Kaufmann Cancels Werther

Jean-François Borras will make his Met debut in the title role of Massenet’s Werther at this evening’s performance, replacing Jonas Kaufmann, who is ill.

Jay Hunter Morris Rumored to Sing in The Flying Dutchman in 2017

Thanks to one of my readers I have found out that Jay Hunter Morris has The Flying Dutchman on his website schedule. The tenor is scheduled to sing the role of Eric in April and May of 2017. According to the Met Futures Wiki the cast will be lead by Christine Goerke and will also include Michael Volle as the Dutchman. The Met has not confirmed the news yet but if the singer has on his website it will most likely happen this way.

Jay Hunter Morris is best known for his role as Siegfried which he performed in Robert Lepage's latest production. He also performed Moby Dick at the Francisco Opera filling in for Ben Heppner.

Future Seasons

Over the past few days a number of announcements have been made regarding future seasons at the Met and all over the world. Here is a an overview.

Christine Goerke will sing Brundhilde at the Met in 2018-19. The announcement was made in the New York Times and although it is exciting news it would have been better to stage this earlier now that the soprano is her prime.

Roberto Alagna will sing Otello and Cyrano de Bergerac. Alagna announced that he is doing Otello next summer in Europe and while that does not surprise anyone, is he really up for the challenge of the daunting role. Most importantly does he have the voice because he has the acting skills. He also announced that he will do Cyrano at the Met with Patricia Racette.


Anna Netrebko has recently announced that she is singing Il Trovatore at the Mariinsky theater in December and at the Met in 2015 with Yonghoon Lee.

Met 2015-19 Predictions

As the season comes to a start new details on the upcoming Met season have been released by La Cieca on Parterre. The site announced the replacement of the Faust as well as the opening night for the 2015-16 season.

According to the blog, the 2014-2015 season is going to go off pretty much as predicted, except that Faust is not going to happen.A possible revival of Macbeth will take its place, though most likely without Anna Netrebko, whose Lady Macbeth  will not arrive in New York until later.

2015-16: Netrebko will sing Desdemona in the 2015-2016 opening night production of Otello, starring Alexsandrs Antonenko and Zeljko Lucic, under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. However Netrebko will sing Il trovatore and Don Pasquale.  The Deborah Warner Messiah has been canceled and a revival of Die Fledermaus will also happen. Placido Domingo will return to Simon Boccanegra. A new production of  Manon Lescaut will premiere with  Jonas Kaufmann and Kristine Opolais.

2016-2017: The Dmitri Tcherniakov Der Rosenkavalier will happen with Joyce DiDonato,Erin Morley and Renée Fleming.  That season also sees the long-awaited return of Guillaume Tell to the Met repertoire featuring Bryan Hymel/John Osborn, and Angela Meade/Marina Rebeka . Netrebko is featured in a revival of Onegin and a revival of Manon Lescaut.

2017-2018:  Semiramide will return to the repertoire with DiDonato in the title part.  Netrebko will sing Lady M.

Between 2017 and 2019 plans are obviously very flexible. Stefan Herheim‘s Meistersinger is, as we know, on its way, but La Cieca’s source says the Met is “putting out feelers” for a new Lohengrin as well. Sometime (sooner rather than later) Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo will team for new productions ofRoméo et Juliette and Les pêcheurs de perles directed by Mary Zimmerman. There are also plans for Netrebko to sing Norma.