Opera Philadelphia’s 2024-25 season to feature works by Missy Mazzoli, Joseph Bologne & Mozart
Opera Philadelphia’s 2024-25 season will open in September with the American premiere of The Listeners by Missy Mazzoli, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek. Co-commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, Norwegian National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago, the opera is based on Jordan Tannahill’s novel of the same name. It is an electrifying thriller about social rejection, suburban loneliness and the seductive power of cults and charismatic leaders in a divided nation.
Mazzoli and Royce’s Breaking the Waves won the inaugural Best New Opera Award from the Music Critics Association of North America in 2018. It has been performed around the world since its Philadelphia debut.
January 2025 will see the company premiere of The Anonymous Lover by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Bologne was born on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, the son of an enslaved woman of Senegalese origin and a French plantation owner. His musical talents were evident at an early age, and he was sent to be educated in France. A contemporary of Mozart and Haydn, Bologne became the best fencer in France, as well as a preeminent composer and conductor during the reign of Louis XVI.
The Anonymous Lover (L’Amant Anonyme) premiered in 1780 in the private theater of the Marquise de Montesson, wife of the Duke of Orléans, who appointed Bologne music director of her theater. François-Georges Fouques Deshayes adapted the libretto from a play by the writer Madame de Genlis, who was governess and tutor to the Duke’s children. It is the only one of Bologne’s operas to have survived in complete form.
The season concludes in April with a new production by Alison Moritz of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. It will be conducted by Corrado Rovaris, Opera Philadelphia’s music director, who will also lead The Listeners. The rising American conductor, Kalena Bovell, will make her company debut with The Anonymous Lover.
Opera Philadelphia’s 2024-2025 Season will not open with a Festival O as has been the company’s tradition since 2017. Announcements about the future of Festival O will be shared in spring 2024.
David B. Devan, the company’s outgoing general director will be honored at ‘Toi toi toi!’ on 9 March. He joined Opera Philadelphia in January 2006 and was appointed General Director of the company in 2011.
The gala fundraising event will feature performances by guest artists who have performed frequently with the company, including Joshua Blue (La bohème), John Holiday (We Shall Not Be Moved), Will Liverman (10 Days in a Madhouse), Daniela Mack (Carmen), Ashley Marie Robillard (La bohème) and Frederica von Stade (Sky on Swings).
Opera Philadelphia’s 2023-24 season wraps up in April with a new staging of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Conducted by Rovaris, the production will see the company debuts of director Yuki Izumihara, Karen Chia-ling Ho in the title role and Anthony Ciaramitaro as Pinkerton.
Rick Perdian
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