NEW YORK (AP) – Conductor Lorin Maazel will return to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time in nearly 45 years when he conducts Wagner’s “Die Walkuere” next season.

Mr. Maazel, music director of the New York Philharmonic since 2002, made 16 appearances at the Met from Nov. 1, 1962, to Jan. 19, 1963, conducting Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier.” He will conduct five performances of “Die Walkuere” Jan. 7-Feb. 9, 2008, the Met said Wednesday.

The gap between performances is believed to be the largest in Met history, director of archives Robert Tuggle said. The longest break he could recall involved conductor Pierre Monteux, who led Met performances from Nov. 17, 1917, to April 15, 1919, then returned from Nov. 16, 1953, to Feb. 4, 1956.

“One tries to get into the Guinness book of records somehow, however one can,” Mr. Maazel said during a telephone interview. “They were offering a revival of an opera I’m very fond of during a period in which I was more or less free. And I like the cast. They have been kind enough to approach me on and off, especially the last couple of decades, but for one reason or another, either because the opera didn’t interest me, or because I was busy elsewhere, it somehow never worked.”

Mr. Maazel’s “Walkuere” cast has Lisa Gasteen as Bruennhilde, James Morris as Wotan, Adrianne Pieczonka and Deborah Voigt as Sieglinde, Stephanie Blythe and Michelle DeYoung as Fricka, Clifton Forbis and Simon O’Neill as Siegmund, and Mikhail Petrenko as Hunding.

The last person to conduct at the Met while he served as music director of the Philharmonic was Leonard Bernstein, who led a new production of Verdi’s “Falstaff” in 1964.

New Met general manager Peter Gelb has made an effort to bring in higher-stature guest conductors in future seasons, a group scheduled to include Riccardo Muti and Seiji Ozawa.

Mr. Maazel, 76, has conducted opera widely in Europe: In 1960 he became the first American to conduct at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, and he was artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1965-71) and general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna State Opera (1982-84). But his U.S. staged opera performances have been infrequent – he said his last was leading Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Pittsburgh Opera in 1994.

“If it all feels healthy and everyone is happy all the way around, well then, I might do some more,” he said. “I’m an opera fanatic and the Met is certainly a fine house. We seem to be understanding each other. We’ll see how it all works out.”