2010-2011, 2011-2012 2012-2013 with too many consonants [Eastern and Central Europe] :)

Central and Eastern Europe are not only reservoir of extraordinary singers and brilliant directors. They  too produce some wonderful shows. Only this season the first ever Wozzeck was staged in Moscow, directed by Dima Tcherniakov - no less! Tcherniakov's Tristan at Mariinsky was very starry as René Pape was the King Marke for a few shows... The new production of Les Troyens by La Fura dels Baus was premiered at Mariinsky. Good shows were staged in Budapest by very talented Balasz Kovalik. Narodowa Opera in Warsaw is one of the most creative places in Europe right now...

Janacek is everywhere in Prague: maybe not in their opera program, but definitely on one of many delicious beers [Janaceks own a famous brewery in Czech]

Below you'll find a selection of theaters and their new productions in 2010-2011 (to be updated in September)

La Stagione 2010-2011 2012-2013 in Italia

In spite of numerous organizational and financial difficulties in Italian theaters, La Scala remains one of the world's leading opera houses, and so not only because of its tradition and prestige but also because of the genuinely good quality of its operatic offer. Teatro Regio in Turin manages to keep up a high level too.

The others are clearly less good on the paper but you can still catch 1-2 excellent show every year in Ancona, Bari, Trieste...  The victims of erosion of Italian opera seem to be Teatro Carlo Felice and Teatro San Carlo who year after year were thinning down their programs and now they struggle to exist. We of course wish them a huge "In bocca al lupo".

More details about the new productions in 2010-2011 in Italy

Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti..., but also Dallapiccola, Busoni, Nono...

2010-2011, 2011-2012 2012-2013:: Opera in the UK

2010-2011, 2011-2012 2012-2013: Scandinavian Theaters

2012-20132011-2012: Douce France

Other French opera houses and theaters propose much better opera-program than those in Paris.
Here you can find a compiled info on the 2011-2012 season in France.  I will steadily update this entry until the 2011-2012 programs are fully unveiled.

For those who don't know much about the operatic offer in France, apart from Paris you should keep an eye on what's going on in Lyon and in Strasbourg [Opéra national du Rhin]. A good production can happen elsewhere: Lille, Toulouse,  Dijon, Marseille, Rouen, Nice, Monte Carlo, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy...

My apologies to the venues in Reims, Clermont-Ferrand, Massy, Metz, Montpellier, Saint-Étienne, Caen, Avignon, Toulon... I had to make some selection.  

La temporada 2010-2011, 2011-2012 2012-2013 en los teatros españoles

Two pics taken in the cafeteria of Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona

2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013 in Switzerland

The largest and the most significant opera-house in Switzerland is the one in Zurich, followed by the Grand Theater in Geneva. Both theaters already announced the new productions scheduled for 2010-2011. A pretty little Opera in Lausanne did the same.

If you're interested in more audacious theaters then you'd be more curious about 2010-2011 in Basel and in Freiburg. We just learned that the Theater Freiburg will unveil the details about their new season on May 6. When Basel will say something about their next season is anyone's guess...

In the following (if you dive into "Read more") you can find the links and a list of new productions in these fine Swiss Opera Houses.

Ed: the details on 2010-2011 at  Theater Basel will be made public on April 29

Opera Houses in Germany

DSO 2010-2011: Unter den Linden ---> Schiller Theater

As everybody knows, the Deutsche Staatsoper (DSO) in Berlin will move from its ultra-chic location in East Berlin (Unter den Linden) to the Schiller Theater [West Berlin], the latter being within 5-10 minutes walking distance from their competition - the Deutsche Oper Berlin (DOB).

DSO will be in their new residence for three years the time needed to complete the heavy renovation  works on their theater at Unter den Linden [are you  following?! ;) ].

More important news is that they released a detailed program of their 2010-2011 season which to me looks excellent. Of new productions we note:

• New production of The Ring (co-produced with La Scala) directed by Guy Cassiers: René Pape will not sing in  Rheingold but he will sing Wotan in the Walkure, with Irene Theorin as Brunnhilde (plus Ekaterina Gubanova, Anja Kampe, Mikhail Petrenko and Simon O'Neill). Add to that Barenboim conducting ==> April 2011 a must-go trip to Berlin! ;)
• New production of The Rake's Progress directed by (our fave) Krzysztof Warlikowski and with Ingo Metzmacher conducting. Two excellent singers: Anna Prohaska and Florian Hoffmann [of courrrse, I do plan a trip to Berlin in December 2010]
• New production and a new project of René Jacobs' will be Antigona (an opera by Tommaso Traetta), directed by Vera Nemirova and with Bejun Mehta, Veronica Cangemi, Jennifer Rivera (Brava Jen!), Kenneth Tarver
• New production of Candide staged by Vincent Boussard (and Christian Lacroix) with Maria hot Bengtsson as Cunegonde. 
• New production of Three Sisters, so much praised opera by Peter Eötvös in July 2011(dir Rosamund Gilmore)
• New production of Wozzeck directed by Andrea Breth (good!) and with Nadja Michael and Roman Trekel (Barenboim will conduct the Staatskapelle)
• Metanoia (a terrible name!), an opera by Jens Joneleit; new production directed by Christoph Schlingensief. Staatskapelle with Anna Prohaska, Annette Dasch et al will be conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
• Matsukadze (ballet/opera) by Toshio Hosokawa --VERY en vogue FYI!-- will come from Brussels to Berlin in mid-July 2011.

There will be a revival of their excellent Entführung with either Maria Bengtsson or Christine Schäfer, an interesting production of Don Carlo with René Pape and Nadia Krasteva, but the most important revival should be Phaedra by Hans Werner Henze, a production by Peter Mussbach with Natascha Petrinsky in the title role.

2010-2011: Cité de la musique - Paris

The place where you can sens the love for music much more than elsewhere is this wonderful Cité de la musique. It is much less starry than in the other operatic or concert houses, but the program is always much better structured around the specific themes, covering the music that you rarely see programmed in the main concert houses. In their premises you can visit a Music Museum (excellent!), they organize seminars, workshops, round tables with authors, artists, they give you free access to their ginormous Media Center...

Yes, the stars perform there sometimes too, and in my opinion they perform even better -- perhaps because they perform the music they don't normally do in other concert houses.

And their auditorium is excellent -- the best in Paris! They will officially announce their program for 2010-2011 season this evening and already tomorrow it will be available on their web-site.

I received the program this morning and will type a list of say 20-30 concerts/events to see next season  à la Cité.

2010-2011, 2011-2012 2012-2013 in Belgium

Can you find a better intendant of an opera house in Europe [or anywhere else] than Peter de Caluwe? Of course not! With a much smaller budget, compared to the top European opera houses, year after year, he and his team manage to compose a well balanced and highly interesting program. .

Théâtre des Champs Élysées 2010-2011

Check out here...

Yesterday, Sat March 13, I was at the TCE to listen to the presentation speech of their Artistic Manager,  Michel Franck. 

2010-2011 @ TCE looks terrific on the paper, with basically all the World's top orchestra coming (except for Berliners) and with la crème de la crème  as far as the conductors are concerned. In that All-Star configuration I am more than happy to see seven young super-talented conductors to be given a part in limelight: David Afkham especially, and then also Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Vasily Petrenko, Jérémie Rhorer, Tugan Sokhiev, and Kazuki Yamada. Operas, recitals, orchestral works, piano concerts... it's mind blowing!

Franck also told us that their season 2011-2012 will start only in November 2011, because of the heavy summer works to enlarge the pit and to be able to host larger orchestra. That would allow them to program also some works from the grand repertoire, such as Le Sacre du printemps, Dialogue des Carmélites...  We also learned that they're preparing a new production of Tristan und Isolde for 2012. 

As for the operatic stuff in 2010-2011 @ TCE...

Rolando Villazon to direct Werther in Lyon

Opéra de Lyon is a very good house and their program regularly contains some extremely interesting works.

One of this season's highlights was the new opera by Kaija Saariaho Émilie du Châtelet,  premiered last week (cf. this entry). I also saw and very much liked Moscow Cheryomushki.

They are still to announce the program for their 2010-2011 season, but a few important infos already leaked in the local press (see also here)...

Opéra National de Lyon

Salle Pleyel 2010-2011

Laurent Bayle and his very competent collaborators announced the content of the 2010-2011 program at la Salle Pleyel.

AWESOME PROGRAM! 

It will soon be available on their web-site. Meanwhile, below you can find my extensive selection of the events proposed in the program.

 

See also the fully updated 2010-2011 program @ the Opéra National de Paris (ONP)

UPDATE: The same but official list is available on the ONP website.

Opéra National de Paris - Heads up

The 2011-2012 season at the Opéra National de Paris (ONP) will be officially announced on Sunday, March 13. Even though the ONP management tried to keep it a secret, little by little the details leaked out and by now we know the entire repertory, although many blanks in casting are still to be filled in.

High in Amsterdam - De Nederlandse Opera

New Operatic Season at DNO in Amsterdam:

New/"New" at the Met

Liceu teaser for 2010-2011

I very much like the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona [in spite of the famously bad wine served there ;)]. Their clever PR staff made a teaser-announcement of their season 2010-2011 and it looks great.

Sept: Iphigénie en Tauride - Pina Bausch production
Sept/Oct: Carmen
Nov: Lulu
Dec: Falstaff
Jan/Feb: Anna Bolena
Feb/Mar: Parsifal
Apr: Cav Pag
Apr: El retablo de Maese Pedro (de Falla)
May: Der Freischütz
Jun/Jul: Ariane et Barbe-Bleu 

[Eva-Maria Westbroek will sing Dukas' Ariane - I'm already drooling ;)]  

+ 3 operas in concert version: Cosi fan tutte,Tamerlano, and Daphne

There're of course no details on the directors, conductors or casts; they only posted a promotional video on their YT channel which gives you some hints





And NOW when the detailed  program of the season 2010-2011 @ Liceu is available, all we can say WOWZA!