Cincinnati Opera has announced casting for its 2001 Summer Festival in Music Hall. As in recent seasons, many singers will be appearing here for the first time. Artistic director Nicholas Muni will direct one production (Nabucco).

        After record-breaking subscription sales last season, the company is expanding to 10 performances of four operas.

        Puccini's Madame Butterfly (June 21, 23 and 29), conceived by Francesca Zambello, will be directed by Garnett Bruce, who interned with Leonard Bernstein and Harold Prince before launching his career.

        Beijing soprano Chen Sue makes her Cincinnati debut as Cio-Cio San; Suzuki will be sung by Chinese mezzo Zheng Cao, a former Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera.

        American tenor Marcus Haddock is Pinkerton; British baritone Ashley Holland will make his U.S. debut as Sharpless.

        Wagnerian bass-baritone Alan Held, a regular at the Metropolitan Opera, will make his Cincinnati debut in the title role of Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle (June 28 and 30). British mezzo Susan Parry (last year's Herodias in Salome) will return to sing his wife, Judith.

        The double bill includes Schoenberg's Erwartung, where the central role of The Woman will be sung by Danish soprano Inga Nielsen, in her debut. She is slated to perform the same role in a new production of Erwartung in London's Covent Garden in Spring 2002.

        Francois Racine will direct the double bill, conceived by the Canadian Robert Lepage. French maestro Stephane Deneve conducts.

        Mozart's The Magic Flute (July 12,14 and 20), created by famed children's books illustrator Maurice Sendak, will be directed by David Gately, with Antony Walker conducting.

        Tenor Charles Castronovo, a Met young artist, will sing Tamino; Pamina will be sung by Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian. Thomas Goerz will sing Papageno (Papagena has not yet been announced) and Irish soprano Cara O'Sullivan will make her U.S. debut as Queen of the Night. The only returning cast member is Arthur Woodley (Sarastro), who sang Colline in La Boheme.

        The company premiere of Verdi's Nabucco (July 19 and 21) is a new production by Peter Werner, designer of last year's controversial Salome. Edoardo Muller conducts.

        Georgian baritone Lado Ataneli will make his U.S. debut in the title role of Nabucco, and soprano Lauren Flanigan will return as his daughter, Abigaille. American mezzo Carmella Jones sings Fenena. Returning singers include Mark Doss (Zaccaria) and Scott Piper (Ismaele).

        Subscriptions: 241-2742.
       

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