Renée Fleming and Kelli O'Hara to Star in The Hours at the Metropolitan Opera

Opera star Renée Fleming will appear on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera with Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara in the world premiere of Kevin Puts's The Hours on November 22.

With a libretto by Greg Pierce, The Hours is based on based on Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about three women connected by Virginia Woolf's 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway. Soprano Fleming will portray Clarissa Vaughan, the role played by Meryl Streep in the 2002 Paramount Pictures film. O'Hara (also a soprano) will play housewife Laura Brown (Julianne Moore in the film). Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will play the role of Virginia Woolf, which won Nicole Kidman an Academy Award for best actress.

O'Hara and Fleming have been noted for their crossover work in opera and on the Broadway stage, with O'Hara appearing in Così fan tutte, and Fleming receiving a Tony nomination for her performance in the 2018 Broadway revival of Carousel. They last appeared together at the Met in Susan Stroman's 2015 production of The Merry Widow.

Phelim McDermott, who helmed the Met's visually spectacular Akhnaten, will direct the production, which will feature choreography by Annie-B Parson, whose work can currently be seen on Broadway in David Byrne's American Utopia.

Following this season's Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Terence Blanchard's new opera, Champion will make its premiere on April 10, 2023. Choreography will be by Tony nominee Camille A. Brown.

Other new productions in the Met's 2022-23 season include Luigi Cherubini's Medea (directed by David McVicar), Umberto Giordano Fedora (also McVicar), Mozart's Don Giovanni (directed by Ivo van Hove in his Met debut), Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (directed by Simon McBurney, replacing the beloved Julie Taymor production), and Wagner's Lohengrin (directed by François Girard, replacing the repertory production by Robert Wilson often derided as "long and grim").

Returning repertory productions include Michael Mayer's production of La Traviata, Bartlett Sher's production of Rigoletto, and and Franco Zeffirelli's monumental production of La Bohème.

Click here to explore the complete 2022-23 season at the Metropolitan Opera.