Soprano Diana Damrau stars in this rare Bellini vehicle for bel canto pyrotechnics, the story of a woman driven mad by love for her exiled pirate. Tenor Javier Camarena shows off his spectacular high notes as the buccaneer, opposite Christopher Maltman as their nemesis Ernesto. Maurizio Benini conducts the striking production, last performed at the Met in 2003.

Further cementing her place as one of history’s most riveting dramatic sopranos, Anna Netrebko adds the bloodthirsty Babylonian princess Abigaille to her already impressive lineup of Met roles. Baritone George Gagnidze is the tyrannical ruler Nabucco, alongside mezzo-soprano Varduhi Abrahamyan as Fenena, tenor Najmiddin Mavlyanov as Ismaele, and bass Dmitry Belosselskiy as Zaccaria. Marco Armiliato conducts a truly epic staging by Elijah Moshinsky.

Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Herbert Wernicke’s sensational staging of Strauss’s magisterial vision of otherworldly love, which requires a cast of the very best dramatic voices. Tenor Klaus Florian Vogt and soprano Elza van den Heever are the mystical Emperor and Empress (the woman without a shadow), baritone Michael Volle and soprano Nina Stemme are the earthbound Barak and his wife, and soprano Evelyn Herlitzius is the sinister Nurse.

American composer Jake Heggie’s contemporary masterpiece—the most widely performed new opera of the last 20 years—has its highly anticipated Met premiere. Based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir about her fight for the soul of a condemned murderer, Dead Man Walkingmatches the high drama of its subject with Heggie’s beautiful and poignant music and a brilliant libretto by Tony and Emmy Award–winner Terrence McNally. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin is on the podium, with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato starring as Helen Prejean. The outstanding cast also features baritone Etienne Dupuis as the condemned Joseph De Rocher, soprano Latonia Moore as Sister Rose, and legendary mezzo-soprano Susan Graham as De Rocher’s mother.

Tony Award–winning director of Broadway’s A View from the Bridge and West Side Story, Ivo van Hove makes a major Met debut with a new take on Mozart’s dark comedy, re-setting the familiar tale of deceit and damnation in an abstract architectural landscape. Met Music Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a star-studded cast led by baritone Peter Mattei as Don Giovanni, alongside bass-baritone Gerald Finley as his sidekick, Leporello. Soprano Ailyn Pérez, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, and soprano Hera Hyesang Park make a superlative trio as Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina, and tenor Ben Bliss completes the principal cast as Don Ottavio.

Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts one of the most sumptuous scores in the repertoire, leading Gounod’s honeyed adaptation of Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy. Radiant soprano Nadine Sierra makes is the effervescent Juliette, opposite tenor Stephen Costello as the ardent Roméo, all amid the romantic realism of Bartlett Sher’s staging.

One of opera’s most beloved works receives its first new Met staging in 16 years—a daring vision by renowned English director Simon McBurney that The Wall Street Journal declared “the best production I’ve ever witnessed of Mozart’s opera.” McBurney lets loose a volley of theatrical flourishes, incorporating projections, sound effects, and acrobatics to match the spectacle and drama of Mozart’s fable. Gustavo Dudamel takes the podium in his Live in HD debut, with the pit raised to make the musicians visible to the audience and allow interaction with the cast. The cast of leading Mozarteans includes soprano Christiane Karg as Pamina, tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac as Tamino, baritone Thomas Oliemans as Papageno, soprano Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, and bass Stephen Milling as Sarastro.