Dresher's The Tyrant, which gets its world premiere in San Francisco next year, will be produced in collaboration with the Cleveland Play House and staged at the Play House's Bolton Theatre in May 2006. Dresher is the composer of such experimental music-theater pieces as Snow in June, which premiered at the American Repertory Theatre in San Francisco last year, and the American Trilogy (1985-1990).

The season will also include Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, and Puccini's Turandot. It is is the first planned by Robert Chumbley, who succeeded founder David Bamberger as general director earlier this year.