NEW YORK (AP) — Lisette Oropesa impresses Peter Gelb as more than a singer.

“She reminds me a little bit of Beverly Sills,” the Metropolitan Opera general manager said. “She seems to have that kind of intellectual quickness. She’s extremely astute and she connects with people. Who knows? Maybe someday she’ll be running the Met?”

Sills was a top soprano before heading New York City Opera from 1979-89, then chairing the Met board from 2002-05 and overseeing Gelb’s hiring.

A 42-year-old soprano who grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Oropesa is starring with tenor Lawrence Brownlee in the Met’s first new staging of Bellini’s “I Puritani” since the heralded 1976 production with Luciano Pavarotti and Joan Sutherland.

Last week’s opening received rave reviews after Oropesa shimmered through the difficult coloratura. This Saturday’s performance will be televised worldwide.

“I’ve been wanting to sing it forever. I think it’s Bellini’s best work,” Oropesa said. “I find `Puritani’ is one of the exceptions to the bel canto generalization of: it’s boring, it’s slow, it’s all about the singers, the text is terrible, the stories are stupid.”

Met career started two decades ago

Oropesa was a winner at the 2005 Met National Council Auditions, joined the company’s young artists program and made her Met debut a year later in Mozart’s “Idomeneo.” Among her first larger roles was in Puccini’s “La Rondine” on New Year’s Eve in 2008, when she sang the character named Lisette under the baton of Marco Armiiato, also this season’s “Puritani” conductor.

“You can catch right away the sparkling in the voice,” he said. “She’s developed her career in a beautiful and very intelligent way, choosing the right role in the right time.”

Oropesa debuted at Munich’s Bavarian State Opera in 2011, the Paris Opera in 2015, London’s Royal Opera in 2017 and Milan’s Teatro all Scala in 2019.

While she had sung Elvira’s mad scene in auditions, she didn’t feel ready for the entire role.

“It’s good to be young and fresh because you’re agile, you’re resilient,” she said. “But you don’t necessarily have the stamina that it takes to get through a long bel canto, big work like this. And that’s something that comes with age and experience.”

Oropesa sang her first staged Elvira in February 2025 in Paris, also with Brownlee.

“She is so committed in everything she does, and she gives a full performance every time she walks on stage,” Brownlee said.