Opera Philadelphia Launches Season with Three Productions in Eleven Days

For the second year running, Opera Philadelphia launches the new season with a world premiere. Inspired by Lars von Trier's searing Oscar-nominated 1996 film, Breaking the Waves is a new three-act chamber opera that draws on the talents of three of today's foremost young creative artists: composer Missy Mazzoli, librettist Royce Vavrek, and director James Darrah. Starring soprano Kiera Duffy and baritone John Moore, the premiere production takes place over five performances in the Kimmel Center's intimate Perelman Theater under the baton of Steven Osgood (Sep 22-Oct 1).

Back-to-back with this major new company co-commission, Opera Philadelphia mounts two widely divergent but similarly compelling presentations. Under the leadership of Jack Mulroney Music Director Corrado Rovaris, Christine Goerke headlines a lavish staging of Puccini's Turandot at the Academy of Music, complete with an Opening Night Gala and a free "Opera on the Mall" HD broadcast (Sep 23-Oct 2). And South Africa's most provocative director, Brett Bailey, and his innovative theater company, Third World Bunfight, give two sold-out performances that mark the American premiere of an African-themed take on Verdi's Macbeth, a co-presentation with FringeArts at the Prince Theater as part of the Curated 2016 Fringe Festival (Sep 24 & 25).

By packing three productions into just eleven days, these season-opening events provide a preview of the "binge-watching" format that Opera Philadelphia and its General Director & President David B. Devan look forward to pioneering next September withO17, the inaugural edition of their new annual season-opening O festival. With seven operatic happenings, three world premieres, and a superstar Festival Artist, this takes place in six venues across the city over twelve days at the start of next season, offering an immersion in the new American opera and innovative stagings of the classics with which Opera Philadelphia - the only American finalist for the 2016 International Opera Award for Best Opera Company - continues to prove itself "the very model of a modern opera company" (Washington Post).

Full season subscriptions are available at operaphila.org, or by calling 215-732-8400 (Monday through Friday, from 9:30am to 4:30pm). Single tickets are on sale at operaphila.org or 215-893-1018.

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