Metropolitan Opera Features Seven New Productions

The season will open on Monday, September 24, with Mary Zimmerman's new production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, conducted by Maestro Levine. With the company currently experiencing a dramatic increase in attendance - the first box office improvement in six seasons - Gelb announced plans for seven new productions in 2007-08, the most new productions the Met has presented in one season since its inaugural 1966-67 season at Lincoln Center. He also announced plans to increase the number of high-definition transmissions into movie theaters from six to eight, a reflection of the significant success of this new method of reaching opera lovers throughout the world.

"So far, this season has proven that with a recipe of dynamic new productions, great singers, and a more direct approach to the public, it is possible to reach a wider and younger audience, while still serving our loyal audience," said Gelb. "However, our efforts to sustain and re-energize the art form have only just begun."

James Levine said, "The successes we have had in increasing the audience and reaching out to a broader public have brought a new exuberance to the artistic offerings as well. The variety and richness of next season's repertory is extraordinary, and the sense of excitement and anticipation in the company is palpable."

The Met's efforts to revitalize its repertory next season begin with an accelerated schedule of new productions. In addition to the season-opening production of Lucia di Lammermoor (September 24), which stars Natalie Dessay, Marcello Giordani and Mariusz Kwiecien, the other new productions include Verdi's Macbeth (October 22), staged by former Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Adrian Noble, conducted by Levine, and starring, Željko Lucic and Andrea Gruber; Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride (November 27), directed by Stephen Wadsworth and conducted by Louis Langrée, with Susan Graham in the title role and Plácido Domingo as Oreste; Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel (December 24), the Met's winter holiday presentation, in a new staging by Richard Jones and conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, featuring Christine Schäfer and Alice Coote; Britten's Peter Grimes (February 28), directed by John Doyle and conducted by Donald Runnicles, featuring Neil Shicoff and Anthony Dean Griffey in the title role; Philip Glass's Satyagraha (April 11), directed by Phelim McDermott of London's Improbable theater company in the work's Met premiere, conducted by Dante Anzolini, with Richard Croft, as Gandhi; and a critically acclaimed production of Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment (April 21), directed by Laurent Pelly and conducted by Marco Armiliato, featuring Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez. All the directors, except for Wadsworth, make their Met debuts this season, as well as Maestros Langrée and Anzolini.

In addition to the new productions of Lucia di Lammermoor and Macbeth, James Levine conducts two important revivals, Manon Lescaut and Tristan und Isolde. In 2007-08, Maestro Levine presents the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall for the 18th consecutive season. The series includes three concerts, one led by the Met's Principal Guest Conductor, Valery Gergiev, who returns to the Met to conduct War and Peace and The Gambler - the first time two Prokofiev operas have been performed in a single season at the Met.

Lorin Maazel, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, conducts five performances of Wagner's Die Walküre, beginning January 7, 2008. The performances mark Maestro Maazel's first Met conducting engagement in 45 years. His last appearance with the company was during the 1962-63 season, when he made his Met debut leading performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni and Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.

During the 2007-08 season, the world's greatest singers continue to find an artistic home at the Met. The roster includes Roberto Alagna, Carlos Alvarez, Marcelo Álvarez, Lado Ataneli, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Stephanie Blythe, Olga Borodina, Johan Botha, Joseph Calleja, Alice Coote, Michèle Crider, Dwayne Croft, Richard Croft, Eric Cutler, Diana Damrau, Mark Delavan, Natalie Dessay, Michelle DeYoung, Larissa Diadkova, Luciana D'Intino, Plácido Domingo, Giuseppe Filianoti, Renée Fleming, Juan Diego Flórez, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Vladimir Galouzine, Elina Garanca, Lisa Gasteen, Angela Gheorghiu, Marcello Giordani, Susan Graham, Anthony Dean Griffey, Paul Groves, Andrea Gruber, Maria Guleghina, Nathan Gunn, Olga Guryakova, Thomas Hampson, Anja Harteros, Ben Heppner, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Tamar Iveri, Jonas Kaufmann, Simon Keenlyside, Aleksandra Kurzak, Mariusz Kwiecien, Salvatore Licitra, Željko Lucic, Karita Mattila, James Morris, Heidi Grant Murphy, Anna Netrebko, René Pape, Adrianne Pieczonka, Matthew Polenzani, Juan Pons, Patricia Racette, Sondra Radvanovsky, Ruggero Raimondi, Samuel Ramey, John Relyea, Dorothea Röschmann, Matti Salminen, Michael Schade, Christine Schäfer, Erwin Schrott, Neil Shicoff, Krassimira Stoyanova, Ruth Ann Swenson, Bryn Terfel, Ramón Vargas, Rolando Villazón, Deborah Voigt, and Dolora Zajick. -- www.metoperafamily.org