Performance dates: September 6, 10 & 13

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Enmity, hatred, and religious war; power, powerlessness, and desire: In the Hebrews' struggle for freedom, Samson, as a consecrated man of God, raises his voice against the hostile Philistines. Samson seems invincible until his love for the Philistine woman Delilah makes him vulnerable. She knows the secret of his extraordinary strength. At stake is the loss of his own identity. The race against time begins.

Performance dates: September 30, October 2 & 5

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

The former consul Angelotti has escaped from captivity. In the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, he meets the painter Mario Cavaradossi, who helps him.

But the chief of police, Scarpia, manages to track Cavaradossi down: He is to be executed. To save him, Scarpia demands physical devotion from Tosca, Cavaradossi's beloved. She agrees, receives the promise of a mock execution - and murders Scarpia. However, he has betrayed her and Cavaradossi is actually shot. For Tosca, life has become meaningless and she throws herself off Castel Sant'Angelo.

Performance dates: January 22, 27, 30, February 3 & 7

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Forty years after Aida opened the newly constructed Wortham Theater Center, Verdi’s monumental masterwork returns to HGO in a visionary new production from director Kaneza Schaal. Inspired by a diverse array of cultures and art forms from across the globe, this staging blooms with colors, flowers, and dance to share the opera’s story of love, betrayal, and sacrifice, set to an iconic score that represents the pinnacle of the Italian Romantic style. Radiant soprano Ailyn Pérez returns to HGO as enslaved Ethiopian woman Aida, with leading tenors Jonathan Tetelman and Adam Smith sharing the role of her love, Egyptian military commander Radames; Grammy Award-winning baritone Lucas Meachem in his role debut as Aida’s father, Amonasro; and powerful mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis as the revenge-bent Amneris. The celebrated Milanese conductor Michele Gamba makes his company debut at the podium.

Performance dates: March 14, 19 & 23

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

A sovereign may do as he wishes. His entire surroundings depend on him, no-one is entitled to contradict him, all must suffer his moods. Only one may hold a mirror to him, is even obliged to criticise the ruler – the jester. But what happens when this fool neglects his most important task and puts himself at the service of the moral excesses exemplified by the tyrant? In his play Le Roi s’amuse (The King Amuses Himself), the French dramatist Victor Hugo went through this starting position with an unscrupulous fun-lover as the king, and a fool whose spiritual deformation has manifested itself in a hunchback.

Giuseppe Verdi thought the piece was, “magnificent, powerful and includes a role that is one of the greatest creations, which extols the theatre of all countries and all ages”. Rigoletto celebrated its world premiere in Venice in 1851 as the first of the three pieces later entitled, “Trilogia popolare” (along with La traviata and Il trovatore), with which Verdi established his world renown. He composed some of his most famous melodies for this opera, notably the Duke's aria about women’s supposedly fickle hearts, “La donna è mobile”. Time and again the power of nature, which the people themselves inflict violence on through their behaviour, pushes to the fore, most dramatically in the storm scene. Gilda’s virtuous arias reflect the desire for love and exuberant emotional outburst, as no doubt every young person expects it from life, and the big quartet in the third act contrasts the diverging intentions of four of the opera’s protagonists like no other before or since.

Performance dates: March 15, 18, 22, 26, 29 & June 29

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

“Oh, ye perfect spectacle of love and innocence!” (sic) This exclamation by Werther in the opera’s first act has a paradigmatic effect on both the scene of childhood innocence, which Werther experiences at that moment, and on the entire opera. Jules Massenet bestows on Goethe’s masterpiece a powerful, deeply moving piece of music and affords the love triangle between Werther, Charlotte and Albert an emotional force, which none can escape.

The epistolary novel’s after-effects with the most famous suicide in literary history run deep into the romance era and have inspired countless artists to create their own interpretation of the material. Goethe was decidedly popular in France in particular, where Massenet was also engulfed by this “Goethe fever”, and he created an opera closely modelled on the original. Werther loves the young Charlotte, but she is already engaged to Albert and intends to be true to her promise, despite her affection for Werther. So begins a hopeless love. While with Goethe Charlotte’s love for Werther is purely platonic, almost sisterly in nature, Massenet and his librettists develop their feelings into a true, romantic love, which, however, can only be acknowledged in the face of death. Created in an age of far-reaching social upheaval, Massenet places personal individuality front and centre with an emotionality almost raised to a Gefühlsreligion ("emotional religion"). As with Goethe, depression and enthusiasm are also inseparably interwoven in Massenet’s opera. With his drama lyrique, Massenet created a musical drama of high, ineluctable emotionality, and one of the most beautiful romantic scores.