To get a handle on its finances, the Dallas Opera announced that it will cancel one of the five scheduled full main-stage productions of next season, and the victim is Katya Kabanova, which was to star out soprano Patricia Racette. In a lengthy press release, the DO explained how the move to the Winspear proved more costly than anticipated, and to “stabilize company finances as rapidly and prudently as possible,” the Russian opera, which was to be the second production of the 2011-12 season, would be canceled. Subscribers will be given a full refund.
This doesn’t mean Dallas won’t get to see Racette perform, however — she is still set to headline a special patron recital in November.
Katya Kabanova was the obvious choice to trim; the other four major productions are among the most popular in the repertoire: Lucia di Lammermoor, Tristan & Isolde, La Traviata and Die Dauberflote (The Magic Flute). A fifth “chamber” opera, which will mark the opera directing debut of DTC’s Kevin Moriarty, will go on as planned.
Katya is Czech, not Russian.
In what sense is reducing the season from almost wholly unadventurous to 100% unadventurous the “obvious choice?”
What an unfortunate decision. There seems to be a worldwide trend to avoid anything even slightly challenging or unfamiliar to audiences. This sort of highly risk averse programming doesn’t help the art of music in the long run.
And it’s Die Zauberflöte.
Is it NECESSARY to focus on the sexual orientation of the soprano who would have been featured in the title role of a production that has, due to financial constraints on the Dallas Opera, been cancelled? Do you NOT realize that doing so results in the formation of serious questions regarding the motives surrounding the company’s choice? Can we as gay and lesbian people – especially journalists – make it a vow to sensationalize neither events NOR ourselves?