The Met’s general manager Peter Gelb and music director James Levine have announced (February 22) next year’s season which includes seven new productions and the launch of a new cycle of Wagner’s Ring. New to the Met repertoire are John Adams’s Nixon in China and Rossini’s Le comte Ory. Three distinguished directors will make their Met debuts: Peter Stein will take charge of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (with René Pape in the title-role and Valery Gergiev conducting); Nicholas Hytner recreates his vision of Verdi’s Don Carlo (a co-production with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, where it was first seen in 2008, with many of the same singers – Roberto Alagna, Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside and Ferruccio Furlanetto – but with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting) and Willy Decker looks after the transfer from the 2005 Salzburg Festival of Verdi’s La traviata with Poplavskaya and Matthew Polenzani in the central roles; Gianandrea Noseda conducting. Adams’s Nixon in China will be conducted by its composer (making his Met debut) in a production by Peter Sellars first seen at English National Opera, and Rossini’s Le comte Ory will be seen in a new production by Bartlett Sher with Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato. To mark James Levine’s four decades with the company, a Ring cycle will be mounted in a new production by Robert Lepage: the first two instalments will be unveiled in September 2010 and April 2011 respectively. Bryn Terfel will sing Wotan, with Stephanie Blythe as Fricka. In Die Walküre, Deborah Voigt will be heard in her first Met Brünnhilde, Eva-Maria Westbroek will sing Sieglinde and Jonas Kaufmann will appear in his first Siegmund at the Met. Levine will be also conduct revivals of Don Pasquale, Il trovatore, Simon Boccanegra and Wozzeck. The actual date of his anniversary (June 5) will find him conducting Don Carlo in Japan during a Met tour. His epic reign with the company will also be marked by DVD and CD issues, and a new documentary by Susan Froemke. Other debutants during the season include Sir Simon Rattle (Pelléas et Mélisande) and William Christie (Così fan tutte). The Met will continue its hugely successful HD broadcasts throughout the season and 11 productions will be seen in cinemas in 44 countries worldwide: Das Rheingold (October 9), Boris Godunov (October 23), Don Pasquale (November 13), Don Carlo (December 11), La fanciulla del West (January 8), Iphigénie en Tauride (February 26), Lucia di Lammermoor (March 19), Le comte Ory (April 9), Capriccio (April 23), Il trovatore (April 30), and Die Walküre (May 14).