The resplendent Lise Davidsen returns to the Met as Princess Marie Thérèse von Werdenberg, an aristocratic beauty on the cusp of middle age. In many fans’ view, the Marschallin, as she’s more commonly called, is the quintessential and most luminous of Richard Strauss heroines—though honestly, how do you triangulate among the nubile Salome, the vengeful Elektra, the abandoned Ariadne, the fairy-princess Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten, and the Capriccio Countess, patroness of the arts? The casting for this revival is deluxe, with Samantha Hankey in the pants part of the Marschallin’s teenage lover Octavian, Erin Morley as the convent-bred ingénue that Octavian proceeds to fall for, and Günther Groissböck as Baron Ochs, the bull in every china shop. Simone Young conducts. —Matthew Gurewitsch