Two classics never before performed by the Dallas Opera will headline the company’s 2024-25 season. Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande and Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orpheus and Euridice will be bookended by the standard rep Verdi La traviata and Puccini’s La bohème. The company again is sticking to only four mainstage productions, although this concentration of resources has been yielding particularly fine performances.
The season also will include a People’s Choice concert, a concert featuring participants in the Hart Institute for Women Conductors, the Titus Family Recital with baritone Christian Gerhaher, two family operas (The Three Little Pigs and Pépito) and the Lone Star Vocal Competition.
(The announcement Anglicizes the titles of Pelléas et Mélisande and Orfeo ed Euridice, but not those of the Verdi and Puccini favorites. All four operas will be sung in their original languages, with projected English supertitles.)
Dreamy and mysterious, set in and around an old castle, Debussy’s opera is about an elusive but magnetic young woman, Melisande, who’s torn between two brothers, Golaud and Pelleas. Sensuous music captures the ambiguities of symbolist poet Maurice Maeterlinck’s libretto.
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Baritone Benjamin Appl, whose performance of Schubert’s song cycle Die Winterreise in the Titus Family recital series was one of the musical highlights of 2022, will sing the part of Pelleas, with soprano Lauren Snouffer as Melisande and bass Nicolas Courjal as Golaud.
A co-production with Bavarian State Opera will be conducted by Ludovic Morlot.
Told by Virgil and Ovid, the legend of the doomed lovers Orpheus and Euridice has been adapted by poets, novelists, dramatists, filmmakers, composers and choreographers. Coming after the complicated plots and florid vocalism of baroque operas, Gluck’s original 1762 version, in Italian, was revolutionary in its directness. He later produced a considerably revised French version, but the opera will be performed here in the Italian original.
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Music director Emmanuel Villaume will conduct a production designed and staged by Joachim Schamberger with countertenor Hugh Cutting as Orpheus, soprano Madison Leonard as Euridice and soprano Amber Norelai as Amore.
Villaume also will conduct La bohème in a revival of the company’s period production directed by Tomer Zvulun. Debuts will include Sylvia D’Eramo as Mimi, Bekhzod Davronov as Rodolfo, Takaoki Onishi as Marcello and Emily Pogorelc as Musetta.
La traviata will be presented in a co-production with Santa Fe Opera, directed by Louisa Muller, with Yaritza Véliz as Violetta, Xabier Anduaga as Alfredo and Alfredo Daza as Germont. Iván López Reynoso will conduct.
Here’s the schedule:
People’s Choice concert: Oct. 5
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La traviata: Oct. 18, 20 (matinee), 23, 26 and 27 (matinee)
Pelleas and Melisande: Nov. 8, 10 (matinee), 13 and 16
Hart Institute Showcase Concert: Jan. 25, 2025
Christian Gerhaher Titus Family Recital: Jan. 26
Orpheus and Euridice: Feb. 7, 9 (matinee), 12 and 15
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Lone Star Vocal Competition: March 7
La bohème: Feb. 28 and 2 (matinee), March 5, 8 and 9 (matinee)
Subscriptions are on sale now, with confirmed seating for new subscribers starting May 24. Single tickets go on sale July 22. The final matinee performances of La traviata and La bohème will be available only to single-ticket buyers. For information: 214-443-1000, dallasopera.org.
Every other year, the Aurora Biennial transforms Dallas into a dazzling display of lights, video and music. This year was special because it was the first time the event took play in-person since 2018. The free public event turned the Dallas Public Library, Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, Dallas City Hall and other buildings into art installations with the theme “FuturePresentPast.”
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This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The University of Texas at Dallas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.
Joe Mixon ran for three touchdowns to extend his TD streak to six games since coming back from injury, Derek Barnett returned a fumble 28 yards for a score, and the Texans beat the Cowboys 34-10 on Monday night.
The Texans (7-4) stopped just the second two-game losing streak of CJ Stroud’s young career while maintaining a two-game lead in the AFC South.
Houston pulled away in the second-half a week after a 26-23 last-play loss to Detroit at home, when the Texans let a 23-7 half-time lead get away from them.
“It’s not as bad as it ever seems, and it’s never as good as it ever seems,” Stroud said. “Those type of games, you have to come out with a win, especially going up like that at the half [against the Lions]. But what are we going to do about it?”
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Amid a woeful season for the Cowboys (3-7) on the field, debris fell from their stadium’s retractable roof as it was opening a few hours before the game. There was no delay and no injuries were reported, just another mishap to foreshadow a fifth consecutive defeat for a team that lost five games total in each of the past three seasons.
Cooper Rush threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to KaVontae Turpin but lost his second start since Dak Prescott’s season-ending hamstring injury.
The Dallas losing streak is their longest since a seven-game skid in 2015, and the Cowboys dropped to 0-5 at home. Dallas are the first team in NFL history to trail by at least 20 points in six consecutive home games, including last season’s wildcard playoff loss to Green Bay, according to Sportradar. The Cowboys had reached the playoffs in each of their previous three seasons, but that run is all but over.
“Well, they better be frustrated,” Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy said. “I mean, we’re all frustrated. I think there’d be something wrong if they weren’t frustrated. So just very honest with everything and stay in tune with what’s right in front of us. And that’s the only way I’ve ever done it.”
The Cowboys were down 20-10 early in the fourth quarter when Barnett knocked the ball out of Rush’s hand. Dallas rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton caught it and was trying to run when Jalen Pitre knocked the ball loose again. Barnett scooped up the ball and scored, although he almost stepped out of bounds.
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“The play he made really changed for game for us,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “It flipped the momentum. It got everybody juiced up on the sideline. It was just a huge play.”
Earlier, the Cowboys appeared to have pulled within a touchdown on a 64-yard field goal from Brandon Aubrey, but Barnett was penalized for slapping Terence Steele on the rush. Dallas erased the points by taking the penalty, but Rush’s fourth-down pass from the Houston eight-yard line was incomplete on the only good scoring chance of the second half for the the Cowboys.
“The defense played with elite energy,” Ryans said. “One big play that we gave up. Like to have that one back, but overall I think our guys played really well.”
Texans receiver Nico Collins returned after missing five games with a hamstring injury and took a screen pass 77 yards to the end zone on the first play of the game, only to have it called back because of an ineligible receiver downfield.
That possession ended with a touchdown anyway on Mixon’s 45-yard sprint up the middle, and he ran wide for a one-yard score and a 14-0 lead. Mixon had 109 yards rushing on the day and set up a field goal with a 37-yard catch-and-run on a screen.
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“I really love that first play because it showed what we could do in this game,” Ryans said. “Even though it got called back, I just told all our guys, ‘We can go score on these guys again. Just get it in your mind we’re going to score again.’”
Already without Prescott, the Cowboys lost tight end Jake Ferguson to a concussion and perennial All-Pro right guard Zack Martin and left guard Tyler Smith to ankle injuries. Rush was sacked five times, three on the same possession when Martin and Smith were injured.
Stroud, who has been in a mini-slump, threw for 257 yards while avoiding any mistakes after an early interception on fourth down. It was the third time in five games he has gone without a touchdown pass, and he has two TDs and three picks in that stretch.
Rush was 32 of 55 for 354 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Turpin had three catches for 86 yards.
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