Financially struggling Met Opera’s 18 productions next season matches the fewest since 1980-81

The financially struggling Metropolitan Opera will present 18 productions in 2024-25, matching the current season and pandemic-curtailed 2019-20 for the fewest since 14 in strike-shortened 1980-81. Met general manager Peter Gelb kept up his pivot to contemporary works, starting the season with Jeanine Tesori’s “Grounded” on Sept. 23, then presenting Osvaldo Golijov’s “Ainadamar” opening Oct. 15 and John Adams’ “Antony and Cleopatra” beginning May 12, 2025. Mayer’s version of “Aida” that opens on New Year’s Eve was announced in 2017 as a co-production with Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre and was to have opened the Met’s 2020-21 season. Rising star soprano Lise Davidsen appears in revivals of Puccini’s “Tosca” and Beethoven’s “Fidelio.” Guth’s production of Handel’s “Semele” was pushed back to a later season. Gelb said previously delayed stagings on track for future seasons include Bellini’s “La Sonnambula” by Rolando Villazón and Weill’s “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny” by Ivo van Hove.