Final curtains don’t get much more apocalyptic than that of Les Huguenots, with French Catholics falling on their Protestant compatriots in the infamous St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572. Contemporaries of Meyerbeer’s ranked the opera right up there with the supreme creations of Michelangelo. In the Metropolitan Opera’s Golden Age, performances were celebrated as “Nights of the Seven Stars.” Between 1884 and 1915, there were 129 such nights, studded with talent many of whose names are remembered to this day. All of which sets a high bar for a new production of a blockbuster that has drifted to the outermost fringes of the repertoire. Rachel Willis-Sørensen sings the heroic Valentine, psychologically the most complex figure in the carpet. —M.G.