The three opera houses here made their upcoming seasons public in late April. As much as I’d like to believe that the opera scene is impervious to the worldwide financial fiasco, the scaled-down nature of the upcoming seasons gives pretty strong evidence to the contrary. Both the Staatsoper unter den Linden and the Deutsche Oper Berlin will be presenting four new productions, down from six and seven respectively this season. Ironically - or at least unexpectedly - the Komische Oper Berlin, which receives the fewest subsidies of the three houses, has seven premieres planned for the 2009 / 2010 season…an audacious move in this economic climate. Further to that, I just discovered on the KOB’s website that they’ll be upgrading the seats in the baroque auditorium to become Berlin’s first opera house with individual subtitles. Interested parties can purchase the old opera seats for 50 Euros a piece (discount available for bulk orders). Here’s your chance to own a piece of opera history! Contact  rausdamit@komische-oper-berlin.de to place an order…today!

The Staatsoper will be undergoing a thorough renovation in 2011 that’s set to last at least three years. This fact might explain why their final full season pre-renovation is so “light.”Among the premieres, Federico Tiezzi’s production of Simon Boccanegra with Placido Domingo in the title role seems the some promising, as well as Dale Duesing’s staging of Chabrier’s L’Etoile, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and starring Magdalena Kozena.

Many productions from the 2008/2009 season will appear in rep. None of the revivals seems overly exciting, except a dream Tristan with Waltraud Meier, Peter Sieffert and Rene Pape.

At the DOB, what seems most intriguing at this point is Intendantin Kirsten Harms’ new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten, which arrives in late September with Manuela Uhl, Doris Soffel and Robert Brubaker, Johan Reuter and Eva Johansson. News of this production is especially welcome after the Met decided to scrap their FroSch from next season’s schedule for financial reasons.

I’m also excited for the new Rienzi by Philipp Stölzl that will be presented during the Richard Wagner Festival Weeks during the winter (Nov - Feb), which will feature all of Wagner’s 10 other biggies - including yet another revival of Götz Friedrich’s weathered production of Der Ring des Nibelungen.

I guess that leaves the KOB, whose season includes a new Rigoletto by Barrie Kosky and Aribert Riemann’s Lear in a production by Hans Neuenfels.

Below is a list of all the new productions at each house (concert perfs not included):

-Deutsche Oper Berlin-

Die Frau ohne Schatten - R. Strauss

Barbiere di Siviglia - Rossini

Rienzi - Wagner

Otello - Verdi

-Deutsche Staatsoper unter den Linden-

Simon Boccanegra - Verdi

Fledermaus - J. Strauss

Agrippina - Handel

L’etoile - Chabrier

- Komische Oper Berlin -

Rigoletto - Verdi

Der Rote Zora - Naske

Lear - Riemann

Don Pasquale - Donizetti

Fidelio  - Beethoven

Orlando - Handel

La Périchole - Offenbach