Though John Adams scored an instant bull’s-eye with his operatic firstling Nixon In China, the gestation of some later operas—his catalogue today stands at nine—has been more tortuous, which merely puts him in the company of Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, and Puccini. The San Francisco premiere of Antony and Cleopatra (in 2022) unfurled a tapestry of ravishing music in modes martial and amatory, but to quote Shakespeare on the Roman general’s dotage, it o’erflowed the measure. The Met revival will be trimmer, which should weigh in its favor, and the Egyptian queen will be sung by the mesmerizing Julia Bullock, for whom the role was written, though pregnancy prevented her from honoring her San Francisco contract. Antony is Gerald Finley, one of many holdovers from the high-powered original cast. Adams himself presides at the podium; and with all due respect to Eun Sun Kim, who led the premiere, Adams belongs to that charmed circle of composers whose readings of their own scores are in a class of their own. —Matthew Gurewitsch