Sondra Radvanovsky, known for her booming voice and dramatic intensity, takes on the title role of the sorceress who protests her lover’s betrayal by killing their children.

The Met’s opening night gala will bring a milestone: “Medea,” long a showcase for reigning sopranos, including Maria Callas, will finally come to the Met’s stage, 225 years after its Paris premiere. Here are highlights of the coming season, chosen by writers of The New York Times. Another debuting conductor is Keri-Lynn Wilson, who is married to Gelb and will lead a revival of Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.” Earlier in his tenure, Gelb said he would demur from engaging Wilson at the Met to avoid the appearance of conflict, but he said in the interview that he had recused himself from the process of hiring her for “Lady Macbeth.”

Making her Met debut, Nathalie Stutzmann will conduct both new Mozart productions. “But I certainly think that day seems to be visible.” “We’re not going to do it unless it feels right,” he said. Gelb said he expected the mask mandate would be eliminated sometime this spring as infections continue to decline. The company, which has not missed a performance this season, has imposed some of the toughest public health rules in the industry, including booster vaccine and mask mandates.

To weather the crisis, the Met is relying largely on emergency gifts from patrons Gelb said the company has raised $122 million in such gifts since last summer. The Met estimates it could take several years before box-office revenues return to prepandemic levels, as the tourism sector recovers. But it remains well below the average of 75 percent before the pandemic. “We have to keep opera and the art form as exciting and as dynamic as we possibly can.”Īttendance so far this season has been better than expected, hovering around 64 percent. “The one thing that the Met cannot afford to do is to sit back and hope people will come to us,” Peter Gelb, the company’s general manager, said in an interview. The need to draw audiences has grown only more urgent during the pandemic, which shut the company for 18 months and cost $150 million in anticipated revenue.

Met opera schedule