Met plans first opera by woman since 1903

“We’re always trying to find ways to satisfy confirmed opera lovers, as well as excite new ones,” Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said in a telephone interview outlining the season, which is to open on Sept. 26 and include 225 performances of 26 operas.

A big question mark is the status of James Levine, 72, the company’s longtime music director, who has been struggling with health problems.

The Met was recently on the verge of announcing his retirement at the end of the current season, but he now hopes a change in his medication regimen will improve his condition, so the company has held off on its plans to name him music director emeritus.

Anna Netrebko will sing the title role in a revival of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut,” her first time singing the part at the Met, and will reprise her Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” opposite Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who has been earning strong reviews this season as he has been treated for a brain tumor.

The new “Rosenkavalier,” directed by Robert Carsen, will feature Renée Fleming’s final performances as the Marschallin at the Met, and possibly her last major staged role there, as she prepares, at 57, to retire from staged productions of the standard operatic repertoire.

Kristine Opolais will star as Rusalka in a Mary Zimmerman production conducted by Mark Elder; Gerald Finley will take the title role in Pierre Audi’s staging of “Guillaume Tell,” conducted by Fabio Luisi; and the tenor Javier Camarena will sing in Bellini’s “I Puritani.”

A notable absence will be the sought-after tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who has canceled his appearances at the Met this season and last and will therefore have been away from the company for three seasons.