The Met’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition is a nationwide program designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in their artistic and professional development. Each season, more than 1,000 applicants participate in a series of auditions leading up to the Grand Finals Concert—featuring the Met Orchestra, conducted this season by Evan Rogister—in which a small group of finalists compete for cash prizes and the chance to launch a major operatic career.

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Metropolitan Opera Laffont Grand Finals Concert

Lincoln Center

Eminent American composer John Adams returns to the Met after a decade-long hiatus for the company premiere of his acclaimed opera-oratorio, which incorporates sacred and secular texts in English, Spanish, and Latin, from biblical times to the present day, in an extraordinarily dramatic retelling of the Nativity. El Niño brings together three of contemporary opera’s fiercest champions, all of whom make highly anticipated company debuts: Marin Alsop, one of the great conductors of our time, who has led more than 200 new-music premieres; soprano Julia Bullock, a leading voice on and off stage; and pathbreaking bass-baritone Davóne Tines. Radiant mezzo-sopranos J’Nai Bridges and Daniela Mack take turns completing the principal trio. The moving, fully-staged new production also marks the Met debut of Lileana Blain-Cruz, resident director at Lincoln Center Theater, who received universal acclaim for her Tony-nominated 2022 production of The Skin of Our Teeth.

El Niño

Terence Blanchard’s stirring drama returns following its landmark company premiere in 2021, with bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green starring as Charles, a young man faced with a fateful decision. Soprano Latonia Moore reprises her heartbreaking portrayal as Charles’s mother, Billie, with rising soprano Brittany Renee doing triple duty as Charles’s love interest, Greta, as well as the embodiments of Loneliness and Destiny. James Robinson and Camille A. Brown’s gripping production includes what is surely the only step dance in opera. Evan Rogister conducts Blanchard’s score, which powerfully melds opera and jazz.

Fire Shut Up In My Bones

Puccini’s timeless tragedy returns with three dynamic duos as the bohemian lovers. Sopranos Federica Lombardi, Anita Hartig, and Elena Stikhina alternate as the heartbreaking seamstress Mimì, and tenors Matthew Polenzani, Stephen Costello, and Joseph Calleja share the role of the love-struck poet Rodolfo. Sopranos Olga Kulchynska, Heidi Stober, and Kristina Mkhitaryan and baritones Adam Plachetka and Alexey Markov are the tempestuous lovers Musetta and Marcello, and maestros Carlo Rizzi and Marco Armiliato take the podium to oversee Franco Zeffirelli’s magnificent production.

La Bohème

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Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Verdi’s grand tale of ill-fated love, deadly vendetta, and family strife, with stellar soprano Lise Davidsen following a string of recent Met triumphs with her role debut as the noble Leonora, one of the repertory’s most tormented—and thrilling—heroines. Director Mariusz Treliński delivers the company’s first new Forza in nearly 30 years, setting the scene in a contemporary world and making extensive use of the Met’s turntable to represent the unstoppable advance of destiny that drives the opera’s chain of calamitous events.

La Forza del Destino

Puccini’s bittersweet love story makes a rare Met appearance, with soprano Angel Blue starring as the French courtesan Magda, opposite tenor Jonathan Tetelman in his highly anticipated company debut as Ruggero, an idealistic young man who offers her an alternative to her life of excess. Maestro Speranza Scappucci conducts Nicolas Joël’s Art Deco–inspired staging, which transports audiences from the heart of Parisian nightlife to a dreamy vision of the French Riviera. In their Met debuts, soprano Emily Pogorelc and tenor Bekhzod Davronov complete the sterling cast as Lisette and Prunier.

La Rondine

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.

Madama Butterfly

Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Kevin Puts’s hit new opera, which played to sold-out audiences during its world-premiere production last season, triumphantly returns. The original trio of legendary divas—sopranos Renée Fleming and Kelli O’Hara and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato—reprise their celebrated portrayals of three women from different eras whose lives are connected through Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. Bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen also returns as the dying author Richard, and Kensho Watanabe conducts Phelim McDermott’s gripping staging of this heart-wrenching drama, adapted from Michael Cunningham’s acclaimed novel and the Oscar-winning film it inspired.

The Hours

Ancient Babylon comes to life in a classic Met staging of biblical proportions. Baritone George Gagnidze makes his Met role debut as the imperious king Nabucco, alongside soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska reprising her thrilling turn as his vengeful daughter Abigaille. Mezzo-soprano Maria Barakova and tenor SeokJong Baek, in his company debut, are Fenena and Ismaele, whose love transcends politics, and bass Dmitry Belosselskiy repeats his celebrated portrayal of the high priest Zaccaria. Daniele Callegari conducts Verdi’s exhilarating early masterpiece, which features the ultimate showcase for the great Met Chorus, the moving “Va, pensiero.”

Nabucco

Last seen at the Met in the title role of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo stars as the mythic hero who ventures into the Underworld to rescue his beloved Euridice. Soprano Ying Fang is his ill-fated bride, with soprano Elena Villalón in her company debut as Amore, the god of love who sets Orfeo on his quest. Christian Curnyn makes his Met debut conducting Gluck’s sublime setting of the ancient tale, enlivened by exuberant choreography from the legendary Mark Morris and featuring members of his renowned dance group.

Orfeo ed Euridice

Two singers at the height of their powers—radiant soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor sensation Benjamin Bernheim—come together as the star-crossed lovers in Gounod’s sumptuous Shakespeare adaptation, with Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct one of the repertoire’s most romantic scores. Bartlett Sher’s towering staging also features baritone Will Liverman and tenor Frederick Ballentine as the archrivals Mercutio and Tybalt, mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey as the mischievous pageboy Stéphano, and bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Frère Laurent.

Roméo et Juliette

NY Phil musicians take the solo spotlight in this concert conducted by Music Director Jaap van Zweden. Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante highlights the interplay between violin and viola, and in Brahms’s Double Concerto the violin and cello team up in dialogue with the orchestra. Shostakovich’s skittery nervousness is palpable in the racing rhythms of his concerto for piano and trumpet, performed here by Igor Levit and NY Phil’s own Christopher Martin.

Igor Levit and Stars of the NY Phil

Celebrate the Year of the Dragon with the NY Phil and stellar guest artists.

Lunar New Year

In his final subscription concerts as Music Director, Jaap van Zweden conducts Mahler’s colossal — and profound — Second Symphony. With the forces of a vast orchestra and chorus, two vocal soloists, and offstage brass and percussion, Mahler valiantly explores themes of death and resurrection, tragedy and triumph.

Jaap van Zweden Conducts Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony

Hilary Hahn, our 2023–24 Artist-in-Residence, performs in her second Artist Spotlight, completing the set of J.S. Bach’s works for solo violin she began in 2023. These works have been touchstones of Hahn’s career; her debut recording comprised half the set, and her more recent recording of the other half was lauded by The Strad for its “exceptional technical command and the utmost integrity and communication.”

Artist Spotlight: Hilary Hahn

Celebrate 100 years of Young People’s Concerts™ with madcap sounds, humor, and surprises — and discover how composers throughout the ages have used these tools to comment on important issues of their day. Featuring cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason.

Young People’s Concert: Celebration

Music Director Jaap van Zweden conducts the 31st Free Memorial Day Concert presented as a gift to the people of New York City and a day of musical remembrance.

Free Memorial Day Concert

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine

Baroque and Classical expert Jane Glover conducts this program spotlighting Mozart. Bookended by his Symphonies Nos. 35 and 39 — both full of gorgeous melodies from beginning to end — the concert features his buoyant Oboe Concerto performed by NY Phil Principal Oboe Liang Wang. Ah, perfido!, by Beethoven, one of Mozart’s most eminent heirs, is a dramatic showpiece for soprano, sung by Karen Slack.

Mozart and Beethoven with Jane Glover

Soprano Golda Schultz — whose NY Phil debut was hailed as “immaculate” and “superb” by The New York Times — returns for a Mozart concert aria and the evocation of heaven that concludes Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Francesco Piemontesi makes his NY Phil debut in the Mozart and performs the composer’s sublime Piano Concerto No. 25. Gianandrea Noseda conducts.

Mozart, Mahler, and Golda Schultz

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.

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