Opera in the Summer 2007 (Europe)

If you are like us, your summer travel plans involve going places to hear opera. As we did in 2006 and 2005, here is a limited survey of some operas to hear. Operabase has updated its database of opera festivals for 2007, too, which attempts to be comprehensive (and is so, as far as I can tell). There is much more opera to be heard around Europe this summer (Bayreuth, Salzburg, and so on), but I can't list everything. See also our roundup of American opera in the summer.

GLYNDEBOURNE FESTIVAL (England)
This is one of the greatest summer opera festivals in the world, and its lineup this year does not disappoint. The chestnuts have good singers and interesting productions, and then there are the unusual items, like the staged version of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. It is the English answer to the operafied St. John Passion at the Châtelet in March (with Emmanuelle Haïm conducting the Concert d’Astrée, a staging design by Robert Wilson and choreography by Lucinda Childs, with Andreas Scholl, among others). The Nikolaus Lehnhoff Tristan and any production of The Turn of the Screw get our attention.

June 17 to August 12 Rossini, La Cenerentola	July 1 to August 26 Bach, St. Matthew Passion Staged as an opera by Katie Mitchell, conducted by Richard Egarr With Mark Padmore and Sarah Connolly
August 1 to 22 Wagner, Tristan und Isolde Conducted by Jiří Bĕlohlávek, directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff With Nina Stemme and René Pape	August 11 to 25 Britten, The Turn of the Screw

OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS (France)
While not really an opera festival, the Paris Opera always has interesting productions that continue into the summer. The new Christoph Marthaler production of La Traviata is probably going to cause the biggest stir, but the world premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino's new opera is prominent on the Ionarts radar.

May 15 to June 11 Wagner, Lohengrin Directed by Robert Carsen, conducted by Valery Gergiev With Ben Heppner and Mireille Delunsch	May 23 to June 10 Salvatore Sciarrino, Da gelo a gelo World Premiere
June 14 to July 13 Verdi, Un ballo in maschera Directed by Gilbert Deflo	June 16 to July 12 Verdi, La Traviata Directed by Christoph Marthaler With Christine Schäfer, Jonas Kaufmann, and José Van Dam

THÉÂTRE DU CHÂTELET (Paris)
In the recent and ongoing upheaval of management change at almost all of the Parisian opera theaters, the Châtelet is about to finish its first season under Jean-Luc Choplin. The former Disney executive announced plans to lighten up the Châtelet's programming by guiding it back to its founding principle, to be the "théâtre musical de Paris," that is, as a house for operetta. Some of the most radical parts of the first season fall to the summer months, including Marc Minkowski's Carmen, which concluded this weekend, and Le Verfügbar aux enfers, the operetta-revue produced initially in the concentration camp of Ravensbrück, with words by Germaine Tillion, the celebrated member of the French resistance who turns 100 this summer. The season ends as it opened, with Francis Lopez's Le Chanteur de Mexico, which Choplin had originally planned with Roberto Alagna in the title role.

May 10 to 28 Bizet, Carmen With Sylvie Brunet, Teddy Tahu Rhodes Les Musiciens du Louvre, conducted by Marc Minkowski	June 2 and 3 Germaine Tillion, Le Verfügbar aux enfers With Gaële Le Roi
June 19 to 29 Francis Lopez, Le Chanteur de Mexico

FESTIVAL D'AIX-EN-PROVENCE (France)
Ionarts is going to cover Aix-en-Provence for the first time this summer, thanks to the wanderings of Michael Lodico. The Aix Ring Cycle continues this year, after a notable success with Das Rheingold last summer, with Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic and the provocative staging of Stéphane Braunschweig. The best casting comes on a Figaro with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, behind Nathan Gunn and Kate Royal. Two eminent HIP conductors lead another Mozart opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio, and a 400th anniversary production of Monteverdi's Orfeo.

June 29 to July 8 Wagner, Die Walküre Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Simon Rattle	July 1 to 21 Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Harding With Nathan Gunn and Kate Royal
July 6 to 20 Mozart, Die Entführung aus dem Serail Les Musiciens du Louvre, conducted by Marc Minkowski	July 6 to 15 Monteverdi, Orfeo Concerto Vocale, conducted by René Jacobs
July 1 to 18 Monteverdi, Madrigals Staged by Arco Renz, conducted by Kenneth Weiss

MAGGIO MUSICALE FIORENTINO (Florence)
This is one of the festivals I am planning to cover during my time in Italy this summer, although I arrive too late to hear an all too rare performance of Monteverdi's first opera. I am hoping to bring you a review of the crazy half-Ring cycle by La Fura del Baus, which premiered in Spain earlier this month.

May 31 and June 1 Monteverdi, Dafne Ensemble Antonio il Verso Coro Costanzo Porta

June 14 to 29 Wagner, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre With La Fura del Baus, conducted by Zubin Mehta

64TH SETTIMANA MUSICALE SENESE (Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena)
It's the summer of Orfeo, which was premiered 400 years ago in 1607. They may have Concerto Vocale in Aix-en-Provence, but we will also be reviewing the opera as performed by Rinaldo Alessandrini's Concerto Italiano.

July 8 and 9 Fabio Vacchi, La Madre del Mostro World Premiere Orchestra della Toscana

July 11 Monteverdi, Orfeo (concert performance) Concerto Italiano, conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini

DROTTNINGHOLM SLOTTSTEATER (Sweden)
The fabulous Baroque opera theater outside of Stockholm hit hard financial times a couple years ago. They had to scale back their summer schedule to just two operas, a trend that continues this year, and without the regular visit of Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques (a match made in heaven).

May 26 to August 11 Handel, Serse

July 28 to August 11 Monteverdi, Orfeo

SAVONLINNA OPERA FESTIVAL (Finland)
Italy this summer, and hopefully Scandinavia next summer! As always, there will be new Finnish opera at the Savonlinna Festival, in the beautiful lake setting of Olavinlinna Castle. This year, the visiting company is from the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, and they bring two Russian operas.

July 7 to 17 Olli Kortekangas, Daddy's Girl World Premiere	June 29 to July 11 Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor With Eglise Gutiérrez
July 24 to 28 Modest Musorgsky, Boris Godunov Bolshoi Theater	July 25 and 27 Leonid Desyatnikov, The Children of Rosenthal (2005) Bolshoi Theater

OPÉRA DE LYON (France)
There is no themed festival in Lyon this summer like the Kurt Weill festival last year. Still, a production of Rake's Progress, something old, and something new all look good.

May 24 to June 3 Stravinsky, The Rake's Progress Directed by Robert Lepage	June 8 to 14 Isabelle Aboulker, Jérémy Fisher New children's opera
June 24 to July 8 Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro Conducted by William Christie, directed by Adrian Noble

DE NEDERLANDSE OPERA (Amsterdam)
Amsterdam continues to offer interesting and all-contemporary operatic fare this summer, after the world premiere of Michel van der Aa's new opera last year. Jonathan Harvey's new opera imagines Richard Wagner in a Buddhist afterlife.

May 18 to June 9 Franz Schreker, Die Gezeichneten	June 6 to 13 Jonathan Harvey, Wagner Dream
June 10 to July 13 John Adams, Doctor Atomic With Gerald Finley, Jessica Rivera, Eric Owens

MÜNCHNER OPERNFESTSPIELE (Germany)
I will leave the discussion of the Munich Summer Opera Festival to our man on the ground in Munich, but here are some of the highlights as it looks from here.

June 30 Unsuk Chin, Alice in Wonderland Libretto by David Henry Hwang	July 2 Wolfgang Rihm, Das Gehege / Strauss, Salome
July 14 Mussorgsky, Khovanshchina