Royal Opera House 2011-2012 season officially confirmed

 
Once again Intermezzo's crystal ball has proved itself a worthy weapon of mass prediction.

The official Royal Opera House 2011-2012 season press release, which appeared today, looks uncannily like this March post.

Unfortunately the ROH have deigned to provide neither dates nor complete cast lists yet, but watch this space.

Also revealed - tickets for the Ring Cycle (autumn 2012) will go on sale a full year early, in October 2011.

 

***UPDATE*** - why are there over 20 performances of La traviata? It seems it's not the Maestro's fault:

 

Comments

[Henry Holland]

Intermezzo, anyone, could you tell me what the thinking is behind announcing the season but not the complete dates and casts? It's like German houses who only announce from September > December, the rest of the season is announced in mid-December. Is is that hard to do a PDF these days?

[Henry Holland]

Oh, and except for the "Les Troyens" what a dire season, way too much Italian tat. No Britten leading up to the centenary?

[FC]

They definitely used to release all performance dates and most of the cast info in the past...(but not last year) so I'm also disappointed they didn't give us full details

I much prefer Intermezzo's clear list than the muddled way the info is collated in the ROH press release

[KM]

Dates are on the ROH website, but no casts: http://www.roh.org.uk/season/1112/opera.aspx

[Vecchio John]

21 Performances of Traviata! Polyfilla for deleted new productions?

[simon]

@vecchio John
Who's sponsoring it More4+1?

[TheManOnTheBus]

dull. dull. dull.

[asleep]

Yaaaaaaaaawwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

[Michael]

Boring, boring , boring...Did somebody actually sit down at the ROH and said:
-For the season leading up to the 2012 olympics we should have a Mozart cycle?????
-Oh what a wonderful idea this will be.
-Yes nobody will remember that it is the third time in 3 years that we will present the ugly "Cosi" production...
-Yes and to ensure that this will be a season to remember make sure that we do not include any singers such as: Dessay, Damrau, Juan-Florez , DiDonato, Stemme...
-Oh and why not present Traviata for 6 months in a row with 4 different cast?
-Wonderful, wonderful...
-And to make sure that this will be a memorable year let us present yet again Rigoletto, Salome and Bohème.
-Fabulous, fabulous...people will talk about this incredible season for years....

[Carlos]

It's a fantastic season!

[Ellie]

Perhaps a yawn is in order, but at least there aren't too many productions I haven't a hope of managing to get a ticket for!

Perhaps cuts might be to blame for the lack of big names, but I am pleased by the number of British singers- the Mozart cycle is full of them. But, so many Traviatas? Was it perhaps pulled out to fill something that fell through? Still, at least we get to see the comedy death run again...

[Chris]

Does anyone know when the ENO announce theirs?

[Oliver]

You'd have thought they might have tried to do more British opera, wouldn't you, for the cultural Olympiad? Some Purcell or Britten maybe?

[Pamela]

ENO announce theirs on 17 May. John Berry needs a bit more time than his peers as he'll be busy flicking through the pages of Variety trying to badger some well-past-their-sell-by-date film directors who don't like opera and bullying them into 'having a go' as there are still a number of standard repertory works that need to be wrecked and thus rendered unrevivable...

[sjt]

With only 18 actual operas in the whole season, as opposed to the habitual 20 or 21, it is safe to assume that the two extra outings for La traviata are indeed no more than gap-plugging for works cancelled on grounds of cost, one of which is I believe La calisto.

I'd be inclined to view this as the shape of seasons to come - wall-to-wall Ooompah - on financial grounds, but for the fact that, as is already well enough known, 2012/13 is much, much stronger (perhaps to do with the long-known about subsequent freeing up of Lottery cash otherwise diverted for the past four years to the Olympics)

[manxmaid]

I have the awful feeling Pamela is probably right.
Agree with everything Michael says, particularly re. Cosi and Salome AGAIN ; why not do concerts of operas that don't get done much instead ? Speaking of which, I'm sorry, Henry, but many of us would like some more Italian tat eg. Ernani, Forza, Lucia . . .

[Henry Holland]

Pamela, that comment is perfect. It's hard to fathom that ENO is the house that commissioned the incredible Debra Warner "Death in Venice".....

The ROH website is easily on of the worst in the opera world. Case in point: KM above kindly provided a link to the dates that were left out of the press release and when I click on it I get...."Runtime error". Maybe it's temporary but all too typical of trying to navigate that poorly laid out place. *sigh*

[TheManOnTheBus]

Am seriously thinking about giving up my Friends membership after almost 20 years. There are - each year - fewer and fewer shows I want to see and so the priority booking that I enjoy is more and more unnecessary!

[michael]

I must agree with manxmaid, maybe the ROH should be looking more towards doing rare opera in concert. The Théâtre des champs Élysées in Paris have managed to put together some very interesting concert version of Rossini's Othello, I due Foscari, I vespri siciliani and others with great singers ( Vargas, Radvanovsky..etc).
I also agree that 2012/2013 looks more promising.
Netrebko is singning Anna Bolena in Vienna and the MET. The ROH has managed to squeeze 2 Traviatas with her for next year...absolutely terrible...and again where is Florez, DiDonato, Dessay, Stemme...
Awful,awful, the worst season in years...
And by the way when was the last Lucia performed at the ROH...2003 I think...

[frau]

It is interesting to read comments. ...good food for thought here.

[Capriccio blog]

What's rumoured for the 2012/2013? At least two people seem to be in the know already!

[Capriccio blog]

Ah! Found it! I agree that 2012-13 is a little more exciting in some regards, but I've come round to 2011-12 season.