What’s new at Minnesota Opera? Well, everything next season.
The 2014-15 season announced Thursday features five fresh productions, all of them bringing new approaches, sets and costumes to works that are (mostly) at least a century old. Among them are a Giacomo Puccini opera the company has never presented, as well as a world premiere by composer Kevin Puts, who won a Pulitzer Prize the last time he linked up with Minnesota Opera for “Silent Night.”
Here’s what Minnesota Opera will be offering at St. Paul’s Ordway Center for the Performing Arts during its 52nd season.
“La Fanciulla del West”: Long before the advent of the “Spaghetti Western,” Puccini gave a Wild West tale the romantic Italian treatment. It revolves around the love triangle of a saloon keeper (English soprano Claire Rutter in her company debut), an outlaw (Rafael Davila) and a corrupt sheriff portrayed by Greer Grimsley, who offered an impressive turn in the title role of “Macbeth” last month. It opens the season Sept. 20-28.
“Hansel and Gretel”: Back in the 1980s, Minnesota Opera made a Christmastime tradition of producing Engelbert Humperdinck’s Grimm tale of the woods-wandering siblings and the witch who imagines them delicious. The Minnesota Orchestra has offered “Hansel and Gretel” in semi-staged fashion in more recent years. Minnesota Opera returns to the forest in a production directed by renowned choreographer Doug Varone. Angela Mortellaro and Stephanie Lauricella are the kids, while veteran mezzo Marianne Cornetti sends the witch’s arias skyward (Nov. 1-8).
“The Elixir of Love”: If tragedy comes to mind when you think of composer Gaetano Donizetti, the creator of “Lucia di Lammermoor” and the “Tudor Trilogy,” you should know he’s written some delightful comedies, too, including this lighthearted romp about a love potion. Minnesota Opera’s first production of “Elixir” in 28 years features an impressive cast that includes soprano Nicole Cabell, the 2005 BBC “Singer of the World” winner who sang the role with Lyric Opera of Chicago (Jan. 24-31).
“The Manchurian Candidate”: Ah, what “The Grapes of Wrath” hath wrought. The international attention accorded Minnesota Opera’s world premiere production of “Grapes of Wrath” in 2007 likely inspired the powers-that-be to say, “We should do this more often.” So they launched a “New Works Initiative” that’s been an enormous success, with the opera world turning its eyes toward the Twin Cities for 2011’s “Silent Night” and 2013’s “Doubt.” “Silent Night” won a well-deserved Pulitzer Prize for composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, and the two reunite to create an adaptation of the cold war thriller, “The Manchurian Candidate.”
Best remembered for the 1962 film starring Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey, it tells the harrowing, suspenseful story of a Korean War veteran who’s been brainwashed while a P.O.W. and is now being groomed as an assassin. This world premiere production will feature Matthew Worth (Father Flynn in “Doubt”) as the brainwashed sergeant, Leonardo Capalbo as his commanding officer and Brenda Harris as the mother who was made one of film’s most memorable villains by Angela Lansbury (March 7-14, 2015).
“Carmen”: OK, not everything the company is offering next season is off the beaten path. In fact, Georges Bizet’s tragedy about a soldier who falls for a saucy tobacco factory worker was the world’s second-most often-produced opera last season. For Minnesota Opera’s fifth go-around with it, Canadian mezzo Nora Sourouzian sings the title role in a production directed by Michael Cavanaugh (April 25-May 3, 2015).
Minnesota Opera music director Michael Christie conducts three of the productions, turning the podium over to Anne Manson for “Hansel and Gretel” and Leonardo Vordoni for “The Elixir of Love.”
Unlike recent seasons, when the company has offered at least five performances of each opera, there will be only four performances of each during the 2014-15 season.
Season tickets range in price from $815 to $110 and are on sale at 612-333-6669 or mnopera.org. Three- and four-opera packages are also available. Tickets to individual performances are $200 to $20, and will go on sale in July.
Rob Hubbard can be reached at rhubbard@pioneerpress.com.
