NYC Opera Calendar Highlights

After having spent a couple of days painstakingly updating the 2003-4 sugarpoet.com opera calendar (http://calendar.sugarpoet.com), I feel empowered (or at least entitled) to make a few recommendations. Included in the calendar are not only the complete seasons for both The Met and City Opera (even The Ring Cycle...egads!), but events at Juilliard, BAM, DiCapo, and anything else I could find. The only companies missing are Amato Opera, because they use recorded accompaniment and that just isn't any fun, and Henry Street Chamber Opera (now known as Gotham Chamber Opera), because they have not appointed the dates or hours yet for their next production, Die schwarze Spinne.

New York City Opera's Carmen and Butterfly were quite excellent and I would recommend them particularly if you are using the NYCO Diva or Duet program. Among productions that I have not seen at City Opera, "Alcina," a Handel work, and "Lucia de Lammermoor" (a NYCO perennial), look fabulous. They have reset the Mikado on the British shore around 1900, so we'll have to see how that plays. They are doing "Of Mice and Men" from Carlysle Floyd but I have to say that I have been singularly unimpressed with the American Operas at City (wincingly remembering "The Mother of Us All" and "Little Women"). In the spring, NYCO is doing a rendition of Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" which is sure to be a sell-out (Sondheim always is) so get tickets early. "Mourning Becomes Electra" could be excellent, could be a disaster - though Laura Flanigan's voice is usually solid, presentation of literary classics in operatic form is not always. "Xerxes" and "Ermione" also look promising.

The Met is opening with "La Traviata" which is one of the loveliest and most poignant operas of all time - of course, if you can catch Renee Fleming as Violetta, you should, you should. In the new productions, "La Juive," a Czech opera I think, looks quite interesting though it is four hours. "Salome" is a great story and Strauss's composition is flawless but the German is always a detraction. "Benvenuto Cellini" from Berlioz could be very nice though I am not familiar with any of the principals performing. As for the Repertory, The Met's "Tosca" is incomparable, and their "Butterfly" and "Rigoletto" are surely brilliant. Since I am not a fan of German opera (particularly Wagner) nor of Mozart (at least "Figaro," "Magic Flute" and "Don Giovanni"), I won't speak to those repertory pieces. I do have my eye on "Barbers of Seville," "Nabucco," and "The Merry Widow" from the great classics. "Stravinsky" and "Boris Gudonov" could shape up to be modern Russian gems. "The Queen of Spades" is an excellent fable and from the web pictures, appears to have some very slick staging.

I have never seen anything at Dicapo, a smaller opera theatre up on the Upper East Side, but "La Perichole" looks charming and "Faust" is always a winner. BAM has two operatic works this year, but is only really staging one (Ainadamar). And don't forget about Juilliard's performance of "Oreste."

Sadly, the two big houses in town are not staging any new work. Not one single opera is premiering on their stages this season. I can't say whether this is because they feel like new work is too risky in this economic climate or if they believe there is no new work available worth presenting. Last year both houses had sell-out seasons so I feel like their risk aversion is unnecessary and will weaken the vitality of opera in this country. Of course, several different operas every day of the week, even without new blood, is still some kind of miracle.