Thomas Hampson will make his Royal Opera debut in the coming season as
Amfortas in a "Parsifal" of the highest promise.  Simon Rattle conducts
(is it possible that only for the second time since his 1990 debut?),
Stig Andersen is Parsifal; SF hearthtrob Violeta Urmana is Kundry.
John Tomlinson is the Gurnemanz, Willard W.  White is the Klingsor (and
Bluebeard in the Bartok, with Katarina Dalayman), Alfred Reiter (debut) is
the Titurel.  Klaus Michael Grueber is director, on Gilles Aillaud's sets.
The run is Dec.  8-20, so if anyone is looking for a Christmas present for
me, you know what to do.

There is an interesting senior cast for "Tosca" - Carol Vaness, Luciano
Pavarotti, Sergei Leiferkus.  (According to press reports today,
Pavarotti's contract for the July 14 Hyde Park concert specifies that he
doesn't have to walk more than 25 feet at any time, and his hotel suite is
to have rice for 10 people.  Let's see if his contract will exclude any
kind of torture in "Tosca.")

Apparently, the "Frau ohne Schatten" at one time planned for SFO is going
to Covent Garden, with Deborah Voigt, the Emperor's role shared by Johan
Botha and Glenn Winslade; Alan Titus is the Barak, Gabriele Schnaut is cast
perfectly as the shrill Dyers's Wife.  Christoph von Dohnanyi conducts;
it's the John Cox-David Hockney production.

"Attila," is cast with Maria Guleghina, Orlin Anastassov and Paata
Burchuladze - good people but what's so Slavic about early Verdi?

The rest of the Royal Opera season:  "Rigoletto" (with Schaefer, Alvarez,
Gavanelli), "Jenufa," Haydn's "L'anima del Filosofo" (with Bartoli), "The
Bartered Bride," "Cosi fan Tutte" (Jonathan Miller's production), "The Turn
of the Screw," "Don Giovanni" (with Terfel), "La Sonnambula" (with Elena
Kelessidi and Juan Diego Florez), "Tristan und Isolde" (Heppner-Schnaut),
"Il Trovatore" (Cura!), "Daphne" and "La Rondine" (Christian Thielemann
conducting), "La Boheme," "Macbeth," "Queen of Spades" (Domingo), "Otello"
and "Roberto Devereux."

It's good to see the Royal back in action, after recent uncertainties and
doubts about its future.

Janos Gereben/SF
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