The Metropolitan Opera lobby was a hive of activity recently, as an administrative assistant navigated the circuitous path from the stage door to the still halfway-furnished office of the new general manager, Peter Gelb. Workers were polishing the lowered chandeliers, and miles of blood-red carpeting and upholstery were getting a cleaning.

No doubt, the Met gets a good scrubbing every September. But there’s a difference this time around: The opera’s September 25 gala opening will not just kick off a new season, but also a new era. Since Mr. Gelb took over leadership of the opera house from Joseph Volpe, barely a fortnight has passed without breathless press reports of some sea change in the Met’s modus operandi. The Met to aggressively advertise for the first time in decades! (Gasp!) The Met to broadcast its season opener, “Madama Butterfly,” on Times Square’s Jumbotron as al fresco free viewing! (Ooh!)

The nation’s most important opera company is now Peter Gelb’s personal snow globe, and he just can’t seem to help shaking it up. Though much of the 2006–07 season was in place before Mr. Gelb was appointed, his restless touch can nevertheless be seen in much of the lineup. Most significantly, all six new productions boast a director making a Met debut, including two theater veterans, a pair from film, one choreographer, and one designer. There’s not an opera lifer in the bunch of them.

New talent at the helm has become one of Mr. Gelb’s mantras. “It’s not that I have a policy of bringing only new directors here,” he said, “but I do have a policy of bringing great theater directors here, directors who are really going to be able to raise the theatrical level of the Met to the point where the theatrical qualities of our productions are equal to the musical qualities.” He cited a handy example. “Just as Puccini, when he wrote ‘Madame Butterfly,’ was thinking of its theatrical success as well as its musical success, we’re doing the same today,” Mr. Gelb said. “Otherwise, we’re not serving the composer or the audience.”

With “Butterfly,” Mr. Gelb marks his arrival in the most dramatic manner possible. He not only brought the production over from London, where it was a critical and popular hit at the English National Opera, but also made it the season opener, eschewing the usual program of a potpourri of scenes from various operas. “Madama Butterfly” is staged by film director Anthony Minghella, whose credits include “The English Patient” and “Cold Mountain.” The starkly elegant design employs Japanese art forms such as Bunkaru puppetry, as well as transluscent screens and a large pivoting mirror. At press time, Mr. Gelb said Mr. Minghella was toying with the idea of doing away with the prompter box.

“Anthony Minghella wants to make sure the cast is so in touch with the language and the meaning of the language, that they are not on some form of automatic pilot,” he said. “The danger of that is present if there is a prompter for reading lines. It takes the concentration of the singer away from the text.”

“Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” the second new production of the season, was slated for production before Mr. Gelb arrived, but he exerted his influence by tapping “The Light in the Piazza” director Bartlett Sher to mount it. Mr. Sher’s whimsical, intimate vision of the familiar opera should cultivate a cozy relationship with the audience. “It’s a very shallow set and sits on top of the orchestra, over the pit,” Mr. Gelb said. “The legs of the stage meet downstage of the conductor, almost literally in the lap of the audience in row A. It’s the first time that has ever been attempted here.”

Mr. Gelb said that “Butterfly” and “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” when taken together, “represent a kind of new Met aesthetic that is representative of what is possible when great theatrical concepts are achieved with `less is more.’ They are high concept. The proscenium is not stuffed with scenery. They’re not wedding-cake productions.”

But the lineup is not without its indulgences, and veteran Met subscribers need not worry about Zeffirelli withdrawal: The season will let them have their wedding cake and eat it too. A new production of Puccini’s trio of one acts, “Il Trittico,” due in April and directed by Jack O’Brien, who has made a name on Broadway with both musicals (“Hairspray”) and serious drama (“The Invention of Love”), will pile on the scenic delights.

“In striking contrast to the comparative simplicity, at least in look, of `Barbiere’ and `Madama Butterfly,’ the production of `Trittico’ is very ambitious scenically,” Mr. Gelb said. “I said to Jack, `This is as elaborate and complicated as any Zeffirelli production.’ And he said, Well, you know, I am the American Zeffirelli,'” Mr. Gelb said with a chuckle, “so he’s prepared to assume the mantle.”

Another top-heavy attraction will be the world premiere of “The First Emperor,” Chinese composer Tan Dun’s tale of China’s initial ruler, his daughter, and his duplicitous court composer. “This is definitely ‘more is more,'” Mr. Gelb said.”This is a huge set that taxes the Met’s brilliant technical system. It’s a giant staircase that has hundreds of corresponding blocks that hang on a total of seven miles of rope. The different configurations create different abstract and realistic shapes.” Leading Chinese film director Zhang Yimou will direct Placido Domingo in the title role. Not interested yet? Consider Mr. Gelb’s pungent description of the story: “Intrigue, betrayal, sex, love, revenge, and violent death.”

The season gets more opera-lover friendly with two other new productions: Strauss’s obscure mythological oddity, “Die Agyptische Helene,” directed by David Fielding and starring Deborah Voigt, coming in March; and director-choreographer Mark Morris’s rendition of Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice,” due in May. Though some of these artistic children were adopted before he took over as Papa Met, Mr. Gelb says he’s proud of each and every one. “If I didn’t think they were good, they wouldn’t be here.”

The 2009–10 season will be the first in which he can claim full responsibility for each new production. Between now and then, theatrical conceptualist Mary Zimmerman will wrap her mind around “Lucia de Lamamoor” (fall 2007), four time Tony-winner Audra McDonald may play Kitty Oppenheimer in John Adam’s new “Doctor Atomic” (fall 2008), and who knows, perhaps Rufus Wainwright will deliver the new opera the Met has commissioned. Fasten your seat belts.