Highlights include Placido Domingo as Pablo Neruda (!) in Daniel Catan's Il Postino, Ben Heppner, Soile Isokoski, Dolora Zajick (!!), James Johnson, and Kristinn Sigmundsson in Lohengrin, Palo Gavanelli in Turco in Italia (I figured him for the title role in Rigoletto, but no), and Patricia Racette (!) as the Governess in The Turn of the Screw. Nozze di Figaro rounds out the opera season.
There will be recitals by Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Jonas Kaufmann, and Rene Pape. The Kaufmann recital is adjacent to the Britten. Road trip!
Full details here.
Yikes, I knew the season was going to be poor, but it almost makes me envious of what's going on up in San Francisco! :-P
ReplyDeleteOnly six operas, instead of 8 or 9; the 7th Figaro in the 24 years of the company; Ben Heppner is sure to cancel; and when they did The Turn of the Screw back in the Peter Hemmings days (RIP), it didn't work in that barn, the Dot, it's a freakin' chamber opera. I really liked Catan's Florencia en al Amazonas, so I'm hopeful that the new piece will be a success. At least they didn't give a commission to a film composer or a non-composer (Drattell) this time.
I guess they're doing a Britten 4-pack leading up to Benji's centenerary in 2013; I hope they don't just recycle the productions they've done of Grimes, the Dream and/or Billy Budd. They should rent the ENO Death in Venice but they'll do Die Die Soldaten or Lear before they do that opera.
They were supposed to do the final installment of the Recovered Voices project, Die Tote Stadt but I guess that's postponed until 2011-12.
I hope the Ringheads are happy that their 4 operas have sucked up so many of the resources at LAO.
Yes, it's too bad about Recovered Voices. The Lohengrin is attractive, I must say, though I thought Isokoskie not very distinctive when she sang the Marschallin here a few years ago. Heppner might not cancel.
ReplyDeleteThe press release says that the fourth Britten would be something "major and rare." Maybe I'm deluding myself with wishful thinking, but that sounds like Gloriana. If it were with Christine Brewer, that would really make my decade.
ReplyDeleteOoooo. Gloriana? Rape of Lucretia? Albert Herring? (which is being done at Santa Fe this year).
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