While James Levine was music director for 40 years, the Met hardly ever engaged with a living composer.
A rare exception was the premiere of John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby, which Levine conducted for his own 25th anniversary in the job.
Under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, next season will see new productions of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking; Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X; and John Adams’s El Niño.
There will also be revivals of Terence Blanchard’s (pictured) Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Kevin Puts’s The Hours.
Quite a turnaround.
