Free Met Opera seats: 70,000 go to New Yorkers by lottery this season

New Yorkers who have not bought a Metropolitan Opera ticket since 2019 can now enter a monthly lottery for free seats. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Met announced the program, Opera for All, on Wednesday, Sept. 23. It will give out 70,000 tickets over the 2026-27 season.

The lottery starts this month, and the Met will release 10,000 tickets through it every month. The free tickets add up to about 10% of all tickets for the season. Winners won’t be stuck in the back rows, because the seats are spread across the whole house. Standing room is not included.

Who can enter the Met Opera free ticket lottery

The one rule: no Met ticket purchases since 2019. First-timers qualify, and so do people whose last visit was several years ago. The city’s entry page is on.nyc.gov/opera, and the opera company’s own app and website take entries as well.

A range of public agencies and partner groups will spread the word and distribute seats. Among them are CUNY, NYCHA, the city’s public school system, the New York Public Library, the Department for the Aging, Situation Project and the Department of Social Services.

What is on stage in the 2026-27 Met season

The season at the Lincoln Center opera house has five new productions and 12 repertory productions. Titles include Macbeth, La Bohème and Lincoln in the Bardo. The Met has promised to keep the program going in future seasons.

The mayor made the announcement in a video recorded onstage at the Met, joined by singers from the company’s La Bohème production. In it he looked back to 1943, when Mayor Fiorello La Guardia helped make City Center a home for what he called “the people’s opera,” with tickets from 75 cents to $2.

More information about the company and its season is at metopera.org.