The Metropolitan Opera’s 2025-26 season of Saturday matinee broadcasts continues on January 3 with the network premiere of "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by composer Mason Bates, with a libretto by Gene Scheer based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Michael Chabon.
This performance from October 2, 2025, stars baritone Andrzej Filońcyk as the artist Joe Kavalier, who escapes from Nazi-occupied Prague with dreams of making enough money in New York City to rescue his family. Tenor Miles Mykkanen is Joe’s Brooklynite cousin, Sam Clay, who teams up with him to create a hit comic book series about a fascism-fighting superhero called "The Escapist." And mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce is the artist and humanitarian Rosa Saks, who falls in love with Joe. The acclaimed cast also features Edward Nelson, Lauren Snouffer, Craig Colclough, Ellie Dehn, Richard Croft, Eve Gigliotti, and Patrick Carfizzi. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay will be heard over the Robert K. Johnson Foundation-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 3, 2026.
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Want even more behind-the-scenes access? Each week, Met Opera chorus member Katherine DeYoung brings you exclusive looks at the sets, costumes and fun production facts on our Instagram. Follow @classicalipr on Instagram to catch her video dispatches and get an insider’s perspective.
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From the Met: "In this exhilarating adaptation of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, set shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, two Jewish cousins invent an anti-fascist superhero and launch their own comic-book series, hoping to recruit America into the fight against Nazism.
"Incorporating scintillating electronic elements and a variety of musical styles, composer Mason Bates’s eclectic score moves seamlessly among the three worlds of Gene Scheer’s libretto: Nazi-occupied Prague, the bustling streets of New York City, and the technicolor realm of comic-book fantasy."
Read the synopsis from the Metropolitan Opera.
Composer: Mason Bates
Libretto: Gene Scheer
Based on the book by Michael Chabon
Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
CAST
Sarah Kavalier: Lauren Snouffer
Joe Kavalier: Andrzej Filończyk
Sam Clay: Miles Mykkanen
Rosa Saks: Sun-Ly Pierce
Tracy Bacon: Edward Nelson
Sheldon Anapol: Patrick Carfizzi
Gerhard: Craig Colcough
