New York, NY (February 21, 2007) — Lorin Maazel, one the world’s most esteemed maestros, will return to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time in 45 years to conduct five performances of Wagner’s Die Walküre, beginning January 7, 2008. These performances will be Maestro Maazel’s first conducting assignments at the Met since the 1962-63 season, when he made his debut conducting performances of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier.