The Met Announces 2019/20 Season; PORGY AND BESS, Premieres of AGRIPPINA and AKHNATEN, & More

The Metropolitan Opera today announced its 2019 20 season, which opens on September 23 with a new production of the Gershwins' classic American opera Porgy and Bess, last performed at the Met in 1990, starring Eric Owens and Angel Blue, directed by James Robinson and conducted by David Robertson. Philip Glass's Akhnaten receives its Met premiere with Anthony Roth Costanzo as the title pharaoh and J'Nai Bridges as Nefertiti, in a celebrated staging by Phelim McDermott and conducted by Karen Kamensek in her Met debut. Acclaimed visual artist and stage director William Kentridge directs a new production of Berg's Wozzeck, starring Peter Mattei and Elza van den Heever, and led by the Met's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director Yannick N zet-S guin. In another Met premiere, Sir David McVicar stages the black comedy of Handel's Agrippina, starring Joyce DiDonato as the conniving empress with Harry Bicket on the podium. The final new production, of Der Fliegende Holl nder, boasts a stellar alignment of distinguished Wagnerian talents: Valery Gergiev conducts Sir Bryn Terfel and Anja Kampe in a new staging by Fran ois Girard, his first at the Met since his landmark 2013 Parsifal.

As a result of recent union negotiations, the Met schedule includes 16 Sunday matinees, a first for the company. The number of Sunday performances will increase further in the 2020 21season.

Dozens of favorite Met singers also bring their artistry to 20 repertory revivals throughout the season, including Pl cido Domingo and Anna Netrebko (who team up on the Met stage for the first time in Adrian Noble's production of Macbeth), Roberto Alagna, Piotr Becza a, Joseph Calleja, Javier Camarena, Diana Damrau, Gerald Finley, El na Garan a, Christine Goerke, Vittorio Grigolo, Quinn Kelsey, Ailyn P rez, Nina Stemme, and Sonya Yoncheva. They perform alongside a range of impressive talents being heard at the Met for the first time, including Lise Davidsen, Anja Kampe, Camilla Nylund, Brenda Rae, and Michael Spyres.

Yannick N zet-S guin conducts three productions, two Met Orchestra concerts at Carnegie Hall, and a New Year's Eve Gala starring Anna Netrebko as three Puccini heroines (Mim in Act I of La Boh me and the title roles in Act I of Tosca and Act II of Turandot). He heads a remarkable 2019 20 roster of conductors, including Marco Armiliato, Harry Bicket, Bertrand de Billy, James Gaffigan, Edward Gardner, Valery Gergiev, Karen Kamensek, Antonello Manacorda, Vasily Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Carlo Rizzi, and David Robertson. Gianandrea Noseda will conduct the third Met orchestra concert at Carnegie Hall. Sir Antonio Pappano trades the podium for the piano bench for a very special Met event, accompanying Diana Damrau in recital.

The 2019 20 season is Peter Gelb's 14th as the Met's General Manager.