Production Designer

A profound philosophical meditation on compassion and reconciliation, Wagner’s transcendent rendering of a medieval knight’s heroic quest for the Holy Grail returns in François Girard’s celebrated production, a “thoughtful and intrepid staging, full of striking imagery” (The New York Times). Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a cast of Wagnerian superstars, including tenor Piotr Beczała in the title role, mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča as the enigmatic Kundry, baritone Peter Mattei as the ailing Amfortas, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the sorcerer Klingsor, and bass Jongmin Park as the wise Gurnemanz.

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Parsifal

Lincoln Center

Cultures collide in Puccini’s poignant tale of a loyal geisha and a callous American naval officer whose fleeting romance leaves only devastation behind. In an exciting casting coup, three of today’s leading sopranos make their Met role debuts as Cio-Cio-San in a single season: Ailyn Pérez, Sonya Yoncheva, and Elena Stikhina. Tenors SeokJong Baek, Adam Smith—in his Met debut—and Matthew Polenzani co-star as Pinkerton in Anthony Minghella’s production, an “inspired vision” (The New York Times) that has become a classic.

Madama Butterfly

Bizet’s fiery masterpiece of seduction, obsession, and tragedy stars two of today’s leading mezzo-sopranos as the title heroine, whose irresistible allure drives the soldier Don José to destruction. Isabel Leonard brings her smoldering take to the Met for the first time, opposite tenors Michael Fabiano and Matthew Polenzani, and Aigul Akhmetshina, praised by The New Yorker for the “fresh, ferocious energy” of her Carmen in the 2023–24 season, reprises her star-making portrayal, alongside tenor Michael Fabiano.

Carmen

Ian McEwan, born in 1948, is one of the most important voices in contemporary English literature. His successful 2001 novel Atonement is about a life spent atoning for an early debt: Through a deliberate false statement, Briony Tallis, a pubescent, overzealous writer in 1930s England, puts her older sister’s unfit lover in prison and destroys the lives and loves of two people

Atonement

Opernhaus Zürich

Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is one of opera’s most romantic masterpieces, an aching meditation on happiness undone. Canadian director Robert Carsen’s stunningly simple staging enjoys an international reputation as “a piece of contemporary operatic history” (The Globe and Mail) and returns to the COC for the first time since 2018.

Eugene Onegin

Canadian Opera Company

Danae must marry a wealthy man to settle her father's debts. All dream of gold here, and Danae more than all others. A powerful man takes an interest in her and sends another ahead. It would appear the right husband has been found. But, of course his wealth comes with a condition which stands in the way of true happiness. Danae must, Danae can choose between wealth and love, between dreams and reality, between the promises of wealth and riches, and of love and all its happiness. 

The Love of Danae

Max-Joseph-Platz

Tragedia giapponese in two acts by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
after Pierre Loti, John Luther Long and David Belasco

A body is found in the ice, and a woman is looking for her father while a man searches for his lost lover.

This story is as much about origins as it is about memory, and remembering what is lost. Mnemonic asks: what is our place in the natural world? How have human relationships with the environment shaped patterns of migration? Who are we, and where do we come from?

Mnemonic

National Theatre

Acclaimed English director Carrie Cracknell makes her Met debut, reinvigorating the classic story with a staging that moves the action to the modern day and finds at the heart of the drama issues that could not be more relevant today: gendered violence, abusive labor structures, and the desire to break through societal boundaries. Dazzling young mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina leads a powerhouse quartet of stars in the complex and volatile title role, alongside tenor Piotr Beczala as Carmen’s troubled lover Don José, soprano Angel Blue as the loyal Micaëla, and bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen as the swaggering Escamillo.

MET: Carmen (Bizet)

Highlands Performing Arts Center

Three extraordinary sopranos—Aleksandra Kurzak, Eleonora Buratto, and Asmik Grigorian (in her highly anticipated Met debut)—tackle the demanding role of Cio-Cio-San, the loyal geisha at the heart of Puccini’s devastating tragedy. Tenors Matthew Polenzani and Jonathan Tetelman co-star as the callous American naval officer Pinkerton, whose betrayal destroys her. Mezzo-sopranos Elizabeth DeShong and Eve Gigliotti share the role of the steadfast maid Suzuki, and baritone Davide Luciano and Lucas Meachem are the American consul Sharpless. Acclaimed maestro Xian Zhang makes her Met debut conducting Anthony Minghella’s vivid production.

For the naval lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, his marriage to Cio-Cio-San, known as Butterfly, is a non-committal convenience during his stay in Nagasaki.

felt  Butterfly

Vienna State Opera

The Met celebrates the New Year with a vital new production of one of opera’s most enduringly popular and powerful works. Acclaimed English director Carrie Cracknell makes her Met debut, reinvigorating the classic story of deadly passion with a staging that moves the action to the modern day, amid a band of human traffickers.

One of opera’s most beloved works receives its first new Met staging in 19 years—a daring vision by renowned English director Simon McBurney that The Wall Street Journal declared “the best production I’ve ever witnessed of Mozart’s opera.” Nathalie Stutzmann conducts the Met Orchestra, with the pit raised to make the musicians visible to the audience and allow interaction with the cast. In his Met-debut staging, McBurney lets loose a volley of theatrical flourishes, incorporating projections, sound effects, and acrobatics to match the spectacle and drama of Mozart’s fable. The brilliant cast includes soprano Erin Morley as Pamina, tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Tamino, baritone Thomas Oliemans in his Met debut as Papageno, soprano Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, and bass Stephen Milling as Sarastro.

Die Zauberflöte

She loved him at first sight. But Onegin, an aristocrat obsessed with appearances, could never be happy with a country girl like Tatyana. Or so he thought. Emotions run high in Tchaikovsky's drama Eugene Onegin, based on Alexander Pushkin's deeply human story.  Gorgeous sweeping melodies melt the heart, making this one of opera's most romantic masterpieces—from Tatyana's ardent letter scene to the intense final duet as Tatyana and Onegin fight for their emotional lives.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts

After delivering one of the most stunning productions in recent Met memory with his 2025 take on Strauss’s Salome, director Claus Guth returns with a psychologically probing setting of Janáček’s haunting Jenůfa, extolled by The Telegraph at its London premiere as an “edgy, evocative staging that will surely become a classic.” Headlining the new staging is soprano Asmik Grigorian, whose dramatic intensity and powerhouse voice are perfectly suited to the demands of the title character, a young woman driven to despair by abandonment and betrayal. Legendary soprano Nina Stemme returns to the Met as the Kostelnička, Jenůfa’s stern stepmother, who commits an unspeakable act in a misguided attempt to save Jenůfa from ruin. Standout tenors Allan Clayton and Sean Panikkar also star as the impulsive Laca, who disfigures Jenůfa in a fit of jealousy, and his stepbrother Števa, who fathers her child before cruelly abandoning her. Maestro Tomáš Hanus makes his company debut on the podium.

Jenůfa

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky never had any illusions about the subject he wished to set to music for his fifth opera, Evgeny Onegin by Alexander Pushkin. On several occasions, he shows himself aware of the presence of “very few stage effects, very little action” in a libretto made up of many “lyric scenes” (as he would later subtitle the opera) depicting life in 19th-century Russia, from jam-making in the countryside to a searing farewell dialogue in a palace in Saint Petersburg. What interests him is the powerful “inner drama” so well expressed in Pushkin’s verses—verses that he largely preserves. He is interested in the characters and their human condition: Onegin’s restlessness, Lensky’s “poet’s soul,” and above all the feelings that stir a woman: “I am in love,” he confesses, “with the character of Tatiana.” Anyone familiar with Tchaikovsky’s life can imagine why he felt so close to this melancholic girl, noble in spirit and destined to see all the love overflowing from her remain unfulfilled. It is no coincidence that the “Letter Scene,” in which she is the protagonist, is considered one of the composer’s peaks, capable here of expressing through music a whirlwind of otherwise inexpressible emotions. Yet every detail of this opera is of such beauty that, contrary to expectations, it has become Tchaikovsky’s most frequently performed work since its premiere in 1879.

Production Designer

Michael Levine

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 16 - Dec 4, 2026

Jenůfa · The Metropolitan Opera

15 - 29 Jun, 2027

Eugene Onegin · Teatro Regio Torino

Past events

May 20 - Jun 5, 2026

Parsifal · The Metropolitan Opera

Jan 9 - Mar 28, 2026

Madama Butterfly · The Metropolitan Opera

About

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