Pittsburgh Opera's upcoming season includes 'Aida,' 'The Magic Flute'

People who think of opera as staid haven’t been paying attention to Pittsburgh Opera.

The company’s just-announced 2020-21 season will continue its adventurous programming, anchored with audience favorites but also presenting new experiences in traditional opera and pieces with contemporary dramatic themes and musical styles.

Next season will feature Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida,” for many decades the most-often performed work at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s popular “The Magic Flute.” The opera also will present the Pittsburgh premiere of Antonin Dvorak’s “Rusalka,” which general director Christopher Hahn says is a fantastic piece.

The newer works are “Yardbird,” about jazz great Charlie Parker; “Emmeline,” a true American story with a parallel to Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex,” but in a decidedly non-aristocratic context; and “Soldier Songs,” which continues a multi-season programming thread about the military experience and war.

Pittsburgh Opera’s 2020-21 season, at the Benedum Center except as noted:

“Rusalka” (Oct. 10, 13, 16 and 18) is Dvorak’s greatest opera, written at the beginning of the 20th century. Most people know the plot from the Disney film, “The Little Mermaid.” The strong cast includes Ekaterina Siurina in the title role, Marianne Cornetti as the witch Jezibaba, Evan LeRoy Johnson as the Prince and Hao Jiang Tian as the water goblin.

“The Magic Flute” (Nov. 7, 10, 13 and 15) is one of Mozart’s most beloved operas, which opened just a few months before his death in 1791. By turns dramatic and funny, it contains multiple romantic adventures. Fundamentally, it is a journey toward enlightenment and contains some of Mozart’s most sublimely soulful music.

“Emmeline,” by Tobias Picker (Jan. 23, 26, 29 and 31, 2021, at Creative and Performing Arts High School), will be a new production created by Pittsburgh Opera. It is about a woman working in a textile mill in Maine who is seduced by the mill owner’s son and forced to give up her illegitimate baby. Twenty years later, she falls in love with a mysterious stranger only to discover he’s her long-lost son. Hahn worked with the composer on the world premiere more than 20 years ago.

“Soldier Songs,” by David T. Little (Feb. 20, 23, 26 and 28, at Pittsburgh Opera Headquarters), draws on interviews with veterans of five American wars, showing the soldier’s changing perspective on war from youth to old age. Hahn says, “Little’s mix of soundscape, amplified instruments and rock has gotten a lot of attention.” The piece was commissioned by Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, which gave the world premiere in 2006.

“Aida” (March 20, 23, 26 and 28) is a perfect example of Grand Opera. Its long Egyptian Triumphal Scene, part massive procession and part dance, is spectacle on a big scale, but most of the opera is much more intimate in scale, creating exquisite lyrical beauty as it explores personal conflicts and romance within the context of war between two nations.

“Yardbird,” by Daniel Schnyder (May 8, 11, 14 and 16, at the August Wilson Center), is a story about the ghost of the legendary bebop pioneer Charlie Parker trying to finish his last masterpiece as he revisits his inspired but also troubled life with his family and musical partner Dizzy Gillespie.

Subscriptions cost from $40 for two operas in the least expensive seats at the Benedum Center or August Wilson Center to $700 for the most expensive seats at all six operas. Single tickets will go on sale in late August.