Fantasy or Reality?

Portland Opera General Director Christopher Mattaliano has officially announced the details of the 2010/11 Season, the Company’s 46th season and Mr. Mattaliano’s seventh as artistic leader. Plays within plays, characters real and imagined and spellbinding fairy tales of all sorts are what’s in store as Portland Opera explores the theme of Fantasy or Reality? on a grand and operatic scale.

In September the season begins with Christopher Mattaliano’s unique and acclaimed pairing of Leoncavallo’s PAGLIACCI and Orff’s CARMINA BURANA. The Oregonian proclaimed this engaging double bill “a hit” when it premiered in 1997 and it has proven to be one of Portland’s all-time favorites. In November the delicate edge between fantasy and reality is examined even more closely in a gorgeous, English-language production of Humperdinck’s best-known opera, HANSEL AND GRETEL, a frighteningly delicious feast for children of all ages.

The American premiere of stage director Christopher Alden’s distinctive take on Puccini’s TURANDOT opens in February, 2010. The Welsh Independent Review said of this production “The focus of Alden’s characteristically poetic, even balletic staging is very sure ... he isolates his protagonists to great effect ... and the final confrontation unfolds with icy clarity.” The season closes with what has become a highly anticipated event each year, the Portland Opera Studio Artist production. Composer Maurice Ravel makes his Company debut with the only two operas he wrote, a double-bill of L’HEURE ESPAGNOLE (The Spanish Hour) and L’ENFANT ET LES SORTILÈGES (The Bewitched Child).

“Visually and theatrically this might be our most compelling season ever,” said Portland Opera General Director Christopher Mattaliano. “All these operas have a thread of the fantastical,” he continued, “and all will ask the audience to wonder what’s real and what’s not. It is a big, powerful and altogether delightful season.”

The 2010/11 Season celebrates the sixth year of the highly regarded and increasingly heralded Portland Opera Studio Artists program. The Portland Opera Studio Artist program boasts some of the nation’s finest young singers who join the company for an intensive, nine-month training that includes vocal recitals, which have become standing room only affairs, Keller Auditorium mainstage roles, and featured roles in the Studio Artist production at the Newmark Theatre.

For season ticket information and more about the Portland Opera, please visit www.portlandopera.org