2025–26 Education, Media, And Young-Artist Programs

Education

HD Live in Schools

In its 18th season, the Met’s HD Live in Schools national program returns to nearly 70 school districts across the country, including Puerto Rico. Each partner district receives free tickets to The Met: Live in HD screenings at local movie theaters; complimentary educational licenses to Met Opera on Demand, the company’s subscription streaming service; interdisciplinary, classroom-ready curricular materials designed for students across grade levels; virtual student-engagement programming; and robust professional-development opportunities for educators and administrators.

The 2025–26 HD Live in Schools curriculum includes Bellini’s La Sonnambula (October 18, 2025), Puccini’s La Bohème (November 8, 2025), Bellini’s I Puritani (January 10, 2026), and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (May 2, 2026). Interested partners have the option to attend encore screenings of the Met’s holiday presentation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute (December 6, 2025) and Massenet’s Cinderella (February 14, 2026).

The National Educator Conference, a professional-development initiative that brings together teachers and administrators from across the United States, is scheduled to return to the Met on October 7–10, followed by two virtual professional-development conferences in the winter and the spring. More details will be announced.

Access Opera

Access Opera: Guild Open Rehearsals for Students welcomes local students and educators to attend final dress rehearsals live at the Metropolitan Opera House. During the 2025–26 season, Access Opera invites school groups to attend 13 dress-rehearsal performances: Mason Bates’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Puccini’s Turandot, Bellini’s La Sonnambula, Puccini’s La Bohème, Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment, Bizet’s Carmen, Strauss’s Arabella, Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Verdi’s La Traviata, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego. Of these rehearsals, at least four will be designated as special student dress rehearsals, with most of the seating allocated to school groups. Exact dates and registration details will be announced.

The program continues its Repertoire Exploration Program (REP), offering in-school teaching-artist residencies and one-time workshops to interested schools. A variety of complimentary professional-development workshops for Access Opera teachers will be held throughout the season.

Access Opera: Guild Open Rehearsals for Students is made possible by Stephen E. and Evalyn E. Milman.

Additional funding from Michael Spolan, The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, The Halff Windham Foundation, Jim and Rebecca Neary, and Dalio Philanthropies.

This program is also supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Family Open Houses

Met Education will once again host its popular Holiday Open House prior to a weekend matinee performance of the Met’s holiday presentation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The Open House allows thousands of children and families to take part in hands-on musical explorations and experience behind-the-scenes demonstrations by members of the Met’s backstage and artistic staff, including musicians, actors, dancers, and members of the wig and costume shops and scenic departments.

The fourth annual Spring Open House will also be held prior to a weekend matinee performance of Puccini’s La Bohème.

Both events are free to all ticketholders for that day’s performance. More details will be announced.

Met Opera on Demand: Insights

Launched during the 2023–24 season, Met Opera on Demand: Insights provides exclusive access to conversations with Met composers, multimedia curricular resources, and rare archival materials to colleges and universities with institutional subscriptions to Met Opera on Demand: Student Access. Each semester features core content highlighting thematic connections between one contemporary Met premiere and one title available on Met Opera on Demand.

The fall 2025 program focuses on “Opera and Politics” and includes an interview with Mason Bates, composer of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; multimedia resources for the Met’s 2011 production of John Adams’s Nixon in China; and archival documents detailing the history of the Met during the major wars of the 20th century.

The spring 2026 unit on “Opera and Myth” includes an interview with Gabriela Lena Frank, composer of El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego; multimedia resources on the Met’s 2021 production of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice; and archival materials detailing the Met’s efforts to recruit Maria Callas to perform Cherubini’s Medea in the 1950s and 1960s.

Met Students

The Met Students program offers full-time undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to purchase student tickets to select performances at a special discount rate. In the 2025–26 season, Met Education will also continue convening a cohort of Met Students Ambassadors, comprising local undergraduate and graduate students, to serve as the Met’s student think tank for publicizing new initiatives, offers, and discounts; devising promotional strategy on local campuses; and planning exclusive events for Met Students members. Ambassadors will also gain exclusive access to Met staff, creatives, and artists—as well as free admission to select ticketed events. The Met will also welcome student ticket holders to five complimentary pre-performance parties on select dates.

Fridays Under 40

The Met’s popular Fridays Under 40 program welcomes operagoers aged 40 and under to purchase special discounted tickets for every Friday performance, with complimentary pre-performance parties on select dates. The Fridays Under 40 parties for the 2025–26 season are scheduled for Mason Bates’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (September 26, 2025), Bellini’s La Sonnambula (October 24, 2025), Bizet’s Carmen (November 21, 2025), Mozart’s The Magic Flute (December 19, 2025), the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (January 16, 2026), Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (March 13, 2026), Verdi’s La Traviata (April 10, 2026), Puccini’s La Bohème (May 1, 2026), and Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego (June 5, 2026).

The Met on the Radio and Online

The Met’s 95th consecutive Saturday Matinee Broadcast season will be transmitted over The Robert K. Johnson Foundation–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network beginning December 6, 2025, with Puccini’s La Bohème and concluding May 30, 2026, with Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego. Debra Lew Harder returns as host, and Ira Siff returns as commentator for the broadcasts. The Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcasts also receive long-term support from the Annenberg Foundation and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg, the Neubauer Family Foundation, the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media, and through contributions from listeners worldwide.

Metropolitan Opera Radio on the SiriusXM app continues as the country’s premier subscription radio channel dedicated to opera, with live performances presented each week during the season, hosted by Debra Lew Harder and featuring commentator William Berger, as well as encore presentations of historic broadcasts from the Met’s radio archive stretching back to the 1930s. Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM is available to subscribers in the United States and Canada.

In addition, two Met performances will be broadcast every week on SiriusXM’s Symphony Hall, channel 78, on Sundays at 3PM ET and Wednesdays at 9PM ET.

Met Opera on Demand

The Met’s exclusive streaming service now features more than 900 full-length Met performances, available worldwide on multiple platforms that include Amazon Fire TV and Tablet, iOS and Apple TV, Android, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and the Met Opera on Demand website. The Met Opera on Demand library includes more than 165 presentations from the Live in HD series, as well as more than 85 classic telecasts and 620 radio broadcasts dating back to 1935.

Met Opera on Demand: Student Access allows university and college libraries to make this digital resource from the Met accessible to their student populations. Now in its tenth year, Student Access is currently available at more than 200 schools around the world.

Support for Met Opera on Demand is provided by the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation and Dorothy and Charles H. Jenkins, Jr.

Lindemann Young Artist Development Program

The Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program continues to nurture and develop great operatic talent under the leadership of Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Executive Director Melissa Wegner, and Head of Music Myra Huang. Ten current Lindemann artists will return next season, and the complete roster of 2025–26 artists will be announced later this year.