Starting on a Strong Note Washington Opera Season Includes Many Familiar Masterpieces by Gary Tischler Something old and something new, and a whole lot of eclectic offerings mark the Washington Operaís 46th season, announced Feb 8 by Artistic Director Placido Domingo. The season will feature eight operas, including a company premiere and five productions new to Washington. Two of the recognizable classicsóîMadame Butterflyî and ìCarmenîóare among the offerings. You might call it a season of familiar masterpieces revealing themselves in a new light. Some of the productions are imported: Mozartís ìCosi fan Tutteî will be from Teatro Municipal of Santiago in Chile. ìMadame Butterflyî will be a production from Warsaw in Poland, and Richard Straussís still controversial ìSalomeî comes from the Los Angeles Opera. ìTales of Hoffman,î which inaugurates the season will be a co-production with the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg and the Los Angeles Opera. A classic American opera, Carlisle Floydís ìOf Mice and Menî will be a co-produced with the Bregenz Festival in Austria and the Houston Grand Opera. Also in the 2001-2002 productions are Tchaikovskyís ìThe Queen of Spadesî from the Vienna State Opera and ìVerdiís ìUn Ballo in Mascheraî from the renowned La Scala in Milan. ìCarmenî will be a revival of the Washington Opera production. ìNext season, I have chosen great masterpieces in a variety of musical styles, keeping in mind that none of them has been given by our company in a number of years,î Domingo said at a press conference announcing the season. ìJust as in musical styles, we travel from the baroque of Mozart to the 20th century of Floydís Americana, so will our production scheme represent a variety of styles form various different theaters in the world as well as a revival of our own past,î said Domingo. Whatís new in the upcoming season will be itís time scaleóit will run from Sept. 8, with ìTales of Hoffmanî as the season opener, through June 8, with ìCarmenî as the seasonís climax. This is somewhat different from the late October to early April schedule of the past. In addition, all of the productions will be staged in the Kennedy Centerís Opera House. ìOf Mice and Menî is a company premiere as well as a new production. ìThe Tales of Hoffmanî is also a new production. The productions of ìCosi fan Tutteî ìMadame Butterflyî, ìUn Ballo in Mascheraî and ìThe Queen of Spadesî are new to the company. The season will again feature an outstanding group of world-class conductors including Heinz Fricke, Placido Domingo, Emmanuel Villaume, Marcello Viotti, Karen Keltner and Renato Palumbo. Some directors and designers include Giovanni Agostinucci, John and Elizabeth Bury, Lilliana Cavani, Marta Domingo, German Droghetti, Dante Ferretti, Pawel Grabarczyk, Michael Hampe, Kurt Horres, and Richard Hudson. Among the many top singers performing in the 2001-2001 season will be sopranos Diane Alexander, Ainhoa Areta, Galina Gorchakova, Sumi Jo, Catherine Malfitano, Luz Del Alba Rubio and Virginia Tola. Mezzo-sopranos will be Susanna Porestsky, Mary Ann Stewart, Denyce Graves and Jennifer Larmore, and tenors include Fabio Armiliato, Julian Gavin, Marcello Giordani, and Richard Leech. Baritones to perform are Victor Benedetti, Andrey Breus, Rodney Gilfry, Sergei Leiferkus and James Shaffran. Bass baritones will be John Marcus Bindel and Alan Held, and basses will be Simone Alberghini, Tony Dillon, Vitalij Kowaljow, Rod Nelman and Stefan Szkafarowsky. Leech stars in the title role of ìThe Tales of Hoffmanî under the direction of Marta Domingo. Washington favorite Denyce Graves will sing the ìtrouserî role of Hoffmanís companion Nicklausse. Emmanuel Villaume will conduct. ìHoffmanî will be in repertoire with Mozartís ìCosi fan Tutte,î his great comedy of love and manners. The cast includes real-life brothers Dwayne and Richard Croft. Washington Opera Company Music Director Heinz Fricke conducts and Michael Hampe directs. Gary Tischler is the arts writer for The Washington Diplomat.