One of the pleasures of traveling around Planet Opera is encountering operas and singers you don’t know or seeing familiar works in unfamiliar settings. These could be a quarry in Sweden, a floating stage on an Austrian lake or a sferisterio, which is a 19th-century Italian handball court that happens to have splendid acoustics. I try to go to festivals each year to see and hear opera in new ways.
May 21–Aug. 28
This posh festival in East Sussex is beloved in the U.K. and attracts audiences from outside Britain who are drawn to its diverse offerings and fine casts. This year Gerald Finley stars in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Danielle de Niese is in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and both operas are in repertory with The Cunning Little Vixen, Le Nozze di Figaro, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Berlioz’s rarely-heard Béatrice et Bénédict.
Zurich
May 29–July 9
One of Europe’s top opera houses, led by Fabio Luisi, this Swiss theater always has a strong offering in June and early July, and this year is no exception. Luisi conducts I Puritani and Tosca, and other operas in the repertory are La Clemenza di Tito, Così fan tutte and Pique Dame in a Robert Carsen production. Switzerland’s largest city was long the home of James Joyce, who is buried there. The Irish author is celebrated throughout Zurich on June 16, which Joyce fans surely know as Bloomsday. Wagner lived there for many years, as well, and a useful book, Richard Wagner’s Zurich: A City Tour (Stroemfeld), has just been published that will help you discover the composer’s impact there.
Garsington
June 3–July 11
Operas are performed in a pavilion in the beautiful Chiltern hills, an hour from London. While Glyndebourne is more famous, Garsington is a small gem still waiting to be discovered. This year in repertory are Eugene Onegin, L’Italiana in Algeri and Idomeneo.
Drottningholm
June 7–19
One of the most important events on the calendar this year is the 250th anniversary of the opening of the beautiful opera house in the Queen’s summer palace outside of Stockholm. For the occasion, a new opera has been commissioned called The Rococo Machine: An Opera About Falling in Love with a Theatre by Jan Sandström with a libretto by Tuvalisa Rangström. This Swedish opera house is the oldest in Scandinavia and has hand-painted and hand-operated scenic panels that are adapted to many operas. Also on the calendar is Don Giovanni (Aug. 13–27).
Verona
June 24–Aug. 28
One of the most famous opera festivals of all takes place in an ancient Roman amphitheater in this beautiful Northern Italian city. The festival has faced some rocky financial and political crises recently but holds forth with splashy productions this summer of Aïda, Carmen, La Traviata, Il Trovatore and Turandot, with casts full of Italians and singers from Eastern Europe.
Leipzig
June 28–July 3
A complete Ring cycle will be performed in the city where Wagner was born in 1813. Ulf Schrimer leads the Gewandhaus Orchestra. The role of Brünnhilde will be sung by Eva Johansson (Die Walküre), Elisabet Strid (Siegfried) and Christiane Libor (Götterdämmerung). Thomas J. Mayer is Wotan, Christian Franz is Siegfried in the opera of that name, while Thomas Mohr sings the role in Götterdämmerung.
Aix-en-Provence
June 30–July 20
The arts festival in this gorgeous French town has become one of the most important of all cultural festivals. Operas are given in venues all around the old city. Cosi fan tutte, Pelléas et Mélisande and Handel’s Il Trionfo del tempo e del disinganno are on this year's schedule. There will also be the world premiere of Moneim Adwan’s Kalîla wa Dimna and a staged version of a Stravinsky double bill — Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms— conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen; directed by Peter Sellars; and starring Violeta Urmana, Joseph Kaiser and Willard White.
Munich
July 1–31
There is no richer selection of operas and stars in any European city than the annual July festival at the Bavarian State Opera. This year there will be an astonishing 18 operas as well as recitals. Among the many stars will be Roberto Alagna (La Juive); Edita Gruberova (Lucrezia Borgia); Thomas Hampson (with Tara Erraught and Rolando Villazón) in a new work, South Pole, by Miroslav Srnka; René Pape (with Kristine Opolais and Joseph Calleja) in Mefistofele; Nina Stemme (with Maria Agresta and Johan Botha) in Turandot. Hometown favorites Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann star in Tosca with Bryn Terfel. Harteros will also be the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier and Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera (with Piotr Beczala). Kaufmann will sing Walther in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the opera that closes the festival most every year.
Savonlinna
July 8–Aug. 6
This festival is set in a medieval castle in a Finnish lake district town where one can enjoy spas, amazing wild strawberries and many hours of sunlight. With 2016 being the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare, Savonlinna will present Verdi’s Otello, Macbeth and Falstaff. The latter two will be imported from Italy’s Ravenna Festival. The Finns will also stage From the House of the Dead and Don Giovanni. Turin’s Teatro Regio will visit with productions of La Bohème and Norma, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.
Bregenz
July 20–30
The Bregenz Festival, on a lake in the Austrian alps, is most famous for its Seebühne, a floating stage on which large productions are given. This year will have Turandot conducted by Paolo Carignani. What caught my attention are three performances he will lead in the indoor Festspielhaus of Franco Faccio’s Amleto (Hamlet; July 20, 25, 28). This rare work from 1865 has a libretto by Arrigo Boito.
Macerata
July 22–Aug. 14
Situated in the region of the Marche, Macereta is one’s idea of a classic Italian town. Verdant rolling hills surround a citadel with churches, palaces, promenades, great food and, of course, opera. The sea is nearby, and the Mediterranean is the theme of this year’s festival in the beautiful outdoor Sferisterio where Norma, Otello and Il Trovatore will be performed.
Salzburg
July 22–Aug. 31
Since 1920 the Salzburg Festival has been a beacon for lovers of opera, theater, symphonic and chamber music and other art forms. Mozart has always been central to the programming (and is represented this summer with Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro) as has Richard Strauss (Die Liebe der Danae). Big stars will appear in Faust (Maria Agresta, Piotr Beczala, Ildar Abdrazakov), Manon Lescaut (Anna Netrebko) and Thaïs (Sonya Yoncheva, Plácido Domingo). The hottest ticket will surely be for West Side Story, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and starring Cecilia Bartoli as Maria. I have cast my eye on two works I do not know: Otto Nicolai’s Il Templario (Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez) and the world premiere of The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Adès, based on the film by Luis Buñuel.
Bayreuth
July 25–Aug. 28
The Wagner shrine draws the faithful each summer for a festival with leading conductors and singers appearing in productions that inevitably cause controversy. This year has top maestros: Marek Janowski (leading three Ring cycles), Axel Kober (Der fliegende Holländer), Andris Nelsons (Parsifal) and Christian Thielemann (Tristan und Isolde).
Pesaro
Aug. 8–20
The Rossini Opera Festival is not far from Macerata and combining the two is a dream vacation for a lover of Italian opera. You swim in the sea by day and hear glorious Rossini each night. This season includes Ciro in Babilonia (Pretty Yende, Ewa Podles), La Donna del Lago (Salome Jicia, Juan Diego Flórez), Il Turco in Italia (Olga Peretyatko, Erwin Schrott) and many appealing concerts.
Dalhalla
Aug. 13–20
A limestone quarry is the unusual setting for outdoor performances at this Swedish festival. Following performances of Das Rheingold and Turandot in previous editions, 2016 will see a new production of Carmen.
And if none of the above festivals align with your travel plans, here is an option for the fall:
Wexford
Oct. 26–Nov. 6
A lovely alternative to the summer circuit is the Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland each autumn. Its hallmark is presenting seldom seen works and this year is no exception. On the program are Vanessa (Samuel Barber); Herculaneum (Félicién David); Il Campanello and Maria de Rudenz (Donizetti); The Bear (William Walton); and Riders to the Sea (Ralph Vaughan Williams).