There are perhaps several reasons why pre-Mozartean works are now performed more regularly in North America. I believe three reasons predominate. First, audiences have come to appreciate the waves of arresting melodies that abound in the 17th and especially 18th century operas. Second, there have developed performance traditions as how to present these works. Third, there are singers who have mastered the artistry required to perform the operas.

Over the next few weeks, in venues large and small, North American audiences will have the opportunity to experience two different productions of the French version of Gluck’s masterpiece about the story of Orpheus – one with a tenor Orpheus, the other sung by a mezzo soprano.

Audiences will also be able to view two 18th century settings of one of the most famous works of the 16th century – Italian poet Torquato Tasso’s “Jerusalem Delivered”. One version of Tasso’s exotically fanciful account of the strife between Muslims and Christians in the First Crusade  is Handel’s “Rinaldo”, to be performed in Chicago. The other is Lully’s “Armide”, which will be seen in Toronto and at the Glimmerglass Festival.

Orphee et Eurydice (Gluck), Seattle Opera, February 25, 29, March 3, 4(m), 7 and 10, 2012.

When Gluck first composed his operatic masterpiece on the Orpheus legend, it was in Italian and written for a mezzo-soprano playing a male role. But Parisian tastes persuaded Gluck to revise the opera for performance in French, with a tenor male as Orphee.

The opera has three characters and a chorus, but it is Orphee, sung in Seattle by the excellent lyric tenor William Burden, who dominates virtually every scene, a daunting task rewarded with some of the 18th century’s most beautiful melodies. He will be joined by Davinia Rodriguez as Eurydice and Julianne Gearhart as the God Amor.

[Below: Tenor William Burden is Orphee; resized image, based on a photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.]

The production is conceived and staged by the brilliant Argentine director Jose Maria Condemi, with with sets designed by Phillip Lienau and costumes by Heidi Zamora. Gary Thor Wedow conducts.

Rinaldo (Handel), Lyric Opera of Chicago, February 29, March 4(m), 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24, 2012.

“Jerusalem Delivered” is the great work by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso (whose life was sufficiently dramatic to inspire an semi-biographical opera by Donizetti).

The list of Baroque, Rococo and Classical opera composers who created operas about its principal characters, Armide and Rinaldo, is a who’s who of great figures in 17th and 18th century vocal music. The Tassomania extended to the artworld as well, with several famous artists painting their own visions of the Deliverance of Jerusalem.

[Below: Francois Boucher's "Renaud et Armide"; resized image of the painting in the Louvre, Paris.]

Lyric Opera has assembled a Dream Team for its “Rinaldo” production, conceived by the impressive Mexican concept director Francisco Negrin. Virtually every artist enlisted for this series of performances has been praised, often multiple times, by this website.

The pre-eminent counter-tenor of our day, the American David Daniels, returns to Lyric Opera as Rinaldo. He is joined by an international cast all making their Lyric debuts, but whose memorable performances in San Francisco, Santa Fe, Houston, and/or Dallas have been enthusiastically reviewed by me and are archived in this website.

These include South African soprano Elsa van den Heever (Armide), Italian mezzo Sonia Prina (Goffredo), Italian basso Luca Pisaroni (Argante) and British counter-tenor Iestyn Davies (Eustazio). Harry Bicket conducts.

Armide (Lully), Opera Atelier, Toronto, April 14, 15(m), 17, 18, 20 and 21, 2012, in a co-production with:

Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York, July 21, 29(m), 31(m), August 5(m), 10, 13(m), 18 and 23, 2012.

France was the country in which the epic poem Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland) first popularized the theme of heroic battles between Muslims and Christians. In this great poem and the similar works that followed it, the Knights Roland and Renaud (in Italian, Orlando and Rinaldo), are part of Charlemagne’s 8th century army defeated by the Saracens at Ronceveaux, but the warriors over the next half millenium become the subject of myriad story lines, especially by French and Italian story tellers.

Throughout much of that half millenium’s history, Christians are driving Muslims from Spain, while Muslims controlled most of North Africa, the Middle East and parts of the Balkans, continuously inspiring new spins on the old tales. The most significant literary works in this tradition for Baroque opera goers are Ariosto’s “Orlando Furioso” and, of course, Tasso’s “Jerusalem Delivered”.

Many operatic production designers wish to conceptualize ways to make unfamiliar baroque operas relevant to modern audiences. The Christian-Muslim interrelationships that inspired Tasso, however fancifully he dealt with the subject matter, can inspire new ideas about how production designers should present operas about Christians and Muslims written almost three centuries ago.

Canada’s Opera Atelier creates its first co-production of an opera, in conjunction with the Glimmerglass Festival, choosing Lully’s great operatic tragic drama, “Armide”.

[Below: a painting of the premiere performance of Lully's "Armide".]

Stage director Marshall Pynkoski, set designer Gerard Gauci and choreographer Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg are the creative team. Lighting designs are by Bonnie Beecher.  For Toronto, Peggy Kriha Dye is the enchantress Armide, Colin Ainsworth the Christian knight Renaud, with basso Joao Fernandes as the Hidraot. David Fallis (Opera Atelier’s music director) conducts.

Dye and Ainsworth are announced for the lead roles at Glimmerglass, with the team of Fallis, Pynkoski, Gauci, Zingg and Beecher joining them at the Festival.

Orphee et Eurydice (Gluck), Opera Santa Barbara, April 27 and 29, 2012.

Jose Maria Condemi, who has assumed the duties of artistic director of the Opera Santa Barbara, promises a different production and staging of “Orphee” from the one he directs for Seattle Opera in February and March. In Santa Barbara, the role Orphee is sung by mezzo-soprano Layna Chianakas.

[Below: Mezzo-soprano Layna Chianakas is Orphee; edited image, based on a photograph, courtesy of the Opera Santa Barbara.]

Marnie Breckenridge is the Eurydice and Angela Cadelago is the Amor. Yannis Adoniu is the choreographer. Jose Luis Moscovich conducts.

My plan is to attend and review one performance of each of these four productions.

The examples of “Best Bet Revivals” discussed here are the first two offerings of 2012 of both the Los Angeles Opera and the San Diego Opera. (Each of the four productions featured below, from the standpoint of that audience, is a production new to the company.)

Salome (Richard Strauss), San Diego Opera, January 28, 31, February 3 and 5(m), 2012.

Dancer Sean Curran, who has extended his artistic career by assuming the roles of operatic stage director, chose an opera in which a dance (indeed, a wilden Tanz) by the title character becomes a central plot point. Curran revives his production, seen in San Francisco a little over a year ago, in San Diego, with the San Francisco Opera Jokanaan (Greer Grimsley) and Herodias (Irene Mishura) joining him.

The title role in the opera, which opens San Diego Opera’s 2011 season, is to be sung by Lise Lindstrom, who was spectacular in the title role of Puccini’s “Turandot” that opened San Diego’s 2010 season.

[Below: Jokanaan (Greer Grimlsey) is the object of the sexual desire of Salome (here Nadja Michael); resized image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.]

The surreality of Bruno Schwengl’s set design (in this co-production of the opera companies of Saint Louis, San Francisco and Montreal) fits the surreality of the opera, in which some of most exotically lyrical melodies in the German repertoire are counterpoised with the depravity of the court of the Tetrarch Herod (Allan Glassman). Sean Panikkar is the Narraboth. Steuart Bedford conducts.

[For my performance review of the production as seen in San Francisco, see: Nadja Michael a Sensation in Luisotti’s Soaring San Francisco “Salome” – October 18, 2009.]

[For my performance review of the production as seen in San Diego, see: Lindstrom, Grimsley, Glassman Gleam in Sensuous, Searing San Diego Opera “Salome” – January 28, 2012.]

Simon Boccanegra (Verdi), Los Angeles Opera, February 11, 15, 19, 21, 26, March 1 and 4, 2012.

Elijah Moshinsky’s version of “Simon Boccanegra”, first produced for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with sets by Michael Yeargan and costumes by Peter J. Hall, is arguably the most elegant amd venerable production of “Boccanegra” in current use. Moshinsky himself will be the stage director for the vehicle for Placido Domingo’s first major baritone role.

[Below: Placido Domingo (center) as Doge Simon Boccanegra; resized image, based on a photograph, courtesy of the Los Angeles Opera.]

For the Los Angeles performances, Puerto Rican soprano Ana Maria Martinez will be the Maria Amelia and Paolo Gavanelli, an eminent Boccanegra himself, will be Paolo. Vitalij Kowaljow, whose Fiesco Grimaldi has been seen by San Francisco audiences, will bring this role to the Southland. Stefano Secco is the Gabriele Adorno. Los Angeles Opera’s Music Director James Conlon will conduct.

For my performance reviews of this production in San Francisco and Houston, see: Verdian Back to Basics: San Francisco’s Satisfying “Simon Boccanegra” – September 21, 2008 and Hvorostovsky, Guryakova, Berti Excel in Houston “Simon Boccanegra” – November 4, 2006.

Moby Dick (Heggie), San Diego Opera, February 18, 21, 24 and 26(m), 2012.

Jack Heggie’s richly lyrical score and Gene Scheer’s intelligent adaptation of Melville’s iconic novel as a libretto for the operatic stage are essential elements of what is arguably the most successful 21st century opera to date.

San Diego Opera, as one of the original four opera companies who commissioned this work, describes it as a “world premiere co-production”.

[Below: Captain Ahab (Ben Heppner left) appears on the deck of the Pequod with his cabin boy, Pip (Talise Trevigne, front row, second from left) and his mate Stubb (here, Robert Orth,  front, far right); edited image, based on a Karen Almond photograph, courtesy of the Dallas Opera.]

Four of the major roles from its first performance ever in April 201o are reassembled for the San Diego Opera, the second stop on the opera’s three-country, five opera company tour: Ben Heppner (Captain Ahab), Morgan Smith (Starbuck), Talise Trevigne (Pip) and Jonathan Lemalu (Queequeg) and stage director Leonard Foglia. Joining them will be Jonathan Boyd (Ishmael). Karen Keltner will conduct.

[For my review of the world premiere in Dallas, see: World Premiere: Heggie’s Theatrically Brilliant, Melodic “Moby Dick” at Dallas Opera – April 30, 2010.]

Albert Herring (Britten) Los Angeles Opera, February 25, 28, March 3, 8, 11(m), 14 and 17(m), 2012.

We use the adjective “superlative” sparingly on this website, and when we do it is because either me or my colleague Tom regard a production as worth special commendation. Tom has awarded it to the Santa Fe Opera’s Summer 2010 production of  Benjamin Britten’s hilarious comedy about a May Queen contest in which the eligible contestants are the virgin girls of Loxford, England.

But what if there is not a single girl who fits the ideas of the guardian of the community’s morals, Lady Billows, as to what constitutes a proper May Queen? What if the only virgin is a male, in this case Albert Herring, the grocery clerk tied closely to his mother’s apron strings?  Then revise the contest to name a May King! But, as the opera will show, this will not assure an outcome that meets Lady Billows’ expectations.

[Below: Nancy (here, Kate Lindsey, left) has her own thoughts about how Albert Herring (Alek Shrader, right) should live his life; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

Director Paul Curran, who created the staging for the successful Santa Fe Festival production mounts the opera, again with Kevin Knight’s sets and costumes, for Los Angeles. Alek Shrader, who performed the title role in Santa Fe, is again the lead in Los Angeles. His Santa Fe Lady Billows, Christine Brewer, performs the last two performances in Los Angeles.

The rest of the cast is new to the production, with most of them new to Los Angeles Opera, including Daniela Mack as Nancy, Liam Bonner as Sid, Janis Kelly as Lady Billows (first five performances), Jane Bunnell as Mrs Herring and Robert McPherson as the Mayor. Stacey Tappan is Miss Wordsworth and Ronnita Nicole Miller is the Florence Pike. James Conlon will conduct.

[For Tom's review of the production in Santa Fe, see Superlative: Britten’s “Albert Herring” Brings Big Time Laugh-in to Santa Fe Opera – August 25, 2010.]

I have a rather different perspective on how to categorize 19th century Italian opera. My position is to consider the work of one of the supposed “bel canto” composers, Gaetano Donizetti (especially those operas between 1830 and the end of this creative life in 1844) as notably different in the aggregate from the works of Rossini and Bellini, but much closer in style to those of Verdi written between 1839 (“Oberto”) and 1850 (“Stiffelio”). To describe this similarity in styles, I suggest the term “the Donizetti-Early Verdi continuum”.

One can make some generalizations about the Donizetti and Verdi operas written between 1830 and 1850. Most have soprano roles which require extraordinary vocal agility. Most have a Romantic tenor (whom we expect to be capable of singing a high C as a chest tone) who plays a character that is usually the love interest of the soprano’s, and a lyric baritone whose character more often than not is the rival of the tenor’s.

These operas form a cultural vanguard, in the sense that many of the latest contributions to Romantic era literature, drama and poetry provide the subject matter for the operas’ plots. But they also embrace tradition, in that the operas often observe such early 19th century Italian opera conventions as the cavatina-cabaletta combination, normally followed by a stretta and second cabaletta verse; the concertato, where the principals assemble for a concerted number (like the “Lucia” Sextet);  and rousing choruses that might follow or be accompanied by an onstage banda.

By my definition, such Donizetti works as “Anna Bolena”, “Maria Stuarda”, “Lucia di Lammermoor”,  Lucrezia Borgia”, “Roberto Devereux” and “La Favorite” would be considered as part of a category of works that includes also Verdi’s “Nabucco”, “Ernani”, “Attila” and “Luisa Miller”.

The description would account for these composers’ comic works as well, although Donizetti, with three megahit comedies, “L’Elisir d’Amore”, “La Fille du Regiment” and “Don Pasquale”,  would be the undisputed champion of this category. Verdi’s only effort during the two decades under consideration, “Un Giorno di Regno”, would not be considered as in the league of the Donizetti comedies, even those that are not as famous as the three works listed. (I will make further references to the Donizetti-Verdi relationship in an article to be published in San Diego Opera’s program notes for “Don Pasquale”.)

Three of these “Donizetti-Early Verdi” works will be performed in the American West during the first half of 2012:

Attila (Verdi), Seattle Opera, January 18, 21, 22 (m), 25 and 28, 2012.

Verdi’s ninth opera will be heard in two different productions (in Seattle in January and in San Francisco in June). Seattle will provide the opportunity for basso John Relyea to perform a role in a fully staged production in which he has appeared in concert form.

Although the historic Attila terrorized such fifth century French and German towns as Paris and those we now call Orleans, Strasbourg, Reims, Metz and Mainz, the legends about Attila have had as much impact on European culture as the facts. As an example, Attila is a character in the medieval Nibelungenlied, arguably as important as Siegfried and Bruennhilde. The many layers of fact and legend provide for ever shifting layers in what to think about this “scourge of God”.

Seattle will bring to American shores the Charles Edwards production, originally seen at the Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg, France, and later in Liege, Belgium and Tel Aviv, Israel, which relates the concept of “civilized” warriors fighting barbarians to the 21st century. Bernard Uzan is the stage director, Carlos Montanaro the conductor.

[Below: John Relyea as Attila the Hun; edited image, based on a photograph, courtesy of the Seattle Opera.]

Venezuelan soprano Ana Lucrecia Garcia (who is scheduled to appear in both the Seattle and San Francisco “Attila” productions) is the Odabella. Spinto tenor Antonello Palombi is the Foresto. Marco Vratogna, the Italian baritone familiar to San Francisco Opera audiences, is the Ezio. Veteran basso Michael Devlin appears in the cameo role of Leone.

For my performance review, see: Reveling in Early Verdi: Relyea, Garcia, Vratogna, Palombi in Montanaro’s Uncut “Attila” – Seattle Opera, January 14, 2012.

Don Pasquale (Donizetti), San Diego Opera, March 10, 13, 16 and 18(m), 2012.

The San Diego Opera, the most Southwesterly of continental U. S. opera companies, mounts its  famous production of “Don Pasquale”, the most successful opera of the final few months of Donizetti’s creative life. The production, both created and directed by David Gately, is, in Gately’s concept, set in the Far West of old.

The opera has been described as the crowning achievement of the buffa style of comic opera, whose predecessors includes Rossini’s “Barber of Seville”.  But “Don Pasquale” has  layers of the kind of character development that is a characteristic of Donizetti’s major comedies.

[Below: a bath for Ernesto (here, Matthew Polenzani, in tub) is the subject of the promotional poster for "Don Pasquale", based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the San Diego Opera.]

The San Diego Opera has assembled a major league cast of singers for the production’s revival. The Don himself is played by John Del Carlo, and the conspirators against him are Charles Castronovo (Ernesto), Daniele De Niese (Norina) and Jeff Mattsey (Dr Malatesta). Marco Guidarini conducts.

Mary Stuart – Maria Stuarda (Donizetti), Houston Grand Opera, April 21, 27, 29(m), May 2 and 4, 2012.

The Houston Grand Opera had commissioned a new production of Donizetti’s “Mary Stuart” with a European design team, but “artistic differences” scuttled the project. Instead, noting that the Minnesota Opera has been mounting new productions of Donizetti works for several years, opted to use that company’s production which debuted at the beginning of 2011.

Stage Director Kevin Newbury and his creative team (set designer Neil Patel and costume designer Jessica Jahn) will bring the Minnesota concept to the Lone Star State.

[Below: Mary Stuart, the Queen of Scots (here Judith Howarth) under arrest; edited image of a photograph for the Minnesota Opera.]

The opera’s title role wil be filled by one of the most illustrious of the alumni of Houston Grand Opera Young Artist’s program, Joyce di Donato. She will be joined by the Elizabeth I of Katie van Kooten and the Leicester of Eric Cutler. Oren Gradus is the Cecil and Robert Gleadow the Talbot. Houston Grand Opera’s recently promoted Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers will conduct.

Attila (Verdi) San Francisco Opera, June 12, 15, 20, 23, 28 and July 1(m), 2012

Nicola Luisotti conducted performances of “Attila” at Milan’s La Scala in a new co-production with the San Francisco Opera. The production team (also responsible for San Francisco Opera Fall 2011′s new production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”)  was stage director Gabriele Lavia, set designer Alessandro Camera and costume designer Andrea Viotti. Luisotti will be in the pit in June 2012 to conduct the San Francisco performances of the co-production.

[Below: Ferruccio Furlanetto as Attila; edited image of a photograph, courtesy of San Francisco Opera.]

The title role in the opera will be sung by basso Ferruccio Furlanetto, appearing 32 years after his San Francisco Opera debut, but following an absence of a decade and a half from the War Memorial Opera House.  Ana Lucrecia Garcia, who was Odabella at La Scala, will perform the role yet again in San Francisco. Quinn Kelsey is the Ezio, with Fabio Sartori and Diego Torre sharing the role of Foresto.

The last person to have sung Attila on the San Francisco stage was Samuel Ramey in 1991. He will return to San Francisco to sing the character role of Leone.

My characterization of the scheduled performance as a “best bet revival” obviously requires that I have seen and reviewed the performance previously, found the production to be of far more than routine interest, and regard the scheduled production’s cast  as reasonably equivalent to the cast I reviewed. In every case listed here, I am scheduled to review the “best bet revival” and will hyperlink from this page to my performance reviews as they are published.

Note that, although I regard these five performances as “must-sees”, this does not imply that other productions at other companies are less worthy of one’s attendance and patronage. My “best bet revivals” list by its definition excludes new productions, productions I’ve seen in the past but have not reviewed on this website, and revivals of productions from other companies that are new to me. Nor are the French works that I recommended in a separate web-post duplicated here (See French Opera in the American West – 2011). In the case of one California company, the Los Angeles Opera, not one of their 2011 offerings are “revivals” under my definition, and I plan to see a performance of every opera that they present this year.

As I do each of the “Best Bet Revivals” listed here:

Der Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss),  San Diego Opera, April 3(m), 6, 9 and 12, 2011.

Of the California opera companies, only the San Diego Opera is observing “Rosenkavalier’s” 100th anniversary in 2011, although it has obtained Thierry Bosquet’s elegant sets and costumes from the San Francisco Opera (in a production co-produced with the Washington National Opera) for the occasion.

[Below: The Count Octavian (Anke Vondung, left) shows his affection to the Marschallin (Twyla Robinson, left); edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the San Diego Opera.]

San Diego Opera, which has a tradition of introducing major international stars to the American West, celebrates the return of Anja Harteros, one such star, for her role debut as the Marschallin in Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier”. British basso Andrew Greenan will be the Baron Ochs. Popular leggiero tenor Stephen Costello will be the Italian Singer.

The production is also the occasion for several important San Diego Opera debuts. The Sophie will be Patrizia Ciofi, one of Europe’s star coloratura sopranos, who has appeared only a couple of times previously in the United States. (For my recent review of her Gilda, see: 21st Century Verdi: Hvorostovsky, Ciofi, Kim, Aceto in McVicar’s Illuminating “Rigoletto” – ROH Covent Garden, October 11, 2010.)

The Dresden Opera stars, mezzo Anke Vondung (who is known for performing opera’s “trouser” roles) and bass baritone Hans-Joachim Ketelsen, will make their respective San Diego Opera debuts as Count Octavian and Faninal.

Bosquet’s sets are based on the original Alfred Roller sets from the first performance a century ago, yet they are vibrant and eyecatching as ever. Lotfi Mansouri, who has been associated with this productions since it was first seen in San Francisco in 1993,  returns to San Diego as the stage director.  Christof Perick returns as the conductor. For my review of a previous performance of this production, see: S. F. Opera – A Center for “Rosenkavalier” Excellence: June 24, 2007.

For my review of the San Diego production (for which Twyla Robinson replaced Anna Harteros), see: San Diego’s Solo Celebration of Strauss’ “Rosenkavalier” Centennial – April 3, 2011.

Turandot (Puccini), San Francisco Opera, September 9, 14, 17, 22, 25(m), October 1, 4, November 18, 22 and 25, 2011.

All of the opera sets created by the eminent British painter David Hockney are artistic treasures, but the three productions from his collaboration with Costume Designer Ian Falconer are particularly noteworthy. One of these is the production of Puccini’s “Turandot”, created in 1992 for the Lyric Opera of Chicago  and the San Francisco Opera.

[Below: Turandot (Irene Theorin) presents three riddles whose answers are to be guessed by the Unknown Prince (Marco Berti); edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.]

For the 2011-12 season’s opening night and September and October performances, San Francisco Opera has enlisted Irene Theorin as Turandot, with Marco Berti as Calaf and Raymond Aceto as Timur. In November and December, Susan Foster, Walter Fraccaro and Christian Van Horn take those respective roles. Leah Crocetto is Liu for both casts.

In the earlier group Nicola Luisotti conducts, for the latter, Giuseppe Finzi. Garnett Bruce is stage director. For my review of a previous performance of this production, see: Lindstrom, Ventre, Jaho Brilliant in San Diego Opera’s Sensuous, Transcendent “Turandot” – January 29, 2011.

For my reviews of the two of the San Francisco performances, see: Luisotti Leads Superb “Turandot” Cast In David Hockney’s Treasured Production – San Francisco Opera, September 9, 2011 and A Second Look: Luisotti Improvises in “Turandot” Game Delay, then Hits a Grand Slam – San Francisco Opera, September 25, 2011.

Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti), September 23, 26, 29, October 2(m), 5, 8 and 11, 2011.

Donizetti’s masterpiece of the 1830s pushed the envelope on both dramatic and musical content of operas and its direct influence on Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto” is undisputed. Yet, despite it’s glorious music and impressive dramatic situations, death by poison of the central character, Gennaro, seemed a lightweight plot device. The few 20th century audiences who ever saw the work hardly took it seriously that Gennaro’s loyalty to his best friend, Maffio Orsini, prevented him from taking an antidote that would save him from a dollop of poison that his mother unintentionally administered to him.

With Fleming’s encouragement, production designer and director John Pascoe came up with a solution to what seemed  a plot-weakening improbability. Pascoe’s solution: present Gennaro and Orsini as gay lovers. Then, with Gennaro refusing to live in a world where his lover has just been murdered (by whom he discovers is his mother), the motivations of this key character suddenly make sense.

[Below: The Duke Alfonso d'Este (Vitalij Kowaljow) attempts to impose his will on his wife, Lucrezia Borgia (Renee Fleming); edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.]

Renee Fleming, who has been a champion of this opera and who encouraged Pascoe to take on the production, assumes the title role in this San Francisco premiere, returning to the San Francisco Opera stage after a decade’s absence.

For my review of a previous performance of this production, see: The Donizetti Revival, Second Stage: Radvanovsky, Grigolo in Pascoe’s WNO “Lucrezia Borgia” – November 17, 2008.

For my reviews of the two of the San Francisco performances, see: Fleming, Fabiano, Frizza Fuel San Francisco Opera’s Flaming, Fulfilling First “Lucrezia Borgia” – September 23, 2011 and  A Second Look: “Lucrezia Borgia” at the San Francisco Opera – October 2, 2011. See also: “Lucrezia Borgia” – The Dramatic Foundations of Donizetti’s Opera.

Xerxes (Handel), October 30, November 4, 8, 11, 16 and 19, 2011.

Sir Nicholas Hytner devised his elegant production of Handel’s “Xerxes” for English National Opera over a quarter century ago. This opera of Handel’s maturity confused its original 18th century audiences by mixing comic and serious themes, as Mozart was to do in “Don Giovanni” a half-century later, at a time when opera was not expected to depart from its traditional formulas. Hytner chose to present the opera as a light-hearted satire on 18th century Georgian London, and, with David Fielding’s sets and costumes, created a production I regard as a “world treasure”.

In the revival at Houston Grand Opera in 2010, directed by Michael Walling, the opera (which is somewhat shorter than such Handel works as “Giulio Cesare”, “Rodelinda” and “Tamerlano”) was presented uncut – the first uncut Handel performance in modern times.

[Below: King Xerxes (Susan Graham, right) expresses his royal opinion to his brother Arsamenes (David Daniels); edited image, based on a Felix Sanchez photograph, courtesy of the Houston Grand Opera.]

Walling brings the production to San Francisco with several key members of the Houston Grand Opera cast. Susan Graham is again King Xerxes, David Daniels is Arsamenes, Sonia Prina is Amatris and Heidi Stober is Atalanta. Two rising American artists, Lisette Oropesa and Wayne Tigges make their San Francisco debuts respectively as Romilda and Ariodates. Houston Grand Opera’s musical director and San Francisco Opera Chief Guest Conductor Patrick Summers will conduct.

For those unfamiliar with the work or the production, I recommend perusal of my Houston review [See: “Xerxes” Unexcelled – Houston Grand Opera, May, 2, 2010.] and the relevant parts of my subsequent interview with Susan Graham  [See: Return to New Mexico: An Interview with Susan Graham.]

For my review of the San Francisco production, see: Graham, Daniels, Prina Excel in Elegant, Witty “Xerxes” – San Francisco Opera, October 30, 2011

Carmen (Bizet), San Francisco Opera, November 6(m), 9, 12, 15, 17, 20(m), 23, 26, December 2 and 4, 2011.

San Francisco Opera is one of the companies that own existing productions of the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, who was one of the supreme forces of the 1970s and 1980s in improving the visual look and the dramatic quality of opera performance. For many reasons, virtually all bad, much of the important Ponnelle legacy has been destroyed.

San Francisco Opera, in the final year of the Golden Age of the general directorship of Kurt Herbert Adler, commissioned a new Ponnelle production of Bizet’s “Carmen” for Teresa Berganza. It was later duplicated in a somewhat smaller production to fit the Zurich Opera stage. Regrettably, the San Francisco Opera production was destroyed during the general directorship of one of current General Director David Gockley’s predecessors, so that, for San Francisco Opera to again own the Ponnelle production, it had to buy the Zurich Opera sets.

[Below: Carmen (Kendall Gladen, center front) attracts the attention of Don Jose (Thiago Arancam, sitting beside Carmen); resized image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.]

Fortunately, the Zurich sets do provide the audience with the sense of what Ponnelle achieved in this admirable production. They are world treasures in their own right.

Each of the principals except for Paulo Szot (Escamillo) has performed at San Francisco Opera previously. The Carmen, Kate Aldrich, appeared in a highly acclaimed performance of that role in 2006, although she shared the role of Carmen with another artist.  Thus, her Carmen will be new to many San Franciscans. Thiago Arancam’s Don Jose and Sara Gartland’s Micaela will be their most important San Francisco Opera assignments to date.

Nicola Luisotti will conduct all performances, except for two in December led by Giuseppe Finzi. The stage director will be Jose Maria Condemi.

For my review of a previous performance of this production, see: Halevy Triumphs in Ponnelle “Carmen” – S. F. December 3, 2006.

For my review of the San Francisco performance (with Kendall Gladen replacing Kate Aldrich), see:  Kendall Gladen, Jose Maria Condemi, Nicola Luisotti Create a Consummate “Carmen” – San Francisco Opera, November 6, 2011.

For previously featured “best bet revivals”, see: Best Bet Revivals January through June 2009, and,

Best Bet Revivals of “World Class” Operatic Productions – 2008-09, and,

Best Bet Revivals of “World Class” Operatic Productions 2007-08.

But “Carmen” is only the best known of the French opera jewels. Bizet, its composer, is one of six winners of the 19th century French Grand Prix de Rome winners for music (the others being Berlioz, Gounod, Thomas, Massenet and Debussy), all residents of Paris during their periods of greatest creativity, who have operatic works that continue to be performed today. In fact, Bizet’s “Pearlfishers”, Thomas’ “Hamlet” and Massenet’s “Don Quixote”  are proving to be more popular in the 21st century than they were in the 20th.

A major re-evaluation of the operas of these French composers is occurring throughout the world, including the American West, where several international stars will spend part of 2011 performing in Gounod’s two major operas and in Massenet’s still relatively unknown masterwork about the Knight of the Long Countenance.

Romeo and Juliet (Gounod); Dallas Opera, February 11, 13(m), 16, 19, 25 and 27(m), 2011.

Charles Gounod had astonished Paris by composing music for the Garden Scene in “Faust” so erotic that it changed people’s minds about what love scenes in opera could be like. With a major world exposition coming to Paris’ Champs de Mars in 1868, Gounod was prevailed upon to take on the Bard’s “Romeo and Juliet”, where his librettist could devise five love duets, a passionate tenor aria under Juliet’s balcony, with a masked ball, a fatal sword-fight, a wedding ceremony and double suicide thrown in. It was a giant Parisian hit.

Now, youthful looking (and beautifully sounding) singers have made this again a must-see opera. In Dallas, Tenor Charles Castronovo (Romeo) and Lyubov Petrova (Juliet) are the star-crossed lovers .

[Below: Romeo (Charles Castronovo) and Juliet (Lyubov Petrova) celebrate their wedding night; edited image, based on a Karen Almond photograph, courtesy of the Dallas Opera.]

Robert Lloyd is Father Laurent, with Joshua Hopkins as Mercutio. The production is Claude Girard’s from Montreal, with stage direction with Michael Kahn, and Candace Evans the choreographer. Marco Zambelli conducts.

Don Quixote (Massenet), Seattle Opera, February 26, 27(m), March 2, 5, 6(m), 9, 11 and 12, 2011.

Basso cantante John Relyea, whose career is at a point where he is taking on many of the most famous basso roles (see my interviews at Rising Stars: An Interview With John Relyea, Part 1 and Rising Stars: An Interview with John Relyea Part 2) has chosen Seattle Opera for his role debut in Massenet’s “Don Quichotte (Don Quixote)”.

The opera, which contains some “local color” music, evocative of sunny Spain, that might not have sounded too out of place in Bizet’s “Carmen” or Chabrier’s Espana or Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espanol, presents a vivid and quite sympathetic portrayal of Cervantes’ delusional knight errant. (For my review of a recent new production of the opera, see: Furlanetto, Campbell Lead Compelling Revival of Massenet’s “Don Quixote” – San Diego Opera February 14, 2009.]

[Below: Don Quixote (John Relyea, center, in breatplate and chain mail) and Sancho Panza (Eduardo Chama, center in brown) distribute alms to needy children; edited image, based on a Rozarii Lynch photograph, courtesy of the Seattle Opera.]

The squire Sancho Panza for Relyea’s Quixote will be played by Eduardo Chama, and Dulcinee, the lady for whom the Don wishes to be the champion is sung by Malgorzata Walewska. These three principal roles will be sung on February 27, March 6 and 11 by Nicolas Cavallier (Quixote), Richard Bernstein (Sancho) and Daniela Sandram (Dulcinee).

Linda Brovsky is the stage director and Donald Eastman designs Seattle Opera’s new production, which will use the costumes from San Diego Opera’s 2009 new production of the opera. Carlo Montanaro conducts.

[For my perfromance review, see: Masterful Massenet: John Relyea’s Don Quixote at Seattle Opera – February 26, 2011.]

Faust (Gounod), San Diego Opera, April 23, 26 29 and May 1, 2011.

Last season at San Diego Opera, the husband and wife team of Stephen Costello and Ailyn Perez performed the roles of Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet (See my review at Costello, Perez in Passionately Romantic “Romeo et Juliette” – San Diego Opera, March 13, 2010.) In the interim between San Diego Opera appearances, Costello and Perez take their roles in the Bard’s love story to Philadelphia this February, appearing in a new avant-garde production by Manfred Schweigkofler.

Staying in their Gounod zone, they return to San Francisco as Faust and Marguerite, with Greer Grimsley as Mephistopheles.

[Below: Ailyn Perez is Marguerite; resized image of a Dario Acosta photograph, courtesy of the San Diego Opera.]

Karen Keltner conducts. Stage director David Gately will present his own ideas on how best to use Robert Perdziola’s attractive sets. (For my reviews of Frank Corsaro’s and Jose Maria Condemi’s stagings, see:   Lyric Opera Revives Inventive Corsaro-Perdziola “Faust”: Chicago November 3, 2009 and Racette Ravishing, Relyea Riveting in San Francisco “Faust” – June 5, 2010 and A Second Look: A Visually, Aurally Praiseworthy “Faust” at San Francisco Opera – June 20, 2010.)

For my performance review, see: Costello, Perez, Grimsley and Mulligan Brilliant in Spectacularly Staged “Faust” – San Diego Opera, April 23, 2011.

Faust (Gounod), Santa Fe Opera, July 1, 6, 9, 15, August 1, 8, 15, 20, 24 and 27, 2011.

Incredibly, Santa Fe Opera has never performed a Gounod opera in the more than half century as America’s premiere summer festival. This summer, Santa Fe is creating a new production as the opening night of their 2011 season.

Ailyn Perez, who has been racking up performances of Gounod operas in 2010 and 2011, will take on Marguerite in yet another setting. Her Santa Fe Faust (for the July performancs) will be New Orleans tenor Bryan Hymel, with Dmitri Pittas taking on the role in August. Her arch-enemy Mephistopheles will be Mark S. Doss. Jennifer Holloway is Siebel. Matthew Worth is Valentin in July; Christopher Magiera in August.

[Below: Bryan Hymel as Faust attending the Kermesse; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

The new production will be the work of stage director Stephen Lawless and set designer Benoit DuGardyn, whose brilliant collaborations, often lauded on this website, include the Dallas Opera’s three productions of the operas of Donizetti’s so-called Tudor Trilogy. (See my reviews at: The Donizetti Revival, Second Stage: Papian, Costello in Lawless’ Dallas “Devereux” – January 23, 2009 and The Donizetti Revival, Second Stage: Stephen Lawless’ “Maria Stuarda” in Toronto – May 4, 2010 and Donizetti Revival, Second Stage: Beautifully Sung “Anna Bolena” Completes Dallas Opera’s Tudor Trilogy – November 14, 2010.

Frederic Chaslin, taking on new responsibilities in Santa Fe, will introduce the traditionally elegantly dressed Santa Fe opening night audience to a brand new experience: a  ”Faust” performance in proximity to the celestial setting of New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

For my performance review, see: Santa Fe Opera Gets Gounod At Last: Hymel, Perez Soar in Spectacular New Production of “Faust” – July 1, 2011.

Romeo et Juliette (Gounod), November 6, 9 12, 17, 20 and 26, 2011

Romeo is the role for what will surely be a highly anticipated Los Angeles Opera debut for Italian Tenor Vittorio Grigolo. His electrifying performances as Rodolfo in Puccini’s “La Boheme” and as Gennaro in Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia” at Placido Domingo’s Washington National Opera (See my review at: The Donizetti Revival, Second Stage: Radvanovsky, Grigolo in Pascoe’s WNO “Lucrezia Borgia” – November 17, 2008), his emerging celebrity status, and his hit record of Italian tenor arias, made the plans for his introduction to Los Angeles audiences a very high priority.

[Below: Vittorio Grigolo is Romeo; edited image, based on a promotional photograph from vittoriogrigolo.com.]

Placido Domingo added extra charms to make this an especially auspicious debut. Grigolo’s Juliet is to be the spectacular lyric soprano Nino Machaidze (see my reviews of her Adina at Los Angeles Opera’s Magic Potion: Nino Machaidze in “L’Elisir d’Amore” – September 12, 2009 and her Fiorella at Partying in L. A.: Machaidze, Gavanelli Romp in All-Star “Turco in Italia” – Los Angeles Opera, February 19, 2011.) Domingo himself will conduct. The likeable Ian Judge production, through which Rolando Villazon and Anna Netrebko romped in 2004, is being revived for the occasion.

For my performance review, see: Vittorio Grigolo, Nino Machaidze Sublime in Ian Judge’s Romantic, Erotic “Romeo et Juliette” – Los Angeles Opera, November 9, 2011.

For other “Quests and Anticipations” features devoted to French opera, see:

In Quest of Operas from Jules Barbier’s Paris, and

Quest for La Belle Epoque French Opera – 2008-09, and

In Quest of Bizet’s “Pearl Fishers” – A 2008-09 Odyssey, and

In Quest of Exotic French Opera – 2008.

We will continue this series, counting down to the  100th anniversary of Britten’s birth, here highlighting productions originating in Australia, Texas and Great Britain, that will be part of the 2010-11 seasons of three major American opera companies.

Peter Grimes (Britten) Houston Grand Opera, October 29, 31(m), November 6, 10 and 12, 2010

Neil Armfield’s brilliant productions and Conductor Patrick Summers’ musical leadership have assured that Houston Grand Opera’s ambitious Britten cycle would be an artistic triumph. Armfield’s production of “Peter Grimes”, Houston’s co-production with with Opera Australia, West Australia Opera and the Perth International Arts Festival, arrives in Houston with Anthony Dean Griffey’s celebrated portrayal of the title role.

[Below: Captain Balstrode (Peter Coleman-Wright) converses with Peter Grimes (Stuart Skelton); edited image, based on a Branco Gaica photograph for the Australia Opera.]

Griffey’s Grimes, reviewed recently in a different production performance (see Anthony Dean Griffey Wows San Diego In a Riveting “Peter Grimes” – April 24, 2009) is joined by the Ellen Orford of Katie Van Kooten and Captain Balstrode of Christopher Purves. Patrick Carfizzi is Swallow and Meredith Arwady is Auntie. Other key roles are played by Liam Bonner, Beau Gibson, Joseph Evans and Catherine Wyn-Rogers. Ralph Myers created the sets, Tess Schofield the costumes.

[For the performance review, see: Anthony Dean Griffey’s Imposing Peter Grimes – Houston Grand Opera, November 12, 2010.]

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Britten), Lyric Opera (Chicago), November 5, 8, 10, 13(m), 17(m), 20 and 23, 2010.

Houston Grand Opera premiered this Neil Armfield production in January 2009 (see Incandescent Houston “Midsummer Night’s Dream” – January 25, 2009). It is imported into Chicago with an entirely different musical cast, led by debuting young Scottish conductor, Rory Macdonald.

[Below: Tytania (Laura Claycomb) with the Changeling Boy in Neil Armfeld's Houston Grand Opera production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream"; edited image, based on a Felix Sanchez photograph, courtesy of the Houston Grand Opera.]

The eminent counter-tenor David Daniels is Oberon and Anna Christy is Tytania. Peter Rose is Bottom, Erin Wall is Helena, Elizabeth DeShong is Hermia, Lucas Meachem is Demetrius and Shawn Mathey is Lysander. Bottom’s fellow “mechanicals” are Keith Jameson, James Kryshak, Sam Handley and Wilbur Pauley. Craig Irvin and Kelley O’Connor are the human nobility. Esteban Andres Cruz plays Puck.

[For the performance review, see: Britten’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Chicago: Enchanting, Luminous, Hilarious – Lyric Opera, November 17, 2010.]

The Turn of the Screw (Britten), Los Angeles Opera, March 12, 17, 20(m), 25, 27 and 30, 2011.

Yet another Britten opera recently seen in Houston in an Armfield production  (see Houston’s Haunting, Inscrutable “Turn of the Screw” – January 29, 2010), but Los Angeles Opera is importing instead the Jonathan Kent – Paul Brown production that premiered at the 2007 Glyndebourne Festival in England.

[Below: the interior of Bly mansion; edited image of a production photograph for the Glyndebourne Festival.]

James Conlon conducts. Patricia Racette stars as the Governess. William Burden makes his Los Angeles Opera debut as Peter Quint and Ann Murray hers as Mrs Grose. Tamara Wilson is Miss Jessel.

“Screw” being one of the greatest of ghost stories, Jonathan Kent will give us clues as to what he thinks is going on, but we know, like every other person’s explanation, that he is probably wrong.

[For the perfromance review, see: Countdown to Britten Centennial: Conlon, Racette and Burden Impress in Enigmatic “Turn of the Screw” – March 12, 2011.]

A year ago, we highlighted upcoming performances of Wagner’s “Ring” in our feature California Rings Up Wagner – 2009-2010. A similar feature in the previous year also included anticipations of Wagner’s “Tannhauser” by three opera companies in California (See California Does Wagner – 2008).

2010 is the year in which the masterful  James Conlon conducts three complete four opera presentations of “The Ring of the Nibelungs” in Achim Freyer’s extraordinary production in Los Angeles.

Another Wagnerian giant, Conductor Donald Runnicles, oversees the music of “Die Walkuere”, the next episode of Francesca Zambello’s “American Ring” in San Francisco.

During the same month in that city, a reigning Isolde, Deborah Voigt, portrays Minnie, the Girl of the Golden West, in a production conducted by Nicola Luisotti. San Francisco Opera celebrates the 100th birthday of “Fanciulla del West”, the most Wagnerian of  the operas of Puccini, who was  the most successful of the later opera composers who adopted Wagnerian principles of leitmotiv and orchestral participation in the dramatic action.

And, at the Seattle Opera, a company whose name is now almost synonymous with Wagner’s “Ring”, a new production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” is being launched.

The following Wagnerian feasts are being prepared in the Cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. Welcome to these banquets!

Das Rheingold (Los Angeles Opera) May 29, June 8 and June 18, 2010.

The Ring’s prologue opera is presented with a strong Wagnerian cast and the impressive Los Angeles Opera Orchestra under the baton of James Conlon in Achim Freyer’s extraordinary production. Vitalij Kowaljow, one of the greatest of the new generation of bassos is the Wotan, in a cast that stars Richard Paul Fink as a definitive Alberich, Arnold Bezuyen as Loge and Graham Clark as Mime.

[Below: Wotan (Vitalij Kowaljow, center in cage mask) holds the Ring of the Nibelungs, while the gods Froh (Beau Gibson, left), Donner (Wayne Tigges, right center) and Fricka (here, Michelle DeYoung, right) urge him to relinquish it to save the goddess Freia (Ellie Dehn, center rear, in front of the stack of gold coins); edited image, based on a Monika Rittershaus photograph, courtesy of the Los Angeles Opera.]

[For my review of the first performance of this production, see: Achim Freyer’s Fascinating “Rheingold” Begins L. A. “Ring” – March 11, 2009.]

Die Walkuere (Los Angeles Opera) May 30, June 10 and 20, 2010.

No opera-goer and certainly no admirer of Wagner’s works should pass up an opportunity to hear Placido Domingo, one of the greatest tenors of all time, whose signature role for more than a decade has been Siegmund.  The idea of traveling to Los Angeles to see Domingo in the Freyer “Ring” is made even more irresistible with a cast that also includes the sweetly sung Wotan of Vitalij Kowaljow. Michelle deYoung sings Sieglinde and Los Angeles Opera’s leading Wagnerian soprano, Linda Watson, is the Bruennhilde.

[Below: Bruennhilde (Linda Watson, center back) arranges for a flight of safety to the East for Sieglinde (here Anja Kampe, center front); edited image, based on a Monika Rittershaus photograph, courtesy of the Los Angeles Opera.]

[For my review of the first performance of this production, see: Sonic Splendor: Domingo, Conlon Lead Impressively Sung, Engaging “Walkuere” for L. A. Opera – April 12, 2009. For my review of the performance in the first Los Angeles Opera "Ring", see: An Incredible Domingo and Other Marvels of the Los Angeles Opera Ring – “Walkuere”, May 30, 2010.]

Siegfried (Los Angeles Opera), June 3, 13(m) and 23, 2010.

One of the extraordinary features of the Freyer “Ring” is the layering of symbolism that adds new insights into Wagner’s complex interplay between the text being sung by the principals and the leitmotivs played by the orchestra. These insights are particularly evident in Freyer’s presentation of Siegfried, effectively portrayed by Cornish tenor John Treleaven, in the final two operas of the “Ring”. Linda Watson’s Bruennhilde, Graham Clark’s Mime, and Kowaljow’s Traveler all demonstrate the high quality of contemporary Wagnerian singing.

[Below: Siegfried (John Treleaven) whose body is now red, signifying his love for Bruennhilde (Linda Watson); edited image, based on a Monika Rittershaus photograph, courtesy of the Los Angeles Opera.]

[For my review of the first performance of this production, see:  Achim Freyer’s “Siegfried” at Los Angeles Opera: John Treleaven Heads Impressive Cast – September 26, 2009.]

Goetterdaemmerung (Los Angeles Opera) June 6, 16 and 26, 2010.

Some would argue (certainly this reviewer would) that “Goetterdaemmerung” is the greatest opera ever written; with the two final acts among the most overwhelming any person will experience within the performing arts. Los Angeles Opera’s “Goetterdaemmerung”, with James Conlon leading the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra in Wagner’s great orchestral showpieces, the Los Angeles Opera Chorus as the Gibichung people, and Treleaven and Watson leading the cast, will not disappoint.

[Below: Siegfried (John Treleaven) whose body is now blue, signifying that he is under Hagen's spell; edited image, based on a Monika Rittershaus photograph, courtesy of the Los Angeles Opera.]

[For my review of the first performance of this production, see: Standing Ovations for Achim Freyer, James Conlon, Cast of “Goetterdaemmerung” – Los Angeles Opera, April 3, 2010.]

Die Walkuere (San Francisco Opera), June 10, 13(m), 19, 22, 25 and 30, 2010.

This is the second installment in San Francisco of Francesca Zambello’s often lively, sometimes sobering, but always interesting “American Ring”, previously performed by the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center in 2007. San Francisco mounts it with an entirely different cast.

Christopher Ventris and Eva-Maria Westbroek are the Waelsung twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde. Nine Stemme, returning to the San Francisco Opera stage after a half-decade’s absence, is Bruennhilde and Mark Delavan is Wotan. Raymond Aceto plays Hunding and Janina Baechle is Fricka. Donald Runnicles, who has performed more Wagner at the San Francisco Opera than any other conductor in its history, returns to the podium.

[Below: Bruennhilde (here, in front, Linda Watson) edited image, based on a Karin Cooper photograph, courtesy of the Washington National Opera.]

[For my review of a performance of this production at the Washington National Opera, see: Zambello’s Dazzling “American Ring ‘Walkuere’” at Kennedy Center – March 28, 2007.]

[For my performance reviews of this production at the San Francisco Opera, see: An American “Walkuere”: Runnicles, Wagner and Zambello At San Francisco Opera – June 10, 2010 and A Second Look: Stemme, Delavan, Lead Power Cast of San Francisco Opera “Walkuere” – June 13, 2010.]

Tristan und Isolde (Seattle Opera), July 31, August 4, 7, 12, 15(m), 18 and 21, 2010.

Peter Kazaras is stage director and Robert Israel is set and costume designer for a new production of “Tristan und Isolde”. Analena Persson is the Irish princess in her American opera debut, with Clifton Forbis (my review of whose performance of Tristan at Lyric Opera of Chicago is cited below) in his first Wagner role in Seattle.

The cast is rounded out with a group of favorite Seattle Wagnerians  - Margaret Jane Wray as Brangaene, Greer Grimsley as Kurwenal, Stephen Milling as King Marke and Jason Collins as Melot. Ascher Fisch conducts.

[Below: Isolde (Annalena Persson) and Tristan (Clifton Forbis) are together; edited image, based on a Rozarii Lynch photograph, courtesy of the Seattle Opera.]

[For my review of Clifton Forbis' Tristan and Greer Grimsley's Kurwenal at Lyric Opera, see: Forbis, Voigt Brilliant as Lyric’s Tristan and Isolde – Chicago, February 24, 2009.]

[For my performance review, see: Tristan Tried and True: Clifton Forbis Sells Seattle Opera’s New “Tristan und Isolde” – July 31, 2010.]

For opera goers with the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks or so on the West Coast, consider the possibility of scheduling a Los Angeles Ring over a nine day period interspersed with trips to San Francisco for its summer season and to other California attractions.

However, a librettist who particularly interests me is nowhere near as well known as da Ponte, or Boito, or Hofmannsthal, but in his own way is worth getting to know better. He is Jules Barbier, whose name nowadays is seen most often in the context of being Gounod’s co-librettist for “Faust”, but who was a major figure in mid-19th century Parisian opera. (In France of that century, what went on in Paris really mattered to French opera.) Sometimes Barbier teamed with his colleague Michel Carre, or sometimes he worked with an opera composer alone, but he was always a brilliant presence in any collaboration.

Several operas to whom Barbier is important are being mounted in the United States over the next several months. It is my plan to get to at least one production of all five of these operas.

[Below: Dramatist, librettist and bon vivant Jules Barbier.]

Damnation of Faust (Berlioz), Lyric Opera of Chicago, February 20, 24, March 2, 5, 8, 13(m) and 17, 2010

Even though Barbier did not personally have a hand in the creation of Berlioz’ “La Damnation de Faust”, this uncompromisingly melodic masterpiece profoundly influenced Barbier and Gounod in their development of the most successful adaptation of Goethe’s “Faust” in any medium.

The careers of Berlioz, Gounod and Barbier are entwined with Paris’ Theatre Lyrique where Berlioz’ great opera “Les Troyens” (or at least half of it) received its only performances during Berlioz’ lifetime.

Many of the episodes in “La Damnation” have parallels in Gounod’s “Faust”, but its greatest influence on Gounod was Berlioz’ seductive use of melody, that led Gounod in “Faust”  to perfect the erotic “sweet melody” sound that influenced French opera for the next half century.

[Below: Faust (Paul Groves) unexpectedly appears in the room of Marguerite (Susan Graham); edited image, based on a Dan Rest photograph, courtesy of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.]

British stage director Stephen Langridge creates a new production for Lyric Opera, with sets by George Souglides and lighting by Wolfgang Goebbel, all Lyric Opera debuts.

The lovers Faust and Marguerite are played respectively by Paul Groves and Susan Graham. The Mephistopheles will be John Relyea, who is accumulating an impressive repertory of diabolical roles. Christian Van Horn is Brander. Sir Andrew Davis conducts.

[For my performance review, see: Berlioz’ Faust Fantastique: Lyric Opera Does “Damnation” – Chicago, March 8, 2010.]

Romeo et Juliette (Gounod), San Diego Opera, March 13, 16, 19 and 21(m), 2010

The success of  Gounod’s “Faust”, particularly the Garden Scene and nuit d’amour of Faust and Marguerite, caused “Faust” to move past Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” as the most popular opera in the world (until Bizet’s “Carmen” and then Puccini’s “La Boheme” established their own adoring fan bases). The management of the Theatre Lyrique put considerable pressure on Gounod and Barbier to turn their attentions back to opportunities for sweet, erotic melody. Thus, nearly a decade later, as a lustrous addition to the latest Paris world exposition, the Bard’s “Romeo and Juliet” became a new vehicle for the Gounod-Barbier magic.

[Below: Romeo (Stephen Costello) has taken  poison in the final scene of San Diego Opera's "Romeo et Juliette",  resulting in a decision by Juliet (Allyn Perez) to take her own life also; edited image, based on a photograph, courtesy of the San Diego Opera.]

Curiously, Gounod’s is the first major opera on this subject, French or Italian, to write the part of Romeo for a male voice, rather than having it sung by a mezzo-soprano in men’s clothing. With tenor testosterone in the mix, Gounod lavished the score with multiple, melodious love duets. (Much more happens in the opera than these high risk lovers’ sentiments about their mutual attraction, but Gounod pulls out all the melodic stops whenever the lead tenor and soprano are within a few feet of each other.)

San Diego Opera, who in 2008 brought together a soprano and tenor married in real life to sing Leila and Nadir in Bizet’s “Pearl Fishers”, has mounted “Romeo and Juliet” for Stephen Costello and Allyn Perez, another soprano-tenor married couple. They are joined by David Adam Moore as Mercutio, Joel Sorensen as Tybalt and Kevin Langan as Tybalt, with a luminous supporting cast that includes Malcolm MacKenzie, Susanna Guzman, Phillip Skinner, Joseph Hu and Scott Sikon. Cynthia Stokes directs and Karen Keltner conducts.

[For my performance review, see: Costello, Perez in Passionately Romantic “Romeo et Juliette” – San Diego Opera, March 13, 2010.]

Hamlet (Thomas), Metropolitan Opera, New York City, March 16, 20, 24, 27(m), 30, April 2, 5 and 9, 2010

Many opera goers (and opera managements) have a prejudice against this gloriously melodic work, even when they’ve never seen or heard it. Perhaps they have taken to heart the famous epigram by a sour 19th century British critic that only a Barbarian or a Frenchman could have made such an opera out of the Bard’s greatest work.

It was, of course, the work of the very non-Barbarian, but very French, Jules Barbier, working with the composer Ambroise Thomas, who like Berlioz, Gounod and Bizet (and later Massenet and Debussy), was a Grand Prix de Rome laureate.

[Below: Simon Keenlyside is Hamlet; edited image, based on a Simon Fowler photograph.]

Even though it was banished from the Metropolitan Opera’s repertory for the entire 20th century, one should not go to this opera to seek insights into the Bard’s play (whose plot it quite significantly changes), but instead one should surrender to the opera’s beauties. After all, the British play’s reputation remains intact, totally unscathed by this Parisian operatic “adaptation”.

The Met welcomes Simon Keenlyside as Hamlet and Marlis Pedersen as Ophelie, joined by Jennifer Larmore (Gertrude), Toby Spence (Laertes) and James Morris (Claudius). Louis Langree conducts. The Royal Opera House Covent Garden’s production, directed by the team of Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser, will be used to re-introduce Thomas’ work to the Met, after its 113 year break.

For those unable to get to New York City during the run, there is the option of attending the March 27, 2010 “Live in HD” performance in theaters that carry that Met’s telecasts. (Some theaters will repeat the showing on April 14, 2010.)

[For my performance review of Marlis Pedersen in a quite different opera, see: “Lulu” at the Lyric – November 19, 2008.]

Hamlet (Thomas), Washington National Opera, May 19, 22, 24, 27, 30(m), June 1 and 4, 2010

Hamlet the Opera, that will be 150 years old later this decade, is having a new lease on life. It regales audiences in luscious music, romance and drama. Not insignificantly, it provides a tour de force and title role for superstar dramatic baritones, and also contains the stellar coloratura part of Ophelie (complete with mad scene).

Washington National Opera enlisted baritone Carlos Alvarez as Hamlet and Diana Damrau as Ophelie, with Samuel Ramey as Claudius and Elizabeth Bishop as Gertrude.

[Below: the final scene from the Thaddeus Strassberger production of "Hamlet" at Washington National Opera with Michael Chioldi as Hamlet; edited image, based on a Karin Cooper courtesy of the Washington National Opera.]

The production, from the imagination of Thaddeus Strassberger, was seen previously at Kansas City Lyric Opera. The work’s conductor, Placido Domingo, contributes his knowledge of and rapport with Second Empire French Opera and his celebrity status to the enterprise.

[For my performance review, see: Michael Chioldi, Micaela Oeste Enrich Washington National Opera’s Theatrically Absorbing “Hamlet” – May 22, 2010 .]

Faust (Gounod), San Francisco Opera, June 5, 8, 11, 16, 20(m), 26(m) and July 1, 2010

There is only one French opera that is more popular than Gounod’s “Faust” and that one, on a Spanish theme by a French novelist, was composed by Gounod’s younger Theatre Lyrique colleague and fellow Grand Prix winner, Georges Bizet.

[Below: the Kermesse scene in the Robert Perdziola sets and costumes for Gounod's "Faust", promotional photograph, from the Lyric Opera of Chicago.]

Robert Perdziola’s striking, often beauteous sets were seen last Fall in Chicago at Lyric Opera. They will be revived at San Francisco Opera this June, with former Adler fellow Jose Maria Condemi, as stage director, promising a different take on the opera from Chicago’s Frank Corsaro (See my review of the Corsaro-Perdziola production at Lyric Opera Revives Inventive Corsaro-Perdziola “Faust”: Chicago November 3, 2009 and my interview with Condemi at Rising Stars: An Interview with Stage Director Jose Maria Condemi, Part One.)

Stefano Secco makes his San Francisco Opera stage debut. Patricia Racette is Marguerite and John Relyea the devil-may-care Mephistopheles. Catherine Cook is Marthe, Daniela Mack is Siebel and Brian Mulligan will be the Valentin.

[For my performance review, see: Racette Ravishing, Relyea Riveting in San Francisco “Faust” – June 5, 2010. For my review of a later performance in the run, see: A Second Look: A Visually, Aurally Praiseworthy “Faust” at San Francisco Opera – June 20, 2010.]

Tales of Hoffman (Offenbach), Santa Fe Opera, July 17, 21, 30, August 3, 7, 11, 24 and 28, 2010

Offenbach’s regrettably unfinished grand opera “Les Contes d’Hoffman” was based on a play by Barbier and Carre. Barbier, the go-to librettist for the French operatic elite, also wrote the opera’s lyrics.

This will be the opera’s debut season at the Santa Fe Opera. Paul Groves will be Hoffman;  Erin Wall will perform the four roles of Antonia, Giulietta, Olympia and Stella; and Wayne Tigges will play all four villains.  Kate Lindsey will be Nicklausse and Jill Grove, the voice of Antonia’s mother. Character tenors David Cangelosi is also in the cast.

[Below:  Hoffman (Paul Groves), Coppelius (Wayne Tigges) and Nicklausse (Kate Lindsey) examine the rose-colored glasses; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

A new production is being developed by Christopher Alden, with sets by Allen Moyer. Stephen Lord will conduct.

[For my performance review, see: Groves, Wall, Lindsey Excel in Christopher Alden’s Harrowing, Hallucinatory “Hoffmann” – Santa Fe Opera, July 17, 2010.]

The new year 2010 begins the countdown to the year 2013 in which the bicentennials of the births of Wagner and Verdi and the centennial of the birth of Britten will strongly influence the operatic repertory of the world’s major opera houses.

This year, the Britten quest highlights revivals in Hamburg and Paris. Also, we note the initiatives of the Houston Grand Opera and Santa Fe Opera this year to delve into Britten’s works beyond the four standard operatic works (“Peter Grimes”, “Billy Budd”, “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Death in Venice”) that appear with reasonable regularity in the repertories of the larger houses.

The selected productions are not meant to be an exhaustive list of Britten performances. (For that, see the Britten-Pears Foundation website at www.brittenpears.org.) Much of Britten is designed for small venues, such as the 400 seat Cultural and Performing Arts (CAPA) High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the Pittsburgh Opera will present four performances of Britten’s “Rape of Lucretia” between January 30 and February 7, 2010. For several of Britten’s works, one expects intimate surroundings such as the small theater being used by the Pittsburgh Opera.

But each of the four operas I have highlighted in this post are productions intended for opera companies’ large “main stages”. Each are new productions or important revivals in opera houses whose work I have previously reviewed and where one might expects performances that meet world class standards.

Turn of the Screw (Britten), Houston Grand Opera, January 29, 31(m), February 6, 10 and 13, 2010.

Henry James’ novella “Turn of the Screw” is one of the most elegant and controversial ghost stories ever written, evoking literary debates as to whether readers should regard the mysterious and mute Peter Quint and Mrs Jessel as figments of the Governess’ imagination or actual spirits in communication with the Governess’ young charges, Miles and Flora.

Britten gave the ghosts voices, and even dialogue with each other, but, if anything made the story even more mysterious than James did. Those who believe with conviction they know what is going on in that house in Bly, will find others who will provide eloquent arguments as to why they are wrong.

[Below: the Houston Grand Opera's promotional poster for "Turn of the Screw", designed by Pattima Singhalaka.]

Stage and film director Neil Armfield  is in the third year of a collaborative effort with the Houston Grand Opera to stage a “Britten cycle”, conducted by Patrick Summers, and supported in part by the Britten-Pears Foundation. Already “Billy Budd” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream” have appeared in Houston. (For my review of the latter, see: Incandescent Houston “Midsummer Night’s Dream” – January 25, 2009.)

The “Turn of the Screw” will import Stephen Curtis’ sets and costumes and Neil Levings’ lighting designs for Armfield’s successful production for the South Australia Company. British soprano Amanda Roocroft will be celebrating both her role debut as the Governess and her first Houston Grand Opera appearances. Andrew Kennedy and Tamara Wilson are the ghosts, and Michael Kepler Meo and Joelle Harvey are the children, Flora and Miles. Judith Forst is cast as Mrs Grose. (For the subsequent performance review, see: Houston’s Haunting, Inscrutable “Turn of the Screw” – January 29, 2010.)

Death in Venice (Britten), Hamburg Staatsoper, February 21, 26 and 28, 2010.

Yet another Britten cycle is taking place at the Hamburg Staatsoper, under the baton of principal conductor and Staatsoper intendant Simone Young. Last year Staatsoper enlisted British stage director Ramin Gray to mount a new production of “Death of Venice”, starring Michael Schade as Aschenbach, Nmon Ford as the Traveler, and ballet dancer Gabriele Frola as Tadzio. Ford and Frola return in February 2010 for a three performance revival, with British tenor John Daxzak, assaying the part of Aschenbach in his Staatsoper debut.

[Below: in one of his dream sequences, Aschenbach (first row, far left, here played by Michael Schade) takes notes on the games of the leaping Tadzio (Gabriele Frola); edited image, based on a Joerg Landsberg photograph, courtesy of the Hamburg Staatsoper.]

(For my review of the opening night of the new production, see: Michael Schade, Nmon Ford, Gabriele Frola Brilliant in Hamburg’s New “Death in Venice” – April 19, 2009.)

Billy Budd (Britten), Opera National de Paris, April 24, 27, 29, March 3, 8, 10, 13 and 15, 2010.

Although Francesca Zambello’s conceptualization of “Billy Budd” has been seen in Geneva, London, Parma and Pittsburgh, it is most closely associated with the Opera National de Paris, where it was presented in 1996 and 2001, with Rod Gilfry in the title role.  In Paris, it won the Grand Prix des Critiques for best opera production. Alison Chitty was set and costume designer with Alan Burrett devised the lighting.

[Below: the execution of Billy Budd (here, Rod Gilfry); resized image, based on a Ken Howard photograph from Francesca Zambello's website.]

Zambello’s production returns to the Bastille in April 2010, starring Lucas Meachem in the title role, with Kurt Rydl as Claggart and Kim Begley as Captain Vere. Jeffrey Tate is the conductor.

Albert Herring (Britten), Santa Fe Opera, July 31, August 4, 13, 18, 21 and 25, 2010.

The Santa Fe Opera is presenting a new production of “Albert Herring”, Britten’s comedy about what happens when moralistic community elders think they can guess which of the community’s young people best conforms to their views of how the young should behave.  Manipulating Herring’s election to the post of “May King”, the committee is surprised and outraged when they learn how he celebrated his reign.

The new production is the conception of Paul Curran, now director of the Norwegian Opera in Oslo. Curran is one of the most consistently interesting of contemporary opera stage directors. This website proclaimed his production of “Billy Budd” in Santa Fe as “superlative” (See Superlative: Original 1951 “Billy Budd” Catches the Santa Fe Wind – August 14, 2008) and gave a glowing review of his production of Berg’s “Lulu” at Chicago’s Lyric Opera also (See “Lulu” at the Lyric – November 19, 2008).

[Below: Lady Billows (Christine Brewer, standing at table, center) leads the festivities for the Loxford May Day Festival; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

The opera’s cast is led by Alek Schrader as Albert Herring and Christine Brewer as Lady Billows. Also in the cast are Kate Lindsey, Jill Grove, Celena Schafer, Anthony Laciura, Joshua Hopkins, Wayne Tigges and Dale Travis. The new production’s sets and costumes are by Kevin Knight, with lighting by Rick Fisher. Sir Andrew Davis conducts. (For the subsequent performance review, see: Superlative: Britten’s “Albert Herring” Brings Big Time Laugh-in to Santa Fe Opera – August 25, 2010.)

The San Francisco “Ring” has been co-produced with the Washington National Opera, which premiered the first three operas in the cycle, but, for budgetary reasons, has deferred to the San Francisco Opera to create the production of “Goetterdaemmerung”.  San Francisco will be the first city to see this “Ring” in its entirety.

Called the “American Ring”, it fits within the 33 year old tradition of “concept Rings” (which first burst upon the scene at with Patrice Chereau’s “Ring” at the 1976  Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany). Chereau’s formative years were spent in postwar Paris. The creator of the “American Ring”, Francesca Zambello, has done much of her creative work in opera companies of the United States.

Concept Rings find relevance to current day problems in Wagner’s storyline of adversaries engaged in infinitely long strategic efforts to gain and sustain power, at the other’s expense. Because all ends badly for the men warring with each other, Wagner’s storyline can be an attractive metaphor for displaying the long-term consequences of something the concept producer deplores.

In Chereau’s “Ring”, perhaps the social consequences of the industrial revolution are deplored; in Zambello’s (whose final episode no one has yet seen), perhaps the long-term consequences of ravaging the resources of the planet, while ignoring the wisdom of women.

Surely, there are concept directors who would wish to make a political statement through the symbols they have chosen for this or that scene or in the realization of a set dressing or a prop, and surely there will be a few critics who will react to whatever images they perceive as political. (The critic for a conservative Washington D.C. newspaper pegged the Zambello Ring as “socialistic”.)

[Actually, for those who tire of the charges that Wagner's operas are racist or "proto-fascist" because they had admirers among the Nazi leadership, having a few productions requiring defense against the charge that Wagnerian operas are vehicles for leftist indoctrination comes as a refreshing change.]

Of course, no matter what matrix you prepare to show off Wagner’s “Ring”, there is only so much that the producer’s concept can do, particularly if the story itself is played straight, which has been the case in every “concept Ring” that I have seen or heard of.

Having seen (and liked very much) both the Zambello “Rheingold” and “Walkuere” (whose third act sets, of course, become the third act sets for “Siegfried”, I can report that all the supposed political messages, the Washington critic notwithstanding, sailed over my head and,  I suspect, that of most of the rest of the audience.

There are striking images, to be sure. There are subtle antiwar images as the Valkyrs collect dead heros who are clearly contemporary Americans, but these images are respectful of servicemen who lost their lives. Fafner resembles more an industrial machine than the dragons of Saturday morning cartoons, but is vanquished by Siegfried and Nothung just the same.

But whether it sounds subversive or exhilirating on paper, it works dramatically, and 99% of the reason is because of Wagner’s story, particularly when  sung by a cast of principals with voices of beauty and power  and played by a large orchestra with the historically glorious sound of  San Francisco Opera’s under the baton of Donald Runnicles.

Prior to the three “Ring” cycles there will be one single non-subscription Sunday matinee performance each of the two “Ring” operas – “Siegfried” and “Goetterdaemmerung” – respectively on May 29 and June 5, 2011.

[Below: Conductor Donald Runnicles, who is scheduled to conduct all three Ring cycles performed by the San Francisco Opera; edited image, based on a Ken Friedman photograph for the San Francisco Opera.]

Runnicles, during his nearly two decades as Francisco Opera Music Director, set all company records for “Ring” performances. His  return as guest conductor is a major event, headlining the first complete Ring cycles of dramatic soprano Nina Stemme and company debut of Ian Storey as Siegfried.

[Below: Siegfried (foreground; here, Paer Lindskog) has reforged his father's sword, Nothung, from its shards, as Mime (here, Andreas Conrad) schemes Siegfried's death; edited image, based on a Karin Cooper photograph for the Washington National Opera.]

San Francisco Opera: the Ring Casts

The three  characters who appear in three operas are played by Mark Delavan (Wotan), Gordon Hawkins (repeating the role of Alberich that he is also performing in the Los Angeles Opera “Rings”) and Nine Stemme (Bruennhilde).

Of the characters who appear in two operas, Ian Storey is Siegfried, Larissa Diadkova is Fricka, Daniel Sumegi is Fafner and Ronnita Miller is Erda. In the original cast announcement, only the Woglinde of the Rhine Maidens was announced, that being Stacey Tappan, repeating the roles she sings in the Los Angeles “Ring” (including that of the Forest Bird). In addition, Sumegi will be Hunding and Miller the First Norn.

The artists who are announced to appear in different roles in two operas include Andrea Silvestrelli (Fasolt and Hagen) and Melissa Citro (Freia and Gutrune). Heidi Melton will be the Third Norn and will perform the role of Sieglinde in the third “Ring”.

Those scheduled to appear in only one opera are Brandon Jovanovich (Siegmund), Stefan Margita (Loge), Anja Kampe (Sieglinde), and Gerd Grochowski (Gunther). Daveda Karanas will sing both the Second Norn and Waltraute.

The original press release did not name who will play Froh, Donner, two of the Rhine Maidens, or the eight Walkuere sisters.

The San Francisco Dates

The First Cycle: Tuesday June 14, 2011 (evening*), Wednesday Jun 15 (eve), Friday, June 17 (eve) and Sunday June 19 (matinee**)

The Second Cycle: Tuesday June 21 (evening*), Wednesday Jun 22 (eve), Friday, June 24 (eve) and Sunday June 26 (matinee)

The Third Cycle: Tuesday June 28 (evening*), Wednesday Jun 29 (eve), Friday, July 1 (eve) and Sunday July 3 (matinee)

*Evening performances will begin at from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., depending on opera; **matinee performances begin at 1 p.m.