Met announces free streaming of Lincoln in the Bardo

Missy Mazzoli’s new opera, based on George Saunders’s novel, will stream free on YouTube on November 14, with replay available through November 18.

Performance details

Work · Lincoln in the Bardo, by Missy Mazzoli
Libretto · Royce Vavrek, after the novel by George Saunders
Company · Metropolitan Opera, New York
Conductor · Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Stage director · Lileana Blain-Cruz
Principal cast · Peter Mattei (Lincoln), Everett Sobers (Willie), Christine Goerke (the Reverend), Anthony Roth Costanzo (Miss Elise Traynor), Jonah Hoskins (Bevins), Ryan McKinny (Vollman), Janai Brugger (Mrs. Hodge), Stephanie Blythe (Mrs. Baron), Joshua Blue (Thomas Havens) and Craig Colclough (Mr. Baron)
Language · English. Streaming subtitle options have not been announced
Live broadcast · Saturday, November 14, 2026, at 20:00 New York time (EST) / Sunday, November 15, at 01:00 GMT
Free replay · Through midnight New York time on November 18 / 05:00 GMT on November 19
Access · Free international stream on the Met’s YouTube Channel

A president among the ghosts

Abraham Lincoln enters a cemetery to mourn his eleven-year-old son, Willie. Around him, the dead cling to the lives they have lost. This encounter between private grief and a restless community of ghosts forms the heart of Lincoln in the Bardo, Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s adaptation of George Saunders’s Booker Prize-winning novel.

The opera moves between sorrow, unsettling comedy and the voices of souls caught between worlds. Lileana Blain-Cruz’s production brings that shifting realm to the stage through puppetry, projections and theatrical illusion, with Peter Mattei as Lincoln and Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting.

The free broadcast offers an opportunity to encounter the work during its first Met run. George Saunders will introduce the transmission, and the interval will feature The Making of Lincoln in the Bardo, a 17-minute documentary produced by Service95. The stream accompanies the company’s fundraising campaign, with viewers invited to donate. Paid viewing options on Met Opera on Demand begin November 20.