The Metropolitan Opera opened this season with “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” an adaptation of Michael Chabon’s novel about two Jewish cousins who create a masked comic book hero to battle Fascism during World War II. When it closes on Saturday, it will have been performed seven times, to mixed reviews.
Still, “Kavalier & Clay,” by the composer Mason Bates and the librettist Gene Scheer, has become something of a hit at the box office, particularly with first-time and younger audiences. The final two performances, according to the Met, sold out.
And so, in an unusual move, the Met is bringing “Kavalier & Clay” back later this season, programming four performances in February. It is also planning to present a prerecorded “Met: Live in HD” screening of the production at movie theaters in North America, beginning on Jan. 24.
A programming change like this is extremely unusual at a large opera house like the Met, where seasons are typically planned as long as five years in advance. Peter Gelb, the company’s general manager, said that it had done a same-season revival only once before, when it brought back “Porgy and Bess” during the 2019-20 season.
“Kavalier & Clay,” which was commissioned by the Met, is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and incorporates electronic music and swing into the score. With its heavy reliance on eye-catching video projections, comic book imagery, and changing sets, it is an ambitious production, intended to resonate with younger audiences. (Notably, the Met is advertising this opera at the New York Comic Con this weekend.)
The Met said that 87 percent of the paid seats, not counting complimentary tickets that are set aside each performance, were sold over the course of all seven shows, significantly higher than the number of seats sold at most operas. Of those, 35 percent of the attendees were new to the Met, and 30 percent were 40 or younger.
But if history is any guide, reviving “Kavalier & Clay” is a bit of a risk. Since the pandemic, the Met has not fared well in bringing back new operas. The company was quick to revive “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” by Terence Blanchard, and “The Hours,” by Kevin Puts. Both had done well in their opening season, and both foundered in their revivals.
Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said he did not think the same thing would happen with “Kavalier & Clay,” arguing that reviving it this season builds on the momentum of recent weeks. “Each performance,” he said, “sold better than the previous one.”
Februarys have been quiet at the Met since the 2021-22 season, when the company began to take the month off from performance. That made this last-minute scheduling change somewhat easier. But retrieving cast members who might have conflicting engagements — opera stars tend to book appearances years in advance — was complicated. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s music director, will lead only the final performance of the revival, on Feb. 21. The other three performances will be conducted by Michael Christie, making his Met debut, on Feb. 17, 18 and 20.
The Met was able to reassemble almost the entire cast, in no small part by leaning on other opera companies where singers had been scheduled to perform. Without that, the revival would have been all but impossible, given the rehearsals that would be needed for new artists to learn the show.
Patrick Carfizzi, who plays the Empire Comics owner Sheldon Anapol, and Craig Colclough, who sings the role of Gerhard, a Nazi, will be taking overnight flights from San Diego, where they will be appearing in “The Barber of Seville,” to make the first rehearsal in New York. And the mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce will miss two weeks of rehearsals for Philip Glass’s “Akhnaten” at the Los Angeles Opera to perform as Rosa Saks in “Kavalier & Clay.”
Gelb noted that the Los Angeles Opera had backed out of its co-production of “Kavalier & Clay” over costs, which led the Met to partner instead with the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University for the opera’s world premiere.
“I didn’t have to tell them they owed us something,” Gelb said of the Los Angeles Opera. “They knew it.”
Adam Nagourney is a Times reporter covering cultural, government and political stories in New York and California.
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