Expo ’92 in Seville to Import Opera

Expo ‘92, scheduled to take place in Seville, Spain, from April 20 to Oct. 12, 1992, will mount six famous operatic works set in Seville.

The six operas--Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and “Le Nozze di Figaro,” Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” and Donizetti’s “La Favorita”--will be performed in Seville’s new opera house, the Maestranza Theater, which will open in the spring of 1991. Another operatic masterpiece set in Seville, Bizet’s “Carmen,” will be produced outdoors in the southern Spanish city.

Consultant to Expo ’92 in matters musical is the Spanish tenor Placido Domingo--who serves a similar function with Los Angeles Music Center Opera. Domingo has planned the operatic repertory at the six-monthlong exposition with Luis Andreu Marfa, artistic director of the Maestranza.

“Musicians and librettists have made Seville the scenario of their fantasies,” the tenor said recently in a prepared statement.

“Why not take advantage of this? The operas inspired by Seville will be presented at Expo ‘92, and could be the basis for an annual festival.”

With negotiations still incomplete, according to spokeswoman Esther Grau of the Expo management, the lineup lists “Don Giovanni” as performed by a touring company from the Staatsoper, Vienna, and conducted by Claudio Abbado; “Nozze di Figaro” from the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, conducted by Zubin Mehta; “Forza del Destino” also from Florence, and also conducted by Mehta; “Fidelio” from the Metropolitan Opera, New York, conducted by James Levine; “Barbiere di Siviglia,” from the Rossini Opera Festival of Pessaro, Italy; and “La Favorita,” about which the spokeswoman had no details.

Seville, Grau said, has no tradition of resident opera--the Maestranza is the first opera house to be built in the city in its history--a condition which will change in the fall of 1991, six months before Expo ’92 begins. In October, 1991, the new Maestranza, with a seating capacity of 1,650, will produce a season of four operas: “La Boheme,” “Rigoletto,” “Tosca” and “Dona Francisquita.”

Outside of the operatic genre, Marfa said, the new opera house will also host zarzuela performances, and concerts by visiting symphony orchestras and ballet companies. Among Spanish singers already engaged to appear during the festivities are Montserrat Caballe, Alfredo Kraus, Victoria de los Angeles, Jose Carreras and Teresa Berganza, the administrator said.

Expo ’92 will produce 55,000 separate performances, according to Manuel Olivencia, commissioner general of the State Corporation for Expo ’92. “From the very highest level of classical culture to mass popular entertainment and the avant-garde--there will be something to suit all tastes,” Olivencia said.

The exposition begins on Easter Monday of 1992, and closes on Columbus’ birthday, nearly six months later. Official estimates are that 18 million visitors will attend Expo ’92. To date, Olivencia said, 103 nations, 21 international organizations and 23 multinational corporations have officially accepted invitations to participate.

The theme of the exposition, which celebrates the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ encounter with the new world, is “The Age of Discoveries.”

Besides the Maestranza Theater, other show places being constructed for Expo ’92 include an open-air theater seating 7,000; an outdoor cinema; a large, canopied plaza to be called the Planeque Marque; Cinema Street, which will recreate famous Hollywood film sets; an exhibition arena for circuses and rodeos; a track and field complex; a facility for water sports, and several more indoor and outdoor theaters.

Offsite, Olivencia said, historical venues in and outside the city will also be available to Expo events: the Lope de Vega theater--a legacy of the Ibero-American Exhibition of 1929--and the Amfiteatro Romano in the suburb of Italica.

COMPOSERS’ CORNER: The 80th birthday of William Schuman, which was celebrated Aug. 4, is being noted all through 1990 with various performances of the composer’s works. An important revival of the Symphony No. 3--Schuman discarded the first two symphonies--was given at the Cabrillo Festival in Santa Cruz last month, with Dennis Russell Davies conducting. Davies also conducted the Third Symphony, on Schuman’s birthday, at the Tanglewood Festival. On Sept. 26, the Los Angeles Philharmonic will play the Third Symphony in Carnegie Hall, opening the historic hall’s centennial celebration. In December, the Juilliard Opera Center in New York will perform two Schuman operas, “The Mighty Casey” and “A Question of Taste,” both conducted by Gerard Schwarz. And, among many other Schuman performances scheduled through the end of the 1990-91 season, Schwarz will lead the Seattle Symphony in the Symphony No. 5 in Seattle in April. . . . The family of the late Alfred Newman has donated $1 million to the School of Music at USC for the building and equipment for a recital hall, green room and memorial lobby to be named after the film composer, who died in 1970.

PEOPLE: Edo de Waart, music director of the Minnesota Symphony, has been named principal guest conductor at Santa Fe Opera commencing with the 1991 summer season. De Waart’s first assignments in his New Mexico position are three Mozart operas: “Nozze di Figaro” in 1991, “Don Giovanni” in 1992 and “Magic Flute” in 1993. . . . Soprano Gail Robinson, a former member of the roster at the Metropolitan Opera, has been named executive director of the Met’s National Council Auditions and director of the company’s Young Artist Development Program, succeeding Lawrence Stayer, who died in April. . . . Choreographer Garth Fagan has changed the name of his dance company, formerly called Garth Fagan Bucket Dance, to Garth Fagan Dance. Now approaching the end of its second decade, the Fagan company is in the midst of celebrating its 20th anniversary; the celebrations will culminate with a gala in Rochester, New York, where the troupe is still based, in November.