Madison Opera
A Masked Ball by Giuseppe Verdi
Madison Opera has announced the three productions it will stage in the 2012-2013 season, the company's 52nd. It's the first season planned by general director Kathryn Smith, who joined Madison Opera midway through the 2010-2011 season.
The season starts Oct. 26, when Verdi's A Masked Ball will be staged in Overture Hall. It's a "blood-and-guts Italian opera," as Smith says in a press release, about a king who's in love with his wife.
Production number two is something of a change of pace. In recent years Madison Opera has presented comparatively recent works in the second slot, like February's production of Philip Glass' Galileo. This time, though, the company will reach back to the 18th century in staging its first Baroque opera, Handel's Acis and Galatea, based on the Greek myth about the love between a shepherd and a nymph. It opens Jan. 10.
The season concludes with a powerhouse, Mozart's Don Giovanni, about a debased nobleman. "Don Giovanni is without a doubt one of our art form's greatest works," says Smith. The production, which opens April 26, 2013, features baritone Kelly Markgraf as Mozart's famously debased nobleman.
he season concludes July 13, 2013, with Opera in the Park, Madison Opera's annual free concert at Garner Park.
