At the Hall Arts Residences building in the Dallas Arts District, a full house gathered this afternoon to watch officials of The Dallas Opera unveil the opera’s 2019-2020 season, celebrating 10 years of performances in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House.
After guests including Dallas Opera Board Chair Mark LaRoe, Holly Mayer, Kern Wildenthal, Cindy Feld, Don Braun, Scott Cantrell, Carrie Ellen Adamian, Don Winspear, Dallas Black Dance Theater’s Gilbert Gerst and Ramona Logan, and Kim and Greg Hext—the Hexts will chair the organization’s 2019 First Sight/First Night event—filed into a spacious room on the building’s second floor, the opera’s Kern Wildenthal General Director and CEO, Ian Derrer, disclosed that the opera’s 63rd International Season, titled “Standing Ovation,” would include five mainstage productions.
The biggest news of the afternoon, though, was something of a bombshell: World-famed tenor Placido Domingo, who last appeared with The Dallas Opera in 1961, will return for a one-night-only concert at the Winspear on Wednesday, March 11, 2020. Placido’s performance will be conducted by Emmanuel Villaume, the opera’s Mrs. Eugene McDermott Music Director, and will include a pre-performance reception and a post-performance dinner.
The 2019-20 season will open, Emmanuel told the crowd, with Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” It will be presented on October 18, 20, 23, 26, and November 1 and 3, 2019.
The season’s second offering will be Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Golden Cockerel,” on October 25, 27, 30, and November 2, 2019. Said Emmanuel: “It’s about someone with a lot of power who doesn’t know how to use it … and with a big ego. Why are you laughing?”
The third mainstage production will be Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” on March 20, 22, 25, and 28, 2020.
“Don Carlo” will be followed by a double-bill: Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella,” to be performed in collaboration with the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and Poulenc’s “La voix humaine.” They’ll be presented on April 2, 4, 5, and 8, 2020.
The season’s mainstage finale will be Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” to be performed on April 24, 26, 29, May 2, 8, and 10, 2020.
In addition to the mainstage offerings, the opera’s Kristian Roberts said the Dallas Opera Family Performance Series will present “Doctor Miracle” (on October 6, 2019 and March 21, 2020) and “The Bremen Town Musicians” (October 13, 2019 and April 4, 2020).
“This is one of the best seasons I have ever presented,” Emmanuel said in conclusion. “It’s very well-balanced, but also a lot of fun.”