THE TALES OF HOFFMAN, CASANOVA: DON GIOVANNI & More Set for Seattle Opera's 2014-15 Season

From the depths of hell to the heights of paradise, the four great operas of Seattle Opera's 2014/15 season will take operagoers on a fantastic journey. During this important season, leadership will pass from Speight Jenkins, who has been General Director of Seattle Opera for a remarkable 31 years, to Aidan Lang, who was announced as Jenkins' successor in June, 2013.

"Moving from one of Handel's greatest operas to Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, with casts including some of your favorite singers, the 2014/15 season should be one to remember," Jenkins said. "Although the season has been planned and cast by me, it will be produced by Aidan Lang. I am confident that you will see and enjoy his managerial hand."

Following Jenkins' final opera-The Tales of Hoffmann, in May 2014-the company will honor his three decades of leadership with a celebratory weekend in August. On August 7, Seattle Opera presents its third International Wagner Competition. In an all-Wagner concert conducted by Sebastian Lang-Lessing, eight finalists and two alternates will compete for two prizes of $25,000, to be awarded by a distinguished panel of judges. The audience and orchestra will also play an important role in the competition; both groups will award a prize of $5,000 to their favorite artist. The Speight Celebration Concert and Dinner follows on August 9, 2014. Many of Seattle Opera's best-loved singers, including Greer Grimsley, Stephanie Blythe, William Burden, Francesco Demuro, and Christiane Libor, will join the Seattle Opera Chorus and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra in concert at McCaw Hall to pay tribute to Jenkins. Tickets to the competition and concert are now available to the public.

The 2014-2015 subscription season of four operas officially begins in the fall. The season offers subscribers a healthy variety of comedy, tragedy, reality, and fantasy, in a mix of different musical styles and languages.

Kicking things off is Mozart's multifaceted portrait of an unrepentant Casanova: Don Giovanni. Since first fascinating audiences at its 1787 premiere, this masterpiece continues to be opera's ultimate cautionary tale about the human cost of unbridled lust. French bass Nicolas Cavallier returns to Seattle as the dangerously charming title character. Lawrence Brownlee, Seattle Opera's Artist of the Year for 2008, returns for his first mainstage Mozart role at Seattle Opera as Don Ottavio. Elizabeth Caballero and Christine Brandes share the role of Donna Elvira, with Erin Wall and Alexandra LoBianco making their respective Seattle Opera debuts as Donna Anna. Gary Thor Wedow conducts a stylish production, first created by Seattle Opera in 2007. Chris Alexander directs, with costumes by Marie-Therese Cramer and sets by Robert Dahlstrom.

The New Year sees the return of two other favorite Seattle Opera productions, plus a company premiere:

In January 2015 comes Tosca, Puccini's crowd-pleasing masterpiece about a fiery diva, an idealistic painter, and a corrupt police chief. Two stellar sopranos, Ausrine Stundyte (opening night) and Mary Elizabeth Williams (alternate cast), return to Seattle to sing the title role; Stundyte wowed Seattle as Cio-Cio-San in 2012, and Williams won Artist of the Year for her Serena in Porgy and Bess in 2011. The production also stars tenor Stefano Secco as Mario Cavaradossi and features the return of Seattle favorite and Artist of the Year winner (for Wotan in the 2005 Ring) Greer Grimsley as the power-mad Baron Scarpia. The production will be directed by Jose Maria Condemi.

Next, Handel's sensuous and sparkling charmer, Semele, comes to Seattle Opera for the first time. An unsophisticated but ambitious young woman leaves her origins behind in an attempt to enter the rarified realm of the "beautiful people." Seattle Opera's elegant, all-new production stars the incomparable mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, Artist of the Year winner for 2009, as Juno, the goddess bent on teaching the interloper a lesson. Making their Seattle Opera debuts are tenor Alek Shrader as Jupiter, Juno's philandering husband, and soprano Brenda Rae as Semele, the vain mortal woman he loves. John Del Carlo returns in the double role of Cadmus and Somnus. Seattle Opera Young Artists alumni Dana Pundt, Theo Lebow and Deborah Nansteel return in the alternate cast. Tomer Zvulun directs this Seattle Opera premiere, a new Seattle Opera production with scenery designed by Erhard Rom and costumes by Vita Tzykun. Gary Thor Wedow returns to conduct.

The season concludes with the return of Seattle Opera's hit production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, which amazed audiences at its premiere with a minute-long sequence of indoor fireworks. Kate Lindsey (Artist of the Year winner for 2010) as the high-strung Composer and Sarah Coburn as the flirtatious Zerbinetta find that true love really does have a transformative effect. Sarah Larsen and debuting soprano Haeran Hong sing these roles in the second cast. Soprano Christine Libor returns as Prima Donna/Ariadne, with Marcy Stonikas taking the role in the alternate cast. Tenors Arnold Rawls and Ric Furman, as Tenor/Bacchus, give the abandoned Ariadne a new reason to live. Lawrence Renes conducts and Chris Alexander directs a production which won him the Artist of the Year Award for 2004, with sets by Robert Dahlstrom and costumes by Cynthia Savage and Bruno Schwengl.

To learn more about the 2014/15 season, including ticket information and full artist biographies (with audio excerpts of principal singers) visit seattleopera.org/operas. Following are fact sheets and ticket information.

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