2009-2010 preview

Building of the underground station in front of the Garnier Opera in Paris

In the operatic world, the best way not to be left behind is to plan way ahead. I've never been very good at planning, quite the opposite actually. But since my failure to attend any performance of Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment at Covent Garden last year, with the brilliant production of Pelly (feat. Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez), I've decided to take matters into my own hands, for a change. For the first time ever, I started planning. My record so far is buying tickets 13 months before the performance (for the Lehnhoff's production of Rigoletto in Dresden in June/July 2008, feat. Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Florez). This week, some US Opera Houses started to disclose their 2008-2009 schedules (LA, Seattle, Dallas, Washington). So obviously, I'm now focusing on the 2009-2010 season (exacerbated by the fact that the previews I have read so far about the 2008-2009 season in Europe aren't especially appealing to me). And what a year the 2009-2010 season is going to be. Absolutely amazing. So far, worth noticing, we have:

• Gounod's Mireille to open the first season of new Paris Opera director Nicolas Joël
• La Sonnambula, Opéra National de Paris, in a Marco Arturo Marelli's production, already seen in Vienna (2001) and London (2002), with Natalie Dessay
• Norma, Toulouse, with Anna Caterina Antonacci
• La Fille du Régiment, Liceu Barcelona (march 2010) with Patrizia Ciofi and Juan Diego Florez

And at the MET, some amazing previews as well:

• Verdi's Attila, conducted by maestro Riccardo Muti and directed by amazing Pierre Audi, with Violetta Urmana, Ramon Vargas and Carlos Alvarez
• La Fille du Régiment with Juan Diego Florez and Diana Damrau

Also worth noticing:

• this will be the first season of Dominique Meyer as director of the Wiener Staatsoper