The most comprehensive season in the history of The National Norwegian Opera & Ballet

The Norwegian National Opera & Ballet has presented the program for the 2010/11 season. Audiences may choose from 317 performances and concerts from August 2010 to June 2011.

"There can no longer be any doubt that this building is bulging," says General Director Tom Remlov. "The 2010/11 season is the most comprehensive in the history of this institution. It clearly demonstrates that The Norwegian Opera & Ballet in its third season in Bjørvika is fully up to speed. This season’s program communicates how we aim for interaction between opera, ballet and music, it says how we enjoy making room for artists and performances beyond our own fold, and it demonstrates that we shall and will embrace a broad audience."

The National Opera opens the season on 26 August with the classic Tosca. Puccini’s popular work will be directed by Opera Director Paul Curran. He will also be directing later in the season, when Britten’s Peter Grimes comes to the Main House in June 2011. There will also be a reunion with two of the directors from last season. Thaddeus Strassberger’s successful production of Le Nozze di Figaro is back, and in addition he is directing The Rape of Lucretia at Second House. Stefan Herheim is once again a guest in his home country in Oslo. This time it is Alban Berg’s Lulu that will grace the Main House in February.

Eivind Gullberg Jensen is also back in the National Opera this season, in Laurence Dale’s production of Eugene Onegin. The Stockholm Opera visits with two productions, Gluck’s Orphée and Mozart’s Così fan tutte, the latter directed by Ole Anders Tandberg. The Main House will also see Verdi’s well-known Rigoletto – and the somewhat less well-known L’enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel and Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, performed on the same night. This season the National Opera has three operas on offer for children. Cinderella – a children’s opera, Bewitched – with a magic wand in the opera and The Yes Sayer.

The National Ballet and Ballet Director Espen Giljane open the season with great activity and diversity. Five first performances are on the programme during the autumn of 2010. First out of the blocks is the performance concept Septemberdance. In this year’s edition, choreographers Sølvi Edvardsen, Alan Lucien Øyen and Kaloyan Boyadjiev have each created a new work for Second House. Septemberdance 2010 will then tour central Norway. The autumn’s major first performance on the Main House is The Four Seasons directed by Jo Strømgren. It is the first time he has created a full-length work for the National Ballet. Finnish Jorma Elo is behind the second full-length first performance – with Touch at Second House.

The National Ballet also has the great classics on offer. This season it is the Nutcracker, Don Quixote and a first for Bjørvika, Romeo and Juliet. In addition there will be two compilation performances with the best of the best. During the autumn there will be a much-anticipated rerun with works by Glen Tetley, William Forsythe and Jirí Kylián in An evening of masterworks 2010. In the spring there will be the grand opening night of Kylián - Wild Flowers, a performance with four ballets by Jirí Kylián which have never before been performed in Norway. The National Ballet cooperates closely with other companies and will present guest performances from Carte Blanche, from Indian choreographer and dancer Rukmini Chatterjee and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from the USA.
 
Music Director John Helmer Fiore will in his first complete season at The Norwegian Opera & Ballet present a rich concert season. He will head a number of the opera and ballet productions, and the Opera Orchestra under his management will present several concerts on the Main Stage. Fiore also puts himself on offer in Fiore’s Rheinfart, which is a miniature version of Wagner’s Ring cycle. The Opera Orchestra will continue its chamber music series at Second House. He has also invited popular conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini back, for concerts both in Oslo and on tour with Händel’s Messiah.

The Opera Choir is represented in numerous productions, but will also take to the stage on its own with a separate concert at Second House on 3 February. Visiting musicians will be also be abundant this season, including Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, KORK, Norsk Barokkorkester and The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. In February the renowned Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra will visit along with an old friend of many Norwegians, conductor Mariss Jansons. The evening’s soloist is Leif Ove Andsnes.

Our recital series composed by casting director Anne Gjevang will also continue in the new season. Francesco Meli, Juliane Banse, Taras Shtonda, Audun Iversen, Thomas Hampson and The National Opera’s own Marita Sølberg are the interesting contributors. To the pleasure of many spectators, Cecilia Bartoli also returns to the Main Stage next season. On 15 May she will grace the First House with Kammerorchester Basel.

Four festivals will visit the Opera House next season. The Øya Festival, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Oslo Jazz Festival and the Oslo World Music Festival in cooperation with Rikskonsertene. Greats such as The National, Toots Thielemans, Ornette Coleman and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra with Leif Ove Andsnes are amongst the visitors.

The Norwegian Opera & Ballet will also continue the project Verker underveis, which has been made possible through a generous contribution from Anders Jahre's Humanitarian Foundation. Audiences are invited in to experience the development of new works in concerts and performances under the headings of the Opera Laboratory and Ballet Laboratory.

For further information, please contact:

Sverre Gunnar Haga
Head of Press
sgh@operaen.no
Tlf: + 47 47 91 52 31

The full programme

About the building - by architect SNØHETTA