After a successful first outing last year at Cowboys Stadium simulcasting Mozart’s The Magic Flute on the world’s largest video screen (well, at least until Houston installs their’s), the Dallas Opera will return to Cowboys Stadium this April with a simulcast of Puccini’s Turandot. In addition to the opera, which will be performed on stage at the Winspear, the event at Cowboys Stadium will kick-off with a screening of “What’s Opera, Doc?” the Warner Brothers cartoon that defined the operatic form for generations with its unforgettable Wagnerian riff: “Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!” You can register for free tickets to the Cowboys Stadium event here.
The announcement came yesterday along with news on the rest of the 2013-2014 season, which will feature operas from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. These include Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers, a one act “robotic” opera produced alongside the MIT Media Lab, and Die tote Stadt, by the 20th century Jewish composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Korngold’s piece fell into obscurity after being banned by the Nazis, but has been revived increasingly in recent years. Bizet’s Carmen and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville round out the season — that later work offering allusion to yet another endearing and enduring kid’s entertainment opera riff: Alfalfa’s memorable rendition in Our Gang.
Also to note about next season: it will be the first since the resignation of longtime music director Graeme Jenkins. And like this year, the season will include just one fall production, though with three (instead of this year’s two) in the Spring. Here are the dates for the lineup:
2013-2014 Dallas Opera Season
CARMEN by Georges Bizet
October 25, 27(m), 30, Nov. 2, 8 & 10(m), 2013DEATH AND THE POWERS by Tod Machover
February 12, 14, 15 & 16(m), 2014DIE TOTE STADT by Erich Wolfgang Korngold March 21, 23(m), 26, 29 and April 6(m), 2014
THE BARBER OF SEVILLE by Gioachino Rossini March 28, 30(m), April 2, 5, 11 & 13(m), 2014
And below you can find “What’s Opera, Doc?” and a video short on MIT’s role in creating Death and the Powers.
