L.A. Opera: Strauss, Sondheim and more

Richard Strauss’ sumptuous “Der Rosenkavalier” and his unconventional “Ariadne auf Naxos” will be among four new productions during Los Angeles Opera’s 2004-05 season, along with Samuel Barber’s “Vanessa” and Charles Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

The company announced Wednesday that the season will begin Sept. 8 with Mozart’s early opera “Idomeneo,” featuring company general director Placido Domingo, Anna Netrebko and Angelika Kirschlager. The avant-garde production, which originated at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, will be directed by the husband-and-wife team of Karl-Ernst and Ursel Herrmann.

The new season at the Los Angeles Music Center also will present two works by Stephen Sondheim: “Sweeney Todd,” with acclaimed Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel in the title role, as part of the company’s regular subscription series, and “A Little Night Music,” which will play for 23 performances this summer. Jeremy Irons and Juliet Stevenson will reprise the roles they took in “Night Music” for New York City Opera last year.

In addition, Terfel is one of three singers L.A. Opera will present in recital. Soprano Renee Fleming and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham are the others.

Next season’s total of nine productions, not counting “A Little Night Music,” is one more than this season’s.

The recital series also has added one offering over the 2002-03 series.

The rest of the new season will consist of “Carmen,” in a production from Teatro Real, Madrid, and revivals of L.A. Opera productions of Puccini’s “La Boheme” and Verdi’s “Aida.”

Company music director Kent Nagano will conduct four of the productions. Additional conductors will include Domingo, Frederic Chaslin, Dan Ettinger, Lawrence Foster and Simone Young.

William Friedkin, who directed “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle” and Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” for L.A. Opera in 2002, will return to direct “Ariadne auf Naxos.” Other directors will include John Cox, Ian Judge and Maximilian Schell.

Among the singers scheduled to perform are Domingo, Rosalind Elias, Elizabeth Futral, Allan Glassman, Kiri Te Kanawa, Richard Leech, Catherine Malfitano and Veronica Villarroel.

At a news conference Wednesday at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, company chairman and chief executive Marc Stern called it “beautiful news” that the company’s board of directors had approved a budget of $48 million for the 2004-05 season, up from $36 million for 2003-04. He added that despite the shaky economy, the company ended the 2002-03 season in the black, with a modest surplus of less than $100,000.

Domingo echoed Stern’s sentiments, adding: “I get a little bit scared when you say $48 million. That’s almost $50 million!”

“You think you get scared,” was Stern’s good-natured retort.

Stern added that plans remain on track for the company to mount an ambitious production of Wagner’s “Ring” with special effects from George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, to be presented in 2007. Estimates for that production have been as high as $60 million.

In 2003-04, single ticket prices for L.A. Opera will range from $25 to $190. Tickets for “A Little Night Music” will cost $20 to $100. Recital tickets will range from $10 to $90.

All performances will take place at the Chandler Pavilion.

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2004-05 season

“Idomeneo”: Sept. 8-26

“Ariadne auf Naxos”: Sept. 12-Oct. 2

“Carmen”: Oct. 22-Nov. 7

“La Boheme”: Nov. 20-Dec. 19

“Vanessa”: Nov. 27-Dec. 18

“Aida”: Jan. 22-Feb. 19, 2005

“Romeo and Juliette”: Jan. 29-Feb. 20, 2005

“Sweeney Todd”: May 28-June 15, 2005

“Der Rosenkavalier”: May 29-June 19, 2005

Additional concert

“A Little Night Music”: July 7-31, 2004

Recitals

Bryn Terfel : July 11, 2004

Renee Fleming: Jan. 15, 2005

Susan Graham: April 17, 2005

Times staff writer Diane Haithman contributed to this report.