The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-2015 Season Includes THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER, LA DONNA DEL LAGO, and More

The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season will feature 26 operas, three of them company premieres, in six new productions and 18 revivals showcasing the talents of the world's leading singers, conductors, and theater artists. The three operas that will have their first-ever Met performances, each staged by a director making his Met debut, are John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris, opening October 20; Rossini's La Donna del Lago, conducted by Michele Mariottiand directed by Paul Curran, opening February 16, 2015; and Tchaikovsky's one-act operaIolanta, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Treli?ski. Iolanta will be presented in a double bill with a new staging of Bartók's one-act Duke Bluebeard's Castle,also conducted by Gergiev and directed by Treli?ski.

Met Music Director James Levine, back to full strength, will resume his typical schedule of six operas in the 2014-15 season. His first opera will be Richard Eyre's new production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, which opens the Met season on September 22. Levine also conducts five revivals next season, leading Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann; Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress; Verdi's Ernani, which he has not conducted at the Met since 1983, and Un Ballo in Maschera; and Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Levine will also conduct all three concerts in the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall series.

On New Year's Eve, Tony Award-winning director Susan Stroman will make her Met debut with a new production of Lehár's The Merry Widow, conducted by Andrew Davis. The final new production of the season will be another double bill, Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticanaand Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, led by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi and directed byDavid McVicar.

The 2014-15 season was announced by Met General Manager Peter Gelb and Met Music Director James Levine.

"With a mix of new offerings, a few repertory rarities, and solid casting of our mainstay revivals, this should prove to be a stimulating season for the Company and for our audience," said Gelb. "Jim's return to a full slate of operas is the ideal icing on our cake."

"My return to the company has been one of the most joyful experiences of my life, and I'm delighted to resume a full working schedule of six operas next season for the first time in several years," said James Levine.

The ninth season of The Met: Live in HD, which is the world's leading alternative cinema content series and currently reaches more than 2,000 theaters in 65 countries, will open on October 11 with Verdi's Macbeth. The performance, conducted by Fabio Luisi, will starŽeljko Lu?i? as Macbeth and Anna Netrebko in the vocally and dramatically demanding role of Lady Macbeth. Nine additional matinee performances, including all six new productions, will be transmitted over the course of the season.

To post a comment, you must register and login.