The Metropolitan Opera's New Season Includes Bartlett Sher-Helmed Romeo et Juliette & Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin

The Metropolitan Opera’s 2016-17 season will feature a new production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher and starring Met favorites Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo. The upcoming lineup features five additional productions, including the first opera at the Met composed by a woman in over 100 years: Kaija Saariaho’s 2000 L’Amour de Loin, 20 repertory pieces and an all-star gala celebrating the Met’s 50th anniversary at Lincoln Center.

The season opens on September 26 with a new staging of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde directed by Mariusz Treliński. Nina Stemme, who has sung the role of Isolde around the world, will perform the role at the Met for the first time opposite Stuart Skelton.

On October 18, the Met will present a new staging of Rossini’s Guillame Tell, featuring that familiar overture. The production premiered in 2013 at the Dutch National Opera.

With L’Amour de Loin, Saariaho will be the first woman since 1903 to have her opera performed at the Met. (Back then, it was Ethel M. Smyth’s Der Wald.) The Met Premiere, featuring a libretto by Amin Maalouf and directed by Robert Lepage, starts on December 1. The opera was first heard at the Salzburg Festival in 2000.

Sher’s staging of Roméo et Juliette is set for next season’s New Year’s Eve gala. The production marks Damrau’s role debut as Juliette; she also headlined this season’s New Year’s Eve gala: Les Pêcheurs de Perles. Sher reunites with his Tony-winning creative team: costume designer Catherine Zuber and set designer Michael Yeargan. The trio’s work can currently be seen on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof and The King and I.

Tony winner Mary Zimmerman will direct a new production of Rvorák’s Rusalka. Kristine Opolais, who took center stage on February 12 for the opening of the Met’s new Manon Lescaut, takes on the title role of the tragic water nymph. Performances begin February 2, 2017.

Beginning April 13, 2017, Renée Fleming, who made her Broadway debut last year in Living on Love, will sing one of her signature roles in Robert Carsen’s new presentation of Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss. The Met’s music director James Levine will conduct.

Additional highlights include Russian soprano Anna Netrebko reprising her performance in Eugene Onegin and adding Manon Lescaut to her Met role repertory, Damrau reuniting with her 2014 La Sonnambula co-star Javier Camarena for another Bellini work: I Puritani, a holiday presentation of Julie Taymor’s The Magic Flute staging, Sher’s production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia with South African soprano Pretty Yende and Plácido Domingo in Nabucco and La Traviata; Domingo will also conduct Don Giovanni. The “ABC”s of opera are also included: Aida, La Bohème and Carmen.

On May 7, several opera favorites will take the stage for a fully staged gala, honoring the 50th anniversary of the Met’s first Lincoln Center season. The lineup of artists includes Damrau, Domingo, Fleming, Netrebko, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez.

The complete 2016-17 season is as follows:

Tristan und Isolde, beginning September 26*
Don Giovanni, beginning September 27
La Bohème, beginning September 28
L’Italiana in Algeri, beginning October 4
Guillaume Tell, beginning October 18*
Jenufa, beginning October 28
Aida, beginning November 5
Manon Lescaut, beginning November 14
L’Amour de Loin, beginning December 1*
Salome, beginning December 5
Nabucco, beginning December 12
The Magic Flute, beginning December 20
Roméo et Juliette, beginning December 31*
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, beginning January 9
Carmen, beginning January 19
Rigoletto, beginning January 20
Rusalka, beginning February 2*
I Puritani, beginning February 10
Werther, beginning February 16
La Traviata, beginning February 24
Idomeno, beginning March 6
Fidelio, beginning March 16
Eugene Onegin, beginning March 30
Der Rosenkavalier, beginning April 13*
Der Fliegende Holländer, beginning April 25
Cyrano de Bergerac, beginning May 2

*New Production