What an extraordinary season is coming up at the Metropolitan Opera! I'm still struggling to contain my excitement at the announcement of the 2026–2027 season: a perfect blend of great classics, bold new productions, and absolutely dazzling casts. It's one of those seasons that reminds us why we love opera so passionately.
From the very first moment, the curtain will rise powerfully with Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, chosen to open the season. And what an opening it will be: none other than the magnificent Lise Davidsen as Lady Macbeth. Her powerful and magnetic voice promises an electrifying evening, full of dramatic intensity and Verdian fire.
Among the titles I'm most excited to see again is Verdi's Aida, with its lavish production that never fails to impress. I'm especially thrilled to know that it will feature the wonderful Anna Pirozzi, one of the great dramatic sopranos of our time. And, of course, discovering new Aidas and Amneris will be part of the pleasure: there's nothing more exciting than hearing new voices take on these imperial roles.
Another of my dream comebacks is Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème, always so moving and timeless. Each performance is an invitation to fall in love with Mimì and Rodolfo all over again.
And speaking of Puccini… Tosca! For me, the most fabulous opera he ever wrote. This season will be a true feast for Tosca lovers, with a variety of performers that makes each performance unique. That's the magic of the Met: different sopranos, each with her own style, her own fire, her own way of tearing at our hearts.
Among my favorites will be Aleksandra Kurzak, Sondra Radvanovsky, Eleonora Buratto, Natalya Romaniw, and the impressive Saioa Hernández, fresh from her triumph as Gioconda, who will be kicking off this series of performances. Drama, passion, and stage presence! These will be absolutely unmissable evenings.
I am also eagerly anticipating Maria Stuarda by Gaetano Donizetti, one of my favorite operas from the celebrated Tudor trilogy. And what a privilege to have the star Lisette Oropesa, who has already triumphed as the Queen of Scots in Madrid. Her bel canto sensitivity and dramatic intensity promise unforgettable moments.
In the French repertoire, Jules Massenet's Manon holds a very special place in my heart. Rediscovering it with the voice that captivates me, the marvelous Nadine Sierra, will undoubtedly be one of the season's highlights.
The season also shines with beloved titles such as Così fan tutte and the festive Christmas presentation of The Magic Flute, both masterpieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is always a gift to return to Mozart, and even more so in a home like the Met.
In the dramatic and monumental repertoire, we find Otello, Richard Wagner's Parsifal, Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila, and Luigi Cherubini's Medea: titles that demand stellar voices and extraordinary interpretive intensity.
And I can't fail to mention the new productions that bring freshness and variety, such as Kevin Puts's Silent Night and Missy Mazzoli's Lincoln in the Bardo. It's wonderful to see how the Met combines tradition and modernity, offering both the great pillars of the repertoire and contemporary works that broaden horizons.
The season also includes gems like Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa and La Fanciulla del West, another new Puccini production that promises to be captivating.
Honestly, I couldn't single out just one title: they all thrill me deeply. But what excites me most is seeing so many of my favorite sopranos together in roles I adore. Yes, the tenors and baritones are absolutely stellar, the cast is dazzling… but my heart beats especially strongly for these titles and for these great divas who will bring immortal characters to life.
The Met’s 2026–2027 season is shaping up to be fabulous, varied, and exciting. For those of us who love opera—and especially for lovers of Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti, and Mozart—we are in for a treat.
Now there’s only one thing left to do: wait with bated breath for the curtain to rise. And enjoy, performance after performance, the unique magic of the Met.
There are seasons… and then there are seasons that feel almost providential. The 2026–2027 lineup at the Metropolitan Opera is not merely a calendar of performances—it is a radiant affirmation that opera, in the 21st century, is gloriously alive. For those of us who believe that opera is the supreme synthesis of human imagination—where music, poetry, theater, image, and raw emotion converge into something transcendent—this season feels nothing short of divine.
At the heart of my excitement stand the sopranos. The luminous, fearless, incandescent women who carry forward a lineage that stretches back through the most sacred names in operatic history. These are the voices of our century—artists who take the torch from legends and ensure that the flame burns brighter than ever.
Let us begin with Aida, Verdi’s monumental hymn to love, sacrifice, and destiny. This production, already famed for its splendor, becomes even more thrilling with the presence of the magnificent Anna Pirozzi. Pirozzi possesses a voice of blazing amplitude and bronze-like brilliance, yet she tempers that power with extraordinary sensitivity. Her high notes soar like sunlit banners over the Nile, while her pianissimi shimmer with heartbreaking vulnerability. In her artistry one feels the echo of the great Aidas of the past—Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, Grace Bumbry, Martina Arroyo—yet she is unmistakably, thrillingly modern.
And how wonderful to anticipate Angel Blue at the Met, whose voice combines velvety warmth with radiant steel. She sings with a sincerity that pierces the heart; there is an emotional truth in her phrasing that feels almost confessional. Hers is a voice that wraps the audience in velvet and then, in a single phrase, sets it ablaze. I'm so excited to discover Leah Hawkins' voice in Aida.
On September 22, 2026, there will be no place in the world where an opera lover should be but Manhattan. That night, the curtain at the Metropolitan Opera House will rise to open the season with an event already generating fervor in all operatic circles: Lise Davidsen's debut as Lady Macbeth.
The great Norwegian soprano, one of the most imposing, majestic and admired voices of our time, will take on for the first time one of the most feared and fascinating roles ever written by Giuseppe Verdi.
Lady Macbeth is no ordinary role. It is a vocal and dramatic abyss. Verdi, obsessed with expressive intensity, had the soprano from the Florence premiere rehearse more than 150 times. He wasn't looking for conventional beauty: he demanded character, ferocity, darkness, theatrical electricity. New York, as demanding as Verdi himself, expects exactly that.
And Davidsen has everything she needs to set the stage ablaze.mporada
In Maria Stuarda by Gaetano Donizetti—the jewel of the Tudor trilogy—my anticipation is almost unbearable. This opera occupies a sacred place in my heart. I listen endlessly to the Tudor trilogy, especially as immortalized by Beverly Sills, whose queens remain benchmarks of bel canto artistry. And now, the role returns in triumph with Lisette Oropesa, a soprano of crystalline precision and expressive fire. Oropesa’s technique is immaculate, her coloratura like spun silver, yet what moves me most is her dramatic intensity. She does not merely sing Maria—she becomes the doomed queen, regal and fragile, proud and wounded. It feels like the continuation of a grand tradition. And oh—if only the Met would crown this Tudor journey with Anna Bolena in 2028! That would be operatic paradise.
Then there is Manon by Jules Massenet, one of the most intoxicating jewels of the French repertoire. How delicious to rediscover it through the voice of Nadine Sierra. Sierra’s timbre is pure satin, glowing and youthful, yet supported by impeccable technique and dramatic intelligence. She evokes the elegance and charm once embodied by Beverly Sills, yet she brings her own irresistible sparkle. Her Manon promises to be seductive, tender, capricious, and tragic—all in a single, shimmering arc.
And then—Tosca. Tosca by Giacomo Puccini remains, to me, the most theatrically perfect opera ever written. Passion distilled into three acts. And what a constellation of Toscas this season offers.
Sondra Radvanovsky, with her volcanic intensity and fearless dramatic commitment, channels the spirit of Maria Callas—not by imitation, but through a shared willingness to risk everything emotionally. Her voice can blaze like lightning and then break into the most fragile prayer.
Aleksandra Kurzak brings elegance and emotional immediacy, a silken line that can suddenly ignite into flame.
Saioa Hernández—currently triumphing as Gioconda—arrives with a voice of molten gold, expansive and thrilling, capable of filling the house with sumptuous tone while maintaining dramatic precision.
Each Tosca will be different. That is the miracle of the Met: the same score, yet infinite interpretations. We remember the towering legacies of Renata Tebaldi and Montserrat Caballé—voices that defined eras. And yet, these 21st-century sopranos prove that the lineage is unbroken. The torch passes, the fire remains.
The season’s grandeur extends further: Macbeth, Otello, Parsifal, Der Rosenkavalier, Samson et Dalila, and the magic of The Magic Flute—each title a pillar of the repertoire, each demanding voices of heroic scale and refined artistry.
But what moves me most is this: opera endures because of artists like these. Because new generations rise to meet the impossible standards set by the past—and then surpass them in their own way. Opera is, to me, the supreme art form. Cinema and theater are magnificent, of course. But opera is the ultimate human creation: the total artwork, where orchestra, poetry, stagecraft, light, costume, voice, and soul converge into transcendence.
As a French philosopher once suggested, if one can spend a couple of hours at the opera, life is already justified.
And with a season like this at the Metropolitan Opera—divine in its ambition, incandescent in its casting, resplendent in its repertoire—we are not merely attending performances. We are witnessing the continuation of greatness.
I am counting the days. And my heart is already in the opera house.
