FIRST OPERA SEASON UNVEILED

Productions of “West Side Story,” “Porgy and Bess” and a new “La Boheme” directed by Italian composer/director Gian Carlo Menotti will make up Opera Pacific’s first season at the new Orange County Performing Arts Center, the center and opera organization announced Thursday.

The blueprint for the 1986-1987 season represents the most extensive use of the Center’s 3,000-seat main theater announced so far. The Center, almost completed, is scheduled to open in September. The New York City Opera, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the American Ballet Theatre are also scheduled to appear during its first year of operation.

The Costa Mesa-based Opera Pacific will be a tenant at the Center between Feb. 11 and April 4, giving 28 performances of its three productions. It is the first season to be overseen by General Director David DiChiera, who assumed his position about a year ago. The season’s projected budget is $3 million, half of which DiChiera says will come from ticket sales; the balance from donations.

“I wanted it to be a very popular season and I wanted to make sure that I discovered the very broadest possible audience,” DiChiera said, explaining the guiding principle behind the selections. “I wanted to announce right from the beginning that I have a commitment to American works.”

DiChiera, who also heads the Michigan Opera which he founded in 1970, said the production of “West Side Story” will draw on cast members and designs he used in a Detroit production.

The “Porgy and Bess” will be conceptually based on a production by the Houston Grand Opera, DiChiera said. In Orange County it will be directed by Jack O’Brien, artistic director of San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre.

DiChiera said Opera Pacific is producing “Porgy and Bess” together with nine other American opera companies, including those in Cleveland and Miami. He estimates the company’s share of the “multimillion-dollar” production at $400,000. After premiering in Miami, it will travel to 10 cities, opening the Opera Pacific season on Feb. 11, 1987. There will be seven performances in Costa Mesa of the George Gershwin opera, the last one on Feb. 15.

Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” is scheduled to run for 18 performances between Feb. 20 and March 8 at a cost of $700,000.

The new production of Puccini’s “La Boheme” will have three performances, March 27, April 1 and will close the season on April 4. The projected cost is $500,000. Directed by Menotti, it will be conducted by John Mauceri. The cast will include Diana Soviero as Mimi, Jerry Hadley as Rodolfo, Timothy Noble as Marcello, Karen Huffstodt as Musetta and Italo Tajo as Benoit. The sets were created for the Washington Opera by Zack Brown, and the costumes come from the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

In a previous interview with the Times, DiChiera had said he planned to emphasize new and innovative works. He acknowledges that his programming for this first season does not meet that description. “I wouldn’t do it now. I couldn’t,” he said.

“I want to get the audience started,” he continued. “The way you do new works is to get a good subscription base. You give them what is familiar, and then you insert things they don’t know. After founding Michigan Opera Theater, I had to wait until about 1976 to start doing things that they absolutely knew nothing about.”