Kelli O'Hara Will Return to the Metropolitan Opera in 2018 for Cosi fan tutte; New Season Announced

Kelli O’Hara will return to Lincoln Center for the Metropolitan Opera’s 2017-18 season. The Tony winner will sing the role of the spunky maid Despina in a new staging of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. The Phelim McDermott production, which is set at Coney Island in the 1950s, will premiere on March 15, 2018.

O’Hara made her Met debut in the 2014-15 season with the company’s production of The Merry Widow, directed by Susan Stroman. The staging is one of 20 repertory productions part of the new roster.

The season kicks off on September 25 with David McVicar’s new production of Bellini’s Norma, starring Sondra Radvanovsky in the iconic title role with Joyce DiDonato as her rival Adalgisa. Later performances of the bel canto tragedy will feature sopranos Marina Rebeka and Angela Meade as Norma.

The Met premiere of Thomas Adès and Tom Cairns’ The Exterminating Angel will begin on October 26. Adès will take the podium as conductor while Cairns directs. The company includes Alice Coote, as well as soprano Sally Matthews in her Met debut. The opera is based on the same 1962 Luis Buñuel film that inspired half of Stephen Sondheim’s next musical.

The Puccini classic Tosca marks McVicar’s second new production of the season and will premiere on New Year’s Eve. Kristine Opolais will kick off the run as the heroine opposite Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel. When the production returns in April, Anna Netrebko will step in, adding a new role to her Met repertory.

The fifth and final new production—Cendrillon—marks the first time the Massenet take on Cinderella has been presented at the house. Joyce DiDonato will star in the title role; the cast will also include Kathleen Kim, Coote, Stephanie Blythe and Laurent Naouri.

Additional season highlights include a concert presentation of Verdi’s Requiem conducted by James Levine, the return of Mary Zimmerman’s haunting production of Lucia di Lammermoor with three sopranos taking on the role of the unhinged bride: Olga Peretyatko, Jessica Pratt and Pretty Yende, Bartlett Sher’s staging of Les Contes d’Hoffmann, the return of Elektra conducted by Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin and two takes on The Magic Flute: the full-length German presentation and the condensed English-language adaptation (both directed by Julie Taymor).

See below for the complete lineup.
Norma (beginning September 25)
Les Contes d'Hoffmann (beginning September 26)
Die Zauberflöte (beginning September 27)
La Bohème (beginning October 2)
Turandot (beginning October 12)
The Exterminating Angel (beginning October 26)
Madama Butterfly (beginning November 2)
Thaïs (beginning November 11)
The Magic Flute (beginning November 25)
Le Nozze di Figaro (beginning December 6)
The Merry Widow (beginning December 14)
Hansel and Gretel (beginning December 18)
Tosca (beginning December 31)
Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci (beginning January 8)
L'Elisir d'Amore (beginning January 16)
Il Trovatore (beginning January 22)
Parsifal (beginning February 5)
Semiramide (beginning February 19)
Elektra (beginning March 1)
Così fan tutte (beginning March 15)
Lucia di Lammermoor (beginning March 22)
Luisa Miller (beginning March 29)
Cendrillon (beginning April 12)
Roméo et Juliette (beginning April 23)