnancy takes her out of the cockpit and lands her in Las Vegas, operating Reaper drones. Maestro Nézet-Séguin conducts a cast that also features tenor Ben Bliss as Eric—a Wyoming rancher who becomes Jess’s husband.

Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov’s Grammy Award–winning Ainadamar premieres at the Met on October 15. The opera dramatizes the life and murder of poet-playwright Federico García Lorca, who was assassinated for his socialist politics and sexual orientation. Brazilian director and choreographer Deborah Colker, a Laurence Olivier Award winner, makes her Met debut with this new production. Mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack sings the trouser role of Federico García Lorca. Sopranos Angel Blue and Gabriella Reyes share the role of Lorca’s muse, the actress Margarita Xirgu; soprano Elena Villalón plays Nuria; and flamenco singer Alfredo Tejada—in his Met debut—completes the principal cast as the Falangist politician Ramón Ruiz Alonso. In his Met debut, Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts a score that crackles with the energy and rhythms of flamenco and rumba.

For the annual New Year’s Eve gala premiere, Maestro Nézet-Séguin again takes the podium to lead acclaimed director Michael Mayer’s opulent new production of Aida. Soprano Angel Blue makes her Met role debut as the title Ethiopian princess. The cast also features mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi as Amneris, tenor Piotr Beczała as Radamès, baritone Quinn Kelsey as Amonasro, bass Dmitry Belosselskiy as Ramfis, and bass Morris Robinson as the King. Subsequent performances feature mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča as Amneris; tenor Brian Jagde as Radamès; baritones Amartuvshin Enkhbat, Michael Chioldi, and bass-baritone Eric Owens as Amonasro; basses Alexander Vinogradov and Morris Robinson as Ramfis; and bass Krysztof Bączyk as the King. Christina Nilsson, in her Met debut, is scheduled to sing the title role in March, and Alexander Soddy shares conducting duties. Maestro John Keenan conducts the final performance in the spring.

The second half of the season opens on March 3 with the Met premiere of Jake Heggie’s 2010 adaptation of Herman Melville’s epic Moby-Dick. A cast of standouts comes together on the decks of the Pequod, led by Maestro Karen Kamensek, with tenor Brandon Jovanovich starring as Captain Ahab, tenor Stephen Costello as Greenhorn, baritone Peter Mattei as Starbuck, and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as Queequeg. The cast also includes soprano Janai Brugger as Pip, tenor William Burden as Flask, and baritone Malcolm MacKenzie as Stub. Director Leonard Foglia, in his Met debut, expands his earlier production for the Met.

In its first new production at the company in 20 years, Strauss’s Salome returns on April 29 in a new staging by director Claus Guth, in his company debut. Maestro Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Met performances of the opera, leading a cast featuring soprano Elza van den Heever in the title role and baritone Peter Mattei as Jochanaan. Tenors Gerhard Siegel and Chad Shelton share the role of King Herod; mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung is Herodias; and tenor Piotr Buszewski is Narraboth. 

The final new production of the season is the most recent work of preeminent American composer John Adams: Antony and Cleopatra, which has its Met premiere on May 12. The adaptation of Shakespeare’s drama stars soprano Julia Bullock, following her company debut in Adams’s El Niño in the 2023–24 season, as Cleopatra, opposite bass-baritone Gerald Finley’s Antony, with tenor Paul Appleby as Caesar and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong as Octavia, Caesar’s sister. The cast also includes mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven as Charmian, in her Met debut; tenor Brenton Ryan as Eros; and bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Enobarbus. Adams himself takes the podium to conduct a new staging by director Elkhanah Pulitzer, who transports the story from ancient Rome to the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s.

Twelve revivals round out the roster—Verdi’s Rigoletto and Il Trovatore; Puccini’s Tosca and La Bohème; Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann; Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten; Beethoven’s Fidelio; Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia; Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades; and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, and the Met’s annual presentation of Julie Taymor’s abridged, English-language version of The Magic Flute for the winter holidays.

Among the important performers making first appearances at the house are the sopranos Aigul Khismatullina, Christina Nilsson, Jacquelyn Stucker, and Adela Zaharia; mezzo-sopranos Vasilisa Berzhanskaya and Taylor Raven; tenors Freddie De Tommaso, Magnus Dietrich, Duke Kim, and Jack Swanson; baritone Gihoon Kim; bass-baritone Peter Kálmán; basses Alexander Köpeczi and Bogdan Talos; conductors Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Joana Mallwitz, and Giacomo Sagripanti; and flamenco singer Alfredo Tejada.

Returning stars include sopranos Eleonora Buratto, Lise Davidsen, Kathryn Lewek, Ailyn Pérez, Golda Schultz, Nadine Sierra, Elza van den Heever, Pretty Yende, and Sonya Yoncheva; mezzo-sopranos Aigul Akhmetshina, Jamie Barton, Maria Barakova, J’Nai Bridges, Elīna Garanča, and Isabel Leonard; tenors SeokJong Baek, Piotr Beczała, Benjamin Bernheim, Stephen Costello, and Matthew Polenzani; baritones Amartuvshin Enkhbat, Igor Golovatenko, Quinn Kelsey, Will Liverman, David Luciano, Alexey Markov, Peter Mattei, Thomas Oliemans, Luca Salsi, and Michael Volle; bass-baritones Eric Owens, Ryan Speedo Green, Bryn Terfel, and Alfred Walker; basses Peixin Chen, Soloman Howard, Andrea Mastroni, Stephen Milling, René Pape, and Alexander Vinogradov; and conductors Marco Armiliato, Susanna Mälkki, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Karen Kamensek, Evan Rogister, Keri-Lynn Wilson, and Xian Zhang.
        

New Productions
 

Grounded—Jeanine Tesori / Libretto by George Brant                  

MET PREMIERE
Opening: September 23, 2024
Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Steven Osgood
Production: Michael Mayer
Set Designer: Mimi Lien*
Costume Designer: Tom Broecker*
Lighting Designer: Kevin Adams
Co–Projection Designers: Jason H. Thompson* and Kaitlyn Pietras*
Sound Designer: Palmer Hefferan*
Choreographer: David Neumann*
Dramaturg: Paul Cremo
 
*Debut
 
Live in HD: October 19, 2024
 
Jeanine Tesori’s new opera Grounded, commissioned by the Met and based on librettist George Brant’s acclaimed play, wrestles with complex, often-overlooked issues created by 21st-century warmaking: the ethical conflicts created by the use of modern military technology and the psychological and emotional toll supposedly safe remote technology takes on our servicepersons. Mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo stars as Jess, a hot-shot fighter pilot whose unplanned pregnancy takes her out of the cockpit and lands her in Las Vegas, operating a Reaper drone halfway around the world. Confronted by the challenges of this new way of doing battle, she must fight to hold on to her sanity—and her soul. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin oversees the Met premiere of Tesori’s score and a cast that also features tenor Ben Bliss as Eric, the Wyoming rancher who becomes Jess’s husband. Michael Mayer’s high-tech staging presents a variety of perspectives on the action, including the drone’s predatory view from high above.

 

Ainadamar—Osvaldo Golijov / Libretto by David Henry Hwang   MET PREMIERE

Opening: October 15, 2024
Conductor: Miguel Harth-Bedoya*
Production: Deborah Colker*
Set and Costume Designer: Jon Bausor*
Lighting Designer: Paul Keogan*
Projection Designer: Tal Rosner*
Sound Designer: Mark Grey
Choreographer: Deborah Colker*
Flamenco Choreographer: Antonio Najarro*
 
*Debut
 
Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov’s Grammy Award–winning first opera dramatizes the life and work of poet-playwright Federico García Lorca, who was assassinated by Fascist forces for his socialist politics and homosexuality. His story emerges through the memories of Catalan actress Margarita Xirgu, Lorca’s muse—sung by sopranos Angel Blue and Gabriella Reyes—who reminisces to her student, Nuria, portrayed by soprano Elena Villalón. Lorca himself makes a dreamlike appearance, sung as a trouser role by mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack. Flamenco singer Alfredo Tejada completes the principal cast as the Falangist politician Ramón Ruiz Alonso, who arranged Lorca’s execution. Combining features of both an opera and a passion, Ainadamar, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya in his Met debut, crackles with the energy and rhythms of flamenco and rumba, as well as the violent backdrop of civil war, all of which springs forth on the Met stage in a vivid company-debut production by Deborah Colker, renowned for her work with Cirque du Soleil.
 

Aida—Giuseppe Verdi                                                                  

NEW PRODUCTION
Opening: December 31, 2024
Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Alexander Soddy / John Keenan
Production: Michael Mayer
Set Designer: Christine Jones
Costume Designer: Susan Hilferty
Lighting Designer: Kevin Adams
Projection Designer: 59 Productions
Choreographer: Oleg Glushkov*
 
*Debut
 
Live in HD: January 25, 2025
 
Soprano Angel Blue makes her long-awaited Met role debut as the title Ethiopian princess, one of opera’s defining roles. Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for the New Year’s Eve premiere of Michael Mayer’s grand new staging, which brings ancient Egypt to life with intricate projections and dazzling animations. Mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi, following her 2024 debut in La Forza del Destino, is Aida’s Egyptian rival Amneris, sharing the role with Elīna Garanča, who returns to the Met for the first time since 2020. Leading tenors Piotr Beczała and Brian Jagde alternate as the soldier Radamès, who complete the greatest love triangle in the repertory. The all-star cast also features baritones Quinn Kelsey and Amartuvshin Enkhbat and bass-baritone Eric Owens as Amonasro and basses Dmitry Belosselskiy, Alexander Vinogradov, and Morris Robinson as Ramfis. Christina Nilsson makes her Met debut in the title role in March, and Alexander Soddy shares conducting duties. Maestro John Keenan conducts the final performance in the spring.
 

Moby-Dick—Jake Heggie / Libretto by Gene Scheer                      

MET PREMIERE
Opening: March 3, 2025
Conductor: Karen Kamensek
Production: Leonard Foglia*
Set Designer: Robert Brill
Costume Designer: Jane Greenwood
Lighting Designer: Gavan Swift*
Projection Designer: Elaine McCarthy
Movement Director: Keturah Stickann*
 
*Debut
 
Following the Met premiere of his first opera, Dead Man Walking, composer Jake Heggie returns to the company with his 2010 adaptation of Herman Melville’s sea-drenched, heaven-storming epic. A cast of standouts come together on the decks of the Pequod, with tenor Brandon Jovanovich starring as the monomaniacal Captain Ahab, implacable in his pursuit of the white whale; tenor Stephen Costello as Greenhorn, the opera’s version of Ishmael; baritone Peter Mattei as the even-keeled first mate Starbuck; and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the Polynesian harpooneer Queequeg. The cast also features soprano Janai Brugger as Pip, tenor William Burden as Flask, and baritone Malcolm MacKenzie as Stubb. Maestro Karen Kamensek takes the podium for a staging by Leonard Foglia that arrives at the Met newly enlarged and refined following acclaimed runs in San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
 
 

Salome—Richard Strauss                                                              

NEW PRODUCTION
Opening: April 29, 2025
Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Derrick Inouye
Production: Claus Guth*
Set Designer: Etienne Pluss*
Costume Designer: Ursula Kudrna*
Lighting Designer: Olaf Freese*
Projection Designer: rocafilm/Roland Horvath
Choreographer: Sommer Ulrickson*
Dramaturg: Yvonne Gebauer*
 
*Debut
 
Live in HD: May 17, 2025
 
Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Met performances of Strauss’s white-hot one-act tragedy, which receives its first new production at the company in 20 years. Claus Guth, one of Europe’s leading opera directors, gives the biblical story—already filtered through the beautiful and strange imagination of Oscar Wilde’s play—a psychologically perceptive Victorian-era setting rich in symbolism and subtle shades of darkness and light. Headlining the new staging is soprano Elza van den Heever as the abused and unhinged antiheroine, who demands the head of Jochanaan, sung by baritone Peter Mattei. Tenors Gerhard Siegel and Chad Shelton share the role of Salome’s lecherous stepfather, King Herod, with mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung as his wife, Herodias, and tenor Piotr Buszewski as Narraboth.
 
 

Antony and Cleopatra—John Adams                                                

MET PREMIERE
Opening: May 12, 2025
Conductor: John Adams
Production: Elkhanah Pulitzer*
Set Designer: Mimi Lien
Costume Designer: Constance Hoffman*
Lighting Designer: David Finn
Projection Designer: Bill Morrison*
Sound Designer: Mark Grey
Choreographer: Annie-B Parson
Dramaturg: Lucia Scheckner*
 
*Debut
 
The most recent opera by preeminent American composer John Adams—a glorious adaptation of Shakespeare’s immortal drama—has its Met premiere. Adams himself takes the podium to conduct his lyrical and richly orchestrated score, leading a new staging by groundbreaking director Elkhanah Pulitzer that transports the story of troubled romance and political strife from ancient Rome to the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s. Following her debut in the company premiere of Adams’s El Niño in 2024, soprano Julia Bullock stars as the irresistible Cleopatra, opposite bass-baritone Gerald Finley as the conflicted Antony. Tenor Paul Appleby is Caesar, who goes to war with Antony, and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong is Caesar’s sister and Antony’s forsaken wife, Octavia. The cast also includes mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven, in her Met debut, as Charmian; tenor Brenton Ryan as Eros; and bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Enobarbus.
 
Opera in Two Acts
Composed by John Adams
Libretto adapted by John Adams from Shakespeare
With supplementary passages from Plutarch, Virgil, and other classical texts
 
 
Revivals by Month
 

SEPTEMBER
 

Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Opening: September 24, 2024
Live in HD: October 5, 2024
 
An ensemble of leading lights takes the stage for Offenbach’s fantastical final work, headlined by tenor Benjamin Bernheim in the title role of the tormented poet. Hoffmann’s trio of lovers are sung by soprano Erin Morley as the mechanical doll Olympia, soprano Pretty Yende as the plagued diva Antonia, and mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine as the Venetian seductress Giulietta. Marco Armiliato conducts Bartlett Sher’s evocative production, which also features bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as the Four Villains and mezzo-soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya in an important company debut in the dual role as Hoffmann’s friend Nicklausse and the Muse.
 
Puccini’s Tosca
Opening: September 25, 2024
Live in HD: November 23, 2024
 
Three thrilling leading ladies trade off as the volatile diva Floria Tosca. First, soprano Aleksandra Kurzak reprises her riveting portrayal of the title role, starring alongside tenor SeokJong Baek as her revolutionary lover, Cavaradossi, and baritone George Gagnidze as the sadistic chief of police Scarpia. Later in the season, the extraordinary Lise Davidsen sings Tosca for her first time at the Met, alongside tenor Freddie De Tommaso in his company debut and powerhouse baritone Quinn Kelsey. And in the winter, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and tenor Brian Jagde reunite following their acclaimed 2021 performances of the lead pair, joining forces with bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, who returns to the Met after more than a decade. Maestro Xian Zhang conducts.
 
Verdi’s Rigoletto
Opening: September 30, 2024
 
Verdi’s heartbreaking masterpiece returns, with reigning Verdi baritone Quinn Kelsey reprising his devastating portrayal of the hunchbacked court jester. Soprano Nadine Sierra is his naïve daughter, Gilda, and tenor Stephen Costello is the rakish Duke of Mantua, with Maestro Pier Giorgio Morandi on the podium to conduct Bartlett Sher’s Weimar-inspired production. A second run of performances features the Met debut of rising tenor Pene Pati, alongside soprano Erin Morley and baritone Luca Salsi, conducted by Maurizio Benini.
 

OCTOBER

 
Verdi’s Il Trovatore
Opening: October 26, 2024
 
Verdi’s charged drama of family strife and forbidden love stars tenor Michael Fabiano as Manrico, the bold troubadour unwittingly at war with his own brother. Sopranos Rachel Willis-Sørensen and Angela Meade share the role of the noble Leonora, with mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton and Olesya Petrova trading off as Manrico’s tormented mother, Azucena. Baritone Igor Golovatenko is the unbending Count di Luna, with bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the soldier Ferrando. Italian conductor Daniele Callegari leads David McVicar’s Goya-inspired staging.
 

NOVEMBER

Puccini’s La Bohème
Opening: November 13, 2024
 
Four brilliant casts take the stage as Puccini’s lovesick young bohemians in Franco Zeffirelli’s picturesque staging. Sopranos Ailyn Pérez, Eleonora Buratto, Kristina Mkhitaryan, and Corinne Winters alternate as the delicate seamstress Mimì, and tenors Matthew Polenzani, Joseph Calleja, and Dmytro Popov share the role of the enamored poet Rodolfo. Maestros Kensho Watanabe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Alexander Soddy, and Riccardo Frizza take the podium for performances throughout the season.
 
Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten
Opening: November 29, 2024
 
Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium to lead Strauss’s grand mythological epic, a tour de force for orchestra and soloists alike. A spectacular trio of sopranos leads the ensemble cast, with Elza van den Heever as the otherworldly Empress, Lise Lindstrom as the Dyer’s Wife, and Nina Stemme as the Nurse. Following recent triumphs in Wagner’s Ring cycle and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, baritone Michael Volle is Barak, with tenor Russell Thomas as the Emperor and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the Spirit Messenger.
 

DECEMBER

Mozart’s The Magic Flute—Holiday Presentation
Opening: December 12, 2024
 
A beloved New York holiday tradition, Mozart’s enchanting musical fairy tale returns in the Met’s abridged, English-language production by Julie Taymor—the Tony Award–winning director of Broadway’s The Lion King. With dazzling puppets and a colorful setting, the Met’s The Magic Flute is one of the city’s ultimate seasonal sensations for family audiences. Maestros Nimrod David Pfeffer and J. David Jackson share conducting duties, leading a spectacular cast. Tenors David Portillo and Duke Kim—in his company debut—share the role of Tamino, the brave prince on a quest to save the clever princess Pamina, sung by sopranos Hera Hyesang Park and Emily Pogorelc. The cast also features baritones Will Liverman and Sean Michael Plumb as the bird-catching Papageno; tenors Rodell Rosel and Thomas Capobianco as the malevolent Monostatos; sopranos Kathryn Lewek and Aigul Khismatullina—in her Met debut—as the blazing Queen of the Night; and basses Soloman Howard and Peixin Chen as Sarastro.
 

MARCH

Beethoven’s Fidelio
Opening: March 4, 2025
Live in HD: March 15, 2025
 
Following a string of awe-inspiring Met performances, soprano Lise Davidsen stars as Leonore, who risks everything to save her husband from the clutches of tyranny. Tenor David Butt Philip is the political prisoner Florestan, sharing the stage with bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny as the villainous Don Pizarro, veteran bass René Pape as the jailer Rocco, and soprano Ying Fang and tenor Magnus Dietrich, in his company debut, as the young Marzelline and Jaquino. Bass Stephen Milling sings the principled Don Fernando, and Susanna Mälkki conducts the Met’s striking production, which finds modern-day parallels in Beethoven’s stirring paean to Enlightenment values.
 
Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte
Opening: March 23, 2025
 
Simon McBurney’s uproarious full-length German-language production of Mozart’s beloved fable—with its ingenious theatrical concoction of puppetry, live projected drawings, and sound effects from an onstage Foley artist—returns to the Met stage following its celebrated 2023 premiere. Tenor Ben Bliss and soprano Golda Schultz are the noble lovers Tamino and Pamina, and baritone Thomas Oliemans repeats his animated portrayal of the outlandish bird catcher Papageno. Soprano Kathryn Lewek reprises her hair-raising turn as the Queen of the Night, Stephen Milling is the priest Sarastro, and Evan Rogister conducts.
 
Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro
Opening: March 31, 2025
Live in HD: April 26, 2025
 
Conductor Joana Mallwitz makes her Met debut leading two extraordinary casts in Mozart’s comic masterpiece, in a production by Richard Eyre. Bass-baritones Michael Sumuel and Luca Pisaroni star as the clever valet Figaro, opposite sopranos Olga Kulchynska and Rosa Feola as his betrothed, the wily maid Susanna. Baritone Joshua Hopkins and bass-baritone Adam Plachetka alternate as the skirt-chasing Count, sopranos Federica Lombardi and Jacquelyn Stucker (in her Met debut) trade off as his anguished wife, and mezzo-sopranos Marianne Crebassa and Emily D’Angelo share the role of the adolescent page Cherubino.
 

APRIL

 
Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Opening: April 15, 2025
Live in HD: May 31, 2025
 
Rossini’s effervescent comedy retakes the stage in Bartlett Sher’s madcap production. Two star mezzo-sopranos—Isabel Leonard and Aigul Akhmetshina—headline a winning ensemble as the feisty heroine, Rosina, alongside tenors Lawrence Brownlee and Jack Swanson, in his Met debut, as her secret beloved, Count Almaviva. Baritones Davide Luciano and Andrey Zhilikhovsky star as Figaro, the ingenious barber of Seville, with baritone Nicola Alaimo and bass-baritone Peter Kálmán as Dr. Bartolo and bass Alexander Vinogradov as Don Basilio rounding out the principal cast. In his company debut, Giacomo Sagripanti conducts.
 

MAY
 

Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades
Opening: May 23, 2025
 
Tchaikovsky’s macabre thriller, set against the backdrop of Tsarist Russia, is back in the Met’s atmospheric staging. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva makes her highly anticipated role debut as Lisa, the young woman who embarks on a deadly love affair with the gambling-obsessed officer Hermann, sung by tenor Brian Jagde, also in his role debut. Baritone Igor Golovatenko reprises his moving portrayal of Lisa’s fiancé, Prince Yeletsky, alongside mezzo-soprano Violeta Urmana as the spectral Countess and baritone Alexey Markov as Count Tomsky. Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts the sweeping score.
 
Special Events
 

Met Orchestra and Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall

 
The Met Orchestra performs at Carnegie Hall in January, led by Myung-Whun Chung, with an all-Brahms program that includes the composer’s Violin Concerto, featuring Perspectives Artist Maxim Vengerov as soloist, and Symphony No. 4. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the orchestra twice in June, including an all-Richard Strauss program featuring soprano Elza van den Heever and a program including Gabriela Ortiz’s Antrópolis; Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah,” with soprano Angel Blue; Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World;” and the New York premiere of an orchestral suite from Terence Blanchard’s opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones.
The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble also performs six concerts at Carnegie Hall, from October to May. The various programs include a presentation of works by South 

African composers Bongani Ndodana-Breen and Matthijs Van Dijk, featuring overtone singer Gareth Lubbe; a focus on Czech music, including selections by Janáček, Martinů, and Dvořák led by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin; an “Italian Serenade” of music by Puccini, Briccialdi, Rota, Wolf, and Verdi; “A Fiddler’s Tale,” including Wynton Marsalis’s work of the same name alongside Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello; Maestro Nézet-Séguin with mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung and tenor Ben Bliss for Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (arr. Schoenberg) on a program that also includes Thomas Adès’s Alchymia; as well as a program that includes Bolling’s Selections from Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio and Schumann’s Piano Quartet.

Dates and additional program details can be found at carnegiehall.org.

Eric and Dominique Laffont Grand Finals Concert      

The Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition discovers promising young opera singers throughout North America and assists in their artistic and professional development. More than 1,500 applicants participate in a series of auditions leading up to the Grand Finals Concert, which will be held on Sunday, March 16, 2025, featuring the Met Orchestra. With more than a half million dollars in prizes awarded to singers each season, the finalists will compete for cash prizes and the chance to launch a major operatic career.

The Met: Live in HD

Eight live Met performances will be transmitted to cinemas across the globe as part of The Met: Live in HD series, which begins with Les Contes d’Hoffmann (October 5, 2024 ) and continues with Grounded (October 19, 2024), Tosca (November 23, 2024), Aida (January 25, 2025), Fidelio (March 15, 2025), Le Nozze di Figaro (April 26, 2025), Salome (May 17, 2025), and Il Barbiere di Siviglia (May 31, 2025).           

Education

HD Live in Schools

In its 17th season, the Met’s HD Live in Schools national program returns to nearly 70 school districts across the country, including Puerto Rico. Each partner receives free tickets to Live in HD screenings at local movie theaters; complimentary educational licenses to Met Opera on Demand, the company’s subscription streaming service; interdisciplinary, classroom-ready curricular materials designed for students across grade levels; virtual student engagement programming, including Opera Book Club, Virtual Honors Choir, Career Corner, and Artist Chats; and robust professional-development opportunities for educators and administrators.

The 2024–25 HD Live in Schools curriculum includes Grounded (October 19, 2024), Tosca (November 23, 2024), Aida (January 25, 2025), Le Nozze di Figaro (April 26, 2025), and Salome (May 17, 2025). Interested partners have the option to attend an encore screening of the Met’s holiday presentation of The Magic Flute (December 7, 2024). Met Education continues to provide free access to Met Opera on Demand for all students and teachers in the program.

The National Educator Conference, a professional-development initiative that brings together teachers and administrators from across the United States, is scheduled to return to the Met on October 8–11, followed by two virtual professional-development conferences in the winter and the spring. More details will be announced at a later date.

Access Opera

Access Opera: Guild Open Rehearsals for Students welcomes local students and educators to attend final dress rehearsals live at the Metropolitan Opera House. During the 2024–25 season, Access Opera offers school groups access to 13 dress-rehearsal performances: Grounded, Rigoletto, Ainadamar, Il Trovatore, Die Frau ohne Schatten, The Magic Flute, Moby-Dick, Die Zauberflöte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Salome, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Queen of Spades. Of these rehearsals, at least four will be designated as special student dress rehearsals, with most of the seating allocated to school groups. Exact dates and registration details will be announced at a later date.

The program continues its Repertoire Exploration Program (REP), offering in-school teaching artist residencies and one-time workshops to interested schools. Two professional development workshops hosted at the Met—free to Access Opera educators—will also take place this season.

Family Open Houses

Met Education will once again host its beloved Holiday Open House prior to a weekend matinee performance of the Met’s holiday presentation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The Open House allows thousands of children and families to take part in hands-on musical explorations and experience behind-the-scenes demonstrations by members of the Met’s backstage and artistic staff, including musicians, actors, dancers, and members of the wig and costume shops and scenic departments.

The third annual Spring Open House will also be scheduled, preceding a weekend matinee performance of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

Both events are free to all ticketholders for that day’s performance. More details will be announced at a later date.

Met Opera on Demand: Insights

Launched during the 2023–24 season, Met Opera on Demand: Insights provides exclusive access to conversations with Met composers, multimedia curricular resources, and rare archival materials to colleges and universities with institutional subscriptions to Met Opera on Demand: Student Access. Each semester features core content highlighting thematic connections between one contemporary Met premiere and one title available on Met Opera on Demand.

The fall 2024 program focuses on “Opera and Gender” and includes an interview with Grounded composer Jeanine Tesori, featuring questions submitted by students; multimedia resources for the Met’s 2016 production of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin; and archival documents detailing the U.S. premiere of Smyth’s Der Wald (1903), the first opera by a female composer staged by the Met.

The spring 2024 unit on “Opera and Literature” includes an interview with Moby-Dick composer Jake Heggie, with a student-submitted Q&A; multimedia resources on the Met’s 2023 production of Heggie’s Dead Man Walking; and archival materials detailing the premiere of Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra (1966), which opened the Met’s first season at Lincoln Center.

Met Students

The Met Students program offers full-time undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to purchase student tickets to select performances at a special discount rate. In the 2024–25 season, Met Education will also continue convening a cohort of Met Students Ambassadors, comprising local undergraduate and graduate students, to serve as the Met’s student think tank for publicizing new initiatives, offers, and discounts; devising promotional strategy on local campuses; and planning exclusive events for Met Students members. Ambassadors will also gain exclusive access to Met staff, creatives, and artists—as well as free admission to select ticketed events.

Fridays Under 40

The Met’s popular Friday’s Under 40 program welcomes operagoers aged 40 and under to purchase special discounted tickets for every Friday performance, with complimentary pre-performance parties on select dates. The Friday’s Under 40 parties for the 2024–25 season are scheduled for Grounded (September 27, 2024), Ainadamar (October 25, 2024), Il Trovatore (November 22, 2024), The Magic Flute (December 20, 2024), Rigoletto (January 24, 2025), Aida (March 14, 2025), Le Nozze di Figaro (April 11, 2025), Salome (May 2, 2025), and Antony and Cleopatra (May 30, 2025).

The Met on the Radio and Online

The Met’s 94th consecutive Saturday Matinee Broadcast season will be transmitted over The Robert K. Johnson Foundation–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network beginning December 7, 2024, with Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten and concluding June 7, 2025, with Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades. Debra Lew Harder returns as host, and Ira Siff returns as commentator for the broadcasts. The Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcasts also receive long-term support from the Annenberg Foundation and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg, the Neubauer Family Foundation, the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media, and through contributions from listeners worldwide.

Metropolitan Opera Radio on the SiriusXM app continues as the country’s premier subscription radio channel dedicated to opera, with live performances presented each week during the season, hosted by Debra Lew Harder and featuring commentator William Berger, as well as encore presentations of historic broadcasts from the Met’s radio archive stretching back to the 1930s. Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM is available to subscribers in the United States and Canada.

In addition, two Met Opera performances will be broadcast every week on SiriusXM’s Symphony Hall channel 78 on Sundays at 3PM and Wednesdays at 9PM ET.

Met Opera on Demand

The Met’s exclusive streaming service now features more than 850 full-length Met performances, available worldwide on multiple platforms that include computers; Amazon Fire TV and Tablet; iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV; Android; Roku; and Samsung Smart TV. The Met Opera on Demand library includes more than 155 presentations from the Live in HD series, as well as more than 85 classic telecasts and 600 radio broadcasts dating back to 1935.

Photo credit: Paola Kudacki / Met Opera
 

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