2018-2019 Metropolitan Opera Season Stages 29 Operas

Summary: The 2017-2018 Metropolitan Opera season stages 29 operas, opening with Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila and closing with Wagner’s Götterdämmerung.

French tenor Roberto Alagna and Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča topline the 2018-2019 Metropolitan Opera season opener, Samson et Dalila by French Romantic Era composer Camille Saint-Saëns: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Twitter Feb. 15, 2018

The 2017-2018 Metropolitan Opera season stages 29 operas, opening Monday, Sept. 24, with Camille Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila and closing Saturday, May 11, with Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung.

The Metropolitan Opera devotes almost 63 percent of the 2018-2019 season’s schedule to operas by four opera giants. Three operas by Classical Era composer Wolfgang Mozart are performed. Six operas by Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini are staged. Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi is represented by five operas. German composer-librettist Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen) of four epic operas is performed.

Alphabetically, the 26 operatic productions range from Italian composer Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur to Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Adriana Lecouvreur opens Monday, Dec. 31, at 6 p.m. EST. Seven additional performances of the three-act opera are scheduled: Jan. 4, 8, 12, 16, 19, 23 and 26.

Aida opens Wednesday, Sept. 26, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, as the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s first of five Verdi operas. Thirteen additional performances are offered: Sept. 29; Oct. 2, 6, 11, 15, 18; Jan. 7, 11, 14, 18; Feb. 28; March 7.

La Bohème opens Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m. EDT as the 2018-2019 Met Opera’s season’s first of six Puccini operas. Ten additional performances of the four-act opera are scheduled: Sept. 29; Oct. 3, 6, 10, 13; Nov. 29; Dec. 3, 6, 10 and 13.

Carmen opens Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m. EDT, as the first of the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s two operas by 19th century French Romantic Era composer Georges Bizet. Thirteen additional performances of the two-act opera are offered: Nov. 3, 6, 10, 15; Jan. 9, 12, 17, 21, 26, 29; Feb. 2, 5 and 8.

La Clemenza di Tito opens Saturday, March 30, 2019, at 8:30 p.m. EDT, as the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s third Mozart opera. Five additional performances of the two-act opera are scheduled: April 3, 6, 11, 16 and 20.

Dialogues des Carmélites by 20th century French composer Francis Poulenc opens Friday, May 3, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. EDT. Two additional performances of the two-act opera are offered: May 8 and 11.

Don Giovanni opens Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, as the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s second Mozart opera. Eleven additional performances of the two-act opera are scheduled: Feb. 2, 6, 9, 13, 16, 20; April 4, 9, 12, 15 and 18.

Falstaff opens Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, at 8 p.m. EST, as the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s fifth Verdi opera. Six additional performances of the three-act opera are offered: Feb. 27; March 2, 5, 8, 12 and 16.

La Fanciulla del West opens Thursday, Oct. 4, at 7:30 p.m. EDT, as the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s second Puccini opera. Six additional performances of the three-act opera are offered: Oct. 8, 12, 17, 20, 23 and 27.

La Fille du Régiment by Italian bel canto composer Gaetano Donizetti opens Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. EST. Six additional performances of the two-act opera are scheduled: Feb. 11, 15, 18, 23, 26; March 2.

Götterdämmerung opens Saturday, April 27, 2019, at 11 a.m. EDT, as the fourth and final installment in Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle. Two additional performances of the four-act opera are offered: May 4 and 11.

Iolanta by Russian Romantic Era composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Bluebeard’s Castle by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók open as a double header Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, at 8 p.m. EST. Additional performances of both one-act operas are scheduled: Jan. 28; Feb. 1, 4, 9 and 14.

The Magic Flute, the Metropolitan Opera’s family-friendly, English-language abridgment of Wolfgang Mozart’s fairy tale opera, opens Wednesday, Dec. 19, at 7:30 p.m. EST, as the first of the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s three Mozart operas. Seven additional holiday performances are offered: Dec. 22, 24, 27, 29; Jan. 1, 3 and 5.

Marnie, a Metropolitan Opera-commissioned opera based on English novelist Winston Graham’s same-named psychological novel and composed by American contemporary classical music composer Nico Muhly, opens Friday, Oct. 19, at 8 p.m. EDT. Six additional performances of the two-act opera are scheduled: Oct. 22, 27, 31; Nov. 3, 7 and 10.

Mefistofele by Italian composer and librettist Arrigo Boito opens Thursday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. EST. Six additional performances of the three-act opera are scheduled: Nov. 12, 16, 19, 24, 27; Dec. 1.

Otello opens Friday, Dec. 14, at 8 p.m. EST, as the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s third Verdi opera. Six additional performances of the four-act opera are offered: Dec. 17, 21, 28; Jan. 2, 5 and 10.

Les Pêcheurs de Perles opens Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m. EST, as the second of the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s two Bizet operas. Six additional performances of the two-act opera are scheduled: Nov. 17, 20, 24, 28; Dec. 1 and 8.

Pelléas et Mélisande by French Impressionist music composer Achille-Claude Debussy, opens Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. EST. Four additional performances of the three-act opera are offered: Jan. 19, 22, 25 and 31.

Das Rheingold opens with one performance, Thursday, March 14, 2019, at 8 p.m. EDT. Das Rheingold is the first in Wagner’s Ring Cycle of four epic operas.

Rigoletto opens Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. EST, as the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s fourth Verdi opera. Twelve additional performances of the three-act opera are scheduled: Feb. 16, 19, 23; March 1, 6, 9, 15, 20; April 26; May 1, 4 and 10.

Samson et Dalila by French Romantic Era composer Camille Saint-Saëns opens Monday, Sept. 24, at 6 p.m. EDT. Twelve additional performances of the three-act opera are offered: Sept. 28; Oct. 1, 5, 9, 13, 16, 20; March 13, 16, 19, 23 and 28.

Siegfried opens Saturday, April 13, 2019, at 11:30 a.m. EDT, as the third installment of Wagner’s Ring Cycle series of four epic operas. Two additional performances of the three-act opera are scheduled: May 2 and 9.

Tosca opens Thursday, Oct. 25, at 7:30 p.m. EDT, as the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s third Puccini opera. Twelve additional performances of the four-act opera are scheduled: Oct. 29; Nov. 2, 5, 9, 13, 17; March 18, 23, 26, 29; April 2 and 6.

La Traviata opens Tuesday, Dec. 4, at 8 p.m. EST, as the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s second Verdi opera. Fourteen additional performances of the three-act opera are offered: Dec. 7, 11, 15, 18, 22, 26, 29; April 5, 10, 13, 17, 20, 24 and 27.

Il Trittico opens Friday, Nov. 23, at 7:30 p.m. EST, as a trio of one-act operas by Giacomo Puccini. Six additional performances of the operatic triple bill are scheduled: Nov. 26, 30; Dec. 5, 8, 12 and 15.

Die Walküre opens Monday, March 25, 2019, at 6:30 p.m. EDT, as second in Wagner’s four-opera Ring Cycle. One additional performance of the three-act opera is offered: Thursday, April 25, at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

The takeaways for the 2018-2019 Metropolitan Opera season’s staging of 29 operas are that the season opens with French Romantic Era composer Camille Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila and, peppering the season plentifully with Mozart, Puccini, Verdi and Wagner, presents Wagner’s full Ring Cycle, with Götterdämmerung as season closer.

American dramatic soprano Christine Goerke will appear as Brünnhilde, the self-sacrificing Valkyrie (Old Norse: valkyrja, “chooser of the slain”), in Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, 2018-2019 Metropolitan Opera season: Susan Jordan @Moonbootica, via Twitter March 9, 2018

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

French tenor Roberto Alagna and Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča topline the 2018-2019 Metropolitan Opera season opener, Samson et Dalila by French Romantic Era composer Camille Saint-Saëns: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Twitter tweet Feb. 15, 2018, @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/964171645899431936

American dramatic soprano Christine Goerke will appear as Brünnhilde, the self-sacrificing Valkyrie (Old Norse: valkyrja, “chooser of the slain”), in Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, 2018-2019 Metropolitan Opera season: Susan Jordan @Moonbootica, via Twitter March 9, 2018, @ https://twitter.com/Moonbootica/status/972192735250743296

For further information:

The Metropolitan Opera. “2018-19 Season Repertory and Casting.” The Metropolitan Opera > News and Features > Press Releases. Feb. 15, 2018.
Available @ https://www.metopera.org/MetOpera/news-and-features1/press-releases/Repertory-and-Casting/

Metropolitan Opera ‏@MetOpera. "Explore the just-announced 18–19 season!" Twitter. Feb. 15, 2018.
Available @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/964171645899431936

Plotkin, Fred. “An Analysis of the Metropolitan Opera’s New Season.” WQXR > Blogs > Operavore. Feb. 15, 2018.
Available @ https://www.wqxr.org/story/analysis-metropolitan-opera-2018-2019-season/

Susan Jordan ‏@Moonbootica. “Christine Goerke, Soprano striking a fierce pose as Brünnhilde during a 2019 Ring Cycle photoshoot -- Photos by Jonathan Tichler/Met Opera.” Twitter. March 9, 2018.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Moonbootica/status/972192735250743296