Opera Preview 2006

This is not a complete list of opera around the world, of course, only a selection of operas this season that interest me. For another perspective on the season, see Curtain goes up on 2005-2006 Opera season (International Herald Tribune, September 3). For the fall part of this year's season, go back to my Opera Preview, 2005–2006.

JANUARY
Bedrich Smetana, The Bartered Bride
Conducted by Charles Mackerras, staged by Francesca Zambello
January 6 to 20
Royal Opera House at Covent Garden
See the reviews compiled by Charles T. Downey (Ionarts, January 13)

A Mozart Celebration (excerpts of historic Met radio broadcasts of Mozart operas)
Saturday, January 14, 1:30 pm
Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast

John Carbon, Benjamin (on life of Benjamin Franklin, premiered in 1987)
January 19 to 21 (in honor of 300th anniversary of Franklin's birth)
Roschel Performing Arts Center, Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pa.)

Osvaldo Golijov, Ainadamar
January 22, 24, and 26
Lincoln Center, Rose Theater (New York, N.Y.)
See my comments on the Santa Fe Opera production this summer (Summer Opera: Ainadamar in Santa Fe, August 2, 2005)

Franco Alfano, Cyrano de Bergerac
January 26 to March 16
Metropolitan Opera
On the Met radio broadcast on Saturday, February 4, 1:30 pm
See the review by Bernard Holland (New York Times, January 28)

Mozart, The Abduction from the Seraglio (semi-staged)
January 26 to 28
National Symphony Orchestra
Kennedy Center Concert Hall
See the double review by Robert R. Reilly and Jens F. Laurson (Ionarts, January 27)

Piotr Tchaikovsky, Mazeppa
January 24 to February 7
Opéra national de Lyon

Adolphe Adam, Le Torédor ou l'Accord parfait (opéra comique based on Feydeau)
January 29
Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne

Bohuslav Martinů, Juliette
January 31 to February 16
Directed by Richard Jones
Opéra national de Paris


FEBRUARY
Stravinsky, Oedipus Rex
February 4 to 16
L'Opéra de Montréal
This production has been CANCELLED for financial reasons (see this article).

Richard Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier
February 4 to March 11
Susan Graham and Anne Schwanewilms
Lyric Opera of Chicago

Alessandro Scarlatti, Cain overo Il Primo Omicidio (sacred divertissement, 1707)
February 6 to 11
Musiciens du Louvre—Grenoble
Opéra de Lyon

Smetana, The Devil's Wall
February 7 to 25
Prague National Theatre

Richard Danielpour, Margaret Garner
February 10 to 26
Opera Company of Philadelphia

Handel, Hercules (oratorio version, staged)
February 14 to 19
Les Arts Florissants, directed by William Christie
Brooklyn Academy of Music

Korngold, Die tote Stadt
February 17 to 25
Deutsche Oper (Berlin)

George Frederick Handel, Xerxes
February 18 to 26
Pittsburgh Opera

Ned Rorem, Our Town [WORLD PREMIERE]
February 24 and 25, March 3 and 4
Adapted by J. D. McClatchy from Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play
Indiana University Opera Theater

Christoph Willibald Gluck, Orfeo ed Euridice
February 25 to March 26
David Daniels and Isabel Bayrakdarian
Lyric Opera of Chicago


MARCH
Tchaikovsky, Mazeppa
March 6 to 30
Conducted by Valery Gergiev
Metropolitan Opera
On the Met radio broadcast on Saturday, March 18, 1:30 pm

Pascal Dusapin, Faustus, the Last Night [WORLD PREMIERE]
March 7 to 18
Libretto, in English, derived from Christopher Marlowe
Opéra de Lyon

Schubert, Fierrabras
March 8 to 12
Zurich Oper, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst
Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris)

Jake Heggie, Dead Man Walking
March 11 to 19
Baltimore Opera

Giorgio Battistelli, Prova d'Orchestra (1995)
Libretto based on the film by Federico Fellini
March 12 to 28
De Vlaamse Opera (Antwerp/Ghent)

Wolfgang Rihm, Jakob Lenz (1978)
Libretto based on the play by Georg Büchner
March 15 to 19
Théâtre de la Monnaie (Brussels)

Ludwig van Beethoven, Fidelio
March 20 to April 13
Metropolitan Opera

John Adams, Nixon in China
March 25 to April 1
Portland Opera

Wagner, Das Rheingold
March 25 to April 14
New production directed by Francesca Zambello (beginning of complete Ring cycle)
Elizabeth Bishop as Fricka
Washington National Opera

Kaija Saariaho, Adriana Mater [WORLD PREMIERE]
March 30 to April 18
Conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, directed by Peter Sellars
Opéra national de Paris

Alban Berg, Wozzeck
March 31 to April 13
Canadian Opera Company (Toronto)


APRIL
Benjamin Britten, The Turn of the Screw
April 1 to 9
L'Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal

Francesco Cavalli, La Calisto
April 2 to 12
Directed by Ivor Bolton and staged by David Alden
Véronique Gens, Dominique Visse, Kobie van Rensburg
Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich)

Rossini, Tancredi
April 2
Washington Concert Opera (Lisner Auditorium)

Bohuslav Martinů, Greek Passion
April 13 to June 7 (6 performances)
Conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek
Prague National Theatre

Jean-Philippe Rameau, Platée
April 14 to May 6
Choeurs et musiciens du Louvre Grenoble, Mark Minkowski
Opéra national de Paris

Richard Danielpour, Margaret Garner
April 20 to 23
Opera Carolina (Charlotte, N.C.)

Alessandro Scarlatti, Telemaco
April 26 to 30
Opéra-Comique (Paris)

Monteverdi, L'Incoronazione di Poppea
April 29 to May 12
Susan Graham, Frederica von Stade, Nathan Gunn
Houston Grand Opera


MAY
Handel, Rodelinda (Renée Fleming and Andreas Scholl)
May 2 to 19
Metropolitan Opera
On the Met radio broadcast on Saturday, May 6, 12:30 pm

Verdi, Simon Boccanegra
May 3 to June 1
Opéra national de Paris

Purcell, Dido and Aeneas
May 11 to 15
Les Arts Florissants, directed by William Christie
Wiener Festwochen (in Vienna)

Richard Wagner, Parsifal
May 12 to 18
Metropolitan Opera

Rossini, L'Italiana in Algeri
May 13 to 30
Olga Borodina and Juan Diego Flórez
Washington National Opera

Handel, Alcina (1735)
May 14 to 28
Opéra de Lyon

Bartók, Bluebeard's Castle
Schoenberg, Erwartung
May 26 to June 17
Royal Opera House at Covent Garden

Elliot Goldenthal, Grendel [WORLD PREMIERE]
May 27 to June 17
Directed by Julie Taymor
Los Angeles Opera


JUNE 2006
Michel van der Aa, After Life [WORLD PREMIERE]
Libretto by Hirokazu Kore-Eda
June 2 to 9
De Nederlandse Opera (Amsterdam)

Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of Mzensk
June 2 to July 2
Conducted by Mariss Jansons
De Nederlandse Opera (Amsterdam)

Kurt Weill, One Touch of Venus (1943)
June 1 to 11
Opéra de Lyon

Kurt Weill, Der Jasager/Der Neinsager (1930)
June 7 and 10
Opéra de Lyon

Kurt Weill, Der Lindberghflug and The Seven Deadly Sins (1933) (June 24 to July 4)
Opéra de Lyon

Gluck, Iphigénie en Tauride (June 8 to July 10)
Choeurs et musiciens du Louvre Grenoble, Mark Minkowski, with Susan Graham
Opéra national de Paris

Bartók, Bluebeard's Castle
June 10 to 16
Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Pierre Boulez, with Jessye Norman
Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris)

Schoenberg, Moses und Aron
June 28 (opening of Munich Opera Festival)
Conducted by Zubin Mehta
Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich)