Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard brings his first opera to the Met after his Fire Shut Up in My Bones triumphantly premiered with the company to universal acclaim in 2021–22. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is the young boxer Emile Griffith, who rises from obscurity to become a world champion, and bass-baritone Eric Owens portrays Griffith’s older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda Griffith, the boxer’s estranged mother, and mezzo- soprano Stephanie Blythe is the bar owner Kathy Hagan. Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for Blanchard’s second Met premiere, also reuniting the director-and-choreographer team of James Robinson and Camille A. Brown. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to movie theaters across the globe.

MUSIC AND LIBRETTO BY RICHARD WAGNER
DIRECTOR: YUVAL SHARON
CONDUCTOR: ANDREW DAVIS
A CO-PRODUCTION
WITH LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

Wagner’s best-known music – seen & heard like never before

A high-tech treatment of the most famous act in Wagner’s Ring Cycle makes this an experience you will not want to miss. Detroit Opera’s own Yuval Sharon and Christine Goerke join forces in this unique production which zooms in on the drama of Act III, beginning with the unforgettable “Ride of the Valkyries” and ending with “Magic Fire Music.”

Philip Glass’s mesmerizing modern masterpiece—a smash-hit in its 2019 company-premiere run—returns in Phelim McDermott’s unforgettable production, which brings ancient Egypt to vivid life with striking stage tableaux and a troupe of jugglers. Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo reprises his celebrated turn as the revolutionary pharaoh Akhnaten, with mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb as his wife and queen, Nefertiti. Once again at the helm is conductor Karen Kamensek, a noted master of Glass’s music.

R. NATHANIEL DETT The Ordering of Moses
JOEL THOMPSON Seven Last Words of the Unarmed
FLORENCE PRICE Ethiopia's Shadow in America

The rediscovered masterwork, The Ordering of Moses by R. Nathanial Dett, is a musical powerhouse. Joining the Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra and guest soloists will be the Bethune-Cookman University Concert Chorale directed by Dr. Terrance Lane. Also on the program are Ethiopia’s Shadow in America by Florence Price and a new thought-provoking work by Joel Thompson, The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed.

Soprano Nina Stemme brought down the house when she headlined the premiere of visionary director Patrice Chéreau’s 2016 staging of Elektra. Now she returns to Strauss’s unhinged heroine, opposite one of today’s most in-demand artists, soprano Lise Davidsen, as her sister, Chrysothemis. Sir Donald Runnicles is on the podium for one of opera’s most blistering scores, leading a cast that also includes mezzo-soprano Michaela Schuster as Klytämnestra, tenor Stefan Vinke as Aegisth, and bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as Orest.

Our beautiful new opera, INTIMATE APPAREL, was three weeks into previews and had hit its stride when we had to shut down so abruptly in March 2020. The show had been bringing audiences to their feet nightly, cheering for the moving performances and for the joy of hearing Lynn Nottage’s story and Ricky Ian Gordon’s music in our intimate space. Opening Night was just ten days away! We knew we had to find a way to bring the show back. And now, after this unimaginably long wait, we are delighted to tell you that INTIMATE APPAREL will return to the Newhouse this winter to continue its run!

The show is part of The Met/LCT Opera/Musical Theater Commissioning Program and it’s the first to be done at LCT. And although we have, of course, done sung-through musicals before, this is our first opera! It is directed by one of our Resident Directors, Bartlett Sher, who directed My Fair Lady most recently for us, among so many LCT favorites.

INTIMATE APPAREL, set in 1905 in turn of the century New York, tells the story of Esther, a lonely, single African-American woman who makes her living sewing beautiful corsets and ladies’ undergarments. There is warm affection between her and the Orthodox Jewish man who sells fabrics to her, but any relationship between them, even a touch, is completely forbidden. Seeking love and romance, Esther eventually embarks on a letter-writing relationship with a mysterious suitor laboring on the Panama Canal. When he moves to New York they embark on an unhappy marriage, leading Esther to realize that only her self-reliance and certainty of her own worth will see her through life’s challenges.

More than ever, we can’t wait to see you back at Lincoln Center Theater!

American composer Jake Heggie’s 21st-century masterpiece, the most widely performed new opera of the last 20 years, has its highly anticipated Met premiere, in Ivo van Hove’s second new staging of the season. Based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir about her fight for the soul of a condemned murderer, Dead Man Walking matches 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. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin is on the podium for this landmark premiere, 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—who sang Prejean in the opera’s 2000 premiere—as De Rocher’s mother.

The Glitch is a one act opera that lasts about 19 minutes. It depicts a conversation between Joyce Mitchell and her husband Lyle following a traumatic moment in their lives. It is a construction of a conversation that might have taken place. It is raw and personal and about the capacity to endure through pain.

COMPOSER | NICO MUHLY, LIBRETTIST | GREG PIERCE, LYLE MITCHELL | LESTER LYNCH , PIANO | ADAM TENDLER , CONDUCTOR | NEAL GOREN , DIRECTOR | MARCUS SHIELDS

An African American couple in Harlem anticipates the birth of their firstborn, a son, with both hope and fear. As the baby grows into a young man, the mother worries for his future, and the father tries to prepare his son for the realities of 21st century America, while wrestling with his own identity as a police officer, a "Black man in blue." When their deepest fears come true, the family is forced to navigate a devastating reality seeking answers and support from their church and community. 

Lyric Opera presents the Chicago premiere of Tony Award®–winning composer Jeanine Tesori and NAACP Theatre Award–winning librettist Tazewell Thompson’s new opera inspired by contemporary events and Black literature, including Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. Gospel-influenced music and vivid flashbacks capture the grief of a family and community navigating the turbulent waters of loss at the hands of police. Exploring race, violence, and reconciliation, Blue places timely issues at the forefront of modern opera and invites audiences to the emotional epicenter of their impact.

“The times are fraught. Lit by lightning and divisiveness. Love, family, friends and the church are there when we need them. And we need them now. We need a song to soothe our sorrows as we confront painful, personal truths. We need music in our lives and our children near to help us repair heartache; music to ultimately lift us and celebrate the bonds of sisterhood and brotherhood togetherness.” – Tazewell Thompson, librettist and director. 

Back in 2006, LCT and the Metropolitan Opera created a collaborative program to bring new works to our stage and theirs. The Met/LCT Opera/Musical Theater Commissioning Program has led to Nico Muhly’s Two Boys at the Met in 2013 and additional pieces in development there. Now, after more than a decade, it is LCT's turn! We are delighted to announce that a new opera, INTIMATE APPAREL, will be produced by LCT as part of this program. 

Although we have done sung-through musicals over the years, this is LCT’s first opera! It is based on Lynn Nottage’s acclaimed play of the same name. Widely produced around the country, the play also won the 2004 NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play as well as the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off Broadway Play. The score is by Ricky Ian Gordon. He is the ideal composer for this piece -- his score complements Lynn’s libretto beautifully, integrating period-appropriate ragtime, cakewalk, music hall, and vaudeville. It was actually Ricky who approached Lynn to ask if she would be interested in collaborating with him to transform her beloved play into an opera. She immediately said ‘yes.’ She also shared that when she originally wrote the play she had considered writing it as a musical or an opera! LCT Resident Director, Bartlett Sher (My Fair Lady, Two Boys at the Met) will direct. 

Set in 1905 in turn of the century New York, INTIMATE APPAREL tells the story of Esther, a lonely, single African-American woman who makes her living sewing beautiful corsets and ladies’ undergarments. There is warm affection between her and the Orthodox Jewish man who sells fabrics to her, but any relationship between them, even a touch, is completely forbidden. Seeking love and romance, Esther eventually embarks on a letter writing relationship with a mysterious suitor laboring on the Panama Canal. When he moves to New York they embark on an unhappy marriage, leading Esther to realize that only her self-reliance and certainty of her own worth will see her through life’s challenges.

Director Phelim McDermott tackles another one of Philip Glass’s masterpieces, following the now-legendary Met staging of Satyagraha. Star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo is the title pharaoh, the revolutionary ruler who transformed ancient Egypt, with the striking mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges in her Met debut as his wife, Nefertiti. To match the opera’s hypnotic, ritualistic music, McDermott has created an arresting vision that includes a virtuosic company of acrobats and jugglers. Karen Kamensek conducts in her Met debut.