The Atlanta Opera’s 2022-23 season will be masterpieces, one after another

The Atlanta Opera’s ambitious 2022–23 season will mark two milestones in the transformational tenure of Tomer Zvulun: his 10th year as the company’s general and artistic director, and the 50th production he has overseen. The celebration will be marked by what promises to be the greatest season in the opera’s 43-year history, including an ambitious new production of Das Rheingold, the first of four music dramas that comprise the grandest of all operas: Wagner’s Ring cycle.

In addition, the opera will stage productions of Madama Butterfly, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. In addition, two more smaller scale productions in the opera’s cutting edge Discoveries series will be announced later as the details come together. 

Das Rheingold will mark Zvulun’s 50th production and it will open almost exactly 10 years to the day he arrived here and began to change The Atlanta Opera from a sleepy regional opera company that staged three productions a year to one that has received international attention and now stages six productions each season.

“There cannot be a more exciting season, four masterpieces, one after another,” Zvulun said. “We’ve been building to this since I started. We’re stronger than we’ve ever been as a company, and I’m proud of that.”

Zvulun was a sought-after stage director when he came to Atlanta in 2013. He had no experience fundraising or running an arts institution. A native of Israel, he got hooked on opera at the age of 13 when he saw the Ingmar Bergman film The Magic Flute. He emigrated to the United States in 2001 and six years later, he was working at the Metropolitan Opera. Ironically, Zvulun directed The Magic Flute for The Atlanta Opera before he was hired to lead the company.

“I was so young when I came here and it was a completely different world,” Zvulun said. “We did three productions a year and the budget was around $5 million. We were consistently in the red financially. Now, we’ve doubled that with six productions and the number of performances from 12 to 36. The budget has doubled and we’ve doubled the size of the company.”

Zvulun had originally planned to stage Das Rheingold in the 2020 season, which was wiped out by the pandemic. Many believe Wagner’s Ring cycle of four operas to be the greatest musical achievement in history. Its size and complexity make it a challenge and it has never been staged in Atlanta. As Zvulun has said, “It’s the Mount Everest of the operatic canon.”

The opera plans to stage the second part of the Ring cycle, Die Walküre, during the 2023–24 season. But Zvulun would not commit to completing the cycle: “I don’t know how it will shake out after that,” he said. 

The 2022–23 season will open November 5 with Madama Butterfly, a reprise of the first production planned under Zvulun’s helm. The cast will include Japanese soprano Yasko Sato in the title role. She has performed the part to acclaim in Tokyo, Seattle and Florence. Italian tenor Gianluca Terranova will play Pinkerton; he is no stranger to Atlanta Opera fans, having played leading-man roles in Carmen, La Bohème and Turandot. Zvulun will direct.

Next up, starting January 21, will be Don Giovanni by Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte. The production will have a film-noir edge created by stage director Kristine McIntyre for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Arthur Fagen, the opera’s music director, will conduct the orchestra.

“This version is influenced by film noir,” said Zvulun. “It works really well with Don Giovanni. Mozart wrote it close to his death bed. It’s about emptiness, something that’s very universal. And the music is incredible, completely sublime.”

The next production, in March, will be Bernstein’s classic Candide in a staging created by director Alison Moritz. Tenor Jack Swanson will sing the title role, and will be joined by Deanna Breiwick. The Grammy-nominated James Lowe will conduct the orchestra.

Zvulun calls Candide a masterpiece, and a production that speaks to the times. “This whole season has been programmed with Voltaire’s famous observation in mind: The most important decision we can ever make is to be in a good mood,” he said. “You have to preserve the optimism even though the worst of times. The characters keep a sparkle in their eyes and tunes on their lips. Like all of us, they keep on going.”

Das Rheingold will close the main stage season in April. The cast will be led by Greer Grimsley as the god Wotan, who has performed the role for the Metropolitan Opera’s Ring Cycle and in Seattle and Minnesota. Patrick Summers, artistic and music director of the Houston Grand Opera, will conduct the orchestra and Zvulun will direct.

The ambitious original production is a statement of The Atlanta Opera’s health and vitality. “The decision to mount Das Rheingold is the result of tremendous growth in capabilities of the company and our orchestra and in the readiness of audiences,” Zvulun said. “Our team at The Atlanta Opera, we have a culture of ‘can do.’ After the pandemic, we believe we can do pretty much anything.”

When Zvulun arrived in 2013, the opera’s stated ambition was to limit itself to “the top 30 operas of the international repertoire.” Some thought he would be a part-time leader, continuing his work as a stage director for other companies when The Atlanta Opera was off-season.

Instead, Zvulun has taken the company to a level that many believed was unattainable in a city that had never boasted a strong opera company. “I never believed I’d be here 10 years,” Zvulun said. “And I love it here. It seems like a lifetime, but it’s been the blink of an eye.”