Royal Opera House
Gounod’s “Faust”
April 30
David McVicar’s 2004 staging returns to Covent Garden with the tenor Michael Fabiano as the title character and the bass-baritone Erwin Schrott as the taunting Méphistophélès, to whom Faust sells his soul. The production sets the action in 1870s Paris, drawing parallels between the plight of Faust and the conflicted loyalty of the composer, Charles Gounod, to the theater and the Roman Catholic Church. Dan Ettinger conducts a cast that further includes soprano Irina Lungu as Marguerite and baritone Stéphane Degout — who portrayed the king in George Benjamin’s 2018 opera “Lessons in Love and Violence” — as her brother, Valentin.
Metropolitan Opera
Poulenc’s “Dialogues des Carmélites”
May 11
Newly installed music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a revival of the 1977 John Dexter production that The New York Times has called “austerely powerful.” Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard returns to the role of Blanche de la Force, who takes refuge at a convent during the French Revolution, only to join her sisters in death at the guillotine. Soprano Erin Morley also reprises the role of the young nun Constance, while international soloist Karita Mattila — known to the Met’s audiences as Tosca, Manon Lescaut and other title characters — is the prioress, Madame de Croissy.
Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde”
June 15
This production, which opened last season, offers a glimpse into the partnership of the music director Daniel Barenboim with Dmitri Tcherniakov, who staged “Parsifal” there and is to take on Barenboim’s last “Ring” cycle in 2020 (coinciding with the Deutsche Oper Berlin’s plans for the tetralogy, staged by Stefan Herheim). Tcherniakov offers a starkly realist portrayal of contemporary high society, while Barenboim draws upon more than three decades of experience, having made his Bayreuth Festival debut with “Tristan” in 1981. Andreas Schlager and Anja Kampe return to the title roles of the star-crossed lovers, while René Pape now appears as King Marke and Violeta Urmana as Isolde’s maid, Brangäne (an earlier recording of the production is also available on the private television network mezzo.fr).
Paris Opera
Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”
June 21
A new staging in coproduction with the Met joins the music director Philippe Jordan with Ivo van Hove, who has emerged as a major director on Broadway. The cast showcases a range of up-and-coming talent. Young baritone Étienne Dupuis appears as the ruthless Don Giovanni, while soprano Jacquelyn Wagner sings Donna Anna and soprano Nicole Car the hopelessly smitten Donna Elvira. The tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac is the noble Don Ottavio and the young bass-baritone Philippe Sly is Don Giovanni’s comic sidekick, Leporello.
Bavarian State Opera
Strauss’ “Salome”
July 6
Music director Kirill Petrenko conducts his second new production of the season with Strauss’ bloody tale of seduction and revenge. German soprano Marlis Petersen, known by audiences from Munich to New York as the title character of Berg’s “Lulu,” makes her debut as the femme fatale Salome. Dramatic baritone Wolfgang Koch plays her victim, Jochanaan (John the Baptist), while tenor Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke appears as her overbearing stepfather, Herodes. Stage director Krzysztof Warlikowski, who also serves as artistic director of Warsaw’s New Theater, takes on the one-act opera.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.