Boston Lyric Opera Announces Reimagined 2020-21 Season

By Dejan Vukosavljevic

Boston Lyric Opera has announced the revamped 2020-21 season.

The company plans to reschedule productions of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” and Blanchard and Cristofer’s Jazz opera “Champion” for the 2021-22 season while Humperdinck’s “Hansel und Gretel” will be postponed for a future date.

Instead, BLO will offer operatic content through outdoor performances in the fall 2020 and spring 2021, as well as via the company’s new online and streaming platform operabox.tv.

BLO Street Stage project will bring small-group outdoor performances to Boston neighborhoods and surrounding communities. Locations of these outdoor live performances, as well as the details about audience protocols, will be announced at a later date.

The Boston Lyric Opera’s new streaming platform will feature the cinematic version of Glass’ opera “The Fall of the House of Usher,” based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe. The opera will star soprano Chelsea Basler, tenor Jesse Darden, and baritone Daniel Belcher. BLO Music Director David Angus will conduct and supervise the audio recording.

BLO has also commissioned the world premiere of an eight-part episodic series “Desert In” for its new streaming service. “Desert In” has been developed in collaboration between the composer Ellen Reid, and the director James Darrah. The opera house has also confirmed its commitment to continue to offer free content to its audiences.

Per the same press release, Vimbayi Kaziboni has been appointed the new Artistic Advisor. “My goal in this new position is to apply my artistic mission to champion unsung voices and tell new stories in opera. I hope to guide a conversation about inclusion, not only as it concerns personal identity and onstage representation, but also as it pertains to diversification of ideas and aesthetics in the works BLO audiences will hear,” said Kaziboni.

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