S.F. Opera sets 2011-12 schedule

As if to face down the company's financial pressures, the San Francisco Opera's 2011-12 season will be full of novelties, including two contemporary works, some comparatively rare repertoire and a large number of debuting singers.

In addition to the already announced world premiere of "Heart of a Soldier," the Sept. 11-themed opera commissioned from composer Christopher Theofanidis and librettist Donna Di Novelli, the season will feature the first Bay Area staging of John Adams' "Nixon in China," which had its 1987 world premiere at the Houston Grand Opera when General Director David Gockley was running that company.

The company premieres of Handel's comic opera "Xerxes" and Donizetti's "Lucrezia Borgia" are also on the roster, as well as Verdi's early "Attila," which the company has only presented before in 1991. Remaining repertoire for the season, which opens Sept. 9, includes Puccini's "Turandot" (presented with two casts), Bizet's "Carmen" and Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and "The Magic Flute."

"You've got to throw the book at the public, or they won't come," Gockley said in a phone interview. "I try to make it as sexy as possible through familiar titles, fresh prods rarely seen, and always singers, singers, singers, conductors, conductors, conductors, and music, music, music."

Music Director Nicola Luisotti will conduct four of the season's productions, as well as a pair of orchestral concerts devoted to music of Beethoven, Boccherini and Prokofiev. Also on the schedule is a Dec. 3 tribute to mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade.

Gockley said he thought that the Metropolitan Opera's cinematic simulcast of "Nixon" this spring would help inspire local interest in the piece.

"I think there is a lot of pent-up curiosity about 'Nixon' here in John Adams' hometown. People have heard about it for nearly 25 years, and I anticipate that they will look at it and say it's the greatest thing in the second half of the 20th century."

The "Nixon" production will not feature any of the singers involved in the premiere and most of the revivals since then, nor director Peter Sellars, who was instrumental in the work's original creation. The piece will be done in director Michael Cavanaugh's production for Vancouver Opera, with Brian Mulligan and Maria Kanyova as the Nixons, Simon O'Neill as Mao, and soprano Hye-Jung Lee, a 2010 participant in the Merola Opera Program, as Madame Mao.

Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham will return in the title role of "Xerxes," in a production staged by film and theater director Nicholas Hytner, and soprano Renée Fleming will sing the title role in "Lucrezia Borgia." "The Magic Flute" will be sung in English, in a new production created by the Japanese American visual artist Jun Kaneko.

Among the singers making company debuts are sopranos Iréne Theorin and Susan Foster (Turandot), soprano Oksana Dyka (Odabella in "Attila"), soprano Albina Shagimuratova (Queen of the Night in "Flute"), baritone Paulo Szot (Escamillo in "Carmen") and bass Marco Vinco (Leporello in "Don Giovanni").

Mezzo-soprano Kate Aldrich will sing the title role in "Carman" opposite tenor Thiago Arancam, baritone Lucas Meacham returns as Don Giovanni, and bass Ferruccio Furlanetto will sing the title role in "Attila."

The full season schedule is:

Turandot (Giacomo Puccini) - Iréne Theorin, Marco Berti, Leah Crocetto, Raymond Aceto, Hyung Yun, Greg Fedderly, Daniel Montenegro, Ryan Kuster; Nicola Luisotti, conductor; Garnett Bruce, director; David Hockney, set designer; Ian Falconer, costume designer; Christopher Maravich, lighting designer; Ian Robertson, chorus director. Sept. 9, 14, 17, 22, 25 (m), Oct. 1, 4. Susan Foster, Walter Fraccaro, Leah Crocetto, Christian Van Horn, Hyung Yun, Greg Fedderly, Daniel Montenegro, Ryan Kuster; Giuseppe Finzi, conductor; Nov. 18, 22, 25.