Sarah Ruhl's THE SEASONS and More Set For Boston Lyric Opera's 2024-25 Season

Sarah Ruhl's The Seasons and more are set for Boston Lyric Opera’s 2024/25 Season! The season will also include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s MITRIDATE, Verdi’s AIDA, a major revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL on its 80th anniversary, and more.

BLO’s season opens September 13-15, 2024 with Mozart's thrilling and demanding 18th-century opera, MITRIDATE, featuring performances by acclaimed tenor Lawrence Brownlee (left). Brownlee returns to BLO for the first time since an acclaimed performance in the 2002 production of “The Barber of Seville.” A one-night performance of AIDA with soprano Michelle Johnson in the title role precedes the company’s gala November 10. THE SEASONS, which turns Vivaldi’s ubiquitous Baroque concerti into a sung-through drama about artists dealing with climate change, plays March 12-16, 2025. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL closes the mainstage season April 4-13, 2025, directed by veteran artist and BLO Artistic Associate Anne Bogart. Full production details are below.

“The full range of opera and its possibilities are thrillingly on display next season,” says Artistic Director Nina Yoshida Nelsen, who joined BLO earlier this year and was actively involved in planning the season. “The music, the artists, and the stories are equally spectacular. I know audiences will find plenty to love in these productions; there’s something for everyone at the opera.”

"Our season theme is inspired by the classic line from CAROUSEL: ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone,’” says BLO Stanford Calderwood General Director and CEO Bradley Vernatter. "That declaration of love and companionship punctuates all the stories we’re telling next season, but it also aptly describes the journeys we’re taking with an unprecedented number of artistic and programmatic collaborators. This year we are partnering with more Boston area artists and arts organizations than ever, including the youth-centered groups Boston Children’s Chorus and Boston String Academy, and civic institutions like the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Public Library and Boston Public Schools. Our BLO artists, chorus, and orchestra leading these city-wide collaborations is an extraordinary way to realize part of our mission to connect communities through opera, onstage and off.”

MITRIDATE – SEPTEMBER 13 & 15, 2024

Told against the backdrop of a 1st century B.C. war between Rome and the Hellenic city of Pontus, MITRIDATE (which premiered in 1770 and was written by a 14-year-old Mozart) is the story of the eponymous King of Pontus, his conniving sons Sifare and Farnace, and his fiancée Aspasia. Lawrence Brownlee plays the title. Company debuts in the cast include soprano Brenda Rae (left) who sings Aspasia, John Holiday as Farnace and Vanessa Goikoetxea as Sifare. The production is directed by James Darrah (BLO’s “desert in” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”) and conducted by BLO Music Director David Angus, who marks his 15th season with the company. Cast includes Angela Yam as Ismene, Alexis

Peart as Arbate and Charles Sy as Marzio. MITRIDATE plays two performances September 13 and 15, at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre.

MITRIDATE will be recorded for later audio broadcast as part of CRB Classical 99.5’s “In Concert” series. Details to be announced at a later date.

AIDA – NOVEMBER 10, 2024

Verdi’s tragic love story of an Ethiopian princess captured and enslaved by the Egyptian military – and the Egyptian commander who loves her but must remain

loyal to his country – has a one-night-only concert performance November 10, 2024 at the Emerson Colonial Theatre. Soprano Michelle Johnson (right) returns to BLO to star in the title role (she was seen most recently as Santuzza in 2021’s "Cavalleria Rusticana”; tenor Diego Torre (Cavaradossi in BLO’s 2010 “Tosca”) is the soldier Radamès. Alice Chung (Suzuki in BLO’s 2023 “Madama Butterfly”) is Amneris, the Egyptian king’s daughter who professes unrequited love for Radamès. David Angus conducts. The cast also includes Brian Major (Emile in 2022’s “Champion: An Opera in Jazz”) as Amonasro, Stefan Egerstrom as Il Re, Morris Robinson (Sparafucile in 2014’s “Rigoletto”) as Ramfis, Chelsea Basler as the High Priestess and Fred C. VanNess, Jr. as the Messenger. The Boston Lyric Opera Chorus will be joined by members of Boston’s choral community, including the Back Bay Chorale, for the opera’s monumental Triumphal March in Act Two. This production of AIDA precedes BLO’s annual fundraising gala. Gala information is available at BLO.org/gala2024.

THE SEASONS – MARCH 12-16, 2025

BLO hosts the world premiere of a bold reimagining of Antonio Vivaldi’s string masterpiece “The Four Seasons,” with additional arias and ensembles by the composer, woven into a new libretto by Tony-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl (“Eurydice”) and featuring Grammy-winning countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo (left) in his BLO debut. Co-conceived by Ruhl and Costanzo, and directed by Zack Winokur with choreography by Pam Tanowitz. Described by Ruhl as “a contemporary Baroque opera about the weather, inside and out,” it tells the story of five artists who retreat to a remote farm to make art inspired by the beauty of nature. But increasingly extreme and erratic weather complicates the plan. Hope arrives in an unexpected form, delivering a bright future. Produced by Boston Lyric Opera, AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company) and SCENE, THE SEASONS is co-presented by ArtsEmerson. Further casting to be announced.

CAROUSEL – APRIL 4-13, 2025

Following her seismic production of composer Poul Ruders’ “The Handmaid’s Tale” in 2019 at Harvard, and the critically acclaimed installation of “Bluebeard’s Castle/Four Songs” that melded Bela Bartók’s one-act opera and songs by Alma Mahler, the award-winning director and BLO Artistic Associate Anne Bogart returns to create a striking new vision for the classic American musical Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL. David Angus conducts. Baritone Edward Nelson (upper right, seen most recently as Ion in BLO’s “desert in”) plays Billy Bigelow, the charming carnival barker who falls for millworker Julie Jordan (Brandie Sutton, upper left, in her BLO debut). He finds himself desperate for money to support his young family and makes a tragic decision that changes everyone’s life.

A paean to the power of love and redemption, CAROUSEL had a pre-Broadway run at the Colonial Theatre in the spring of 1945. BLO’s production will be staged in the same location nearly 80 years to the date of the original’s three-week run. Cast includes Jamie Barton (right) in her BLO debut as Nettie, Anya Matanovič as Carrie (Anne Truelove in 2016’s “The Rake’s Progress”; Violetta in 2014’s “La Traviata”), Omar Najmi as Enoch (Valcour in BLO’s 2024 “The Anonymous Lover”), and Markel Reed (Young Emile Griffith in BLO’s 2022 “Champion”) as Jigger.

NOAH’S FLOOD (NOYE'S FLUDDE) – MAY 3, 2025

Benjamin Britten’s biblically inspired 1958 opera NOAH’S FLOOD takes its inspiration from a 15th century English “mystery play” (NOYE'S FLUDDE, in Medieval language) about Noah, his wife, and their sons who get a message from God about an impending flood that will clear all life from Earth. Britten composed the opera after a storm surge flooded his coastal hometown, leaving 300 dead and 40,000 homeless, and destroying his own home. The work was created for presentation as a community event incorporating large groups of child singers and orchestra musicians, and participation from audience members. Presented in collaboration with Boston Children’s Chorus, Boston String Academy, Back Bay Ringers, Boston Symphony Orchestra and New England Conservatory Preparatory School at Symphony Hall, BLO will produce the work to unite Boston audiences at a family-friendly event that fosters ongoing awareness and dialogue about the changing climate. More details to be released. This event is made possible by support from the Mattina R. Proctor Foundation.

DIE TOTE STADT – JAN 30 & FEB 1, 2025

Presented in collaboration with Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) at Symphony Hall, Erich Korngold’s DIE TOTE STADT (“The Dead City”) is a tender work about the memory of a lost loved one. Before Korngold became one of Hollywood’s most important composers in the early 20th century, he wrote this opera between the ages of 19 and 23. It premiered in 1920 Germany and became one of the biggest operatic successes of its era, surely resonating with audiences still traumatized by the losses of World War I. Soprano Christine Goerke (left) leads a cast that includes BLO Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artist alumnus tenor Neal Ferreira and baritone Elliot Madore, seen recently in BLO’s production of Matthew Aucoin’s “Eurydice.” Andris Nelsons conducts; James Burton leads the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Information and tickets available through the BSO’s website here.

COMMUNITY PERFORMANCES AND EVENTS

Going beyond the main stage and into the Greater Boston community, Boston Lyric Opera plans a series of free and low-cost public performances connected to its programming throughout the season. From school-based youth programming and accredited teacher training, to family-focused events in collaboration with the Boston Public Library and at community centers, BLO is committed to providing consistent community connection and operatic moments across the region year-round. Information on BLO community programs is available here.

 

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