A new season will kick off at the Bucharest opera on October 17 with the show Otello, the Opera's first première this fall.

Later on during the year and in 2014, other premières are planned at the Opera, which will also undergo a short period of reconstruction in the meantime.

The premiere of the opera show Rigoletto, directed by Stephen Barlow, one of the most famous opera directors in the world, is scheduled for 2014.

Before that, however, December will bring the première of the ballet La Sylphide, by choreographer Johan Kobborg, who for years has been the on stage partner of Romanian ballerina Alina Cojocaru at Covent Garden in London.

Faust will return in December on the Bucharest Opera stage after a several-year hiatus.

Another première will be that of the Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, in which soloist Marcello Giordani will perform.

Without mentioning when the revamping process of the Opera will start, but saying it will be a very short process, the Opera director Răzvan Ioan Dincă said the reconstruction will end with the first edition of the Opera Ball.

In the meantime, October shows will include, besides Otello, which will be performed on October 17 and 19, Il barbiere di Sevigla, Swans' Lake, Carmen, La Boheme, and Gisele, among others.

Tickets for opera shows in Bucharest can be bought online here (page in Romanian, opening an online account required), and cost between RON 8 and RON 65 (EUR 1.8 to EUR 14.7).

editor@romania-insider.com