Minnesota Opera’s national reputation for championing new work continues with the announcement of its 2017-18 season, which includes three operas never before seen on the company’s stages.
The newest of the new is “Dead Man Walking,” based on the memoir by Sister Helen Prejean, whose book about her efforts to assist a man waiting to be executed also inspired the movie of the same name. Featuring a libretto by playwright Terrence McNally and music by Jake Heggie, it will introduce Minnesotans to what has quickly become the most-performed new opera of this century as it opens 2018 for Minnesota Opera.
Classics that are new to Minnesota Opera, Gaetano Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale” and Jules Massenet’s “Thais” both will feature the return of audience favorites. Bass-baritone Craig Colclough (“Diana’s Garden”) will play the titular aristocrat in “Pasquale,” which has been updated to 1950s Hollywood and which kicks off the season in October at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. And Minnesota-born soprano Kelly Kaduce will take on the glamorous title role in the season-concluding “Thais.”
Rounding out the season are new productions of Mozart’s comic “The Marriage of Figaro” and Verdi’s tragic “Rigoletto.”
Season tickets are available at 612-333-6669 or mnopera.org.
