Jonathan Tichler/Metropolitan Opera

Last fall Peter Gelb argued for his vision of a reinvigorated Metropolitan Opera in a particularly defensive treatise in The New York Times. Next season, on the eve of his 2027 contract expiration, the company will take another step in this direction towards Gelb’s ambitious (and, let’s be frank, suspect) vision of financial and artistic solvency. And while the commissioning and presenting new works perhaps hasn’t been the artistic or financial success he’d like it to be, one can’t fault his commitment to the bit; next season features three operas from the past five years.

To open the season will be The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Mason Bates and Gene Scheer, premiered late last year at Indiana University. Later follow the company premieres of Kaija Saariaho’s much-acclaimed final opera Innocence starring Joyce DiDonato (an intuitive fit for her social justice interests), and Gabriela Lena Frank‘s similarly acclaimed El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego. Of the chestnuts, two Bellini operas will receive new productions—La Sonnambula and I Puritani — as will what surely be a season highpoint: Yuval Sharon’s debut directing Tristan und Isolde starring Lise Davidsen and Michael Spyres.

Nadine Sierra, Xabier Anduaga, Lisette Oropesa, and Lawrence Brownlee headline the Bellini operas and will no doubt provide exciting bel canto fireworks. Frank’s title pair of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera will be portrayed by Isabel Leonard (who is also surprisingly being spotlighted in a special four-concert (!) series at Carnegie Hall) and Carlos Alvarez, returning to the Met after an absence of eighteen years.

Economic factors have forced the Met to reduce both the number of performances it gives and the number of operas it presents each season. This has meant that long-time favorites dominate: in 2025-25 La traviata, the season’s singular Verdi opera, will be performed 22 times, La bohème 20, Turandot 16, Madama Butterfly 15, Carmen 13 and Don Giovanni 14. In addition, the Met’s now-annual holiday presentation of The Magic Flute returns for 15 further iterations.

Yet the casting across of most of these revivals seems depressingly predictable. There are, of course, a few notable exceptions: Oropesa, Ermonela Jaho, and Rosa Feola as Violetta, plus Ailyn Pérez, Sonya Yoncheva, and Elena Stikhina as Cio-Cio-San and the return of Anna Pirozzi as Turandot. Elsewhere, unmissable sopranos Erin Morley and Asmik Grigorian will headline welcome revivals of La fille du régiment and Eugene Onegin, respectively, and the return of Arabella with Rachel Willis-Sorenson — rumored to be replacing the pregnant Lise Davidsen — will certainly be of some interest. But those hoping for more Sondra Radvanovsky as perhaps Maddalena or Turandot (or anything at all this season) will be disappointed. And all they can find for Quinn Kelsey is Sharpless? It’s mostly familiar faces in familiar roles and very few interesting debuts.

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will be even scarcer next season conducting just four works, three of the new productions plus part of the Don Giovanni run which he’ll share with newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor Daniele Rustioni who leads a long-awaited revival of Andrea Chénier — featuring Piotr Beczala in a role he will debut the role this summer in Salzburg — and a few of the many Bohèmes.

What are you looking forward to next season at the Met?