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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > January > 15
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Austin Lyric Opera announces 2009-2010 season
Austin Lyric Opera announces their 2009-2010 season today — and welcomes to two operas into its repertoire to boot.
Undoubtedly the sprarkliest production on ALO’s lineup is the surreal Glimmerglass Opera production of Emmanuel Chabrier’s ‘L’Etoile.’
‘L’Etoile,’ Jan. 30-Feb. 7, 2010 at ALO.
Chabrier’s operatta is filled with witty tunes and clever dialogue, a confection of a piece that pokes fun at society’s mores and class snobbery with plenty of outrageous slapstick. But it’s also a slyly sharp satire as well, despite its zany plot that revolves around a kind named Ouf who loves to impale things (well, people) and a peddler named Lazuli who pines for Ouf’s beloved, Princess Laoula.
Sung in French with dialogue in English, this production features acid-hued sets, outrageous props and hyper-stylized costumes. Jean-Paul Fouchecourt plays Ouf with Deborah Domanski as Lazuli and Nili Reimer as Princess Laoula. Richard Buckley conducts.
‘L’Etoile,’ Jan. 30-Feb. 7, 2010 at ALO.
Also new to the ALO repertoire is Humperdinck’s ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ next season presented in an edgy production by the New York City Opera.
Yes, Humperdinck’s opera is based on the familiar fairy tale, but with this inventive — and dark — staging, the story is set in 1893 New York when the city was teeming with immigrants. And fraught with fear. Hansel and Gretel live in a gritty Lower East Side tenement and when they wander in search of food, they end up in a snowy Central Park. The witch? She lives in a sumptuous Fifth Avenue mansion.
Also a first for ALO, countertenor Jason Abrams will sing the role of the Sandman. Abrams will be the first countertenor featured in an ALO production and I look forward to that ethereal countertenor sound he’ll bring to the role.
“Hansel and Gretel,” April 24-May, 2010 at ALO.
Opening the ALO season is Puccini’s ‘Boheme.’ A production of San Diego Opera, this show is probably the most traditional telling of Puccini’s tragedy of bohemian Paris — remember, it’s the origin of the Broadway musical ‘Rent’ — that Austin has seen. This ‘Boheme’ is set in 19th-century France, awash in Toulouse-Lautrec visual references.
‘La Boheme’ Nov. 7-11, 2009 at ALO.
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