America’s premiere opera company roars back from its midwinter break with a company premiere and five revivals, all clamoring for a devotee’s attention. Fresh from his belated Met debut with the quarter-century-old Dead Man Walking, Jake Heggie returns with Moby-Dick (2010). This whale of an opera is arguably Heggie’s masterpiece, but the competition is stiff, and the Met has hardly begun to explore his catalogue. Sensibly, the general director Peter Gelb is retaining Leonard Foglia’s IMAX-worthy original multimedia production from Dallas, which would be hard to improve upon. Brandon Jovanovich stars as Captain Ahab, blasphemer and madman. Next, the Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen, whose every Met appearance is an event, parachutes in for Beethoven’s lone opera Fidelio, whose cross-dressing heroine expresses courage, compassion, and humanity in music of a splendor that has never been surpassed. For moonstruck romance, book Puccini’s La Bohème, in the 1981 Franco Zeffirelli staging that remains a house fixture. The spirit of Indiana Jones (or maybe the archaeologist Howard Carter, of King Tut fame) hovers over Michael Mayer’s hokey but static new take on Verdi’s Aida, unveiled to dismissive reviews on New Year’s Eve. Two top Mozarts round out the March calendar: Die Zauberflöte and Le Nozze di Figaro. Casting across the board is impressive; we’ll single out Joseph Calleja and Luca Micheletti (Left Bank buddies in La Bohème), Kathryn Lewek and Golda Schultz (Mommy Dearest and harried daughter in Die Zauberflöte), and Federica Lombardi and Marianne Crebassa (Countess and smitten pageboy in Figaro). The conductors’ roster is noteworthy, too. Karen Kamensek, who mesmerized house audiences in Glass’s Akhnaten, returns for Moby-Dick. Susanne Mälkki, who presided over her countrywoman Kaija Saariaho’s Tristan-esque L’Amour de Loin, now broaches Fidelio. Joana Mallwitz, whose stock in Europe is skyrocketing, presents her calling card with Le Nozze di Figaro. Alexander Soddy, in charge of La Bohème as well as Aida, lends warhorses the spark and imagination that makes them new. Last but not least, Evan Rogister, finally, first heard at the Met someseasons back in Die Zauberflöte, is back on the podium for an encore. —Matthew Gurewitsch
