# Annual Season Preview In September Opera News Magazine



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I recently received the September issue of opera news magazine, and the annual season preview shows that there's incredible diversity of operatic repertoire set to be performed all over Europe ,America and elsewhere.
There are everything from ancient operas by Monteverdi , Handel,Rameau and Gluck to world premieres by a variety of different contemporary composers, which shows that opera is still very much a living art form.
Sure, all the beloved established operas by Mozart, Rossini, Verdi,Puccini,Bizet
Wagner, Donizetti , etc are still the core of the repertoire, but there are so many interesting rarities.

Among them : La Vera Costanza and Orlando Paladino by Haydn. Enescu's Oedipe.
Rossini's L'Equivovo Stravagante. The Devil and Kate by Dvorak, 
Libuse by Smetana. The Miracle of Mary by Bohuslav Martinu. 
The Enchantress by Tchaikovsky. Juha by Merikanto of Finland. 
The Charterhous of Parma by Henri Sauguet, Hypolite &Aricie and Les Indes Galantes by Rameau, Wagner's early Das Liebesverbot, Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz,
Hindemith's Cardillac, Schwanda by Jaromir Weinberger, Rameau's Castor&Pollux, 
Rossini's Il Viaggo a Reims, Donizetti's Gianni di Parigi, Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa,
Rimsky-Korsakov's Legend of the Invisible city of Kitezh,
Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, I Due Figaro by Saverio Mercadante, Cyrano de Bergerac by
Franco Alfano, Donizetti's Linda di Chamonix, Martinu's Julietta.
Mignon by Ambroise Thomas, Rossini's La Scala Di Seta, Mozart's Il Re Pastore,
Donizetti's Poliuto. Gemma da Vergy, and Maria di Rohan, and La Buona Figluola
by Piccini, not Puccini.
These are scheduled for Europe.
In the U.S., most of the regional companies are still sticking tot he tried-and-true, but there are some interesting things,such as Britten's Albert Herring, Martinu's Tears of a Knife, Florencia en el Amazonas by the late Daniel Catan, Handel's Rinaldo,
The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies, Lully's Atys, The Poisoned Kiss by Vaughan Williams, Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, Mozart's Il Sogno di Scipione, Schubert's The Conspirators, Rossini's Maometto Secondo, Szymanowski's King Roger, 
Handel's Ariodante, and Verdi's Oberto, 
The contemporary operatic scene is an embarassment of riches !


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Yes, but the number of operas fell across the board (I pay attention to this issue every year). Seasons are shorter, there are fewer world premieres, and not as much variety as in seasons past. It's the economic crisis.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Almaviva said:


> Seasons are shorter, there are fewer world premieres, and not as much variety as in seasons past. It's the economic crisis.


It must be because of staging costs rather than poor ticket sales because many opera fans complain about being served the same old 'A' 'B' 'C' each year and long to see something different or new.

I've heard that in 2013 Bilbao Opera House is going to be staging Verdi's little known _Un giorno di Regno_. I'd love to do this to celebrate the bicentenary of Verdi's birth.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

I miss the days when the magazine's U.S. calendar listed more than just each company's new season schedule. The names of one or more leading singers were also mentioned. This was how I discovered in Sept., 1980, that Siegfried Jerusalem would be singing Florestan with the New Orleans Opera the following March (and promptly ordered a ticket!).

While the Cincinnati Opera will be staging only three productions instead of four in 2012, this has nothing to do with budget considerations. The World Choir Games will be held in the city next summer, and the opera gave up one of its weekends at Music Hall to accommodate this event. According to the artistic director, the company's budget is healthy -- so, presumably, the CO will return to a four-production season in 2013.


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