Joseph Kavalier is a visual artist from Prague, on the run from the Nazis. His cousin Sam Clay, of Brooklyn, writes stories. Their story unfolds partly in a real world in the throes of the Holocaust and global war, partly in the pages of the superhero comic books they create together. Michael Chabon’s doorstop page-turner The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, published in 2000, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but an anticipated Hollywood blockbuster never got past drafts of a screenplay. Same story with a projected miniseries, though in 2014, Seattle theater fans witnessed the five-week run of a five-hour stage adaptation. Now it’s time for the opera! The composer is Mason Bates, who hit a sweet spot with The (R)Evolution of Steve Jobs in 2017, in partnership with the librettist Gene Scheer, who so neatly wrangled Moby-Dick for Jake Heggie. According to early plans, the LA Opera was onboard for the world premiere/out-of-town trial run for the Met. But LA bailed, citing costs, and the dreadnought Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington stepped up. Advance word is inconclusive, but the creatives have had an opportunity to tweak—a rare godsend in this game. As the season-opener at the Met, the latest edition stars Andrezej Filończyk, a new face at the company, as Kavalier opposite Miles Mykkanen as Clay. The highly reliable, frequently brilliant Bartlett Sher directs; lighting, set, and video design by 59 Studio promises Tony-caliber spectacle. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts. —Matthew Gurewitsch