LA Opera's 2020-21 season was announced last month, and I'm finally catching up. Here's the short version, shamelessly copied from operatattler.com:
September 26- October 18 2020: Il Trovatore
October 18– November 7 2020: TannhäuserNovember 21–December 13 2020: La Cenerentola
January 30– February 21 2021: Don Giovanni
February 27- March 21 2021: Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves
April 15-18 2021: Du Yun's In Our Daughter's Eyes
April 30 2021: Tamerlano (concert version)
May 15- June 5 2021: Aida
First order of business: try to spot roles vacated by the former GD, who, whatever he did administratively, could be guaranteed to sell out whatever opera he appeared in.
My bet: It's Il Conte di Luna in a well-cast Il Trovatore, starring Angel Blue, Gregory Kunde, Vladimir Stoyanov, Ekaterina Semenchuk, and Morris Robinson. Stoyanov hasn't sung di Luna lately, according to Operabase, so....just guessing, of course.
Alternatively, perhaps he was singing the lead in Don Giovanni! (How...appropriate....that would be.)
Anyway, let's take a look at that season. One thing that jumps out is that it includes two recent operas, and, rather astonishingly, both were composed by women. Those would be Breaking the Waves, which is a brilliant heartbreaker, and In Our Daughter's Eyes, which I have not seen. Good for you, LAO!
That Tannhäuser stars the rising dramatic tenor Issacah Savage, and he might be enough of a reason to see it. La Cenerentola I would ordinarily pay little attention to, except that this production is directed by Stefan Herheim and I know I will never be closer to a Herheim production than Oakland to LA. The casting looks good.
The Aida is Francesca Zambello's production, which has been seen at SF and Seattle, and maybe somewhere else by this point. Good-looking cast; I thought the production decent, and one that drives home the extent of the colonialist side of the story.
Handel's Tamerlano is brought in by the English Concert and will be done in concert; Harry Bicket conducts a cast of Bejun Mehta, Sophie Bevan, Michael Spyres (!), Jakub Josef Orlinski, and Avery Amereau. That's....a terrific cast.
The Brightness of Light, a song cycle by Kevin Puts, stars Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfrey. There's also a concert called Veils for Desire by Matthew Aucoin, Anthony Roth Costanzo, and Paul Appleby, narration by Wayne Kostenbaum, directed by Zack Winokur, and this does sound interesting (GAY GAY GAY). It will be at the Wallis, not the Dot.
It's a decent season and feels less top-heavy with warhorses than SFO's season.
Much of the Tannhäuser run coincides with the Tristan und Isolde at LAPhil led by EPS. Being able to see those on consecutive nights should get me down to LA.
ReplyDeleteThat's important information, indeed.
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