The Metropolitan Opera announced its 2014-15 season, which is set to feature 26 operas — 18 revivals and six new productions. The season opens on September 22 with Richard Eyre’s new production of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro,” conducted by James Levine (who is “back to full strength” after a spinal injury from which he has been recovering for more than two years, according to a Met Opera press release), and will close with a production of Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress,” also conducted by Levine.
Premieres include a “dreamlike production” of John Adams’s “The Death of Klinghoffer,” directed by Tom Morris (“War Horse”); Rossini’s “La Donna del Lago,” conducted by Michele Mariotti and directed by Paul Curran; and Tchaikovsky’s one-act opera “Iolanta,” presented on a double-bill with a new production of Bartók’s one-act “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle.” Additionally, James Conlon will conduct Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” Franco Zeffirelli’s staging of “La Boheme” returns, along with many others.
“My return to the company has been one of the most joyful experiences of my life, and I’m delighted to resume a full working schedule of six operas next season for the first time in several years,” Levine said in a press release. Those include the above-mentioned Mozart and Stravinsky, along with Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann,” Verdi’s “Ernani” and “Un Ballo in Maschera,” and Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.”
The Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, added: “Jim’s return to a full slate of operas is the ideal icing on our cake.”
