Our own Dawn Fatale (pictured) dreamt up the Konzept for the following challenge, to which La Cieca is sure the cher public will respond with their usual zeal and whimsy. In this game, it is up to you to program the 2011-12 season for Opera Orchestra of New York, based on a set of criteria to be revealed after the jump.

The traditional way of casting at OONY is to pull in singers who are in New York for other engagements: for example, on February 14, 2000, the company presented Lucrezia Borgia, starring Renée Fleming, who at that time just completing a run of Der Rosenkavalier at the Met. So your challenge is this: come up with a repertoire of five operas-in-concert for the “TBA” dates announced that can be cast principally from artists who are at the time in town singing at the Met, with the New York Philharmonic, at Carnegie Hall, or elsewhere in our fair city. (I won’t say New York City Opera, because, well, you know.)

Here are the dates to be booked:

  • Tuesday, November 8, 2011
  • Monday, December 12, 2011
  • Sunday, January 29, 2012
  • Wednesday, March 7, 2012
  • Tuesday, May 15, 2012

And, for your reference, here’s a copy of the complete Met schedule with lead casting for 2011-12: [Season Calendar]

Please enter your suggested repertoire and casting for each date as a comment. After the competition closes Wednesday, June 15, at midnight, La Cieca’s blue-ribbon panel of experts will select three winning entries, one in each of the following categories: Most Plausible, Most Demented, and Campiest. The author of each of the winning entries will be awarded an Amazon gift card. (As in all things, La Cieca’s decisions about eligibility, timeliness and campiness are subject to whim.)

Start casting!

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