NEW YORK (Diya TV) — The Metropolitan Opera will offer 70,000 free tickets to New York City residents during its 2026–27 season through a new partnership with the city, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Thursday.
Under the “Opera for All” program, the Met will release 10,000 tickets each month through a lottery beginning in September. New Yorkers who have not purchased a Met ticket since 2019 can enter through the program’s website or the Met’s app. The tickets will cover seats in every section of the opera house except standing room.
The 70,000 tickets account for about 10% of the Met’s tickets this season, according to the mayor’s office. The city and the Met said they will announce additional ways to distribute tickets directly to residents in the coming months. The Met has committed to continuing the program in future seasons.
“Too many New Yorkers have walked past Lincoln Center their whole lives and never gone inside,” Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su said in the city’s announcement. “This season, tens of thousands of them will.”
The city will promote the lottery through public schools, the City University of New York, the New York City Housing Authority, social service agencies and the city’s three public library systems. The Situation Project, an organization that connects young people with theater experiences, will also help spread the word.
The Met’s season includes productions of Macbeth, Lincoln in the Bardo and La Bohème. Mamdani announced the partnership in a video filmed on the Met’s stage with members of the La Bohème cast.
The opera program follows a city partnership with the Theater Development Fund that offered free and discounted Broadway and Off-Broadway tickets to high school students earlier this year.
