The Metropolitan Opera Reveals 2026–27 Season - LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, MACBETH and More

The Metropolitan Opera has revealed its 2026–27 season, featuring five new and 12 repertory productions, a special 60th-anniversary gala, and performances of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director. This season also marks the 20th anniversary at the helm for Peter Gelb, the Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager, and the 20th anniversary of the groundbreaking The Met: Live in HD transmissions—the Peabody Award–winning series that Gelb initiated—to cinemas worldwide.

MET PREMIERES

The highly anticipated world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Lincoln in the Bardo, with a libretto by Royce Vavrick based on George Saunders’s Booker Prize–winning novel, is set in the “bardo,” the transitional place between the end of life and the beginning of the next. The opera features baritone Peter Mattei as Lincoln, soprano Christine Goerke as the Reverend, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo as Miss Elise Traynor, tenor Jonah Hoskins as Bevins, and bass-baritone Ryan McKinney as Vollman. Lileana Blain-Cruz directs, and Nézet-Séguin conducts.

The Pulitzer Prize–winning opera Silent Night by Kevin Puts, with a libretto by Mark Campbell, is inspired by the true events of the 1914 Christmas truce, when soldiers of the First World War spontaneously crossed the trenches to mingle, exchange gifts, and sing carols with the enemy. Dalia Stasevska makes her Met conducting debut, leading a production that features soprano Elza van den Heever as Anna Sørensen and tenor Ben Bliss as Nikolaus Sprink. Baritones Mattia Oliveri and Justin Austin and bass-baritone Ryan McKinney portray the opposing lieutenants—Audebert, Horstmayer, and Gordon—whose tentative alliance bridge the warring sides during the Christmas truce. James Robinson directs the new production, which includes sets designed by Mimi Lien.

NEW PRODUCTIONS

The 2026–27 season begins with a new production of Verdi’s Macbeth by Louisa Proske in her Met debut. Proske’s staging presents a powerful interpretation of Shakespeare’s chilling drama of unchecked power and its consequences. The world’s leading dramatic soprano, Lise Davidsen portrays Lady Macbeth, opposite baritone Quinn Kelsey as Macbeth, with tenor Freddie De Tommaso as Macduff and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as Banquo. Nézet-Séguin conducts.

Claus Guth returns, after his triumphant debut with Strauss’s Salome during the 2024–25 season, to direct Janáček’s Jenůfa, featuring soprano Asmik Grigorian in the title role. Guth’s psychologically probing production also features soprano Nina Stemme as the Kostelnička. Tenor Allan Clayton returns to the Met as Laca, and tenor Sean Panikkar is Števa. Tomáš Hanus makes his company debut on the podium.

The Met’s annual New Year’s Eve gala premiere will feature the company’s first new production of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West in more than 30 years. Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky makes her role debut as Minnie, opposite tenor SeokJong Baek as Dick Johnson. Baritone Christopher Maltman is Jack Rance, and Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts the production by celebrated director Richard Jones.

DIAMOND JUBILEE: 60 YEARS AT LINCOLN CENTER

The Met marks its 60th anniversary at its home at Lincoln Center with a special gala celebration on May 25. The performance, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and directed by Julian Crouch with immersive video and projections by 59 Studios, includes fully staged arias and scenes from more than 30 operas, including Die Walküre, Der Rosenkavalier, La Forza del Destino, Akhnaten, Pagliacci, Roméo et Juliette, and The Queen of Spades, among others, and will feature some of the most important Met stars. Artists on the program include Aigul Akhmetshina, Roberto Alagna, Xabier Anduaga, SeokJong Baek, Piotr Beczała, J’Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Lise Davidsen, Freddie De Tommaso, Joyce DiDonato, Ying Fang, Rosa Feola, Gerald Finley, Renée Fleming, Igor Golovatenko, Ryan Speedo Green, Asmik Grigorian, Leah Hawkins, Brian Jagde, Isabel Leonard, Will Liverman, Peter Mattei, Latonia Moore, Erin Morley, Ailyn Pérez, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Nadine Sierra, Elza van den Heever, Christian Van Horn, and Sonya Yoncheva, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Additional artists will be confirmed at a later date.

REPERTORY PRODUCTIONS AND HIGHLIGHTS

The Met will mount 12 revivals during the 2026–27 season, including the perennial productions of Puccini’s La Bohème and the family-friendly, English-language version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, as well as Cherubini’s Medea, Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, Massenet’s Manon, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Puccini’s Tosca, Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Verdi’s Aida and Otello, and Wagner’s Parsifal.

Principal Guest Conductor Daniele Rustioni returns to conduct La Bohème, Tosca, and Otello.

Mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina returns in Samson et Dalila, opposite tenor Clay Hilley in his Met debut as Samson.

Soprano Angel Blue returns as Desdemona in Otello and the title role in Michael Mayer’s acclaimed 2024–25 production of Aida.

Soprano Lisette Oropesa returns in the title role of Maria Stuarda, after her critically praised performances in the Met’s new production of Bellini’s I Puritani in the 2025–26 season.
Soprano Nadine Sierra returns, following her triumph in La Sonnambula in the 2025–26 season, to sing the title role of Manon, opposite tenor Matthew Polenzani.
Sopranos Rachel Willis-Sørensen and Ying Fang, mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, and bass Günther Groissböck return to the Met stage in Der Rosenkavalier.

Tenor Piotr Beczała makes his role debut in the title role of Parsifal, opposite mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča in her Met role debut as Kundry. Baritone Peter Mattei is Amfortas, bass Jongmin Park is Gurnemanz, and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green makes his role debut as Klingsor.

A number of audience favorites return in La Bohème, including sopranos Rosa Feola, Juliana Grigoryan, Ermonela Jaho, Federica Lombardi, Kathryn Lewek, and Kristina Mkhitaryan and tenors Atalla Ayan, Stephen Costello, Adam Smith, and Pene Pati.
Soprano Sonya Yoncheva sings the title role of Cherubini’s Medea in the first revival of David McVicar’s 2022 production.

Sopranos Saioa Hernández and Natalya Romaniw make their company debuts as Tosca in David McVicar’s production. Baritone Gabriele Viviani makes his Met debut as Scarpia.

THE MET: LIVE IN HD 2026–27 SEASON

The 20th season of the Met’s Live in HD series will feature eight live Met performances transmitted to movie theaters and other venues across the globe, beginning with Mozart’s Così fan tutte (October 3, 2026) and continuing with Verdi’s Macbeth (October 17, 2026), Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila (December 5, 2026), Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West (January 23, 2027), Kevin Puts’s Silent Night (March 20, 2027), Massenet’s Manon (April 3, 2027), Verdi’s Otello (April 24, 2027), and Wagner’s Parsifal (June 5, 2027).

The Met will present a special addition to the 2026–27 Live in HD lineup, Twenty Years of the Met in Cinemas: An Anniversary Celebration, hosted by soprano Renée Fleming. The show will feature highlights from the company’s collection of more than 185 onscreen performances, including unforgettable moments from opera’s greatest stars, such as Lise Davidsen, Joyce DiDonato, Elīna Garanča, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Jonas Kaufmann, Peter Mattei, Sondra Radvanovsky, and Nadine Sierra, among others.

The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor, the Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital support of The Met: Live in HD is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Met: Live in HD series is in partnership with Rolex.

Within months of their initial live transmissions, the Live in HD programs are shown on PBS in the United States. The PBS series Great Performances at the Met is produced in association with PBS and the WNET Group: [See: The Met: Live in HD 2026–27 Season Schedule]

THE MET ON THE RADIO AND ONLINE

The Met’s 96th consecutive Saturday Matinee Broadcast season will be transmitted over The Robert K. Johnson Foundation–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network beginning December 5, 2026, with Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila and concluding June 12, 2027, with Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. 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 GRoW @ Annenberg, the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, the Neubauer Family Foundation, the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media, and through contributions from listeners worldwide.

SiriusXM’s Metropolitan Opera Radio 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 is available on the SiriusXM app to subscribers in the United States and Canada.

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

SPECIAL EVENTS

THE MET ORCHESTRA AND THE MET ORCHESTRA CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

The Met Orchestra will perform two concerts at Carnegie Hall in the new season, beginning on February 4, 2027, with a program featuring works by Janáček and Bruckner, led by Simon Rattle. The Met Orchestra will perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 at Carnegie Hall on June 18, 2027, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 on stage at the Met on June 10–12, 2027. These concerts are part of Carnegie Hall’s Mahler Symphony Cycle, which features Nézet-Séguin conducting a full Mahler cycle with the Met Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic.

The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble also performs six concerts at Carnegie Hall, November 2026 through June 2027. The programs feature works by Alyabyev, Brahms, Debussy, Janáček, Messiaen, Mozart, Andrew Norman, Popov, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg, Schubert, Caroline Shaw, and Vaughan Williams. Nézet-Séguin to conduct and perform at the piano for select concerts. Additional artists to be announced.

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. Roughly 1,500 applicants participate in a series of auditions leading up to the Grand Finals Concert, which will be held on March 21, 2027, featuring the Met Orchestra conducted by Maestro Evan Rogister. With more than half a million dollars awarded to singers each season, the finalists will compete for cash prizes and the chance to launch a major operatic career.

ASMIK GRIGORIAN IN RECITAL

Soprano Asmik Grigorian appears in recital at the Metropolitan Opera House with pianists Lukas and Petras Geniušas on November 18, 2026, during the run of Jenůfa, in which she stars in the title role. Grigorian joins a select group of extraordinary artists who have given solo recitals on the Met stage, including Kathleen Battle, Lise Davidsen, and Sonya Yoncheva in recent years. Grigorian will sing arias by Dvořák, Puccini, Strauss, and Verdi, with selections from Rusalka, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Turandot, Salome, Don Carlos, Macbeth, and Otello.

PETER GELB 20TH-ANNIVERSARY SEASON

Peter Gelb became the company’s 16th General Manager in 2006 and is the third-longest-serving General Manager in Met history after Giulio Gatti-Casazza and Rudolf Bing. Gelb’s initiatives reflect his fundamental goals of revitalizing opera and connecting the art form to a wider audience. During his tenure, he has expanded the company’s repertory with the Met’s Opera Commissioning Program and new productions of classic operas, championed visionary artists, hired directors from Broadway and the West End to enhance the theatricality of Met productions, and made important artistic appointments including naming Yannick Nézet-Séguin Music Director in 2016. By the end of his 20th-anniversary season, Gelb will have overseen 122 new productions, 41 Met premieres, and nine Met commissions.