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Hot Tickets!
We offer our choices for the must-see attractions in 2009–10.
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Each fall, the announcement of the new opera season jumpstarts the enthusiasm of many opera-lovers. Just as they may be wondering about renewing subscriptions to their favorite companies, the possibility of hearing their dream cast in Don Giovanni or some slice of opera arcana they've always longed to see — whether it's L'Oracolo or Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines — seems to trigger the frenzied keying in of credit-card numbers. There's no question, however, that this season, the celebratory tone is a little muted. Government subsidy has traditionally played only a marginal role in getting the show up at U.S. companies. Since last year's big crash, the American opera landscape has been decimated by dwindling donations, precarious box-office returns, shrinking seasons, abrupt closures. (See "Opera in the Age of Anxiety.") Yet there's plenty of historical evidence that hard times spark creative thinking, and encouraging signs of survivalist mentality abound across the country. Maybe fewer guests are being expected to turn up this year, but the invitations to the party are in the mail.
Of all the majors gearing up for next season, only The Metropolitan Opera shows little conspicuous evidence of the ravages of the economy. True, the company was forced to dispense with its planned revivals of Die Frau ohne Schatten and The Ghosts of Versailles, but 2009–10 will see six brand-new productions and two more coming to the Met for the first time. Leading the way, in keeping with general manager Peter Gelb's policy of a new production for opening night (Sept. 21), is Tosca, starring one of the Met's reigning divas, the luminous Karita Mattila, in a staging created by Luc Bondy, making his long-awaited company debut. On opening night, music director James Levine will conduct Puccini's ripe verismo classic, with Marcelo Álvarez as Cavaradossi and Juha Uusitalo as Scarpia. (See profiles of Mattila and Bondy.)
Ambroise Thomas's French romantic jewel Hamlet, absent from the Met's repertory since the late-nineteenth-century days of Jean Lassalle, returns (Mar. 16) in a 1996 production from the Grand Théâtre de Genève, as a vehicle for the dynamic talents of Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay. There is luxury casting in the roles of Claudius and Gertrude, played by Met veterans James Morris and Jennifer Larmore. Louis Langrée, who has become an integral part of New York's musical life as music director of the reinvigorated Mostly Mozart Festival, conducts.  |
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William Kentridge's production of The Nose will bow at the Met in March.
Courtesy Metropolitan Opera Technical Department |
Some years ago, during the Joseph Volpe administration, the Met launched an earnest attempt to broaden its repertory, and that effort continues this season with four acclaimed works — two from the twentieth century, two from the nineteenth — coming to the Met for the first time. Janáček's searing drama of life in a Siberian penal colony, From the House of the Dead (Nov. 12), boasts the house debuts of conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, who recently ended an era-defining tenure with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and visionary director Patrice Chéreau. (It's astonishing that it's taken this long for Chéreau, whose centennial Ring cycle at Bayreuth was one of the galvanizing events of the 1970s, to make his Met debut.) Shostakovich's The Nose (Mar. 5) likewise features two much-anticipated debuts — for the celebrated and influential South African artist and filmmaker William Kentridge, who directs and serves as co-set designer (with Sabine Theunissen), and Paulo Szot, the charismatic baritone who scored a career-making, Tony-winning success in Lincoln Center Theater's production of South Pacific two seasons ago. At last season's Met press conference, critics were buzzing that Kentridge's inventive wit seemed an inspired match for Shostakovich's coruscating comedy and were predicting that The Nose would be one of the season's highlights.
Riccardo Muti, whose music directorship at La Scala has made him one of the most celebrated (and feared) musical leaders of the past two decades, makes his Met debut with Verdi's early masterpiece Attila (Feb. 23), seen years ago at New York City Opera but never before at the Met. Acclaimed bass Ildar Abdrazakov sings the title role, with Violeta Urmana negotiating the treacherous coloratura part of Odabella. And Renée Fleming returns to the Met in an opera that provided her with one of her early triumphs, Rossini's Armida, which bows at the Met on April 12. The new production is by Mary Zimmerman, who is no doubt feeling the pressure to atone for last season's much-disliked La Sonnambula. In Armida, Fleming will be abetted by no fewer than five formidable tenors — Lawrence Brownlee, Bruce Ford, José Manuel Zapata, Barry Banks and Kobie van Rensburg.
The next Met original in the season lineup is Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Dec. 3), staged by the hottest directorial name currently on Broadway, Tony-winner Bartlett Sher ( South Pacific, Joe Turner's Come and Gone). Sher's collaborators include his usual A-list design team — Michael Yeargan (sets) and Catherine Zuber (costumes). Joseph Calleja will sing Hoffmann, and his ill-fated loves are Kathleen Kim (Olympia), Ekaterina Gubanova (Giulietta) and Anna Netrebko (Antonia/ Stella). Kate Lindsey plays Nicklausse and Alan Held takes on the four villains.
The Met's gala New Year's Eve present to its audience is a new Carmen, staged by Richard Eyre, with sets and costumes by Rob Howell (both artists making their Met debuts). The Met's last Carmen, a typically excess-laden Franco Zeffirelli production that bowed in 1996, pleased few, so the stage is set for Eyre to create a dramatically viable and durable Carmen. Curiosity about the Eyre version will no doubt be running high. In August, the Met announced that Latvian mezzo Elina Garanča — until now a NYC regular in largely bel canto fare — will take over the title role following Angela Gheorghiu's withdrawal from the majority of performances. Roberto Alagna will still sing Don José, except for the two performances in which Gheorghiu is still scheduled take part, which will feature Jonas Kaufmann's Corporal.
The Met season's revivals offer some juicy bits of casting. The company's Zeffirelli La Bohème (Feb. 20), which has become a potent tourist magnet over the years, has an unusually rich lineup, including Anna Netrebko as Mimì, Nicole Cabell as Musetta, the superb tenor Piotr Beczala — who triumphed last season as Lenski in the Met's Eugene Onegin and is profiled by Louise T. Guinther — as Rodolfo, and Gerald Finley as Marcello.
Patricia Racette moves deeper into Puccini territory when she takes on all three heroines in Jack O'Brien's theatrically savvy production of Il Trittico; Stephanie Blythe returns in the three plum mezzo roles (Nov. 20). Adrianne Pieczonka, one of the most gifted sopranos and best actresses on the opera scene, sings Amelia in Simon Boccanegra opposite Plácido Domingo, who will be taking a rare baritone turn in the title role. Deborah Voigt returns to the role that first won her genuine acclaim at the Met, Chrysothemis in Elektra. (The title role will be sung by Susan Bullock.) The quicksilver talents of Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flórez will no doubt cause a run on the box office in the return of Laurent Pelly's richly inventive Fille du Régiment, with Kiri Te Kanawa taking a turn as the Duchess of Krakenthorp. (Will the Duchess suddenly break into Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Honey Bun"?) Renée Fleming and Susan Graham return in roles ideally suited to them both — the Marschallin and Octavian in the Met's venerable Nathaniel Merrill production of Der Rosenkavalier.
The Met Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall, an annual series that has earned a reputation as one of each season's Big Events. High points of the ensemble's concert repertory include Elgar's Sea Pictures (Dec. 20), with Stephanie Blythe, and Schoenberg's Erwartung (May 16), performed by Deborah Polaski. Elsewhere in the season, Carnegie presents its usual generous sampling of vocal concerts. Christine Brewer offers a recital (Oct. 14), with Craig Rutenberg at the piano. Brewer shattered her fans last season by withdrawing from the Met's Ring cycle, so her appearance is sure to be a hot-ticket item. The following week, the singular Emma Kirkby brings her touring recital, Music at Twilight: Songs and Solos from Early Seventeenth-Century Europe, to Carnegie, accompanied by lutenist Jakob Lindberg. And spring takes on an autumnal cast when one of the most treasured artists in the profession, Frederica von Stade, sings her farewell to New York (Apr. 22).  |
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Flanigan returns to NYCO in Weisgall's Esther
© Carol Rosegg 2009 |
The economy has affected few companies as severely as New York City Opera, whose fate is being closely watched by the entire music industry. Under general manager and artistic director George Steel, NYCO will offer a truncated season designed to show the breadth of its repertory strength. Several of the company's best-known artists headline an Opening Night Gala Concert (Nov. 5), which christens the newly renovated David H. Koch Theater. Two nights later, in a nod to NYCO's distinguished history of presenting contemporary work, there's a revival of Hugo Weisgall's Esther, starring NYCO's most bankable star, Lauren Flanigan, in the role she created in 1993. There's also the first new production of the Steel era, a new Don Giovanni (Nov. 8), staged by the endlessly inventive Christopher Alden. The spring season consists of two revivals of productions staged by Mark Lamos — L'Étoile (Mar. 18) and Madama Butterfly (Mar. 19) — plus a revival of Partenope (Apr. 3) starring Cyndia Sieden.
Lyric Opera of Chicago, long one of the most artistically rewarding and commercially successful of American companies, is, like most of the majors, proceeding more cautiously with the 2009–10 season. Deborah Voigt sings Tosca to open the season (Sept. 26), but the real fireworks promise to come later with a new production of Ernani (Oct. 27), starring Salvatore Licitra as the bandit and the fine Verdi soprano Sondra Radvanovsky as Elvira. Karita Mattila, whose Jenůfa has gone down as one of the indelible performances of recent seasons, takes on Káťa Kabanová in Jonathan Miller's well-traveled production. And the challenges of staging Berlioz's musically lush La Damnation de Faust seem not to have fazed Lyric, which has engaged Stephen Langridge (company debut) to stage a new production of the work, starring Susan Graham, Paul Groves and John Relyea. Elsewhere in town, Chicago Opera Theater will make good on its tagline, "Opera Less Ordinary," by presenting Rossini's Mosè in Egitto (Apr. 17), starring Andrea Concetti, and Cavalli's Giasone (Apr. 24), conducted by the widely acclaimed Christian Curnyn. Mosè was the winner of the annual "People's Opera" contest, in which fans paid $1 to vote for the work they most want to see produced. (This year's contest raised $40,000, plus a $16,000 matching grant.)
On the West Coast, San Francisco Opera ushers in a new era with the colorful Nicola Luisotti as its music director. General director David Gockley promises that this appointment marks a return to the company's "heritage of an emphasis on the Italian repertory." The season-opener (Sept. 11) is Il Trovatore, led by Luisotti, starring Sondra Radvanovsky, in her SFO debut; her Leonora at the Met last season constituted a kind of breakthrough performance. Patricia Racette makes her role debut in the three demanding soprano roles from Il Trittico (Sept.15) a couple of months before she undertakes the same challenge at the Met. The season wraps up in early summer, with a work redolent of California sunshine and the redwood forests — Puccini's all-too-seldom-heard La Fanciulla del West (June 9), starring Deborah Voigt as the quick-witted heroine Minnie and Salvatore Licitra as the outlaw Dick Johnson.
For Los Angeles Opera's opening night (Sept. 12), general director Plácido Domingo has planned a revival of Stephen Lawless's staging of L'Elisir d'Amore with a casting coup — veteran star Ruggero Raimondi making his company debut as Dr. Dulcamara. There are also the two final installments of Achim Freyer's much-heralded Ring cycle, Siegfried (Sept. 26) and Götterdämmerung (Apr. 3), conducted by L.A. Opera's music director, James Conlon. (Conlon will conduct three full Ring cycles, LAO's first, in the spring.) The maestro is the driving force behind the company's "Recovered Voices" project, which focuses on resuscitating works that were suppressed by the Nazis. This year's recovered voice is that of Franz Schreker, whose Gezeichneten (The Stigmatized) gets its U.S. premiere in L.A. on April 10. A high-water mark in Schreker's career, the opera is now all but forgotten, but Conlon hopes L.A.'s version will restore some of its lost fame. The cast is headed by Robert Brubaker and Anja Kampe.
The indefatigable Domingo is also busy over at his East Coast headquarters, Washington National Opera. The WNO season opens with Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Sept. 12), starring Lawrence Brownlee as Almaviva, the role that has cemented his stardom. Later on, the company revives its well-traveled Porgy and Bess (Mar. 20), with Lester Lynch and Eric Owens each taking a turn as Porgy, and the excellent Indira Mahajan as Bess. Lovers of nineteenth-century French works will be happy to note that Thaddeus Strassberger's staging of Hamlet, first seen at Lyric Opera of Kansas City in 2006, will arrive at Washington National Opera on May 19, with Carlos Alvarez in the title role and Diana Damrau as the doomed Ophélie.
For those looking for excitement in the northwest corner of the U.S., this is a crucial season. During cutbacks, opera commissions are hard to come by, but Seattle Opera celebrates its forty-sixth season with a rare world premiere, Daron Aric Hagen's Amelia (May 8). With a libretto by Gardner McFall, based on a story by the celebrated stage director and translator Stephen Wadsworth, Amelia tells of a woman learning to cope with the disappearance of her father in the Vietnam War — making it perhaps the first opera to take on one of the most divisive and controversial eras in American history. A strong cast has been assembled — rising American mezzo Kate Lindsey (title role), William Burden, Nathan Gunn, Luretta Bybee and, in a character role, Seattle favorite (and resident) Jane Eaglen. Gerard Schwarz conducts the Wadsworth-staged production, with sets by Thomas Lynch, costumes by Ann Hould Ward (company debut) and lighting by Duane Schuler.
Those who have attended Houston Grand Opera in recent seasons may have noticed that the company has lost a bit of the luster it acquired during its David Gockley years. But HGO's 2009–10 season does promise to generate some southwestern-style heat. Interest centers on a brand-new Lohengrin (Oct. 30), starring tenor Simon O'Neill, who drew critical raves last season for his performance as Caesar in New York City Opera's concert presentation of Barber's Antony and Cleopatra at Carnegie Hall. A singer blessed with both vocal and dramatic gifts, O'Neill is joined by Adrianne Pieczonka as Elsa and Christine Goerke as Ortrud.  |
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Graham, Berlioz's Marguerite at Lyric Opera
© Beatriz Schiller 2009 |
Houston's other alluring items include Patricia Racette, continuing her Puccini-themed season in her staged opera debut as Tosca (Jan. 22, in a new production staged by John Caird), and Susan Graham and David Daniels returning to sublimely familiar territory in Serse (Apr. 30).
The real star of Dallas Opera's season is the company's new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House. It opens on October 23 with something appropriately majestic — the opera that is arguably Verdi's greatest, Otello, in a new production staged by Tim Albery and conducted by Graeme Jenkins. Clifton Forbis essays the title role. In the spring comes a world premiere, Moby-Dick (Apr. 30), with a score by Jake Heggie and libretto by Gene Scheer. Starring in the heroic role of Captain Ahab is Ben Heppner, with Patrick Summers conducting; the production eventually finds its way to the homes of its coproducers, San Francisco, San Diego and Calgary Operas.
Although opera has historically had a tough time taking root in Boston, the city now boasts a brace of companies doing promising work. The more established of the two, Boston Lyric Opera, has four offerings next season, the most tantalizing being a new Carmen (Nov. 6), staged by Nicholas Muni, conducted by Keith Lockhart and starring Dana Beth Miller; and The Turn of the Screw (Feb. 3), with a strong cast that includes Emily Pulley, Vale Rideout and the estimable Joyce Castle, who, with her performances as Mrs. Grose, celebrates her fortieth year in opera.
Meanwhile, the neighboring competition, Opera Boston, bids fair to go three-for-three with its season: the thrilling contralto Ewa Podleś makes her Boston stage debut in Tancredi (Oct. 23), Ying Huang takes the title role in the company's first commission, Zhou Long's Madame White Snake (Feb. 26), and Stephanie Blythe reprises her acclaimed portrayal of the title role in Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (Apr. 30).
A quick jump around the U.S. map reveals a number of strong casting and repertory decisions at the nation's mid-sized companies. Pittsburgh Opera continues its steady rise, under general director Christopher Hahn and music director Antony Walker, with an opening-night Eugene Onegin (Sept. 26) starring Dwayne Croft and Anna Samuil…. Michigan Opera Theatre favorite Steven Mercurio conducts Nabucco (Oct. 17)…. Madison Opera's casting high point promises to be the gifted Caroline Worra as the Governess in The Turn of the Screw (Jan. 28)…. David Daniels stars as Gluck's Orfeo at Atlanta Opera, with Harry Bicket conducting (Nov. 14).... Portland Opera presents two company debuts of note — Kelly Kaduce as Mimì in La Bohème (Sept. 25) and New York City Opera favorite Lisa Saffer as the Princess in Philip Glass's Orphée (West Coast premiere, Nov. 6)…. Kaduce also sings both Leoncavallo's Nedda and Puccini's Suor Angelica at Florida Grand Opera (Nov. 14), where another gifted young soprano, Eglise Gutiérrez, takes on Donizetti's Lucia (Jan. 23)…. This year's Richard Tucker Award winner, Stephen Costello, and Ailyn Pérez, married in real life, are San Diego Opera's Roméo et Juliette (Mar. 13)…. Nashville Opera aims to expand its repertory and challenge its audiences with Philip Glass's The Fall of the House of Usher (Nov. 13).... One of today's most exciting and individualistic young artists, Manon Strauss Evrard, sparks Virginia Opera's La Fille du Régiment (Nov. 14)…. Sarah Coburn, a ravishing Lucie di Lammermoor at Glimmerglass in 2005, returns to her native Oklahoma to take on Donizetti's hapless heroine at Tulsa Opera …. Minnesota Opera gives a new staging to an opera that had its world premiere with the company back in 1985 — Dominick Argento's Casanova's Homecoming, one of the most lushly melodic works of the past three decades.
Even in these tough times, it's probably a safe bet that opera-lovers won't be abandoning their favorite art form to sit at home and worry over their 401Ks.  Send feedback to OPERA NEWS.
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