Nagano said, "It was especially important to me to combine Salome with the work of this most successful German composer, whose keen familiarity with Richard Strauss's musical world enables him to take that tradition into the abstraction of the twenty-first century."
The announcement raised one practical question. The company's spring performances of Wagner's Parsifal feature Plšcido Domingo in the title role, but the tenor is scheduled to sing Siegmund in Die Walk‹re with the Washington National Opera on the same dates. Representative for Domingo and the WNO were unable to immediately explain the discrepancy.
Other new productions include Massenet's Werther, conducted by Ivor Bolton, with direction, sets, and costumes by J‹rgen Rose; a Claus Guth production of Verdi's Luisa Miller, conducted by Massimo Zanetti with sets and costumes by Christian Schmidt; and Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, conducted by Nagano with sets by Dmitri Tcherniakov. For the latter work, Nagano will use Shostakovich's orchestration of Mussorgsky's incomplete score.
A revival of Verdi's Don Carlo conducted by Paolo Carignani features Ren_ Pape and Ram‹n Vargas; Violeta Urmana sings Leonora di Vargas in Verdi's La forza del destino; Kurt Moll sings in several productions, including Wagner's Der fliegende Holl‹nder. Countertenor David Daniels sings the title role of Handel's Orlando.
The world premire of Korean composer Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland will open the 2007 Munich Opera Festival on June 30, 2007. Nagano will conduct.
Other revivals on the schedule includes Britten's Billy Budd; Verdi's La Forza del Destino, Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Bellini's Norma, and Handel's Orph_e et Eurydice.