To be perfectly honest I haven’t been to a Met in HD broadcast in ages.  Regular readers will perhaps have noticed that I’m usually insanely busy on weekends as it is!  That said, I know that people appreciate a few thoughts on what;’s upcoming so I took a look at the 2023/24 season offering.  It’s an intriguing season.  The first three productions are more or less contemporary which must be some kind of record.  They are:

• October 21st – Jake Heggie – Dead Man Walking.  This is just not my favourite opera but I understand why it’s popular.  The cast is stellar with Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham and Ryan McKinney, among others, and Yannick conducts.  For many people this will be a “must see”.
• November 18th – Anthony Davis – X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.  I’ll be honest.  I have no idea about this one.
• December 9th – Daniel Catán – Florencia en el Amazonas.  I don’t know much about this either but it’s based on Marquez and it has Ailyn Perez in the cast so I’d be inclined to take a punt on it.

After that it’s more familiar territory.

• January 6th – Giuseppe Verdi – Nabucco.  An old style Met Elijah Moshinsky production so not really my thing and there’s nothing about the casting to get me super excited.
• January 27h – Georges Bizet – Carmen.  It’s a new production but I’m not familiar with the director.  The cast looks fine if you really need to see Carmen again.
• March 9th – Giuseppe Verdi – La forza del destino.  This is another new production by Mariusz Treliński who I do have a lot of time for.  It also features the amazing Lise Davidsen as Leonora.  The rest of the cast looks good too and Yannick conducts.  One of the top picks I think.
• March 23rd – Charles Gounod – Roméo et Juliette.  This is a Bartlett Sher production which is probably enough to keep me away.  The cast is decent though.
• April 20th – Giacomo Puccini – La Rondine.  There is one compelling reason to see this; Speranza Scappucci is conducting.  I’ve seen her twice live and she was a revelation.  It’s a decent production and it’s always worthwhile to see Angel Blue.
• May 11th – Giacomo Puccini – Madama Butterfly.  It takes a lot to make me enthusiastic about the prospect of seeing this opera yet again but… Minghella’s production is really quite charming and I would crawl across broken glass to see Asmik Grigorian who sings Cio-Cio-San.  The rest of the cast looks good too.

So there you have it and it’s rather an odd season.  Only nine shows (seems like everyone is scaling back) of which three are modern/near contemporary operas and the rest are all from the period between 1842 and 1916.  There’s no bel canto, no Mozart and nothing German.  Make of that what you will.