SHORT TAKES : English Opera Opts for Modern

The English National Opera has announced a 1990-91 season made up exclusively of 20th-Century works, except for three Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart operas chosen to mark the bicentenary of the composer’s death.

The season of 22 operas will consist of nine new productions, including one world premiere and 13 revivals. It begins Aug. 23 this year and ends June 22, 1991.

Planned highlights include new stagings of Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck,” Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes,” and Claude Debussy’s “Pelleas et Melisande.”

The revivals range from Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” Sergei Prokofiev’s “The Love For Three Oranges,” and Richard Strauss’ “Salome.”

Peter Jonas, who this fall starts his sixth year as general director, said the lineup is intended “to shift the balance of the operatic repertoire an inch closer to our own times.”