Overview

• The Metropolitan Opera opened its 2025–26 season September 21 with the world premiere of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, with performances scheduled through October 11.
• The new opera adapts Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel about two Jewish cousins in 1940s New York who create the anti-fascist superhero known as The Escapist.
• Composer Mason Bates blends big-band swing, expressionistic European colors and electro-symphonic textures in a score set to Gene Scheer’s libretto, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
• Director Bartlett Sher leads a technically complex staging spanning 40–50 locations with choreography, projections and intricate sound design that he describes as among the Met’s most demanding.
• Critics commend the vocal performances of Andrzej Filończyk and Miles Mykkanen, with Sun-Ly Pierce and Edward Nelson also singled out, noting accessible storytelling alongside trims that reshape elements from the book.