Pacific Symphony’s 2011-12 season includes return of operatic music to Orange County

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Announcing the Pacific Symphony’s 2011-12 season Monday, orchestra leaders say they will begin trying to fill the Orange County opera void left by the collapse of Opera Pacific late in 2008.

The idea isn’t to become a full-on opera producer, but to bring operatic music back to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts with semi-staged concert renditions of an opera each year, starting with three performances of “La Boheme” conducted by the Pacific’s music director, Carl St.Clair, and staged with props, some costuming elements and dramatization of scenes by A. Scott Parry, who directed the fall 2008 “The Barber of Seville” that turned out to be Opera Pacific’s last gasp. The singing cast will be announced later. Also on tap: an abbreviated take on Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel,” to be performed twice on March 3, 2012, as part of the orchestra’s children’s concert series.

The season opens with its most prominent guest soloist, violinist Sarah Chang, playing Mendelssohn, includes some musical numerology -- the Ninth Symphonies of Mahler, Schubert and Beethoven -- and takes Persian music as the theme for the annual American Composers Festival. The program offers St.Clair sharing the podium with former Tehran Symhony Orchestra conductor Farhad Mechkat, for a celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, that includes traditional Persian music and the world premiere of “Peace Oratorio” by the Iranian American composer Richard Danielpour.

Season tickets are now on sale. Single tickets will be sold starting Aug. 14.

Click here to read more about the season.

The concert-by-concert program follows, with each program played three times, Thursdays through Saturdays at Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, except for “La Boheme,” which runs Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

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-- Mike Boehm

SARAH CHANG PLAYS MENDELSSOHN
Sept. 22-24, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Sarah Chang, violin

Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
James Newton Howard: I Would Plant a Tree
Respighi: Pines of Rome

2011: A SPACE ODYSSEY with NASA footage
Oct. 20-22, 8 p.m.
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Jeremy Denk, piano
Barry Perkins, trumpet
Jose Francisco Salgado, videographer

Hovhaness: Prayer of St. Gregory
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Strauss Jr.: On the Beautiful Blue Danube (with visual images)

MAHLER’S MAGNIFICENT FAREWELL
Nov. 17-19, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor

Mahler: Symphony No. 9

VIVALDI’S FOUR SEASONS
Dec. 8-10, 8 p.m.
Henning Kraggerud, conductor and violin

Corelli: Concerto Grosso in G Minor, Op. 6, No. 8 “Christmas Concerto”
Grieg: Holberg Suite
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIFTH
Jan. 12-14, 2012, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Dejan Lazić, piano

Golijov: Sidereus (West Coast premiere)
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5

BENEDETTI PLAYS BRUCH
Feb. 2-4, 2012, 8 p.m.
Christoph König, conductor
Nicola Benedetti, violin

Debussy: Petite Suite
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4

TCHAIKOVSKY’S VIOLIN CONCERTO
Feb. 23-25, 2012, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Vadim Gluzman, violin

Daugherty: Work for organ, winds, brass and percussion (world premiere)
Barber: Adagio for Strings
Daugherty: Radio City (U.S. premiere)
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto

RACHMANINOFF’S MIGHTY THIRD
March 1-3, 2012, 8 p.m.
Michael Stern, conductor
Joyce Yang, piano

Rossini: Overture to “Semiramide”
Bartok: Suite from “The Miraculous Mandarin”
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3

American Composers Festival 2012
CELEBRATING NOWRUZ
March 22-24, 2012, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Farhad Mechkat, conductor
Hila Plitmann, soprano
Pacific Chorale — John Alexander, artistic director

Program includes:
Traditional Persian Music
Danielpour: Peace Oratorio (world premiere)

LA BOHÈME
April 19 and 21, 2012, 8 p.m., April 22, 7 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
A. Scott Parry, stage director
Vocalists to be determined
Pacific Chorale — John Alexander, artistic director
Southern California Children’s Chorus

SCHUBERT’S NINTH
May 10-12, 2012, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Andrew von Oeyen, piano

Prangcharoen: Sattha for Strings, Piano and Percussion
Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1
Schubert: Symphony No. 9, “The Great”

BEETHOVEN’S NINTH
May 31-June 2, 2012, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Vocalists to be determined
Pacific Chorale — John Alexander, artistic director

Ticheli: Radiant Voices
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9