San Diego Opera Announces 1988-89 Season

San Diego Opera’s 1988-1989 season will consist of four operatic staples and two recitals, garnished with one exotic import, an ensemble from Peking Opera. General Director Ian Campbell announced the lineup Wednesday.

The season will open Jan. 21, 1989, with Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” with New York City Opera soprano Gail Dobish in the title role. Tenor Richard Leech, who performed the title role in San Diego’s recent “Faust,” will sing Edgardo. Edoardo Mueller, a frequent guest with the company, will conduct; stage director will be Rhoda Levine.

San Diego Opera’s first mounting of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” will be produced Feb. 11-19 in Civic Theatre, in a contemporary setting designed by Neil Peter Jampolis transposing the action to a Central American banana republic. The production will be staged by Robert Tannenbaum, who directed “Rigoletto” for the company in the fall of 1987.

German soprano Sabine Hass, who appeared in San Diego’s “Fliegende Hollander” in the spring of 1987, will sing Leonore to English tenor Graeme Matheson-Bruce’s Florestan. Conductor Edward Downes of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, will make his San Diego debut at these performances.

Campbell has programmed a single comic opera for the season, choosing Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale,” with Swiss basso Francois Loup in the title role. American soprano Cheryl Parrish will make her local debut as Norina in the San Francisco Opera production designed by John Conklin. Wolfgang Weber will be stage director, and Karen Keltner, associate conductor of San Diego Opera, will lead the performances, March 4-12, 1989.

The international opera season will close with Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” with Japanese soprano Hiroko Nishida in the title role. Tenor Jonathan Welch, a San Diego native, will sing Pinkerton. Kees Bakels of the Netherlands Philharmonic will conduct; the stage director has not been selected, according to a company spokeswoman.

In addition to the operas given in San Diego Civic Theatre, the company will present four performances by a 60-member ensemble from the Peking Opera, Jan. 25-28, 1989, and recitals by mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne (in Civic Theatre, April 8, 1989) and tenor Robert White--who will give a program entitled “Homage to John McCormack” in Sherwood Auditorium in La Jolla, Feb. 20.

Campbell noted that 1988-1989 will mark the first time San Diego Opera has not produced operas in the fall, allowing the company to concentrate on its educational programs during those months before the opening of the season proper.