Principal conductor Joseph Rescigno and former general director Dennis Hanthorn "did that pretty often‹signed people just before they hit it big," director of production Noele Stollmack told the paper.
Delfs will conduct Beethoven's Fidelio, which opens the season on November 11. The Milwaukee Symphony has accompanied the Florentine for years, but no MSO music director has ever led an opera production.
Both Aida and Fidelio will be new productions. The lineup also includes a revival of Donizetti's La Fille du r_giment.
The Journal-Sentinel also reports that the Florentine is close to naming a successor to Hanthorn, who left to direct the Atlanta Opera last year. According to the paper, the two remaining candidates are both from "smaller companies outside Wisconson." Stollmack and marketing director Susan Loris have been sharing leadership duties in the absence of a general director.