This spring, Susanna Mälkki will make her highly anticipated return to The Metropolitan Opera where she will conduct Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. This follows her acclaimed company debut in Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin, of which The New York Times wrote:

“This production is lucky to have the impressive Ms. Malkki conducting. All the modernist sonorities and layered strands in this dense, complex music come through. She is excellent at animating the buzzing, frenetic riffs and fleeting ostinatos that ripple through the score. It was only last year that this charismatic conductor, then 46, made her auspicious New York Philharmonic debut. The Met must have her back as often as possible.” 

This surreal production by Jonathan Miller, last seen on the Met stage in 2015, sets the opera in late 1920’s Berlin, referencing the years librettist and famed poet W.H. Auden spent in the city. The star-studded cast includes Golda Schultz as Anne Trulove, Ben Bliss as Tom Rakewell, Christian Van Horn as Nick Shadow, Raehann Bryce-Davis as Baba the Turk and James Creswell as Trulove.

Performances take place on May 30, June 3, 7 and 11. The matinee performance on June 11 will be broadcast on the radio. Check your local station here

Photo credit: Jiyang Chen