Name: Carmen
Start: 2026-01-23T20:00:00
Location: Lincoln Center

Opera enthusiasts, rejoice! 2025 is shaping up to be a monumental year for opera with a range of productions that span the globe, from the classic tales of 'La Bohème' and 'Turandot' to the innovative adaptation of 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.' With performances at iconic venues like the Lincoln Center and Auckland Town Hall, and featuring a lineup of world-class talent, this year's operatic offerings promise to captivate audiences with their storytelling, musical brilliance, and visual grandeur.

Exploring the Opulent World of Opera in 2025: From Timeless Classics to Captivating New Adaptations

Janai Brugger

Adam Plachetka

Isabel Leonard

Michael Fabiano

Aigul Akhmetshina

Christian Van Horn

Kristina Mkhitaryan

Matthew Polenzani

Derrick Inouye

Fabien Gabel

Pier Giorgio Morandi

Ann Yee

Tom Scutt

Michael Levine

Guy Hoare

The Metropolitan Opera

“One of the most lavish and intricate [productions] in the company’s repertoire” (The New York Times), Franco Zeffirelli’s glittering take on Puccini’s final masterpiece returns to the stage with three extraordinary casts bringing the rousing score to life. Sopranos Angela Meade, Anna Pirozzi, and Liudmyla Monastyrska star in the title role of the vengeful princess, whose frozen heart is thawed by the courageous prince Calàf, portrayed by tenors Michael Fabiano, Brian Jagde, and Roberto Alagna.

Turandot

Lincoln Center

With its enchanting setting and spellbinding score, the world’s most popular opera is as timeless as it is heartbreaking. Franco Zeffirelli’s picture-perfect production brings 19th-century Paris to the Met stage as Puccini’s young friends and lovers navigate the joy and struggle of bohemian life. Sopranos Juliana Grigoryan, Angel Blue, and Aleksandra Kurzak trade off as the feeble seamstress Mimì, opposite tenors Freddie De Tommaso, Stephen Costello, Adam Smith, and Long Long as the ardent poet Rodolfo.

La Bohème

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

Giordano’s passionate tragedy stars tenor Piotr Beczała as the virtuous poet who falls victim to the intrigue and violence of the French Revolution. Following their celebrated recent partnership in Giordano’s Fedora, Beczała reunites with soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Chénier’s aristocratic lover, Maddalena di Coigny, with baritone Igor Golovatenko as Carlo Gérard, the agent of the Reign of Terror who seals their fates. Daniele Rustioni takes the podium to lead Nicolas Joël’s gripping staging.

Andrea Chénier

Bass-baritone Alfred Walker and soprano Brittany Renee headline one of the defining works of American music theater. With its fusion of opera, jazz, and Broadway, the Gershwins’ enduring masterpiece features a number of tunes whose popularity has transcended the opera house, including the classics “Summertime” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” Hailed by The Washington Post as “a Porgy of its time that speaks to ours,” James Robinson’s vivid staging features electrifying choreography by Camille A. Brown, with an all-star ensemble portraying the community of Catfish Row.

Porgy and Bess

A treasured holiday tradition, Mozart’s heartwarming fairy tale takes the stage in the Met’s abridged, English-language production by Julie Taymor—the Tony Award–winning director of Broadway’s The Lion King. Featuring some of opera’s most popular melodies and brought to life with colorful sets and costumes and dazzling puppetry, it’s perfect for audiences of all ages.

The Magic Flute—Holiday Presentation

For gorgeous melody, spellbinding coloratura, and virtuoso vocal fireworks, I Puritani has few equals. On New Year’s Eve, the curtain goes up on the first new Met production of Bellini’s final masterpiece in nearly 50 years—a striking staging by Charles Edwards, who makes his company directorial debut after many successes as a set designer. The Met has assembled a world-beating 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.

I Puritani

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

American composer Gabriela Lena Frank makes her Met debut with her first opera, a magical-realist portrait of Mexico’s painterly power couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, with libretto by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Nilo Cruz. Fashioned as a reversal of the Orpheus and Euridice myth, the story depicts Frida, sung by leading mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, leaving the underworld on the Day of the Dead and reuniting with Diego, portrayed by baritone Carlos Álvarez. The famously feuding pair briefly relive their tumultuous love, embracing both the passion and the pain before bidding the land of the living a final farewell. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Met premiere of Frank’s opera, a “confident, richly imagined score” (The New Yorker) that “bursts with color and fresh individuality” (Los Angeles Times). The vibrant new production, taking enthusiastic inspiration from Frida and Diego’s paintings, is directed and choreographed by Deborah Colker, following her remarkable 2024 debut staging of Ainadamar.

Carmen

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