New stagings always carry the weight of expectations, but Michael Mayer’s staging has the burden of replacing one of the Met’s most beloved productions. It’s finally here, and quite remarkable. Hang on to your amulets!

Quinn Kelsey sang in his first opera, Verdi’s Aida, at 13 years old, as a 1st tenor in the priests’ chorus. 34 years later, he is the king of Verdi baritones and singing the Ethiopian king Amonasro in the Met’s starry new Aida.

November may be a climatically unpleasant month, but it did inspire this, one of my favorite piano pieces. I turn to “Troika” for a little uplifting or serenity, which we are all bound to need at some point.

“That. Was. Glorious,” a voice behind me gushed when the curtain fell. Indeed, Ainadamar’s genre-fusing combination of great voices, historical elegy, and explosive flamenco is like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Fresh off her critically praised Met debut last spring, Cuban-American soprano Elena Villalón now takes on Golijov’s exhilarating Ainadamar. She kindly took the time to answer some questions in between rehearsals.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann is opera’s equivalent of The Tortured Poets Department, only 14,592 times better. The Met’s revival this season has a smashing lineup of singers.