Last year I was introduced to San Diego Opera and I was lucky enough to be introduced to it by SDO’s media director Edward Wilensky. I toured backstage, watched the cast in rehearsals and received unique insight and a small tutorial from Wilensky (and from Dr. Nick Reveles on “Opera Talk”). I was immediately hooked. Here’s a quick rundown of the upcoming season.
San Diego Opera begins the 2007 season with “Boris Godunov” by Modest Mussorgsky. A production that involves expansive sets and a large choral ensemble, it also features a return to San Diego of world-renown Ferruccio Furlanetto, this time in the title role. Last season, he was terrific in “The Barber of Seville” and I was impressed that my seat-mates had flown down from San Francisco to see him exclusively. 
Next is “Samson and Delilah” in which well-known opera star Denyce Graves makes her SDO debut.
Verdi’s “Il Trovatore,” follows, conducted by Edoardo Müller, another familiar name – he conducted “Barber” last season. It will be Müller’s 36th production conducting at SDO.
Now here is one that has been intriguing me: The fourth production will be Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck.” A tense psychodrama in a single act, it will be produced by none other than local hero (I don’t mean that sarcastically) Des McAnuff in his opera directorial debut.
Finally, the season ends with the famous “The Marriage of Figaro,” also conducted by Edoardo M&uum;ller. A comedic tale of madcaps and mistaken identities, it’s a great way to wrap up the season.
I’m going to try to review as many of these as I can, I know that for sure.
- Now, a word about reviews, voiceofsandiego.org attempted (mildly successfully) to ask theater-goers to send us e-mails of their own reviews. Unfortunately, that meant I stood in front of venues before the shows, armed with business cards giving people the unfortunate impression that I was attempting to sell them something. But when we got reviews in, they were quite good and they ran the gamut. (The best response by far was with Twyla Tharp’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”)
I wanted to remind theater buffs that there is room for comments underneath any of our reviews if they want to add their thoughts.