The Metropolitan Opera season is only one week away and with a new season comes anticipated new productions and revivals and will showcase some of the world’s best singers.

So without further ado here are OperaWire’s most anticipated productions of the 2024-25 season.

Ainadamar 

As listed in the 10 operas to see this fall, the Osvaldo Golijov is one of those rare experiences you cannot miss.

For the second year in a row (and the first time in history that this has happened), the Metropolitan Opera will present an opera in Spanish. Following last year’s “Florencia en el Amazonas,” Osvaldo Golijov’s tango opera will make its Met premiere. Miguel Harth-Bedoya makes his Met debut conducting a new production by Deborah Colker.  OperaWire raved about the production noting it was “effective.”

The all-star cast will include Angel Blue, Gabriella Reyes, Elena Villalón, Daniela Mack, and Alfredo Tejada.

Antony and Cleopatra

John Adams is back at the Met after the composer’s “El Niño” premiered in the 2023-24 season.

The new work which is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s drama will have its Met premiere starring Julia Bullock as Cleopatra and Gerald Finley as Antony. When the opera first premiered at the San Francisco Opera, OperaWire raved about Finley’s work stating, “Gerald Finley Shine in John Adams’ Wonderful Work”

The production, which first premiered at the San Francisco Opera, and Liceu Opera Barcelona, will be directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer. Tenor Paul Appleby and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong round out the cast.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann

Offenbach’s work is one of the most important works in the operatic canon and is often performed by the world’s greatest artists. This year the Met is getting Benjamin Bernheim, who closed the Olympic games in Paris and has become the world’s most prominent Hoffmann interpreter having performed the role in Paris, Salzburg, and Hamburg, among many others.

Alongside the tenor, the Met has assembled an extraordinary cast including Christian Van Horn, Pretty Yende, Erin Morley, Clémentine Margaine, Aaron Blake, and Vasilisa Berzhanskaya. Marco Armiliato conducts the production by Bartlett Sher.

Regarding Bernheim and Van Horn’s interpretations of the work OperaWire has said, “Benjamin Bernheim & Christian Van Horn Reign Supreme in Hoffmann.”

Die Frau ohne Schatten

The Met is bringing back perhaps one of the company’s greatest productions by Herbert Wernicke. Last seen in 2013, the production has been hailed for its “balance between delicacy of detail and grandeur of breadth.”

The Strauss opera, which is rarely heard at the Met, will star Elza van den Heever as the Empress, Lise Lindstrom as the Dyer’s Wife, Nina Stemme as the Nurse, Michael Volle as Barak, Russell Thomas as the Emperor, and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the Spirit Messenger.

Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium in an unmissable Strauss work.

The Queen of Spades

One of the world’s greatest sopranos, Sonya Yoncheva, returns to the Met. After having performed Tatiana and Iolanta to great acclaim, the Bulgarian soprano makes her role debut as Lisa, one of the great dramatic roles in the Russian repertoire.

The soprano will be joined by a cast sung by tenor Brian Jagde, baritone Igor Golovatenko, mezzo-soprano Violeta Urmana, and baritone Alexey Markov.