Name: Medea
Start: 2026-11-21T20:00:00
Location: Lincoln Center

Alexandros Stavrakakis

Carlo Rizzi

Sonya Yoncheva

Michael Spyres

Elena Villalón

Victoria Karkacheva

Chiara Isotton

Doey Lüthi

Paule Constable

David McVicar

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

A beloved mainstay of the repertory, Verdi’s great tragedy stirs the soul and breaks the heart like only opera can. A trio of captivating artists—Lisette Oropesa, Rosa Feola, and Ermonela Jaho—alternate in the touchstone soprano role of Violetta Valéry, the ill-fated Parisian courtesan fighting for love before her time runs out. Tony Award–winning director Michael Mayer conjures a dreamy setting that matches the poetry and passion of the unforgettable score.

La Traviata

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.

El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego

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.

Parsifal

Sixty years after the opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center ushered in a spectacular new age of grand opera, the Met celebrates the diamond anniversary of its magnificent home with a glittering gala—conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and fully staged by director Julian Crouch, with immersive video and projections by 59 Studio, and featuring a dazzling array of opera’s brightest stars and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. The program will include a broad selection of arias, duets, and scenes from more than 30 operas, including thrilling excerpts from Die Walküre, Der Rosenkavalier, La Forza del Destino, Akhnaten, Pagliacci, Romeo et Juliette, and The Queen of Spades. In addition to the star-studded performance, the historic evening will include a special gala dinner.

Diamond Jubilee: 60 Years at Lincoln Center

The season opens with hair-raising drama and spectacular singing as two of opera’s most extraordinary artists star in Macbeth, Verdi’s thrilling take on the immortal Shakespearean tale of the scheming couple determined to seize power at any cost. Following past triumphs in many of Verdi’s signature baritone roles, Quinn Kelsey is the Scottish king haunted by the ghosts of his murderous ascent to the throne, opposite Lise Davidsen—the world’s reigning dramatic soprano—as the power-mad Lady Macbeth, whose ruinous ambition damns them both. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for a penetrating production by Louisa Proske, a brilliant young director making waves around the world. Rounding out the all-star cast are tenor Freddie De Tommaso as the heroic Macduff and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as Macbeth’s friend-turned-victim Banquo.

Macbeth

Overflowing with gorgeous melody and hilarious hijinks, Mozart’s satirical comedy of fickle young love is one of the composer’s most sublime creations. Phelim McDermott’s “colorful, inventive” (The New York Times) staging, inspired by Coney Island in the 1950s, sets the uproarious story at a boardwalk amusement park, where the two pairs of lovers at the heart of the tale find themselves on one emotional—and literal—thrill ride after another.

Così fan tutte

The world’s most popular opera, Puccini’s heartbreaking tragedy never fails to enrapture audiences with its poignant depiction of love and loss in bohemian Paris, all set to one of opera’s most romantic scores. Some of today’s most extraordinary talents inhabit the touchstone principal roles in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic staging, a perennial Met favorite for the past 45 years.

La Bohème

George Saunders’s Booker Prize–winning novel arrives at the Met in operatic form, with music by American composer Missy Mazzoli—hailed by The New Yorker as a “once-in-a-generation magician of the orchestra”—and libretto by Royce Vavrek. The supernatural story takes place in the “bardo,” a transitional plane between the end of this life and the beginning of the next, populated by those who resist all the powers of light and darkness and refuse to accept their fates. The action revolves around 11-year-old Willie, recently deceased son of Abraham Lincoln, whose grief-stricken visits to Willie’s tomb prevent his son’s spirit from moving on. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts an ensemble cast led by baritone Peter Mattei as Lincoln, alongside a superlative group of singers as the kaleidoscopic residents of the bardo, who band together to help Willie escape being trapped there for eternity—including soprano Christine Goerke, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo. Director Lileana Blain-Cruz has created an otherworldly setting for this unique and uniquely American tale, which arrives at the Met in time for the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations.

Lincoln in the Bardo

Cherubini’s rarely performed take on classic Greek tragedy stars leading diva Sonya Yoncheva as the ultimate woman scorned, the sorceress whose betrayal drives her to an unthinkable act of revenge. Clarion tenor Michael Spyres is Giasone, Medea’s unfaithful Argonaut husband, in David McVicar’s “impressive and enjoyable” (The New York Times) setting of the timeless myth.

Medea

Searing passion, edge-of-your-seat action, and a career-defining title role: No opera is more dramatic than Puccini’s classic thriller. The ever-popular story of a jealous diva, the ardent painter who loves her, and the villainous chief of police who tears them asunder features several of opera’s biggest stars in a grand, immersive production by David McVicar that transports audiences to three picturesque locations in Rome. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Principal Guest Conductor Daniele Rustioni each take the podium.

Tosca

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.