THE MET

The Metropolitan Opera today announced the contract extension of its Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, through the 2029–30 season. Only the third Music Director in the company’s history, Nézet-Séguin began his tenure in the 2018–19 season....

Back in December, I saw the chamber version of John Adams’s EL NINO—dubbed EL NINO: NATIVITY RECONSIDERED—at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Pared down to its essence, it was wonderful, starred two of the singers who made their debuts in the premiere at the Met, soprano Julia Bullock and bass-baritone Davone Tines plus countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who were at their best. It was a somber evening in a dramatic setting—a far cry from the oratorio/opera’s over-the-top welcome to Lincoln...

It was tough separating the opera from the event when FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES opened the first post-Covid pandemic season at the Met. Back then, in September 2021, FIRE made history as the first opera by a Black composer, Terence Blanchard with his librettist Kasi Lemmons (based on the book by Charles M. Blow), to make its way to the Met stage. This week, it returned to show that contemporary opera can have “legs” on the big stage of the company....

Watch video footage from Bartlett Sher's production of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, as it returns to the Met stage for seven performances, with an all-star cast of artists making their Met role debuts....

In response to the unprecedented challenges faced by the performing arts sector, particularly during and after the pandemic, the Metropolitan Opera has announced a series of strategic measures to ensure its continued operation and artistic excellence....

Just as the Met’s debut of Mexican composer Daniel Catan’s FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS (FLORENCE IN THE AMAZON) began the other day, a member of the audience yelled out “Viva la ópera en español!” (“Long live opera in Spanish!”). And that was before a single note of the composer’s lyric, highly accessible and heavy-on-the-Puccini score was played....

It’s rather surprising, really, for the audience to embrace a contemporary piece like DEAD MAN WALKING, no matter how easily it falls upon the ears, considering the subject matter. In this Ivo van Hove production, it starts with a rape and double murder in a rather graphic piece of film, the use of video being one of van Hove’s trademarks. It ends with a death by lethal injection, also graphically shown in live video....

Of all the theatre directors that the Met has marshalled into its forces, Simon McBurney--who brought his version of Mozart’s DIE ZAUBERFLOTE (THE MAGIC FLUTE) to the Met on Friday in his house debut--may be the most successful in melding music and theatre, storytelling and visual elements....

While there’s always a great deal of talk about where the next generation of operagoers is coming from, there’s much less hand-wringing about the sources of the new generation of singers. After hearing the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition’s Grand Finals Concert at the Met on Sunday afternoon, we could plainly hear that the future of the Met roster is alive and well and waiting to take center stage....

In search of new audiences, the Met has followed Terence Blanchard’s FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES with the jazz musician/composer’s first opera, CHAMPION, the story of closeted boxer Emile Griffith’s rise and fall from grace. Honestly, never have I heard people whose usual venues are Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium and Monday Night Football on ESPN talk about how they “wanted to see the new opera at the Met.”...

You’ve got to admit that the Met had a lot of guts to dedicate this season’s performances of Vincenzo Bellini’s NORMA (libretto by Felice Romani) to the memory of Maria Callas on the 100th anniversary of her birth. Hers was simply one of the most legendary portrayals of the role, by a fabled singer. Period. But Yoncheva--and her costars--pulled off the performance with aplomb and made the Met audience very happy indeed....

I’ve heard the opera a number of times at the Met over the years and this year’s run holds up with the most breathtaking of them. Despite the number of star performances among the magnificent ensemble currently being heard at the Met, the star of the show doesn’t have a single word to say or note to sing. It's the John Dexter production that does it....

The Met Opera brings magic and splendor to cinemas across the country with The Met: Live in HD. ...

Donizetti wrote more than six dozen operas in the course of around 30 years, so it must have been hard for him not to steal from himself. Still, it always strikes me during the overture to his great comedy L’ELISIR D’AMORE, whose run at the Met opened the other night, when I hear echoes of the oh-so-dramatic LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, which would come just a few years later. Yet, the similar music somehow works in both operas....

According to the New York Times, the Metropolitan Opera is set to reduce performances by 10% and withdraw $30 million from an endowment to help the company focus more on new work, which have been selling better than the classics. The company has been struggling with ticket sales post-pandemic....

Last season, the company gave its first presentation of the French version (that’s the one called DON CARLOS, with a final S to his first name), in the five-act version that lasted almost 5 hours. This year, we’re back to Italian, under Carlo Rizzi’s firm baton, in one of a number of versions (this one running about 4 hours) of DON CARLO, which uses shortcuts to tell the story elements deleted with the excision of the first act (usually referred to as “the Fontainebleau scene”)....

Well, no one can say that the Met doesn’t have guts. After the tepid response that subscribers gave its Las Vegas version of Verdi’s RIGOLETTO by Michael Mayer, no one would have suspected that they’d come up with a version of Donizetti’s LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR that made anything else it’s produced look tame. And while the new LUCIA isn’t something that will send every Met attendee into quivers of excitement--I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many pros and cons discussed at an intermission before--i...

Puccini's 'La Boheme,' returned for its second run of the season this week and cast and conductor delivered the goods. There's nothing to say that has not already been said about La Boheme as an opera and the famous Zeffirelli production, so we won't dwell on it....

Though the Met’s season doesn’t technically start till the end of the month, the company started off with a pair of what French chefs might call “amuses bouches”—sort of tastebud teasers. The first was Mahler’s Second, which was done in the open air; the second was its first inside the hall:The Verdi Requiem, which was broadcast (and which I saw) live last Saturday on PBS....

All audience members must provide in-person verification of vaccination. Prior to entering the Met, you will be asked to provide proof of vaccination through the CLEAR app (if available to you), the Excelsior Pass (for New York State residents), or an original physical vaccination card or photograph of it. ...

AFM Local 802 has released a statement on the outsourcing of musicians for last night's Metropolitan Opera Gala....

The 23 young opera singers who have won regional auditions around the United States will compete in the semifinal round of the country's leading vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, on Monday, February 24. The closed semifinal competition, held on the Met stage before a panel of judges, will determine the select group of finalists who will advance to the final round of the competition-the Grand Finals, which is open to the public and will be held on the Met sta...

The Metropolitan Opera's general manager Peter Gelb has stated that Plácido Domingo will continue to perform with the organization in Verdi's Macbeth as previously scheduled....

The Metropolitan Opera has named soprano Lisette Oropesa as the winner of the 14th annual Beverly Sills Artist Award. The $50,000 award is given to extraordinarily gifted singers with rising Met careers. Given in honor of the legendary American soprano Beverly Sills, the award was established in 2006 by an endowment gift from the late Agnes Varis, a managing director on the Met's Board of Directors....

Mozart's opera of ancient Rome, La Clemenza di Tito, returns to the Met starring Matthew Polenzani in the title role of the Roman emperor Tito, with Elza van den Heever as the vengeful Vitellia, who plots his assassination. Joyce DiDonato sings the trouser role of Sesto, Tito's most devoted friend, who is also in love with Vitellia. The trio of leading artists is reunited at the Met after their acclaimed performances together in the company's new production of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda in 2013. ...