Hi.

I guess that really depends on your taste and your tendencies toward established v. up-and-coming singers or traditional v. "experimental" productions...

Ignoring casts and production considerations and as a fan of Russian Opera, I am quite keen on the Tchaikovskys (2 of them--one this fall, the other next summer), followed by the Bizet and then the Mozart (for some reason Cosi fan tutte has really grown on me (von Stade on the cast as a bonus*).

Then of course, there are the romantic-tragedies of Puccini and Verdi... I would be inclined to see La Traviata for the cast (Ruth Ann Swenson, Dmitri Hvorstovsky), and would skip Tosca for the same reasons (Carol Vaness has ruined for me a few otherwise good evenings at the opera house).

And while I do like Wagner, I've never really warmed up to Dutchman so I'll most likely skip it. The Ligeti piques my curiosity, but I'll probably end up not making it. And I won't go anywhere near the Britten.

So that's my highly arbitrary "priority" list of the upcoming season.


* I had the pleasure of sitting next to her on an SFO-IAD flight.