The new season will bring a promising mix of repertoire, with four different operas to be staged at four different venues including the Boston Opera House, where the season will open on Sept. 23 with Bizet’s “Carmen.” It will continue with Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Greek” at the Paramount Center; Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress” at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, and Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” at John Hancock Hall at the Back Bay Events Center. Singers slated for next season include Jennifer Johnson Cano (as Carmen) and Jane Eaglen (Mother Goose in “The Rake’s Progress”).

Boston Lyric Opera, in the wake of a decision last fall to leave its longtime home at the Shubert Theatre, has been quietly redrawing the map of its own future. This week the company unveiled both the details of its upcoming 2016-17 season and the state of its search for a new home.


The opening “Carmen” is significant, as this production, according to BLO, will mark the first time that an actual opera will be heard in the Opera House since the days of Sarah Caldwell’s renowned Opera Company of Boston, which closed in 1990.

What’s more, this particular “Carmen” will be a new American version of a European staging by the famed (and famously provocative) Spanish director Calixto Bieito, arriving as part of a co-production with the San Francisco Opera that will serve as Bieito’s US operatic debut. In previous years, the modest dimensions of the Shubert Theatre stage steered the BLO toward partnerships with mid-tier regional opera companies, precluding the possibility of working with top national houses such as SFO, whose productions are built to larger stage dimensions. In essence, the new possibilities for BLO’s next chapter will be manifest from its very first production outside of the Shubert.

Whether this “Carmen” remains a one-off glimpse of real opera at the Opera House remains to be determined. The venue’s two main tenants — Broadway Across America and the Boston Ballet — typically claim the bulk of the site’s available dates for their own presentations. On a BLO-convened conference call with local media on Wednesday, Opera House executive director Jim Jensen explained that the opportunity to bring in “Carmen” was created in part because Broadway Across America will be cutting back on its fall offerings because of a ripple effect of the upcoming election season: namely, limited access to local television advertising, on which it depends.


Esther Nelson, general director of Boston Lyric Opera David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

That opera’s grand return to the iconic venue bearing the art form’s name — for the first time in more than a quarter-century — comes through such a peculiar array of circumstances underscores the precariousness of opera’s place in Boston’s crowded cultural market place. Venue options are severely limited, and non-profit producers such as BLO must compete with commercial presenters.

Yet while BLO is at a distinct disadvantage in finding space at the Opera House, given its agreements with its current tenants, the company may be on stronger footing going forward. BLO general director Esther Nelson clarified that her company is currently part of a joint proposal submitted to Emerson College for future use of the Colonial Theatre. Other partners in this proposal include Broadway Across America, Live Nation, and the Celebrity Series, though Live Nation president Don Law described BLO as “in the lead” with this proposal.


If Emerson rejects the proposal, Nelson said BLO will explore other options, including building a temporary modular structure for use during the period that the company, the community, and the city finalize plans for a permanent home.

Beyond the enticing promise of new venues, BLO also stands to benefit from its newfound freedom from ticketing rules that governed its tenure at the Shubert Theatre. “For the first time in 18 years, we are going to be able to have direct contact with our single-ticket buyers,” Nelson said. “We are no longer beholden to Telecharge. This means we are able to improve our patron service, to react to our patrons, and we are able to avoid [extra ticketing] fees. Plus, we offer a lot of other events beyond our performances that our patrons often didn’t know about, because we couldn’t communicate with them.”

Asked if she would consider expanding BLO’s future seasons beyond its current number of four productions, Nelson sounded a cautiously hopeful note. “If we have a venue that is suitable for not-for-profit producers, that allows us to rehearse in an affordable way, and to be able to plan two or three years out, I would very much like to increase the variety and the breadth of our season in a way that is sustainable but also artistically exciting.

“Facilities are expensive, there’s no way around it,” she added. “But other cities have figured out a way to solve this problem.”

Jeremy Eichler can be reached at jeichler@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Jeremy_Eichler.