Opera season features four fully staged productions all new to Detroit, as well as a concert performance and a site-specific operatic experience Major house debuts by directors Lileana Blain-Cruz and Deborah Colker; conductors Sir
Andrew Davis, Jonathon Heyward, Dame Jane Glover, and Paolo Bortolameolli; and singers Angel Blue, Key’mon Murrah, Alan Held, and Talise Trevigne
Photo credit: Karli Cadel / Glimmerglass Opera
Detroit Opera announces its 2022–23 Opera and Dance season under the leadership of President and CEO Wayne S. Brown and Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director Yuval Sharon and Artistic Advisor for Dance Jon Teeuwissen. In its first full season in the newly renovated Detroit Opera House, Detroit Opera will present a wide array of operas, from
beloved classics in fresh new stagings to a contemporary masterpiece in an international
co-production.
The opera season opens on September 17th in Sharon’s new staging of Die Walküre: Act III, co-produced with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, and starring Detroit Opera Associate Artistic Director Christine Goerke. The season also includes a new production of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, marking Detroit Opera’s first
international co-production with Opera Ventures and Scottish Opera. Other staged productions include Gounod’s Faust, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz and conducted by Dame Jane Glover, in a revelatory production from Opera Omaha, and Tazewell Thompson’s staging of Handel’s Xerxes from the Glimmerglass Festival. Rounding out the
season are a concert performance of Verdi’s Aida, featuring role debuts by soprano Angel Blue (Aida) and Goerke (Amneris), and conducted by Jonathon Heyward; and a Detroit-specific production devised by Sharon will premiere in the summer of 2023.
The dance season at the Detroit Opera House provides patrons with envelope-pushing dance experiences. Alonzo King LINES Ballet brings their signature combination of contemporary choreography and classical ballet esthetic to Detroit for their 40th anniversary tour, while Mark Morris Dance Group’s The Hard Nut will make its first appearance in Detroit. Ballet Preljocaj takes flight in a reinvention of the timeless masterpiece Swan Lake, co-presented with the University of Michigan’s University Musical Society. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Detroit Opera
House stage to transcend barriers and celebrate the African American experience.
Nina Ananiashvili will lead a rare U.S. appearance from the esteemed ballet company, The State Ballet of Georgia.
“One of my ambitions for Detroit Opera is to make opera aspirational and accessible by bringing new unique voices to the table,” said Yuval Sharon. “I’m thrilled to work with Wayne Brown, Christine Goerke and the entire Detroit Opera team to create a fresh, ambitious standard for opera in Detroit—one that reflects the creativity and vibrancy of a
city that has always celebrated innovation and looking at things differently.”
Since Sharon was named Artistic Director in 2020, the company has received national recognition for its daring productions, beginning with Sharon’s site-specific Götterdämmerung adaptation Twilight: Gods, set in the Opera House Parking Center.
To support its adventurous programming, Detroit Opera received the largest gift in its institutional history, in the form of a $5,000,000 grant from the William Davidson Foundation, Sponsor for Detroit Opera’s 2022-2023 season. Dance at the Detroit Opera House during 2022-23 is made possible with support from Richard & Joanne Brodie, Maxine & Student Frankel Foundation, Marvin Betty, and Joanne Danto Family Foundation, the Gilbert Family Fund, and Kevin Dennis and Jeremy Zeltzer.
According to Wayne S. Brown, President and CEO, “The upcoming season of Detroit Opera promises to be an adventurous and exciting series of Opera Productions, Dance Presentations, and unique events that will mark our return to distinct, consistent programming in the Detroit Opera House. We look forward to welcoming our subscribers and new patrons, providing enhanced accessibility to main floor facilities and a new elevator tower to access upper levels of the auditorium.”
For its 2022/2023 opera season, the first full season presented under the name “Detroit Opera”, the company will present an ambitious line-up that includes an unprecedented three company premieres, making good on Artistic Director Yuval Sharon’s objective to expand the company’s repertoire.
The season opens with a stand-alone presentation of Act III of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre, the second of four operas encompassed by the composer’s epic Ring Cycle in co-production with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Zooming in on Act III allows a deeper focus on the central relationship of the entire cycle, while the production deploys 21st century technology to bring to life the proto-cinematic nature of Wagner’s vision. The production unites the artistic team of Detroit Opera, with Sharon being the first American director to create a production at Wagner’s legendary Bayreuth Festival; and Detroit Opera Associate Artistic Director Christine Goerke as Brünnhilde, a role that has made her one of the world’s most celebrated and sought-after Wagnerian sopranos.
Internationally renowned bass baritone Alan Held makes his Detroit Opera debut as Wotan. Sir Andrew Davis, former Music Director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, will lead the Detroit Opera Orchestra in a remarkable showpiece for the orchestra, including the iconic “Ride of the Valkyries” and “Magic Fire Music.” Die Walküre Act III will be
performed in its original German language with English translations at the Detroit Opera
House for three performances, September 17 – 20, 2022.
“I am thrilled to have Die Walküre: Act III open our 2022–23 season and the opportunity to portray Brünnhilde on the Detroit Opera House stage in such a unique way,” said Christine Goerke. “It is her courage and self-sacrifice that restores the universe to its natural order. It is my hope that the Detroit community will connect with the tenacity
powered by her redeeming love.”
Detroit Opera’s fall season continues with Charles Gounod’s grand opera Faust, a work that the company has staged on five occasions since its first production in 1978. The 2022 production of the opera, directed by award-winning Lileana Blain-Cruz, will provide audiences with a revolutionary approach to Goethe’s timeless story of the scholar who sells his soul to the devil in return for eternal youth.
Originally produced by Opera Omaha in 2019, the production employs a new critical edition of the score, which
restores Gounod’s original music, omitted scenes, and a balletic element not heard or seen in 150 years. American stars Talise Trevigne and Jonathan Johnson appear as Marguerite and Faust, respectively, with Canadian bass Robert Pomakov making his Detroit Opera debut as Méphistophélès. Italian conductor Valerio Galli will lead the
Detroit Opera Orchestra and Detroit Opera Chorus. The opera will be performed in its original French language with English translation for three performances, November 12-20, 2022 at the Detroit Opera House.
The company premiere of George Frideric Handel’s baroque masterpiece Xerxes will open the 2023 spring opera season. Best known for its aria “Ombra mai fu,” commonly known as “Handel’s Largo,” this late work is a fast-paced mixture of comedy and tragedy, making it an ideal introduction to the exquisite beauty of Handel’s music. The lush
production, originally created and directed by Detroit Opera veteran Tazewell Thompson at the Glimmerglass Festival, includes set designs by John Conklin. James Blaszko returns as revival director of the Detroit Opera presentation. Renowned Handel specialist Dame Jane Glover conducts a cast that includes countertenor Key’mon Murrah, making his Detroit Opera debut in the title role, and soprano Lauren Snouffer in the role of Romilda. Xerxes will be presented at the Detroit Opera House in three performances, March 4-12, 2023. The opera will be performed in Italian with English
translation.
“The sharp abstraction of this production’s design is the perfect fit for an opera that defied so many constructs of its time,” said James Blaszko. “What could have become a standard dramatization of an obsessive King and his court was transformed by Handel through the use of humor and musical brevity. There’s a unique balance of beauty, brutality, and wit to Xerxes that I think this production emphasizes so well with its vivid costumes and striking stage pictures.”
In its first international co-production, Detroit Opera partners with Opera Ventures and Scottish Opera to present the company premiere of Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov’s dramatic Ainadamar (“Fountain of Tears”), the tragic story of legendary poet Frederico García Lorca who was assassinated by fascists during the Spanish Civil War.
Golijov is widely acknowledged as one of the most original and eclectic composers of our time; his arresting and far-reaching score for Ainadamar melds flamenco, klezmer, classical singing and electronic music to invoke an inimitable sound world. Brazilian director-choreographer Deborah Colker, best known for her choreography of the 2016 Olympics opening ceremony and Cirque du Soleil’s show Ovo, directs her first opera, with Chilean conductor Paolo Bortolameolli leading the Detroit Opera Orchestra and Detroit Opera Chorus. The opera will be performed in its original Spanish language with English translations presented for three performances, April 8-16, 2023.
“Something extraordinary is brewing in Detroit Opera,” said Osvaldo Golijov. “The confluence between the vision of its artistic direction and the community’s sense of ownership at this particular moment in the city’s history are generating a galvanic river of energy. I am moved to have Deborah Colker’s revelatory new production of Ainadamar
presented here at this time.”
Additional special events, Artists-in-Residence for the 2022-23 season, the Studio Artist Program for emerging artists and other community initiatives will be announced later this Spring.