Superconductor

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s 2025–26 docket of Met productions begins on Opening Night and doesn’t conclude until the final week of the season, spanning a typically wide range of repertoire. In his eighth year as the company’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, the Met’s electrifying maestro takes the podium for a pair of landmark company premieres, a new production of Wagner’s transcendent Tristan und Isolde, and his first Mozart opera at the Met, not to mention a full slate of concerts at Carnegie Hall. Nézet-Séguin recently discussed the many highlights ahead.

The season opens with Mason Bates’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, based on Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel about two Jewish cousins who create a Nazi-fighting comic-book superhero. What makes this the right opera to kick things off?
Even though this opera takes place during World War II, it speaks powerfully to our society today. It’s set during an era when the United States was leading the way in welcoming people and fighting against oppression. I’m convinced this is still very much what it means to be American, and hopefully this opera will touch people and reawaken their commitment to those values. It also reminds us how art can be an outlet for people to overcome their traumas, fight for what is right, and make their lives better.

What kind of music should audiences expect from Kavalier & Clay?
Mason has a unique style that comes from his eclectic upbringing in music. He draws upon traditional classical music while also incorporating electronics in a way that emphasizes and enhances the acoustic instruments. In this score, I think his use of electronic instruments has reached an entirely new level of storytelling, particularly in how he depicts the comic-book world, which has this thrilling, almost futuristic feel.

This fall, you’re doing double duty, conducting both Kavalier & Clay and the first revival of Ivo van Hove’s gripping production of Don Giovanni. It’s hard to believe that it will be the first time you lead a Mozart opera at the Met.
I can’t believe it—especially considering I’ve lived with Mozart’s music and conducted and recorded his operas over the course of my entire career. Don Giovanni might be my favorite Mozart opera. The score is so elegant, as Mozart always is, but in places it’s almost like Beethoven in its rage and its darkness. We have a wonderful cast, led by Ryan Speedo Green in the title role, and I’m particularly excited to work with the orchestra on Mozart. Of course, they are experts at playing his operas, but I am looking forward to sharing my own vision with them.

How would you define your approach to Mozart?
There’s eternal debate about whether his music should be approached in a grander style or a leaner one. Over the years, I’ve developed my own way of blending the lyricism with something very theatrical and exciting. When I was a piano student, my teacher would remind me that everything Mozart wrote—even a piano sonata or chamber piece—is an opera. You have to imagine a character in every melody you’re playing and every counterpoint. That has always helped me when I conduct Mozart’s operas because I remember that the melodies reveal so much about each character.

In March, you return for one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the season: the premiere of Yuval Sharon’s new production of Tristan und Isolde. Tell us about conducting Wagner’s epic masterpiece.
Tristan und Isolde is on every conductor’s bucket list. The music he composed for the orchestra alone is like the most beautiful symphony ever written. In a sense, it’s four hours exploring every variation of how to say “I love you.” Sometimes love is mysterious, almost tentative. Sometimes it gets crazy and combustible. Sometimes it’s about reminiscing—it’s nostalgic. And other times, it’s very hopeful. The whole orchestra is crying out how passionate the love of these two people is.

The extraordinary cast and creative team for this production must make you especially eager to pick up your baton.
Every time we bring Tristan und Isolde to our stage, it’s an event, but this does feel even more special. Lise Davidsen is the dream Isolde of our time. She has an amazing instrument that is very powerful and has a million colors. We’ve been fortunate to work together in a range of repertoire, and that has helped us develop a deep trust that makes the music better and better. And then, we have Yuval, who is one of the greatest directors in the world. He’s worked at many important theaters, including Bayreuth, the festival that Wagner created. We’ve announced that I’ll be conducting a new Ring cycle in the future, with Yuval as the director, so this is going to be the beginning of an exciting Wagner collaboration.

You wrap up your opera season with another contemporary work, Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego.
Gabriela Lena Frank was my first composer-in-residence when I was named music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra 13 years ago. I admire her so much because her music isn’t just beautiful, it gives voice to a whole Latin community that, for too many years, wasn’t represented on opera stages. And as an artist, I’ve always loved stories about artists that reveal the humanity behind their art. With Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, of course they are both wonderful artists in their own right, but this piece allows us to also appreciate who they were as people and how they related to each other.

It will be the second Spanish-language opera you’ve conducted at the Met, following Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas in 2023. Are you making that a priority?
I think it’s so important for us to continue to program works in Spanish. So many people who live in New York and in this country, and so many people who come to the Met, speak Spanish. And while all music can be enjoyed by anyone, when the story is told in your own language, you feel even more welcome. This opera is just one of the many ways that we are welcoming our friends in the Latin American community and inviting them to discover this incredible art form.

While some of these pieces may be new, the one constant is your ongoing collaboration with the Met Orchestra and Chorus. How has your relationship with them developed over your time as Music Director?
Every season I return to the Met, my admiration for my colleagues in the orchestra and chorus grows. They are some of the most talented, versatile, flexible musicians performing anywhere in the world. They are able to adapt their style to whatever composer they are performing—not just Mozart and Bellini or Verdi, Wagner, and Strauss, but also Bates, Frank, and Saariaho. I just love making music with them and am inspired by them more and more. And I hope together we continue to inspire our audiences.