The New York Times

The Met’s New Season: What We Want to See
February 2023

The Metropolitan Opera has long been known for classics like Verdi’s “La Traviata” and “Rigoletto.” But starting this fall, the 143-year-old company will usher in a new era, sharply increasing the number of operas by living composers in its repertory: They will make up about a third of the 2023-24 season, the Met announced on Wednesday.

The shift is part of the Met’s efforts to recover from the pandemic and attract new audiences, particularly younger patrons and people of color. Faced with lackluster ticket sales and a cash shortfall, the company has withdrawn $23 million from its endowment and cut the number of performances next season by about 10 percent. Newer operas, however, have been a bright spot; several have outsold the classics in recent years.

“We have to offer new experiences,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager. “Without reinvention, without expanding the repertoire, opera cannot succeed in the long term.”

The season will begin in September with the company premiere of Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking”…a highlight of the coming season, chosen by critics for The New York Times.

One of a tiny handful of contemporary operas to have found a place in the worldwide repertory, “Dead Man Walking” benefits from Jake Heggie’s poignant, plain-spoken music and an acute libretto by Terrence McNally, based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir about her experience ministering to a convicted murderer on death row. It will open the Met’s season in a production by Ivo van Hove, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting a cast that includes the mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, an experienced Sister Helen, and Susan Graham, who sang that role when the opera premiered in 2000, as the inmate’s mother.