A Borrowed ‘Rigoletto’ for Music Center

Music Center Opera’s “Rigoletto,” originally scheduled as a new production led by film director Peter Medak, will now be presented in a production borrowed from the Washington Opera and directed by Marta Domingo, wife of MCO artistic consultant Placido Domingo.

Medak reportedly had to withdraw because of delays in filming his new movie, “Romeo Is Bleeding,” which will continue into the period when he would have directed the opera, opening Feb. 27. Marta Domingo has previously directed a “Tosca” at Seville’s new Teatro de la Maestranza with the principal cast from the first MCO production of the work, and “Samson and Delilah” for the Puerto Rico Opera Company. Her husband will conduct the first three “Rigoletto” performances here, followed on the podium by resident conductor Randall Behr.

The new David Hockney-designed production of Richard Strauss’ “Die Frau ohne Schatten,” which had its premiere at Covent Garden last month, will be presented in October, 1993, by Music Center Opera, according to several published reports. The work was on a short list of possible season repertory announced by the company last year, but an MCO spokesman says plans are still not confirmed.

The company also says that plans to send its acclaimed “Midsummer Night’s Dream” to Italy cannot be confirmed, but the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania has announced the production--with much the same cast recently heard here--for May, 1993, according to Opera magazine.