Dallas Opera Season Has Them Seeing Red
By Christina Cavalier
It’s a season of firsts at The Dallas Opera as the company prepares for its inaugural season in the Winspear Opera House, nearing completion in the heart of the Downtown Dallas Arts District. As if moving into a brand new, state-of-the-art opera house isn’t enough to jazz the local performing arts scene, how about a world premiere opera with an internationally renowned artistic team to kick things up a notch?
In its 53rd season, The Dallas Opera will present five spectacular productions. “We’ll Have You Seeing Red” opens on October 23, 2009 with Giuseppe Verdi’s, Otello. Patrons will experience this intense domestic drama, based on Shakespeare, and be among the first to set foot in the fabulous, Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.
Otello features tenor Clifton Forbis and Allan Glassman (Oct. 25th) sharing the title role and it marks the American debut of German soprano Annette Dasch as the doomed Desdemona. The season opener will also feature the company debut of Lado Ataneli as a memorable Iago.
The season continues in February (just in time for Valentine’s Day) with Mozart’s touching romantic comedy, Così fan tutte starring South African soprano Elza van den Heever in her Dallas Opera debut, with Jennifer Holloway (who delighted audiences last season as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro), Nuccia Focile, Brian Anderson and Michael Todd Simpson (last season’s dashing Count Almaviva) in this brilliant ensemble cast. Mozart will be followed by Gaetano Donizetti’s wry and sophisticated domestic comedy, Don Pasquale.
Opening in late April, it’s the thrilling world premiere of Moby-Dick, an exciting new opera by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer. The new work will star renowned American heldentenor Ben Heppner as Captain Ahab, Stephen Costello as Greenhorn, Morgan Smith as Starbuck and Jonathan Lemalu as Queequeg. Moby-Dick is being produced in partnership with San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, Calgary Opera and The State Opera of South Australia.
This unforgettable season closes next May with a perfectly grand season finale: Giacomo Puccini’s beautiful, heartbreaking Madame Butterfly, starring Adina Nitescu as Cio-Cio-San, Brandon Jovanovich as Pinkerton and James Westman as Sharpless.
This season promises unbridled passion, obsession, gut-wrenching betrayal, romance, comedy, and—of course—plenty of drama. There truly is something for everyone!
The Dallas Opera offers a wide range of ticket possibilities to accommodate every schedule and budget. Season subscriptions for all five operas are available, starting at just 75 dollars. TDO also offers FLEX subscriptions, which allow patrons to select three productions, instead of committing to all five. Also available, is the new Five-Performance Weekend Series, which allows patrons to see two operas in one weekend. Patrons can also purchase single tickets for any performance — and they can do it today.
