Opera Preview, Fall 2006

When I win the lottery, I will travel around the world and review operas and concerts. Until that happens, I try to keep track of the most interesting operas being produced in the world's major theaters. Here is my list for the fall season, by no means exhaustive, of the productions I will be watching and trying to compile reviews of, when possible. I will put links to my press roundups as I put them together.

September 2 to 24
Strauss, Capriccio
De Nederlandse Oper

September 5 to 23
Bent Lorentzen, Cain and Abel [WORLD PREMIERE]
Royal Danish Opera

September 6, 7, 8
Stuart MacRae/Simon Armitage, The Assassin Tree (2006)
Royal Opera House at Covent Garden
Reviews -- compiled by Charles T. Downey (Ionarts, September 15)

September 7 to 16
Gaddafi: A Living Myth [WORLD PREMIERE]
Steve Chandra Savale/Shan Khan
English National Opera
Reviews -- compiled by Charles T. Downey (Ionarts, September 18)

September 8 (premiere)
Janáček, Osud / Puccini, Le Villi
Vienna Staatsoper

September 9, 12, and 17
Verdi, La Traviata
With Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazón
Los Angeles Opera

September 9 to October 16
Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor
With Natalie Dessay
Opéra national de Paris
Reviews -- compiled by Charles T. Downey (Ionarts, September 20)

September 13 to October 4
Handel, Semele
With Elizabeth Futral
New York City Opera

September 13 to 19
Cavalli, La Didone
With Europa Galante and Fabio Biondi
Teatro La Fenice (Venice)

September 15 to October 12
Mikko Heiniö, The Hour of the Serpent [WORLD PREMIERE]
Finnish National Opera

September 16 to October 7
Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Gianni Schicchi
Washington National Opera
Review -- Jens F. Laurson (Ionarts, September 23)

September 18 to October 18
Strauss, Salome
With Catherine Naglestad, Evgeny Nikitin
Opéra national de Paris
Reviews -- compiled by Charles T. Downey (Ionarts, October 11)

September 20 to October 1
Francis Lopez, Le Chanteur de Mexico
Théâtre du Châtelet

September 20 to 30
Lully/Molière, Le Jeu de Kwi-Jok (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, adapted in Korean)
Opéra-Comique (Paris)

September 21 to October 9
Nicholas Maw, Sophie's Choice
Washington National Opera
Review -- Jens F. Laurson (Ionarts, September 26)

September 22 to October 2
Paul Hindemith, Sancta Susanna / Azio Corghi-José Saramago, Il dissoluto assolto
Teatro alla Scala (Milan)

September 24 to October 14
Korngold, Die tote Stadt
New York City Opera

September 29 to October 27
Gluck, Iphigénie en Tauride
With Susan Graham, Paul Groves
Lyric Opera of Chicago

September 30 to October 21
Massenet, Manon
With Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón
Los Angeles Opera

September 30 to October 17
Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Production by Richard Jones
Royal Opera House at Covent Garden

October 3, 4
Lynne Plowman/Martin Riley, House of the Gods (2006)
Royal Opera House at Covent Garden
Reviews -- compiled by Charles T. Downey (Ionarts, October 11)

October 5 to 27
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde
With Thomas Moser and Christine Brewer, designed by David Hockney
San Francisco Opera

October 6 to 18
Strauss, Die Frau ohne Schatten
Théâtre du Capitole (Toulouse)
Reviews -- compiled by Charles T. Downey (Ionarts, October 14)

October 9 to 26
Janáček, Jenůfa
Directed by David Alden (same production coming to Washington National Opera in the spring)
English National Opera

October 11 to November 14
Berlioz, Les Troyens
New production by Herbert Wernicke
Opéra national de Paris

October 13 to 22
Baldassare Galuppi, L'Olimpiade
With Venice Baroque Orchestra and Andrea Marcon
Teatro La Fenice (Venice)

October 14 to 22
Rossini, L’Assedio di Corinto (The Siege of Corinth)
With Elizabeth Futral
Baltimore Opera

October 15 (premiere)
Alberto Franchetti, Germania
Deutsche Oper (Berlin)

October 16 to 22
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Les Paladins
With Sandrine Piau, Les Arts Florissants
Théâtre du Châtelet

October 19 to 28
Dominique Le Gendre/Paul Bentley, Bird of Night [WORLD PREMIERE]
Royal Opera House at Covent Garden

October 21 to November 21
Strauss, Salome
With Deborah Voigt, Alan Held
Lyric Opera of Chicago

October 23 to November 8
Mozart, Così fan tutte
With Erin Wall, directed by Patrice Chéreau
Opéra national de Paris

October 27 (premiere)
Wolfgang Rihm, Das Gehege, Salome [WORLD PREMIERE]
Bayerische Staatsoper

October 31 to November 5
Shostakovich, The Nose
Teatro Regio Torino

November 1 to January 16
Carl Nielsen, Maskarade
Royal Danish Opera

November 5
Handel, Orlando
Bejun Mehta and David Walker
Washington Concert Opera

November 10 to December 3
Carlisle Floyd, Susannah
Virginia Opera

November 13 to December 9
Prokofiev, The Love of Three Oranges
Production by Gilbert Deflo
Opéra national de Paris

November 14 to 19
John Adams, A Flowering Tree [WORLD PREMIERE, concert performance]
Wiener Mozartjahr 2006, New Crowned Hope Festival (Peter Sellars, Artistic Director)
(Hat tip to Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise)

November 15, 16, 18
Pascal Dusapin, Faustus, the Last Night
Théâtre du Châtelet

November 25 to December 16
Monteverdi, L'Incoronazione di Poppea
With Susan Graham, Frederica von Stade, David Daniels
Los Angeles Opera

November 25 (premiere)
Gluck, Orphée et Eurydice
With Anne-Sofie von Otter
Bayerische Staatsoper

November 28 (premiere)
José M. Sánchez-Verdú, Gramma: Gärten der Schrift (2006)
Deutsche Oper (Berlin)

December 21 to January 25
Tan Dun, The First Emperor [WORLD PREMIERE]
Metropolitan Opera