The Pittsburgh Opera announced its 2019-20 season this past week revealing a diverse repertoire that includes Baroque, Classical, Contemporary, Bel Canto and French works. The season will also include some of today’s rising stars and established singers in the industry.

OperaWire had a chance to speak with the company’s General Director Christopher Hahn on the upcoming season and the process of putting together the works and casts.

OperaWire: Pittsburgh Opera’s 2019-20 season lineup includes works from a variety of composers and of differing styles, from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” to Daniel Catán’s “Florencia en el Amazonas.” What went into choosing this season’s repertoire?

Christopher Hahn: When you’re planning a season you’re trying to do a whole range of things. There’s variety for the audience, variety of styles… there’s popularity, rarity, and I’m also ranging across three venues: a large one, a smaller chamber space, and a much smaller [one]. With the new season I’m obviously trying to accommodate all sorts of tastes and interests, and so starting off with Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” makes enormous sense. This company has never done “Florencia” and it’s a wonderful piece. It’s being seen again after a short outing in the nineties, and I know that our audience loves to be exposed to new things as well as embrace the old, familiar, and much loved. “Carmen” is one of those – much loved, so we’re returning to that. The company has not done “Norma” for over 20 years, and we’ve got a star soprano to feature in it, so the opportunity to revisit the classic was too hot to pass up!

In the smaller venues, I have made a habit of programming baroque pieces every now and then. We’ve got a fabulous baroque ensemble in town with whom we partner. And so, “Alcina” is something I’ve always wanted to do. There will be some cuts, as we do it without a chorus, but it is a wonderful opera, so I look forward to that. Our other contemporary piece has only had one set of performances at its world premiere in September. “The Last American Hammer” is a fun, satirical, but sort of important new voice on the scene, and so that will be set in our smallest and most intimate space.

OW: Which production are you most excited to present?

CH: Well, the answer is I’m excited about all of them. It’s like with your kids, you don’t have favorites. They’re all very different and I’m very glad to be doing “Florencia” because it’s a wonderful opera and it hasn’t been seen here before. But I’m also really very pleased that I’ve been able to find someone to sing Norma in Leah Crocetto, who will allow our audience to explore this really wonderful piece. I’m really keen about the style of the production of “Don Giovanni” by Kristine McIntyre, a director who has worked with us a great deal. We have great confidence in her, and I love her ideas, the way she delves into pieces. And so I’m really keen to see that because I’ve only seen videos of that production. And, this new piece, “The Last American Hammer,” I just saw snippets of it at a workshop and I was entranced. I think it will be both funny and sad, and a fascinating vehicle for our young singers.

OW: You will be presenting two contemporary operas, “Florencia en el Amazonas” and Hilliard’s “The Last American Hammer,” alongside the classics. Could you elaborate more on why you selected these two operas from the modern repertoire? Were there others you considered?

CH: Every time you’re programming you’re considering a whole range of pieces. So yes, there were a number of other works. “Florencia” is something I’m very familiar with because my previous position was working for Los Angeles Opera and we were co-producers, co-commissioners of the original production. We produced it while I was there, so I’m very familiar with the piece and how it resonates with audiences, and with what a fine piece of musical theatre it is. So that was a no-brainer. It was seen quite a lot when it first came out, but then it sort of disappeared for a bit, and then a new production of it came to light quite recently. And so, we’re producing that new production.

“The Last American Hammer” is part of our Second Stage Project, which is either completely fresh, new work, or maybe the first or the second production of a new work. “The Last American Hammer” is exactly that. This is the first production it will have since its world premiere. And I was drawn to the voice of the composer and [of] the librettist, which is very compelling.

OW: Could you tell me about your casting choices? Were there any roles that you thought you might have a difficult time casting? For example, what went into casting for Bellini’s masterpiece “Norma,” considering the opera’s notoriously challenging title role?

CH: Well, as often happens with singers of real talent, you forge a relationship with them and then you have discussions. Leah came to do a role debut when she did “Tosca” for us a couple years ago, and she had a wonderful time and we had a wonderful time. I was keen to explore what else she was interested in doing, and we talked about a number of titles. One of them for her was “Norma,” and I thought, well, there you go! That has always been the problem with programming “Norma” in the past, the soprano, and I said well, let us create this around Leah’s interest and availability. So that was one of those instances where we basically programmed it so that she could do her role debut with us.

OW: As part of the season, the Pittsburgh Opera will also host a series of events, including Brown Bag Concerts, Pre-Opera Talks, Opera Up Close, and Meet the Artists, to name a few. What do you hope to achieve by offering these free and low-cost community events throughout the season?

CH: As we all know, it’s incredibly important to create many opportunities to intersect with the community, let alone one’s audience, so we consciously planned a whole range of activities that will draw in anyone, not just people who are interested in opera, not people who are interested in even seeing an opera, but people who are looking to explore things and be exposed to things. So we’ve carefully curated over the years a series of events that have a different kind of audience, focus, or goal.

We were just nominated for the International Opera Awards and Pittsburgh Opera was nominated for Education and Outreach. So clearly amongst our peers internationally, what we’re offering has caught their attention. It’s always a challenge and you’ve got to refresh all the time. You can’t get stuck in a routine of offering the same things, so we do both. We’ve got some regular things that we have refined and we know work very well in our community, as well as adding new things. The fashion show, for instance, is something that we’re just about to do for the third time. So that was a new add-on into our offerings because I was looking for something that would excite the younger crowd, and find a way to introduce the crowd to opera and singers to a crowd they wouldn’t normally expect to hear them. I like to find different elements, bring them together, and use them to surprise an audience and expose them to something that they’ve never encountered before. So that’s becoming a regular insertion into our season.

OW: What is your number one goal for the 2019-20 season? Do you hope to reach out to a particular audience, or perhaps to develop and showcase up-and-coming talents?

CH: I think that the primary goal is to engage the audience and I can do that with having these new singers, young singers, fresh this and fresh that. But the goal is always to grab the audience by the throat, which is something that we’re doing. So that’s the great intent: to grab them by the throat, and never let go!