The Atlanta Opera just announced that its 2011-12 season will include Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Mozart’s Don Giovanni, as well as a new comic opera based on the Roald Dahl children’s book Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Composer Peter Ash will conduct his new opera The Golden Ticket in Atlanta next March.
There are operas about historical characters and events, fairy tales, Biblical figures, and even about celebrities. In fact, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, is producing a new opera this month about the infamous Playboy centerfold Anna Nicole Smith!