For 2008-09, Opera Colorado will present the company debut of Georges Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers,” a less frequently performed work by the creator of “Carmen,” as well as two popular classics, the company announced Tuesday.
The season will open Nov. 8-16 with Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” using sets and costumes from the San Francisco Opera, and close April 25-May 3, 2009, with a production of Mozart’s “Così Fan Tutte,” created for the Santa Fe Opera and presented there for the second time last summer.
“We’re sort of hitting all the marks of what I think we should be offering in a season,” said Greg Carpenter, the company’s executive director. “Obviously, something tried and true in a very traditional setting of ‘Madama Butterfly.’
“The surprise in the season, to a certain degree, is ‘The Pearl Fishers.’ The sets and costumes are by (fashion designer) Zandra Rhodes, so the whole thing has amazing color and emotion to it.”
Tuesday’s announcement came as Opera Colorado’s search for a director of artistic planning kicks into high gear. The planning director will work under Carpenter, who is essentially serving as the company’s artistic director.
Carpenter said it did not make sense for the company to hire a music director, an alternative to an artistic director, because the company uses the Colorado Symphony for its pit orchestra and does not contract musicians of its own.
At the same time, he said, the company did want another stage director as the successor to James Robinson, who has served as artistic director since 1999. He announced last year he would step down in September.
“One of the things that we have heard a lot from our donors and subscribers recently is that they want more variety in the season — more variety of singers, conductors and directors,” Carpenter said. “If you go with a director as your artistic director, you get a lot of their product.”
The company believes this new administrative structure, with the addition of a director of artistic planning, will address those audience wishes.
“That’s why we decided to go with an established and experienced artistic administrator who knows a lot of productions, has worked with a lot of singers, directors and conductors and can be that liaison for the company with those individuals,” Carpenter said.
While the 2008-09 season’s casts do contain some well-known performers, such as soprano Ana Maria Martinez and mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, Carpenter conceded there are no major stars.
“What we have found over the course of the past few years is big names don’t sell operas,” he said. “It’s more the title and the production itself, at least here in Denver.”
The company’s 2008-09 season contains three offerings instead of this season’s four, but Carpenter resisted characterizing it as a retrenchment year.
“I think it’s a year where we’re trying to pay attention to what we’re hearing from our donors and subscribers, and combining that with what we want to do artistically,” he said.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
