Salt Letters, the new opera from composer Anna Liu in her first major commission for the Metropolitan Opera, opened last night at a level of artistic accomplishment that the company has been working toward across several seasons of new-work programming. The opening was the kind of evening that, on its rare occurrences, redefines what audiences should expect from new operatic work.

The score

The score is the production's foundational achievement. Liu has produced music that is genuinely new without rejecting the form's tonal vocabulary; the work expands the orchestral palette in ways that the form has been gradually doing for years, but does so with a personal coherence that distinguishes the work from the broader contemporary trend.

The libretto

The libretto, by playwright Vera Holst (whose Broadway play opened recently to similar acclaim), provides the kind of literary foundation that contemporary opera often lacks. Holst has written the libretto with the operatic form in mind, with the result that the words and the music work together rather than against each other.

The performances

The lead performance, by mezzo-soprano Giulia Fanti, is among the most accomplished operatic performances of the past several years at the Met. Fanti's command of the role's vocal demands is matched by the kind of dramatic intelligence that distinguishes the form's defining performances.

The production

The production by director Joaquin Vasquez supports the score without competing with it. The visual approach is restrained in ways that allow the music to register; the staging choices serve the dramatic logic of the score rather than imposing additional theatrical interest.

The verdict

Salt Letters is the kind of new operatic work that the form's longer-cycle reputation depends on. The Met's commitment to new commissioning has, with this production, produced work that justifies the institutional investment that the commissioning programme has required. The production runs through the end of May; it deserves the attention of audiences within travel distance of New York.