Peter Kálmán, Alexey Zhilikhovsky and Aigul Akhmetshina as Bartolo, Figaro and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Photo: Jonathan Tichler/Met Opera

The closure of opera houses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic created an alarming decrease in audience attendance that many companies are still struggling with, especially those in the U.S. In response, the Metropolitan Opera’s general director Peter Gelb has embarked on a plan to expand the company’s repertoire by producing new works, but public response to the operas presented has so far been mixed. The most common strategy at the Met and elsewhere to address sagging attendance has been to dramatically increase the number of performances of the traditionally most popular operas, particularly those by Mozart, Verdi and Puccini.

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The current Met season has been dominated by familiar titles, including seventeen performances of the company’s new Aida, plus nineteen of La Bohème and seventeen of Rigoletto. Both Tosca and Le Nozze di Figaro were done thirteen times, with Il Barbiere di Siviglia just behind with twelve. Many faithful operagoers have been distressed by this sweeping retreat to classics, but perhaps in response, the Met has shown particular care in presenting them with unusually interesting singers and conductors, as demonstrated by late-season iterations of Aida, Nozze, Barbiere and Bohème, which featured some fine debuts and returns.

Michael Mayer’s arid new Aida made a fraught debut on New Year’s Eve, but made a much happier reappearance in late April and found Angel Blue in increasingly confident form. This time she was surrounded by the familiar clarion Radamès of Brian Jadge and especially gratifying reappearances by Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat as a commanding Amonasro and, most potently, by superstar Elina Garanča as the glamorously aggrieved Amneris. The Latvian mezzo, usually perceived as a coolly accomplished artist, gave such a fiercely committed performance that long and loud cheers greeted her passionate Judgment Scene.

Following a fine first series, a new group of principals took over Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro, including debuting American soprano

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