Avalanche of new productions in Europe in May 2010

We're blessed to have such a huge number of new productions to be premiered in May 2010 all across Europe, very many of which look super-promising on the paper. In June the offer will be as grand if not even better.

As usual, I expect the best to come from Germany. I hope to see the premiere of the new production of L'étoile by Chabrier, directed by Dale Duesing, and with Sir Simon Rattle conducting [which also means that the cast includes Madge Kozena ;)]. Towards the end of May at the Deutsche Oper Berlin is scheduled a big prima of Otello, produced by the phenomenal Andreas Kriegenburg and with José Cura, Zeljko Lucic and Anja Harteros among the soloists. In Stuttgart, Jossi Wieler will unveil his take on Kat'a Kabanova,  while in Frankfurt Vera Nemirova will show off her Rheingold, the first chapter of the Frankfurter Ring that she will be producing over the next 3-4 years. In Hamburg, instead, Guy Joosten prepares his first Aida, to be premiered in May too. Tristan und Isolde in Leipzig might be a surprising gem.

It will be an exciting month in Switzerland too. Jan Bosse, a 40 year old German director who produced his first opera in Basel 2 years ago, will be back to Theater Basel with his new production of La Calisto with Nikolay Borchev. The limelight will be in Geneva though, where Joyce DiDonato and Gregory Kunde will shine in the new production of La Donna del Lago, directed by Christof Loy. My guess, however, is that the most interesting thing will happen in Zurich where they prepare a new Jens-Daniel Herzog's production of Der ferne Klang, with Ingo Metzmacher conducting.

Two special events in England will be the new Tosca at ENO, directed by Catherine Malfitano, and the first Glyndebourne show this year, the premiere of Billy Budd, directed by the multiple Laurence Olivier award winning director - Michael Grandage.

The major event in France this May will be Die Walkure that will be premiered on May 31 in Paris. Hope the second chapter of the Ring produced by Gunter Kramer & Philippe Jordan will be as enjoyable as the Rheingold. [ On that note I must mention an excellent paper/review about that Rheingold in Paris that is to appear in The Wagner Journal -- do check it out or wait till it appears on Boulezian. ] Théâtre des Champs Élysées will "surprise" us with La Calisto, and in Lyon they continue with the Pushkin inspired operas and in May they will premiere  The Queen of Spades, directed by Peter Stein, with a strong Russian cast and with Kirill Petrenko conducting.

La Scala in Milan will open the long awaited "Barenboim-er" Ring with Das Rheingold. Guy Cassiers will direct and the cast looks great.  Belcanto fans will rush to Palermo where Kate Aldrich, Dimitra Theodossiou and Shalva Mukeria will bel-cantare in a new production of Maria Stuarda.
Don Quichotte, a new production by Laurent Pelly in Brussels, will be live broadcast on Arte-TV.
In Spain, Emilio Sagi's is preparing Les mamelles de Tirésias, but I guess the fans will be running to Madrid where William Christie will conduct Les Arts Florissants and a knockout cast for  9 shows of L'incoronazione di Poppea, in a new production signed Pier Luigi Pizzi.

See a more detailed list...

• May 2, The Queen of Spades at the Lyon Opera, directed by Peter Stein, Kirill Petrenko will conduct. Cast: Olga Guryakova, Misha Didyk, Alexey Markov et al
• May 2, Das Rheingold at the Frankfurt Oper, directed by Vera Nemirova and with Sebastien Weigle conducting. Cast: Jochen Schmeckenbecher, Terje Stensvold, et al
• May 4 Don Quichotte at La Monnaie in Brussels: directed by Laurent Pely,  Marc Minkowski will conduct, Cast: and Silvia Tro Santafé  / Jennifer Larmor, José Van Dam / Vincent Le Texier, Werner Van Mechelen / Lionel Lhote
• May 5, La donna del lago in Geneva, produced by Christof Loy, conducted by Paolo Arrivabeni,  with Joyce DiDonato, Gregory Kunde, Bálint Szabó, Luciano Botelho
• May 5, La Calisto at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, produced by Macha Makeieff, Christophe Rousset will conduct, Cast: Sophie Karthäuser, Lawrence Zazzo, Véronique Gens, Giovanni Battista Parodi

• May 6, Idomeneo at the National Theater in in Prague, directed by Yoshi Oida, conducted by Tomas Netopil and with Charles Workman, Hannah Esther Minutillo among the soloists
•  May 7, Turandot at DNO Amsterdam, directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct. Cast includes Lise Lindstrom, Lance Ryan, Ana Maria Martinez
• May 7, Jenufa at the Opera Bordeaux: director Friedrich Meyer-Oertel, conductor Karen Kamensek, with Mireille Delunsch and Stuart Skelton
• May 9, Kat'a Kabanova in Stuttgart, Jossie Wieler production, conducted by Michael Schønwandt
• May 9, Der ferne Klang in Zurich, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher and produced by Jens-Daniel Herzog. Juliane Banse and Roberto Saccà are 2 prominent names in a huge cast

• May 12, Les Boulingrin a new opera composed by Georges Aperghis will be premiered at the Comique in Paris with Jean Deroyer conducting the excellent Klangforum Wien Orchestra
• May 13, Das Rheingold at La Scala di Milano, production Guy Cassiers, Daniel Barenboim will conduct and the cast includes René Pape, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Stephan Rügamer, Katharina Kammerloher...
• May 16, L'incoronazione di Poppea at Teatro Real in Madrid, production Pier Luigi Pizzi, conducted by William Christie, plus a very starry cast:  Danielle de Niese, Philippe Jaroussky, Anna Bonitatibus, Max Emanuel Cencic...
• May 16, L'étoile at the Deutsche Staatsoper UDL, directed by Dale Duesing, with Sir Simon Rattle conducting the Staatskapelle; cast: Magdalena Kozena, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Stella Doufexis et al.
• May 16, Die Götterdämmerung at the Theater in Freiburg, directed by Frank Hilbrich, with Sabine Hogrefe et al

• May 16, Aida at the Hamburg Opera, produced by Guy Joosten, with Franco Farina, Laura Brioli, Andrzej Dober among the soloists
• May 18, Tosca at ENO in London, production Catherine Malfitano, with Anthony Michaels-Moore, Amanda Echalaz
• May 18, Madama Butterfly in Rome, director Stefano Vizioli, Daniel Oren will conduct, cast: Marco Berti, Xiu Wei Sun, Raffaella Angeletti
• May 18, Don Giovanni at Teatro Fenice in Venice, director Damiano Michieletto, conductor  Antonello Manacorda, cast: Markus Werba, Aleksandra Kurzak, Alex Esposito...
• May 18, The Rake's Progress in Warsaw, produced by Marek Weis, with Olga Pasichnyk singing

• May 20, Billy Budd in Glyndebourne, Michael Grandage production; Cast: Jacques Imbrailo, John Mark Ainsley, Phillip Ens, Iain Paterson...
• May 21, La Calisto at Theater Basel: Jan Bosse director, Andrea Marcon conductor, cast: Agata Wilewska, Nikolay Borchev
• May 21, Maria Stuarda at Teatro Massimo in Palermo, produced by Denis Krief, with Kate Aldrich, Dimitra Theodossiou, Shalva Mukeria and Mirco Palazzi
• May 26, Vincent Boussard's new production of Hamlet at the Opera Marseille with Patrizia Ciofi, Nicolas Cavallier and others
• May 27, Les mamelles de Tirésias directed by Emilio Sagi, with Maria Bayo singing

• May 27, L'Affaire Makropoulos at Nantes Opera, new production will by Patrice Caurier & Moshe Leiser
• May 28, Dido and Aeneas in Lausanne with Jean-François Lapointe and Sarah Castle
• May 29, Tristan und Isolde in Budapest: Ádám Fischer will conduct and among the soiloists we find Christian Franz, Tomasz Konieczny, Judit Németh, and Anna-Katharina Behnke
• May 29, Tristan und Isolde in Leipzig, production Claus Guth, conductor Axel Kober(?), with Ian Storey, Janice Baird, Hans-Peter Konig (imported from Zurich!)
• May 30, Otello at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Andreas Kriegenburg will direct and Paolo Carignani conduct. Cast: Jose Cura, Anja Harteros, Zeljko Lucic, Yosep Kang...

• May 30, Russalka also in Zurich, director Matthias Hartmann, conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev, with Krassimira Stoyanova, Michelle Breedt, Piotr Beczala
• May 31 Die Walkure at the Paris Opera, production Günter Krämer, conducted by Philippe Jordan, with Robert Dean Smith, Günther Groissböck, Falk Struckmann, Ricarda Merbeth, Katarina Dalayman, Yvonne Naef...

Oh yes, you're welcome :)