Highlights of the Met’s 2023-24 Season
Joyce DiDonato and Ryan McKinny in a photoshoot for Dead Man Walking (Paola Kudacki/Met Opera)
On February 22, the Met revealed their 2023-24 season, the first since announcing a shift toward contemporary opera. A third of the operas are recent works, but there’s still plenty of classic repertoire, including four Puccinis and as many Verdi works. Here are the highlights of the new season.
Dead Man Walking
Joyce DiDonato and Ryan McKinny in a photoshoot for Dead Man Walking (Paola Kudacki/Met Opera)
On Opening Night, Jake Heggie’s devastating Dead Man Walking will launch a new chapter at the Met, one focusing on modern works.
The opera is based on Sister Helen Prejean’s nonfiction book of the same name, which was later adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1995, this opera in 2000, and a play in 2002. The plot centers around Prejean’s work as the spiritual advisor of an inmate on death row (two inmates, in real life). It leaves one examining the death penalty’s morality, particularly relevant as New York City debates whether a bike path terrorist should be put to death.
The cast — conducted by the Met’s music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin — stars the marvelous, mesmerizing Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen, Ryan McKinny as Joseph De Rocher, Latonia Moore as Sister Rose, and Susan Graham as De Rocher’s mother.
I’m open to contemporary opera, but one about spiritual counseling for a condemned murderer would be too much for me, emotionally. That, however, does not prevent me from suggesting you go if you can handle it. It’s a large part of the Met’s future, at least for now.
Dates: September 26, 30, October 3, 6, 8, 12, 15, 18, 21
Cast: Yannick Nézet-Séguin/Steven Osgood (conductor), Joyce DiDonato, Ryan McKinny, Latonia Moore, Susan Graham
Florencia en el Amazonas
Ana María Martínez in Florencia en el Amazonas at the Chicago Lyric Opera (Cory Weaver)
¡Ay ay ay! A Spanish-language opera at the Met, the first in 100 years! This proud Latina is kvelling. That would be enough to draw me to Lincoln Center, but Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas is pretty, magical (literally), and charming. It’s easy to be lost in the surreal voyage.
The story centers around the famed soprano (yes, you read that right) Florencia Grimaldi, who’s taking a boat trip down the Amazon River both to perform at the opera house in Manaus — the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas — and search for her butterfly hunter lover, who disappeared in the jungle). She’s sailing with several other passengers, who are traveling to see her sing but don’t realize that they’re sharing the El Dorado with La Grimaldi herself.
In Ailyn Pérez’s Florencia, we will not only be treated to her gorgeous voice but also to impeccable Spanish pronunciation and authenticity. The supporting cast includes Gabriella Reyes as the aspiring writer Rosalba, Mario Chang as Arcadio, Nancy Fabiola Herrera as Paula, and Michael Chioldi as Alvaro.
¡Vamos a la ópera!
Dates: November 16, 19, 25, 27, December 2, 5, 9, 14
Cast: Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor), Ailyn Pérez, Gabriella Reyes, Mario Chang, Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Michael Chioldi, Mattia Olivieri, Greer Grimsley
La Forza del Destino
Tadeusz Szlenkier and Monika Ledzion-Porczynska in La Forza del Destino at the Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa
La Forza del Destino is considered to be one of Verdi’s many masterpieces, but the Met has not performed it since 2006, presumably owing to the sensational cast required. For its return, they’re mounting a new production, which premiered this January in Poland. Per the Met’s Alvaro, Brian Jagde, it’s set “in a post-apocalyptic time period.” Make of that what you will.
As Forza’s plot is driven by a curse, it has an unfortunate reputation for being cursed itself, following some mysterious occurrences. Most seriously, in 1960, the Met’s star baritone, Leonard Warren, died onstage. Pavarotti, ever superstitious, never performed it, while Corelli protected himself with little rituals.
Forza is a gem, but what usually makes it one of New York’s “hottest shows” is the cast. Next season, it’s Lise Davidsen as Leonora and Jagde as Don Alvaro. Lise is (in my opinion) the greatest soprano in the world. As I say, deaf mice on Fifth Avenue can hear her. Jagde, too, is formidable; imagine how stupendous they’ll be together.
Superstitious operagoers, fear not: The power of Lise’s voice will ward off any unpleasant incidents. As soon as tickets are on sale: RUN, like Usain Bolt, to the box office.
Dates: February 26, March 1, 4, 9, 12, 16, 21, 24, 29
Cast: Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor), Lise Davidsen/Elena Stikhina, Brian Jagde, Igor Golovatenko, Patrick Carfizzi, Soloman Howard
The Hours
From left: Kelli O’Hara, Renée Fleming, and Joyce DiDonato in The Hours (AFP/Angela Weiss)
In the ongoing 2022-23 season, Kevin Puts’s opera The Hours was met with enthusiastic standing ovations (including from me!) and, in a rarity for contemporary operas at the Met, is being brought back in May 2024. In another stroke of luck for audiences, the trio of leading ladies is unchanged: Joyce DiDonato as the troubled writer Virginia Woolf, Kelli O’Hara as the stifled housewife Laura Brown, and Renée Fleming as the editor Clarissa Vaughan.
The Hours centers around those three women — one writing Mrs Dalloway, one reading Mrs Dalloway, and one seemingly living out Mrs. Dalloway’s life. It interweaves the three women’s stories in a way only opera can, pulling us deep into their troubled inner and outer lives. It also provokes a rumination about life, death, identity, and love — or, if you’re not the philosophical type, about how these Three Divas got so blooming good.
I had the privilege to experience this opera on its opening night. I was lukewarm about the idea, as I am with contemporary operas in general, but it stunned and moved me in a way no opera ever had. I trust it will do the same to you.
Dates: May 5, 10, 15, 18, 21, 24, 28, 31
Cast: Kensho Watanabe (conductor), Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara, Kyle Ketelsen, Sean Panikkar, Brandon Cedel, William Burden
Roméo et Juliette
Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigòlo in Roméo et Juliette (Ken Howard/Met Opera)
The frequent usage of the words “greatest love story of all time” makes them lose some of their uniqueness, but I will claim them for the story of Romeo and Juliet. It’s one that seems to bring out the creative best in great artists, the evidence being Shakespeare’s extraordinary tragedy, Prokofiev’s freakishly gorgeous ballet, and Gounod’s spirited and intimate opera. The last of these will be revived next March, with its four (!) love duets, summed up by the New York Times as “Ball, Balcony, Bed, and Tomb”.
Bartlett Sher’s staging, although only five years old, has framed many of the Met’s most illustrious sopranos, namely Diana Damrau, Pretty Yende, and Ailyn Pérez. Next season, the fabulous Nadine Sierra will don Juliette’s golden ballgown, the sequel to her recent triumphs in Lucia di Lammermoor (2021-22) and La Traviata (earlier this season). Her lavish voice fits Juliette’s Waltz in Act 1, and the role as a whole, like a tailored leather glove.
Nadine’s “fair Montague” is Benjamin Bernheim, fresh off his acclaimed Met debut as the Duke in Rigoletto in November 2022. With those two as the star-cross’d lovers, Gounod’s already bubbling masterpiece will smolder, and I won’t miss it.
Dates: March 7, 10, 15, 19, 23, 27, 30
Cast: Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor), Benjamin Bernheim, Nadine Sierra, Samantha Hankey, Will Liverman, Alfred Walker, Frederick Ballentine
Other 2023-24 new productions: Carmen, starring Aigul Akhmetshina/Clémentine Margaine; El Niño, starring Davóne Tines, Julia Bullock, and J’Nai Bridges/Daniela Mack; X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, starring Will Liverman and Leah Hawkins.
Other 2023-24 revivals: Un Ballo in Maschera, starring Charles Castronovo and Elena Stikhina; La Bohème, starring Federica Lombardi/Anita Hartig/Elena Stikhina; Fire Shut Up in My Bones, starring Will Liverman; Madama Butterfly, starring Aleksandra Kurzak/Eleonora Buratto/Asmik Grigorian; The Magic Flute, starring Kathryn Lewek and Janai Brugger; Nabucco, starring George Gagnidze and Elena Stikhina; Orfeo ed Euridice, starring Anthony Roth Costanzo and Ying Fang; La Rondine, starring Angel Blue and Jonathan Tetelman; Tannhäuser, starring Elza van den Heever and Andreas Schager; and Turandot, starring Elena Pankratova/Christine Goerke.
Other performances: Verdi’s Requiem, starring Leah Hawkins, Karen Cargill, Matthew Polenzani, and Dmitry Belosselskiy; Laffont Grand Finals Concert, starring Evan Rogister (conductor); and Lise Davidsen in Recital.
