In its 60th season at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera is planning an impressive 17-opera season. In 2027, the season features seven productions, as well as continued performances of three operas opening in 2026.
‘La Fanciulla del West’
On Dec. 31, the Met is starting the new year off right with a new production of Giacomo Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West.” Based on the 1905 David Belasco play, “The Girl of the Golden West,” Puccini’s 1910 opera was the first to have its world premiere at the Met. At the premiere, the composer declared this tale of a girl saloon-owner and her redeeming love for a charming bandit to be the greatest composition of his career.The opera stars soprano Vida Mikneviciute as the titular girl, tenor SeokJong Baek as her bandit beloved, and baritone Christopher Maltman as the villainous sheriff. Acclaimed British director Richard Jones’s production will mark the company’s first new staging of the opera in over 30 years.
‘Otello’
The Met will return to the world of William Shakespeare on Jan. 11 with Giuseppe Verdi’s “Otello.” The opera is based on Shakespeare’s classic play “The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice.” Verdi’s 1887 operatic epic features romance, jealousy, death, intrigue, and everything else one could expect from a dramatic Italian opera.
‘Silent Night’
Composer Kevin Puts made a successful company debut with “The Hours” in 2022. He returns to the Met stage with his first opera, the Pulitzer prize-winning “Silent Night.” Debuted in 2011, Puts’s opera is based on the 2005 film “Joyeux Noël.” The film was inspired by the real-life 1914 Christmas truce, when World War I soldiers put aside their differences to celebrate the holiday together.
‘Aida’
Verdi’s music will make its third appearance of the season with his ancient Egyptian epic “Aida,” beginning March 9. Verdi’s celebrated 1871 work tells the story of star-crossed lovers; they are caught on the battlefield of a war between Egypt and Ethiopia in one of the grandest spectacles ever written for the opera stage. First debuted at the Met in 1886, this work remains one of the most acclaimed in the operatic repertoire.
After nearly four decades of Sonja Frisell’s celebrated, larger-than-life production, director Michael Mayer staged a new production at the Met in 2025, starring soprano Angel Blue in the title role. Both production and soprano will return this year, with the alternating casts also including tenor SeokJong Baek and mezzo-soprano Olesya Petrova.
‘Manon’
‘Der Rosenkavalier’
The first of only two German operas in the season, Richard Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier,” will begin its run on March 24. This is a rare light spot in Strauss’s catalog of dramas and tragedies. The comic opera was first performed in 1911 and made its Met debut in 1913.
Soprano Rachel Willis-Sorensen, mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, and bass Günther Groissböck will lead a star-studded cast in the Met’s current production by Robert Carsen, first performed in 2017.
‘Parsifal’
The last production of the season will be the second German opera. Richard Wagner’s final work, “Parsifal,” will begin its run on May 20. This 1882 epic is based on the myth of the 12th-century Arthurian knight Parsifal and his quest for the Holy Grail. The opera was first performed at the Met in 1903, following the lifting of a 30-year ban on performances outside the Bayreuth Festival.
Tenor Piotr Beczala will play the titular knight, alongside mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca as Kundry and baritone Peter Mattei as Amfortas. The Met’s acclaimed production by director François Girard was first debuted in 2013.
This Season’s Extras
Alongside the 17 opera productions, the Met has planned several special events. The first will be a solo concert by acclaimed Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian, alongside the father-and-son piano duo Petras and Lukas Geniušas, which will take place on the Met stage on Nov. 18.
Next will be two performances by the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 4 and June 18, under the batons of Simon Rattle and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, respectively. There will also be six chamber ensemble performances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall from November 2026 through June 2027, featuring different individual instrumentalists from the Met Orchestra.
On March 21, the Met stage will host the Grand Finals Concert of the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, often called simply the Met Competition. The Met Competition has been responsible for discovering countless talented singers, many of whom have gone on to perform with the company.
On May 25, the Met will celebrate 60 years at Lincoln Center with its Diamond Jubilee. The star-studded, exclusive event will feature performances by 36 of the opera world’s brightest stars under the baton of Nézet-Séguin and the direction of Julian Crouch.
Finally, on June 10 to 12, Nézet-Séguin will lead the Met Orchestra, Chorus, and Children’s Chorus in Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. These performances are part of Carnegie Hall’s “Mahler Symphony Cycle,” in which Nézet-Séguin is conducting all of Mahler’s symphonies with the Met Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic.
The Metropolitan Opera is noted for having the largest budget of any opera company in the world. For almost 60 years now, it has reigned over the opera world from Lincoln Center. Despite some recent difficulties, this glittering upcoming season proves that, as far as the Met is concerned, opera lives on as vibrantly as ever.
