New season to open with with Verdi at state opera

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

‘The Ears of Midas’ is one of the new season plays to be staged by İDOB.

The Istanbul State Opera and Ballet (IDOB) will open its new season on Sept. 29 with Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Nabucco.” The opera will be staged at Hagia Irene in honor of Verdi’s 200th birthday.

The state opera will stage a number of works from different periods of Verdi’s musical career, with Italian conductor Gianluca Bianchi directing the orchestra, and Gökçen Koray will be directing the choir. The choir will also host exclusive guest artists.

Ballets, operas and choral works in the 2013 season at İDOB will include “Elixir of Love,” “The Ears of Midas,” “Yusuf and Züleyha,” “Hasanaginica,” “Ariende on Naxos,” “La Traviata,” “The turn of the screw,” “The Barber of Seville,” “The Merry Widow,” “Wolfgang and Lorenzo,” Faure’s Requiem, “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” “Afife,” “Swan Lake,” the “Çanakkale Oratorio,” “Opera in Pera,” “Hürrem Sultan”, “Afife”, “Symphonic Miniature,” “Jeunehomme,” “Arenal,” “Six dances,” “The Nutcracker,” and “The Abduction from the Seraglio.”