Opera San Jose Presents 34th Season

Opera San José today announced the company's 2017-18 season opening September 19, 2017 with Mozart's Così fan tutte, conducted by Peter Grunberg and directed by Brad Dalton, followed by Puccini's La rondine, conducted by Christopher Larkin and directed by Candice Evans. The company will begin 2018 with Wagner's The Flying Dutchman on February 10, directed by Brad Dalton, and conclude the season in April with Verdi's La traviata directed by Shawna Lucey, both conducted by Opera San José music director Joseph Marcheso.

"Opera San José is bringing four time-honored masterpieces to the California Theatre this coming season, by the opera giants: Mozart, Puccini, Wagner, and Verdi. These are works that we have not produced in many years, and having assembled casts that are perfect for these roles, we believe audiences will find that each will engage the mind and refresh the senses. Each of these operas was conceived to be beautiful, and each one is beautiful. It seemed especially fitting to bring La rondine to the stage, as this is the 100th anniversary season of its Monte Carlo premiere," announced General Director Larry Hancock.

The 2017-18 season will feature principal artists from Opera San José's resident company and guest artists from across and United States and Europe. All performances will be held at the California Theatre, 345 South First Street in downtown San José. Subscriptions and tickets are available by phone (408) 437-4450, online www.operasj.org, and at the Opera San José Box Office, 2149 Paragon Dr., San José, CA 95131.

Single tickets will go on sale July 24, 2017, priced from $56.00 to $176.00. As always, students 25 and younger (with current student ID) can purchase tickets for $10. Performances are supported, in part, by a grant from the San José Office of Cultural Affairs.

Opera San José's 2017-18 season is as follows:

Così fan tutte

September 9 - 24, 2017

Sung in Italian with English supertitles

Performances: September 9, 10m, 14, 17m, 22, 24m

Time: "m" indicates matinee at 3pm; all other performances are at 8pm

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Librettist: Lorenzo Da Ponte

Premiere: January 26, 1790; Burgtheater, Vienna

Conductor: Peter Grunberg

Stage director: Brad Dalton

Thinking himself worldly and experienced, Don Alfonso decides to relieve his young friends, Ferrando and Gugliemo, of their faith in romantic love. He challenges them to a bet, promising that within 24 hours their fiancées will prove unfaithful. They accept, but find the challenge too painfully revealing and too difficult to withstand. Dressed in clown's clothes, these young men break their own hearts and the hearts of their fiancées. A comedy that is a tragedy underneath is the perfect stuff for the uncanny genius of Mozart, so clearly revealed in this dazzling score.

La rondine

November 11 - 26, 2017

Sung in Italian with English supertitles

Performances: November 11, 12m, 16, 19m, 21, 26m

Time: "m" indicates matinee at 3pm; all other performances are at 8pm

Composer: Giacomo Puccini

Librettist: Giuseppe Adami

Premiere: March 27, 1917; Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo

Conductor: Christopher Larkin

Stage director: Candice Evans

At a fashionable Parisian party, a poet speaks of the nature of love, and Magda realizes that her life as a courtesan has no love at all. Seeking to relive her poor but unhappy youth, she dresses as a shop girl and ventures to the dance she frequented as a teenager. There, she meets and falls in love with a young man, and leaves her rich protector. Of course, it goes the way of all flesh. Puccini, at the height of his Romantic style, revels in the gaiety of Paris and the sensual richness of love: pure soaring lusciousness, and a little heartbreak.

The Flying Dutchman

February 10 - 25, 2017

Sung in German with English Supertitles

Performances: February 10, 11m, 15, 18m, 23, 25m

Time: "m" indicates matinee at 3pm; all other performances are at 8pm

Composer & Librettist: Richard Wagner

Premiere: January 2, 1843; Semperoper, Dresden

Conductor: Joseph Marcheso

Stage director: Brad Dalton

In his youth, Wagner created his fastest moving and perhaps his most effective score. The Flying Dutchman is an ideal introduction to Wagner. It's the easiest to listen to and it has real melodies that convey the ancient legend of the immortal Dutchman, which culminates with this opera. As the legend goes, a ship's captain is cursed to live until he can find someone who will love him until death. On this unique day he meets Senta, who has been obsessed with his legend from childhood. However, in the legend, she must die to free him from eternal life on earth, which has become a living hell. It is a brilliant story with one of the most compelling roles in all of opera, and it's Wagner!

La traviata

April 14 - 29, 2017

Sung in Italian with English supertitles

Performances: April 14, 15m, 19, 22m, 27, 29m

Time: "m" indicates matinee at 3pm; all other performances are at 8pm

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi

Librettists: Francesco Maria Piave

Premiere: March 6, 1853; Teatro La Fenice, Venice

Conductor: Joseph Marcheso

Stage Director: Shawna Lucey

One of the most treasured operas of all time, La traviata is told in waltz time, giving us the life of the most beautiful woman in Paris. Dancing away her days, Violetta survives on the generosity of the wealthiest men of France, living in luxury until she meets Alfredo Germont, who, having nothing, offers her love instead. For a short spring, she and Alfredo live an idyllic life in the country until his father convinces her that their relationship is harming Alfredo's sister. She gives him up and returns to a man who has kept her in the past, and everything crashes down around her. Verdi created one of the world's most successful works for the stage when he penned the perennial La traviata.

About Opera San José

Opera San José, performing at the beautiful California Theatre in downtown San José, is a professional, regional opera company that is unique in the United States. Maintaining a resident company of principal artists, Opera San José specializes in showcasing the finest young professional singers in the nation. In addition to mainstage performances, Opera San José maintains extensive educational programs in schools and in the community at large, and offers preview lectures and Introduction to Opera talks for all mainstage productions.

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