Mozart comedy opens Arizona Opera season

Special to the Green Valley News

The Arizona Opera 2009-10 season opens at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17 at Tucson Convention Center with Mozart’s comedic standard “Cosi fan tutte.” It will continue Oct. 18 at a 2 p.m. matinee. Mezzo-soprano Lauren McNeese will make her Arizona Opera debut as Dorabella on opening night, reprising her highly acclaimed portrayal of the role at the Lyric Opera in Chicago.

This year’s season will present four operas and an additional “Concert of Signature Arias” spotlighting opera stars and the Opera orchestra March 6-7.

Richard Strauss’s “Salome” is the scheduled Nov. 14-15 production with baritone Greer Grimsley as Jochanaan on the 15th, a role he has sung at the Metropolitan, San Francisco, Vancouver and Berlin operas. The role of Salome will be sung by Nancy Gustafson and Robin Follman.

Nearly everybody’s favorite, Puccini’s “La boh�me” runs Feb. 6-7, and the season concludes May 1-2 with Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”

Baritone Marian Pop has performed Figaro world-wide including Stuttgart, Santiago, Munich and Holland as well as with a number of companies in this country.

Artistic Director Joel Revzen is enthusiastic about the coming season.

“I am thrilled to bring to Arizona the opera singers, directors and conductors whose artistry I have long admired,” Revzen said. “The season offers a blend of comedic, compelling and captivating operas starring singers who define these roles.”

Revzen also expressed support for the fifth production this year, the concert of favorite opera arias in March. “Arizona Opera audiences are in for an artistic force of nature,” Revzen said.

Season and individual performance tickets for Arizona Opera are on sale through the box office at 520-293-4336 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Opera performs at the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Avenue, Tucson. Complete information about the company and all performances can be reviewed at www.azopera.org.

Bus service from Green Valley is available to Sunday matinee performances of all operas. Information is available at 625-3361. Previews of the operas are organized by the Arizona Opera League at the Green Valley Center for the Performing Arts. Information about previews is available at 399-1750.

donald.behnke@yahoo.com