The Metropolitan Opera might be heading toward its 125th anniversary, but there is nothing old about the new productions announced at a press conference at the opera on Tuesday, February 27, 2007. Maestro James Levine and general manager Peter Gelb are giving the company a new look—and a new sound—as well as a new theatricality by bringing in theatre directors such as Mary Zimmerman and Stephen Wadsworth, as well as the major minimalist composer Philip Glass, with a revival of his early opera, Satyagraha. Many of the designers listed below hail from the world of theatre and the avant-garde, and quite a few will be making their Met debut next season.
The roster of new productions for 2007-2008:
Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
New production premiere:
September 24, 2007
Opening Night of the 2007-08 Season
Conductor: James Levine
Production: Mary Zimmerman (debut)
Set designer: Daniel Ostling (debut)
Costume designer: Mara Blumenfeld (debut)
Lighting designer: T. J. Gerckens (debut)
Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth
New production premiere: October 22, 2007
Conductor: James Levine
Production: Adrian Noble (debut)
Set and costume designer: Mark Thompson
Lighting designer: Jean Kalman
Christoph Willibald Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride
New production premiere:
November 27, 2007
Conductor: Louis Langrée
Production: Stephen Wadsworth
Set designer: Thomas Lynch
Costume designer: Martin Pakledinaz
Lighting designer: Neil Peter Jampolis
Co-production with Seattle Opera
Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel
New production premiere:
December 24, 2007
Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski
Production: Richard Jones (debut)
Set and costume designer: John Macfarlane (debut)
Lighting designer: Jennifer Tipton
Originally created for Welsh National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago
Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes
New production premiere:
February 28, 2008
Conductor: Donald Runnicles
Production: John Doyle (debut)
Set and costume designer: Scott Pask (debut)
Costume designer: Ann Hould-Ward (debut)
Lighting designer: Peter Mumford
Philip Glass's Satyagraha
Metropolitan Opera premiere:
April 11, 2008
Conductor: Dante Anzolini (debut)
Production: Phelim McDermott (debut)
Associate director & set designer: Julian Crouch (debut)
Costume designer: Kevin Pollard (debut)
Co-production with English National Opera
Gaetano Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment
New production premiere:
April 21, 2008
Conductor: Marco Armiliato
Production: Laurent Pelly (debut)
Set designer: Chantal Thomas (debut)
Costume designer: Laurent Pelly (debut)
Lighting designer: Joël Adam (debut)
Co-production with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, and the Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna