When an arts institution is faced with challenging times – as nearly every presenter has been, in the wake of the COVID pandemic and its slowly resolving aftermath – business sense dictates that the surest path to recovery is doubling down on what’s previously proved successful. The Metropolitan Opera, in announcing its 2023-24 season today, clearly has adhered to that logic. But what’s surprising, at least at first glance, is that instead of focusing on time-tested standard repertoire, the company is making contemporary works the main thrust of the new season.
Where fresh, inventive productions of Bizet’s “Carmen” and Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” might once have taken top billing for the season to come, the Met Opera is instead heralding the return of two operas that found both popular and critical successes over the last two seasons – “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” by Terence Blanchard, and “The Hours,” by Kevin Puts. The latter comes back complete with its imposing trio of leads: Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara and Joyce DiDonato.
Those operas return now along with a slate of modern works from John Adams (“El Niño”), Daniel Catán (“Florencia en el Amazonas”), Anthony Davis (“X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X”) and Jake Heggie (“Dead Man Walking”).
Peter Gelb, general manager of the Met Opera since 2006, said in an email interview that the most significant aspect of the new season is the altered balance of new works to standard fare. “In recent seasons, we’ve experienced the greatest box office success for new and accessible work that appeals to a wider audience,” Gelb said. “‘The Hours’ sold out, as did last season’s productions of ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ and ‘Akhnaten’” — the last a reference to a 1983 Philip Glass opera the company staged for the first time in 2019, and then repeated due to popular demand in 2022.
“The future of our artform,” he added, “depends on expanding the repertoire with new and appealing work.”
The announcement, striking as it is, won’t come as news to close followers of the Met Opera, who will have read or heard about a New York Times article from December that revealed this new programming philosophy. The article also stated that in the face of financial hardship and slow sales for once-reliable standard works, the company would withdraw $30 million from its endowment and reduce the number of performances it will stage by close to 10%.
As predicted, a company spokesperson confirms that the Met Opera will mount 194 performances in 2023-24, down from 215 this season.
Joyce DiDonato is Sister Helen Prejean and Ryan McKinny plays Joseph De Rocher in Jake Heggie's "Dead Man Walking."
But if the overt emphasis is on newness, and on relevance to the lives of contemporary audience members, the company is also emphasizing popular and appealing performers and directors. For instance, “Dead Man Walking,” among the most performed new operas of the 21st century, features DiDonato as the crusading nun Sister Helen Prejean – a charismatic star in a role with which she’s long been closely associated. Ryan McKinny plays death row inmate Joseph De Rocher, and Susan Graham, who originated the role of Sister Helen, will play his mother. The season-opening production is by Ivo van Hove, a director with a record of notable successes, and conducted by the Met Opera's music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Likewise, “X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X” – whose composer, Anthony Davis, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 – comes to the Met Opera with a notable director, Robert O’Hara, who was nominated for a Tony award for “Slave Play” on Broadway. That opera will feature Will Liverman, who starred in the Met Opera’s triumphant “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.”
Another high-profile director, Mary Zimmerman, will helm “Florencia en el Amazonas,” inspired by the writings of Gabriel García Márquez, and the first Spanish-language work staged by the Met Opera in nearly a century. And “El Niño,” though technically not an opera but a nativity oratorio, extends the Met Opera’s history of success with works composed by John Adams. The company’s presentation will be staged by the groundbreaking director Lileana Blain-Cruz, and features the company debuts of two singers in high demand, Julia Bullock and Davóne Tines.
In Gelb’s view, the season ahead signifies things to come. “Over the next five seasons, we will be producing numerous new works,” he said. “We have many in the pipeline, those that we are commissioning and others that have been performed elsewhere with success that we’re curating. The average number of performances in coming seasons will not be less than what we’re presenting next season, and might increase.”
Gelb also says that Nézet-Séguin is an ideal artistic partner for this endeavor. “He and I are in complete agreement on our new-music initiative, in which he passionately believes,” Gelb said. “Yannick is the perfect music director for the Met, because he is a great conductor of all the repertoire from Wagner and Verdi to Blanchard and Puts.”
Michael Levine's set model for Carrie Cracknell's new production of Bizet's "Carmen" demonstrates a sharp departure from previous Met stagings.
Naturally, standard-repertoire works still form a dominant part of the Met Opera season. A new production of “Carmen” set to premiere on New Year’s Eve brings the company debut of British theater director Carrie Cracknell. Striking set models depart sharply from previous house productions. Daniele Rustioni will conduct a cast that includes Aigul Akhmetshina in the title role, appearing with Piotr Beczała, Angel Blue and Kyle Ketelsen. Mariusz Treliński’s new staging of Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” arrives next February, with Nézet-Séguin on the podium and a sure-fire draw in Lise Davidsen onstage.
Further prominent debuts in the coming season include soprano Asmik Grigorian, tenors SeokJong Baek and Jonathan Tetelman, baritone Christian Gerhaher and conductors Marin Alsop and Xian Zhang. Gelb says that casting remains paramount in both old and new works.
“Unlike other opera companies that might be able to have one or two leading singers in a cast, we attempt to cast every principal role with the best available singers in the world,” he said. “Our core audience knows and appreciates the Met for that.”
Two-thirds of the season, Gelb points out, will include works from the core repertoire, including the new “Carmen” and “Forza” as well as returning productions of Puccini’s “La Bohème,” “La Rondine,” “Madama Butterfly” and “Turandot,” Verdi’s “Nabucco” and “Un Ballo in Maschera” and Wagner’s “Tannhäuser.” Nézet-Séguin is also scheduled to conduct three performances of Verdi’s “Requiem,” viewed by many as an opera in all but name.
And for all that the Met Opera is accentuating newness in the season to come, familiarity and consistency also play a part. Citing personal conversations, Gelb said that core Met Opera supporters have appreciated the company’s newer offerings during recent seasons. But he underscored that anecdotal evidence with numbers.
“According to our marketing department, 50% of the ticket buyers to ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ were either subscribers or single-ticket buyers who had purchased tickets previously,” Gelb said. “In the case of ‘The Hours,’ that percentage was 70% – no doubt partly driven by our casting.”
For more information about the Met Opera’s 2023-24 season, visit metopera.org.
