(Reuters) - The American architect Frank Gehry will be the stage designer of a new production of the Christoph Gluck opera "Orfeo ed Euridice" for Berlin's Staatsoper, the company announced on Monday in unveiling its 2015-2016 season.
Daniel Barenboim, the Staatsoper's music director, and Juergen Flimm, its general manager, also announced a new production of Richard Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg" will be the season opener on Oct 3, with Barenboim conducting his 20th Wagner production for the company.
Among the singers appearing during the next season will be Anna Netrebko, Placido Domingo, Rene Pape, Waltraud Meier, Sonya Yoncheva, Bejun Mehta, Magdalena Kozena, Rolando Villazon and Jonas Kaufmann, the Staatsoper announced in a press release.
Gehry, one of the world's foremost architects, has engaged in arts projects in the past, including appearing in an episode of the popular television animated satire "The Simpsons". He also designed a set for a concert staging of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in Los Angeles in 2003.
The 18th-century Gluck opera for which he will do the stage design will be the main premiere production for the Staatsoper's annual FESTTAGE festival at Easter, the house said.
The Staatsoper has used the Schiller Theater rather than its usual venue of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden while the main house is being renovated, but it has sold out 90 percent of the seats in the current season, the company said.