I subscribe to Opera News magazine, published monthly by the Metropolitan Opera Guild. No one who enjoys opera should miss it. Every issue is chock full of interesting articles, news, reviews of live performances around the world, CD and DVD reviews, interviews with today's leading singers, conductors, opera directors, and upcoming operatic talents. There are fascinating articles which give you the background behind all of the operas heard on the live Met bradio broadcasts, and other operas too, and every September issue shows the repertoire and schedules of opera companies in all 50 US states, Canada, and Europe etc. It's always fascinating to see what will be done everywhere.
I just received the September issue, and although I can't l list all of the hundreds of opera to be performed, I thought I might point out some really interesting operas that will be performed, especially new or recent ones. There's enormous diversity ; there are operas by Handel written almost 300 years ago, and there are world premieres by some of today's leading composers, as well as the old standbys by Verdi, Mozart, Puccini, Rossini, Bizet, Wagner and other famous composers. And there are revivals of long neglected but interesting operas, including Wagner's first opera Die Feen (The Fairies), a juvenile effort that is about as rare as Halley's comet.
Doctor Atomic, by John Adams, recently premiered in San Francisco, will have its New York premiere at the Met on October 13, and will be one of the operas broadcast in High Definition to movie theaters around the country. This is the story of J. Robert Oppenhemer and the creation of the atom bomb. It certainly sounds intriguing.
The Los Angeles opera will do the US premiere of believe it or not- The Fly, based on the David Cronenberg Sci Fi film about a scientist who accidentally transforms himself into a fly. The composer, Howard Shore, is best known for film scores, and this is his first opera. The conductor is none other than the great tenor Placido Domingo, who is an experienced opera conductor. Domingo led the recent world premiere in Paris. Be afraid, very afraid.
In Detroit, the Michigan Opera Theatre will perform Margaret Garner , by American composer Richard Danielpour, set to a libretto by none other than Toni Morrison. The opera was premiered by this company a while ago, and was recently performed by the New York City Opera successfully. It is based on the true story of a slave woman in the south who killed her own children rather than let them live in slavery, and was tried for the crime.
Opera Boston will perform the weird but brilliant Shostakovich opera The Nose, based on a story by 19th century Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol. This loony surrealistic opera is the story of a Russian civil servant whose nose disappears from his face and takes on a life of its own and causes mayhem in old Saint Petersburg. The nose is actually a role in the opera ! I kid you not !
The Paris opera will do the other opera by Dimitri Shostakovich (1906- 1975 ), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District. This is the sordid but powerful story of a bored , frustrated wife of a merchant in provincial 19th century Russia , who takes on a sleezy lover with whom she murders her tyrannical father-in-law and her ineffectual husband. The guilty couple is sent to Siberia, where the lover abandons her for another woman. In desperation, she throws herself and the other woman into a lake. Pretty grim stuff. Joseph Stalin hated the opera when he saw it at the Bolshoi opera in the 30s, and Stalin got into serious trouble.
You can also see the magazine's website, operanews.com . Some of these and many other operas on the September preview will no doubt appear on DVD.