ROSSINI, WAGNER ON ’86 SLATE

Solo performances by sopranos Kiri Te Kanawa and Joan Sutherland, a new production of Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Hollaender” (“The Flying Dutchman”) and the arrival of composer Gian CarloMenotti, who will direct two of his operas, are some of the highlights of the 1986-87 San Diego Opera season, general director Ian D. Campbell announced Tuesday.

Along with the new “Hollaender,” the company will present Puccini’s “Tosca,” Bellini’s “Norma” and Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” at the Civic Theatre. A double bill of Menotti’s “The Telephone” and “The Medium” will be staged by the composer May 9 through 17 at the Old Globe Theatre, where German tenor Siegfried Jerusalem will perform lieder and other songs by Mahler and Strauss on Jan. 26.

Campbell said that next year’s season was in keeping with the five-year plan he established 12 months ago. “Opera seasons do not come out of nowhere,” Campbell said, adding that the goal of the plan was “to establish stability” in audience subscriptions and in fund-raising by the end of the decade. As with this season, four operas will be staged at the Civic Theatre and one at the Old Globe. Next season includes an additional concert.

“To keep costs down and quality high . . . and not bog down” artistically, Campbell said the opera attempts to strike a balance between revivals and new productions. Earlier San Diego productions of “Norma” and “Tosca” will be repeated to use the sets now in stock.

American actor-producer-director Sam Wanamaker will open the season Oct. 11 at the Civic Theatre directing “Tosca,” with American soprano Marilyn Zschau in the lead. Following will be Bellini’s bel canto opera “Norma,” with Dutch soprano Cristina Deutekom singing the lead role of the Druid priestess who goes to her immolation. It opens Oct. 25.

Wagner’s early opera, “Der Fliegende Hollaender,” about a man condemned to sail the seas unless rescued by the love of a woman, opens Feb. 7, 1987. Campbell called it the composer’s “most Italian” opera. It does not employ the leitmotiv, continuous recitative or symphonic-size orchestration, later developed by Wagner. American baritone Roger Roloff will sing the title role. The cast includes Sabine Hass, bass Kevin Langan and tenor Siefried Jerusalem.

Baritone Herman Prey will star in the title role of Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” created by the San Francisco Opera, and conducted by Karen Keltner, the San Diego Opera’s music administrator, opening Feb. 21.

Sutherland, with her husband Richard Bonynge conducting the San Diego Opera Orchestra, will sing a Jan. 23, 1987, concert featuring several operatic “mad scenes” at the Civic Theatre. Te Kanawa will sing her Feb. 28, 1987, Civic Theatre recital of lieder, French art songs and ballads.

Campbell also announced the formation of the San Diego Ensemble, a group of young singers who will begin an 8- to 10-week season in February, 1987, singing opera for schools, corporations and opera guild meetings. He expects that the new ensemble will cost $100,000.