Tuesday, January 16, 2007

07/08

Looks like season announcements are beginning to roll in.

DC has announced, as I learned from Operatically Inclined. Not the world's most exciting season, in my book, but any Elektra is cause for dancing (oneself to death) in the streets. I have vague memories of Susan Bullock as Butterfly, subbing for someone else, in Houston in the mid '90s but couldn't say much about her. Goerke, one always hears, is a committed performer, often at the expense of disciplined vocalism, and that's something you either like or don't. Meanwhile, Domingo is singing Handel? Seriously?

Notice that there is no Siegfried next season. Has the Zambello Ring been scrapped?

Baltimore has announced as well, and the reason to get on the Chinatown bus--other than who wants to live forever--is: Maria Stuarda. Maybe with a recovered Swenson? I'm just guessing. No casting is listed on their site. I can think of worse things. Let's daydream for a moment it's Flanigan, though.

The Big House hasn't announced, but of course we know practically everything. Sometimes I miss the old element of surprise, but then whose fault is it I click over to Met Futures every twenty minutes? The clip on youtube of Dessay singing the Lucia marble-losing scene has me much more eager for opening night than expected, considering what a drag Lucia can be. It's not even the singing, but the acting: Dessay's unhinged laughter at the end is a masterstroke.

Seattle soldiers on as the Eaglenhaus, for whatever reason, presenting her near the end of the summer as Senta. Listen, I'm told with the right direction she's capable of arousing interest onstage--her Ortrud was by one report "terrifying." Also on the lineup: Iphegenia in Everywhere, now required by law to be showing at an operahouse near you; and Puritani. And Pagliacci without its friend Cavalleria.

Caro Soles from our civilized neighbor to the North points us to Canadian Opera Company's season. See comments, or of course their website. If I lived closer I'd surely pop in for Bayrakdarian's Melisande, and though I've never given it a careful listen, I suspect you can never have too much House of the Dead--it's like Jello that way. Maybe Melisande would have gotten some damn therapy if they'd had socialized medicine in the kingdom of Allemonde.

Chime in if your home company has announced. I'm not deeply invested in being the one who breaks the story! ETA: for more, see comments, as people are indeed chiming in. I will only add that Chicago will be a happy place for opera fans next season.

Wait, I will add one more thing: I always wait for OONY to announce their season with an anticipation that doesn't make much sense, considering every season they trot out stuff I don't really care about and the only thing I've ever seen there was a Fanciulla with a certain over-ripe Minnie. Um, and also that the OONY crowd worries me. But I always think: this year's the year they're going to pull another one out like the Jenufa with Rysanek and Benackova! I just know it! And then they don't.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

New Zealand being a furren country and all, we are evidently exempt from the Ipigenia clause that was slipped into the Patriot Act. Opera En Zed will be putting on Lucia and Turandot this season. Things are more modest down here. I am looking forward to both and not expecting something truly amazing but rather something good like you might see in one of the second tier houses in the US.

Anonymous said...

Domingo continues the irritating habit of inserting his "conducting" into the most promising productions.

Maury D'annato said...

No, JSU, you're missing the real shrug-inducer here. He's not conducting. He's singing. Handel. I'm a big fan of his Siegmund, but.

Anonymous said...

I'm not all that familiar with Tamerlano (that's the one he's doing, right?), but some (although only one comes to mind) of Handel's tenor roles sound like they might actually fit Domingo alright.

If I'm remembering correctly (and I might not be), Grimoaldo from Rodelinda is more on the plangent, conflicted drama side and less on the florid showpieces. And an even further stretch of memory, Grimoaldo was written for a specific tenor that Handel liked, so it doesn't seem so far-fetched to me that he might have written other roles for him as well. (Aha! a quick wiki-search confirms that the tenor, Borosini, was indeed the creator of both Bajazet in T and Grimoaldo in R)

I think I need to take out a recording I got of Tamerlano for a listen. Then proceed with semi-cautious optimism touched with more than a hint of jadedness.

Anonymous said...

Okay, you asked yus to chime in with info re our hiome town opera season. Here's teh Canadian Opera COPmpany (in Toronto):

2007/2008 Season

The Marriage of Figaro
"Shall I see my servant happy, with a pleasure I myself desire in vain?" Oct. 2 to Nov. 2, 2007.

Don Carlos
"She has never loved me!" Oct. 12 to Nov. 3, 2007.

Tosca
"For the love of her Mario, she will surrender to my will." Jan. 26 to Feb. 23, 2008.

From the House of the Dead
"How he caws, the raven so black in the valley so far away." Feb. 2 to 22, 2008.

Eugene Onegin
"I am another's now." April 2 to 30, 2008.

The Barber of Seville
"Figaro here! Figaro there! Everyone wants me!" April 16 to May 23, 2008.

Pelléas et Mélisande
"I've been playing, in a dream, with the strings of fate." May 6 to 24, 2008.

Don Giovanni & Renard
Gazzaniga and Stravinsky showcase the vocal talents of the COC Ensemble Studio in this special non-subscription performance. June 16 to 22, 2008.

winpal said...

Please allow me to shamelessly plug Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, CA (The Little Engine That Could) for any of your Left Coast correspondents. The upcoming season includes Carmen (July) and the West Coast premiere of Ned Rorem's Our Town (August) which they co-commissioned.

And I'm singing in the Carmen chorus, so think of the fun in trying to guess which one I am.

Maury D'annato said...

That Frau sounds like a triple threat, at least. What do we know about the tenor?

Clayton Koonce said...

David Daniels is also singing in the WNO Tamerlano, and I'm looking forward to that. We're also getting a recent opera by Bolcom, "A View from the Bridge." I'm just as mystified by the missing Siegfried, which seems to have been supplanted by the Dutchman.

winpal said...

SFO announced today.

Samson and Delilah (Clifton Forbis/Olga Borodina)

Tannhäuser (Peter Seiffert/Petra Maria Schnitzer/Petra Lang)

World premiere of Appomattox by Philip Glass (Dwayne Croft as Robert E. Lee)

Magic Flute (Rebecca Evans/Erika Miklósa/Piotr Beczala/Christopher Maltman)

La Rondine (Angela Gheorghiu/Misha Didyk)

Macbeth (Thomas Hampson/Doina Dimitriu)

The Rake's Progress (William Burden/Laura Aikin/Denyce Graves/James Morris)

West Coast premiere of The Little Prince by Rachel Portman (cast TBA)

Das Rheingold (Zambello production from WNO. Mark Delavan/Richard Paul Fink/Jennifer Larmore/Jill Grove/Runnicles conducting)

Ariodante (Susan Graham/Ruth Ann Swenson/Ewa Podleś)

Lucia di Lammermoor (Natalie Dessay/Giuseppe Filianoti)

Not overwhelming, but interesting enough, I guess. Dessay, Gheorghiu, Podleś at least offset Hampson as Macbeth. And maybe Burden will take his shirt off.

Anonymous said...

Houston has announced:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/4499456.html