Lulu

Alban Berg’s scandalous (both for composition and content) drama serves as an apt representation of the year in Met casting. The always-satisfying Fabio Luisi takes the podium from an ailing James Levine. German soprano Marlis Petersen, who was a last-minute replacement for Natalie Dessay in Hamlet earlier this year, comes into her own as the femme fatale. In spite of health troubles, James Morris is scheduled to appear as Dr. Schön, and mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter is the Countess Geschwitz.