The Metropolitan Opera Reveals 2025-26 Season Featuring Met Premieres and More

The Metropolitan Opera has revealed its 2025–26 season, the company’s 142nd year, featuring six new productions—three of which are Met premieres—and 12 revivals. This season, the Met continues to program bold new works and celebrated productions of repertory classics—featuring many of the world’s greatest singers, directors, conductors, and designers.

Building on its commitment to new work, the Met will present three company premieres, including the season opener, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, composed by Mason Bates in his Met debut, with a libretto by Gene Scheer and directed by Bartlett Sher. Kaija Saariaho’s final opera, Innocence, with a libretto by Sofi Oksanen and directed by Simon Stone, has its Met premiere under the baton of Saariaho’s close collaborator, Susanna Mälkki. The third Met premiere of the season will be Gabriela Lena Frank’s first opera, El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, with a libretto by Nilo Cruz and directed and choreographed by Deborah Colker. Both The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego will be conducted by the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The three additional new productions feature notable directorial debuts: the celebrated American director Yuval Sharon with a production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, starring acclaimed soprano Lise Davidsen; U.K. director Charles Edwards with the New Year’s Eve production of Bellini’s I Puritani, starring soprano Lisette Oropesa; and the tenor-turned-director Rolando Villazón with Bellini’s La Sonnambula, featuring soprano Nadine Sierra.
“We’re excited about our varied 2025–26 lineup, which should thrill seasoned opera lovers as well as the new audiences we would like to attract,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager. “In these uncertain times, we hope that our performances will provide solace for a world sorely in need of it.”

“I am delighted to be leading four incredible operas this season. Two that have special significance to me are written by composers whose works I have championed for some time, Mason Bates and Gabriela Lena Frank. Hearing their music in conversation with Mozart, Puccini, and Saariaho demonstrates the broad artistic range of the Met. I am excited for this thrilling season ahead,” said Maestro Nézet-Séguin.

MET PREMIERES

The season opens with the Met premiere of Grammy Award–winning composer Mason Bates’s adaptation of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, on September 21. Librettist Gene Scheer returns, following the 2025 Met premiere of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, with another epic novel-to-opera adaptation. Baritone Andrzej Filończyk makes his Met debut as the artist Joe Kavalier, who flees Czechoslovakia and arrives at the Brooklyn doorstep of writer Sam Clay, sung by tenor Miles Mykkanen. Bartlett Sher’s production includes towering sets and proscenium-filling projections designed by Jenny Melville and Mark Grimmer of 59. Maestro Nézet-Séguin, who has long championed Bates’s music, conducts his eclectic score, which incorporates electronic elements and three distinct musical styles: 1940s big band to represent New York City, the Eastern-European folk music of Prague, and techno symphonic music to characterize the comic-book world.

On May 14, American composer Gabriela Lena Frank makes her Met debut with her first opera, El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, a magical-realist portrait of Mexico’s painterly power couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Nilo Cruz. The story depicts Frida, sung by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, leaving the underworld on the Day of the Dead and reuniting with Diego, portrayed by baritone Carlos Álvarez. Maestro Nézet-Séguin—whose connection to Frank dates back to 2012 when the Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned her to compose a work for his inaugural season as music director—conducts the Met premiere of her opera. The new production, taking inspiration from Frida and Diego’s paintings, is directed and choreographed by Deborah Colker, following her lauded 2024 debut staging of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar.

Late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s final opera, Innocence, with libretto by prominent Finnish author Sofi Oksanen, has its Met premiere on April 6. Inspired by two of the canon’s most shocking operas, Strauss’s Elektra and Berg’s Wozzeck, Saariaho’s Innocence is an unflinching reflection on the senseless violence of our modern age. Having first premiered to great acclaim at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2021, the original production will once again be directed by Simon Stone. Innocence features mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and Finnish ethno-pop singer Vilma Jää as a grieving mother and the daughter she lost. Soprano Jacquelyn Stucker and tenor Miles Mykkanen appear as a young couple whose wedding uncovers buried secrets and reopens old wounds. Soprano Lucy Shelton also makes her Met debut in the role of the Teacher. Maestro Susanna Mälkki—a longtime champion of Saariaho’s music—returns to conduct a score infused with Scandinavian folk music and sprechstimme, the vocal technique combining speech and song.

NEW PRODUCTIONS

Leading soprano Lise Davidsen portrays the Irish princess Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, opening March 9 with a gala premiere. Tenor Michael Spyres stars opposite Davidsen as the love-drunk Tristan. The occasion marks a new Met-debut staging by Yuval Sharon, as well as Music Director Nézet-Séguin’s first time leading Tristan und Isolde at the Met. Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova reprises her portrayal of Brangäne, alongside bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, who sings Kurwenal. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green makes his role debut as King Marke.

Soprano Nadine Sierra continues to perform the most renowned lyric soprano roles at the Met, this season as Amina in Bellini’s La Sonnambula. In this new production by Rolando Villazón—the tenor who has embarked on a second career as a director—the opera is set in an abstraction of the Swiss Alps. Riccardo Frizza, known for his interpretations of the Bel Canto repertoire, takes the podium for the October 6 premiere, leading tenor Xabier Anduaga, who returns after his acclaimed 2023 Met debut in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore to co-star as Amina’s fiancé, Elvino, alongside soprano Sydney Mancasola as her rival, Lisa, and bass Alexander Vinogradov as Count Rodolfo.

For the annual New Year’s Eve Gala, Bellini’s I Puritani gets its first new Met production in nearly 50 years. In a staging by Charles Edwards—who makes his company directorial debut following many successful outings as a set designer—the Met has assembled a quartet of stars, conducted by Marco Armiliato, for the demanding principal roles. Soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Lawrence Brownlee are Elvira and Arturo, brought together by love and torn apart by the political rifts of the English Civil War, with baritone Artur Ruciński as Riccardo, betrothed to Elvira against her will, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Elvira’s sympathetic uncle, Giorgio.

REPERTORY PRODUCTIONS AND HIGHLIGHTS

Twelve revivals round out the season—Bizet’s Carmen; Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment; the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess; Giordano’s Andrea Chénier; Mozart’s Don Giovanni; Puccini’s La Bohème, Turandot, and Madama Butterfly; Strauss’s Arabella; Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin; and Verdi’s La Traviata, as well as the Met’s annual presentation of Julie Taymor’s abridged, English-language version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute during the holiday season.
Daniele Rustioni embarks on his inaugural season as Principal Guest Conductor, conducting Don Giovanni, La Bohème, and Andrea Chénier.

Soprano Asmik Grigorian makes her Met role debut as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, following her acclaimed 2024 company debut in Madama Butterfly.

Tenor Piotr Beczała and soprano Sonya Yoncheva reunite following celebrated performances in Giordano’s Fedora in 2023, starring as the principal pair of Andrea Chénier.

Soprano Angel Blue returns as Liù in Turandot and Mimì in La Bohème, following her triumphant portrayal in the title role in the Met’s new production of Verdi’s Aida.
Soprano Erin Morley, an audience favorite, sings the role of Marie in La Fille du Régiment, in her Met role debut.

Mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina returns to the title role of Carmen, which won her rave reviews during the 2023–24 season. She shares the run with mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, making her Met role debut as Carmen.
Sopranos Ailyn Pérez, Sonya Yoncheva, and Elena Stikhina make their Met role debuts as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly.

Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green makes his Met role debut as Don Giovanni in the return of Ivo van Hove’s production. Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen stars in Arabella. Singers making notable Met debuts include soprano Louise Alder in Arabella, soprano Amina Edris in La Bohème, soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha in Turandot, baritone Andrzej Filończyk in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and tenor Adam Smith in Madama Butterfly.

Met conducting debuts include Fabien Gabel with Carmen, Kwamé Ryan with Porgy and Bess, Michele Spotti with La Traviata, Erina Yashima with The Magic Flute, and Timur Zangiev with Eugene Onegin.

THE MET: LIVE IN HD 2025–26 SEASON

The 19th 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 Bellini’s La Sonnambula (October 18, 2025) and continuing with Puccini’s La Bohème (November 8, 2025), Strauss’s Arabella (November 22, 2025), Giordano’s Andrea Chénier (December 13, 2025), Bellini’s I Puritani (January 10, 2026), Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (March 21, 2026), Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (May 2, 2026), and Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego (May 30, 2026).

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 supported by 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 2025–26 SCHEDULE]

SPECIAL EVENTS

The Met Orchestra and Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall
The Met Orchestra will mark its 100th Carnegie Hall concert in February, led by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, with a program that features mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard in works by Dawson, Barber, and Bernstein. Maestro Nézet-Séguin returns twice in June to conduct Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 and a program featuring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder and Symphony No. 4.

The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble also performs six concerts at Carnegie Hall, October through May. The various programs include an all-Mozart concert featuring Maestro Nézet-Séguin as pianist and conductor; a program featuring works by Strauss, Bach, and Shostakovich; soprano Erin Morley singing works by Mozart and Schubert, as well Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time; Maestro Nézet-Séguin leading a program featuring works by Caroline Shaw, Copland, Beach, Walker, Barber, and John Adams; a program that ties into Saariaho’s Innocence and features works by Paul Frucht, Saariaho, and Brahms; and a program that features music by Gabriela Lena Frank, Valerie Coleman, Bernstein, Steve Reich, and Dvořák.

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 Sunday, March 22, 2026, featuring the Met Orchestra conducted by Maestro Carlo Rizzi. 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.

TICKET INFORMATION

Ticket prices for the 2025–26 season range from $25 to $480 for the 4,000 seats in the opera house. Single-ticket buyers and Subscribers may exchange their tickets online by logging in to their account on metopera.org and visiting the Tickets section of the My Account page. Exchanges may also be requested by calling Met Customer Care at 212.362.6000 or visiting the Met box office.

The Toll Rush Ticket program returns in the 2025–26 season, making more than 30,000 $25 tickets available to the general public. The Met Opera app is now available for download on mobile devices, offering users a new way to purchase Toll Rush Tickets via an automated lottery. Lotteries open two weeks prior to a performance, and winners are notified the day before the performance. Toll Rush Tickets can also be purchased on a first-come, first-served basis online at 12PM for weekday performances, 2PM for Saturday evening performances, and four hours before curtain for matinee performances.

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