The Metropolitan Opera will open its 2014-15 season with Richard Eyre's new production of "Le Nozze di Figaro."
The company announced that Eyre would replace the originally scheduled Michael Grandage to direct the new production, which will open the season on Sept. 22, 2014. The Met's General Manager Peter Gelb told the New York Times that "Mr. Grandage had asked to be released from the engagement because the opera's rehearsal schedule conflicted with a coming film project." As a result Gelb stated that he turned to Eyre because the 2009 "Carmen" production, which was a huge hit. The director is currently mounting a new production of "Werther" this season with Jonas Kaufmann.
Gelb announced that the opera house had to adjust the carpentry schedule to give Eyre and his team the necessary time to design the new "Figaro." He stated, "For an opera to be designed and built and put on the stage in what amounts to just slightly over a year, in grand opera terms, is like a nanosecond. So we all realize it is a challenge."
Eyre also said that it would be a quick turnaround but said that it was normal. He stated, "By theater standards, it's about normal - in the theater you have about a year's gestation."
Eyre has directed "Figaro" before at the Aix-En Provence festival and said that he wanted to say more with his new production. He stated, "I didn't feel, when I did it before, 'Oh, that's it, I've explored every corner of this particular house and I don't want to go inside again.' On the contrary, I felt this is now very familiar, and I'd like to occupy it again, in completely different conditions."
The director added, "The opera is about sex and class, and, of course, both of them are very much around today. But there are certain things that I think are difficult to accept if you move it to 2013 in a Western environment. Droit du seigneur is one of them."
The new production is expected to star Swedish baritone Peter Mattei who will play the Count Almaviva. The 2013-2014 Metropolitan Opera season will open Sept. 23, 2013 with Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin."