Two tragedies of love and death, along with the inspiring story of a patriot who leads his people against foreign oppressors, top the critics’ picks for the upcoming Metropolitan Opera season.

The Associated Press asked music reviewers and writers around the country which single production they were most looking forward to. Of the two dozen who responded, virtually all chose one of these three:

—Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” which opens the season on Sept. 26. Wrote Tim Smith of The Baltimore Sun: “If I could pick only one Met production, it would have to be the new Tristan, since I’ve always found Mariusz Trelinski to be an incisive, imaginative director; any chance to hear Nina Stemme’s Isolde should be jumped at; and (conductor) Simon Rattle is all too rare a presence on these shores. Seems to me this one has the ingredients for something that just might be downright historic.”

—Kaija Saariaho’s “L’Amour de Loin (Love from Afar),” premiering Dec. 1. Steve Smith, formerly of The Boston Globe and now director of publications for National Sawdust, praised “the moody, atmospheric, and original recent work that established the brilliant Finnish composer” adding, “... its arrival addresses in a forceful way the Met’s historically modest interest in modern works and the inexplicable lack of women composers represented there. A marvelous cast and the company debut of the dynamic conductor Susanna Malkki help to guarantee a fascinating evening.”

—Rossini’s “Guillaume Tell,” premiering Oct. 18. Philip Kennicott, former music critic and now art and architecture critic for The Washington Post, noted that “it’s been more than 80 years since Rossini’s last opera has been heard at the Met. It’s long, complicated, and fiendishly difficult to cast well, but an opera of great importance in the history of the form, a work that pointed to a new age of opera. ... So I have high hopes for this rarely staged but magnificent work.”