Iolanta / Bluebeard's Castle

You get a lot for your money when it comes to director Mariusz Trelinski's double bill of new productions. The glitz factor comes in the first half, as Anna Netrebko heads back into the Russian repertoire to star in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. (While she doesn’t sound as brilliant as she did in Verdi’s Macbeth, she has her moments.) The must-see half of the presentation comes afterward, with a gothic (and bondagey) take on Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Here, soprano Nadja Michael and the Met Orchestra prove hauntingly seductive. Valery Gergiev conducts the entire program.