Four of Six 2023-2024 Met Opera Season New Productions Are Premieres

Summary: Four of six new productions in the 2023-2024 Met Opera season are premieres, of which three add new composers to the opera company's repertoire.

In the 2023-2024 season Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas receives its Metropolitan Opera premiere, with Ailyn Pérez in the title role; directed by Mary Zimmerman, sets by Riccardo Hernandez, costumes by Ana Kuzmanic, lighting by T.J. Gerckens, projection design by S. Katy Tucker and choreography by Alex Sanchez: AILYN PÉREZ @ailynperezsop, via Twitter June 12, 2023

Four of the six new productions in Met Opera's 2023-2024 season are premieres, of which Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas, Anthony Davis's X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking add new composers to the opera company's repertoire.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2023-2024 season's lineup of 18 operas features six new productions. Four of the new productions are staged as Metropolitan Opera premieres: John Adams' El Niño, Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas, Anthony Davis's X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking.

The Metropolitan Opera premiere of Dead Man Walking by American composer Jake Heggie (born March 31, 1961) opens Tuesday, Sep. 26, 2023, as the first of the 2023-2024 season's 18 operas and the first of the season's four premieres. The crime-, punishment- and redemption-themed opera, which receives nine performances, closes as a Saturday matinee, Oct. 21.

Heggie set his musical score of Dead Man Walking to an Engish-language libretto by American librettist, Tony Award-winning playwright and Emmy Award-winning television screenwriter Terrence McNally (Nov. 3, 1938-March 24, 2020). McNally' libretto sources the same-named memoir published in 1993 by Catholic religious sister Helen Prejean (born April 21, 1939), a member of Louisiana's Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille. In addition to Heggie's opera, the book also inspired adaptation as a 1995 American crime drama film under the directorship of American actor and filmmaker Timothy "Tim" Francis Robbins (born Oct. 16, 1958), who also wrote the film's script.

Ivo van Hove (born Oct. 28, 1958) directs the premiere production of Dead Man Walking. The Belgian theater director made his Met Opera Friday, May 5, 2023, in the opera company's 577th performance of Don Giovanni by Classical Era composer Wolfgang Mozart (Jan. 27, 1756-Dec. 5, 1791).

X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X by American composer and pianist Anthony Davis (born Feb. 20, 1951) opens Friday, Nov. 3, as the second of the 2023-2024 season's four premieres and as fifth in the season's lineup of 18 operas. The biographical opera receives eight performances, with closing night on Saturday, Dec. 2.

Davis set his musical score of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X to an English-language libretto by his cousin, American journalist, librettist, novelist, playwright and poet Thulani Davis (Barbara Neale Davis; born July 19, 1949). The Malcolm X endeavor represents the second cousinly collaboration, preceded by Amistad in 1997. The libretto sources a story by Christopher "Kip" Davis, Anthony's brother, described as "a social researcher and educational reformer," according to Sarah Pruitt's interview, "The music of resistance," published May 1, 2023, in The Exeter Bulletin.

Robert O'Hara (born 1970) directs the premiere production of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. The American director and playwright makes his Met Opera debut in the premiere production.

Florencia en el Amazonas by Mexican composer Daniel Catán (April 3, 1949-April 9, 2011) opens Thursday, Nov. 16, as the third of the 2023-2024 season's four premieres and as sixth in the season's lineup of 18 operas. The magical realism-themed opera receives eight performances, with closing night on Thursday, Dec. 14.

Catán set his musical score of Florencia en el Amazonas to a Spanish libretto by Mexican writer Marcela Fuentes-Beráin (born 1955). The libretto loosely sources El amor en los tiempos del cólera ("Love in the Time of Cholera"), published in 1985 by Colombian Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez (March 6, 1927-April 17, 2014), according to "The Mystical Power of Love," posted as a Staff Pick on Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's (CLP) website by Rebekah Hill, then librarian (February 1999-September 2021) in CLP's Music, Film and Audio Department and now Music and Performing Arts librarian at Penn State University Libraries (since Oct. 1, 2021).

Mary Zimmerman (born Aug. 23, 1960) directs the premiere production of Florencia en el Amazonas. The American opera and theater director and playwright made her Met Opera debut Monday, Sep. 24, 2007, in the opera company's 558th performance of Lucia di Lammermoor by 19th-century Italian bel canto opera composer Gaetano Donizetti (Nov. 29, 1797-April 8, 1848).

El Niño by American composer John Adams (born Feb. 15, 1947) opens Tuesday, April 23, 2024, as the fourth and last of the 2023-2024 season's four premieres and as 16th in the season's lineup of 18 operas. The Nativity-themed opera-oratorio receives seven performances, with closing night on Friday, May 17.

Adams set his musical score of El Niño to a variety of English-, Latin- and Spanish-language sacred and secular texts dating from biblical times to the present. The libretto's sources include texts by John Adams and by his frequent collaborator, American theater director Peter Sellars (born Sep. 27, 1957). Adams and Sellars had made their Met Opera debuts together Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011, in the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Adams' first opera, Nixon in China.

Lileana Blain-Cruz directs the premiere production of Adams' opera-oratorio. The American director makes her Met Opera debut in the premiere production.

The 2023-2024 Met Opera season's four premieres add three new composers to the opera company's repertoire and welcome the return of an almost decade-long absent composer. Daniel Catán, Anthony Davis and Jake Heggie enter the opera company's repertoire as new composers. John Adams adds a fourth Metropolitan Opera premiere to his portfolio almost a decade (9 years 5 months 20 days) after the eighth, closing performance on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2014, of his third Met Opera premiere, Death of Klinghoffer.

El Niño by American composer John Adams is scheduled for spring 2024 performances as Met Opera's fourth and last of four premieres in the 2023-2024 season: John Adams @HellTweet, via Twitter June 14, 202

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

In the 2023-2024 season Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas receives its Metropolitan Opera premiere, with Ailyn Pérez in the title role; directed by Mary Zimmerman, sets by Riccardo Hernandez, costumes by Ana Kuzmanic, lighting by T.J. Gerckens, projection design by S. Katy Tucker and choreography by Alex Sanchez: AILYN PÉREZ @ailynperezsop, via Twitter June 12, 2023, @ https://twitter.com/ailynperezsop/status/1668308251392323618

El Niño by American composer John Adams is scheduled for spring 2024 performances as Met Opera's fourth and last of four premieres in the 2023-2024 season: John Adams @HellTweet, via Twitter June 14, 2023, @ https://twitter.com/HellTweet/status/1668992934501310469

For further information:

AILYN PÉREZ @ailynperezsop. "#ICYMI I am thrilled to be part of @metopera’s premiere of ‘Florencia en el Amazonas’ next season! Learn more about this production at http://metopera.org/season/2023-24-season/florencia-en-el-amazonas/ #metopera #florenciaenelamazonas #spanishopera #danielcatan #ailynperez #soprano #meetopera #newproduction." Twitter. June 12, 2023.
Available via Twitter @ https://twitter.com/ailynperezsop/status/1668308251392323618

Biga, Leo Adam. "The Evolution of Anthony Davis’s ‘Malcolm X’ Opera." American Theatre > Feature. Nov. 2, 2022.
Available 2 https://www.americantheatre.org/2022/11/02/the-evolution-of-anthony-daviss-malcolm-x-opera/

"Debut: Stephen Costello, Mary Zimmerman, Daniel Ostling, Mara Blumenfeld, T. J. Gerckens, Daniel Pelzig." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 352065 New Production Lucia di Lammermoor {558} Metropolitan Opera House: 09/24/2007, Sirius Broadcast live Streamed at metopera.org Simulcast on screens at Lincoln Center Plaza and Times Square. (Opening Night {123} Peter Gelb, General Manager Debut: Stephen Costello, Mary Zimmerman, Daniel Ostling, Mara Blumenfeld, T. J. Gerckens, Daniel Pelzig Broadcast/Streamed/Times Squarecast/Plazacast Review). Metropolitan Opera House September 24, 2007 Broadcast/Streamed/Times Squarecast/Plazacast Opening Night {123}.
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Available @ https://www.carnegielibrary.org/staff-picks/the-mystical-power-of-love/

John Adams @HellTweet. "The papers of Adams will join those of other American giants in the performing arts, including Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, George and Ira Gershwin, Martha Graham, Charles Mingus, and Neil Simon." Twitter. June 14, 2023.
Available via Twitter @ https://twitter.com/HellTweet/status/1668992934501310469

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-metropolitan-opera-performs-18.html

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2023/08/metropolitan-opera-revives-12.html

"Metropolitan Opera Premiere: The Death of Klinghoffer." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 355576 Metropolitan Opera Premiere The Death of Klinghoffer {1} Metropolitan Opera House: 10/20/2014. (Protests during performance. Debuts: Tom Morris, Laura Hopkins, Arthur Pita, Kate Miller-Heidke, Aubrey Allicock, Jesse Kovarsky). Metropolitan Opera House. October 20, 2014.
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"Metropolitan Opera Premiere: Doctor Atomic." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 352614 Metropolitan Opera Premiere Doctor Atomic {1} Broadcast ed. Metropolitan Opera House: 10/13/2008, Sirius Broadcast live Streamed at metopera.org. (Debuts: Alan Gilbert, Thomas Glenn, Eric Owens, Roger Honeywell, Meredith Arwady, Penny Woolcock, Brian MacDevitt, Andrew Dawson, Mark Grey Broadcast/Streamed Review). Metropolitan Opera House October 13, 2008 Broadcast/Streamed Metropolitan Opera Premiere.
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