2007-2008 Jacobs School opera, ballet seasons announced
By Ryan Piurek, Published April 06, 2007
 Next season’s IU Opera and Ballet Theater season in Bloomington will include a new production of Puccini’s opera “La Boheme.”
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The college premiere of “A Wedding” marks a season of firsts for the IU Opera and Ballet Theater.
Indiana University Opera and Ballet Theater, which has staged a number of world premiere performances in recent years, will add the new opera to its list of firsts during its 2007-2008 season.
The upcoming season at the IU Jacobs School of Music features the nation’s first collegiate performance (Feb. 1-2, 8-9) of the opera “A Wedding” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom, who has commissioned IU Opera Theater for two previous collegiate premieres. Bolcom will return to Bloomington for “A Wedding,” which is based on Robert Altman’s 1978 film about a high society wedding. First staged at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2004, it will open the spring portion of the IU Opera and Ballet Theater season.
The season also includes a tribute to Russian dance legend Vaslav Nijinsky as part of the annual fall ballet (Oct. 5-6), a new production of Puccini’s opera “La Boheme” (Nov. 9-10, 16-17), which will be overseen by acclaimed stage director Tito Capobianco and designed by IU’s David Higgins and an opera-themed spring ballet (March 21-22) featuring a performance of “Rossini Overtures” with new choreography by Distinguished Professor and ballet icon Violette Verdy.
The new ballet performances reflect the mission of Michael Vernon, newly appointed chair of the IU Jacobs School’s Ballet Department. Vernon, who joined the school in the fall of 2006, has been charged with carrying on the longstanding tradition of excellence in ballet at IU, while also taking it in challenging new directions. Not coincidentally, the London-trained dancer has designed a program for the fall ballet around influential works by several of the world’s most visionary choreographers: Nijinsky, Isadora Duncan and Michael Fokine.
