Tuesday 11 February 2014

Oper Leipzig new season, 2014-15


Oper Leipzig has announced its 2014/15 season. There are no fewer than six new opera stagings: the first, Gounod’s Faust, which opens in October; Non Rota’s Aladino e la lampada magica, in German translation, continuing the company’s commitment to children’s opera; Madama Butterfly; Gordon Getty’s The Canterville Ghost; I pagliacci; and, perhaps most eagerly awaited, the third instalment of the new Leipzig Ring, as it reaches Siegfried. Ulf Schirmer conducts, and Rosamund Gilmore directs. The cast includes Christian Franz, Dan Karlström, John Lundgren, and Elisabet Strid. First night will be 12 April; it will also appear in the Wagner-Festtage 2015 (22-31 May), which will additionally take in Parsifal, Das Liebesverbot, the ballet Ein Liebestraum, Das Rheingold, Die Walküre,  a semi-staged Tannhäuser, and a symposium. In addition to those Wagner revivals, repertoire performances will range wide: Die Zauberflöte (both a children’s version and the ‘real thing’), Nabucco, Die Frau ohne Schatten (premiered this season), Tosca, Don Pasquale, The Rake’s Progress, Rigoletto, La traviata, Hänsel und Gretel, La bohème, and  Manon Lescaut. As usual, the Gewandhaus Orchestra plays for all performances. A full list of ballet performances is also available; the three premieres are a new Rachmaninov ballet (on the second and third piano concertos), Othello, and West Side Story.