July 19, 21. The 2002 season will also be the first in the opera's 82-year history without an opera by Verdi or Puccini. We're taking a year off,'' said opera artistic director Nicholas Muni. That doesn't mean there'll be no old favorites at the '02 summer festival. Mozart's ''The Marriage of Figaro,'' both to be mounted in traditional, period productions.
Every opera deals with a family in some sort of crisis.
Though composed nearly a century ago, it, too, will be a Cincinnati Opera premiere. Baritone Jean-Francois Lapointe, star of last season's ''Pelleas and Melisande,'' will sing Mercutio. Casting for ''Dead Man Walking'' and ''Figaro'' are incomplete. Dean Man Walking'' a big event. Sister Helen Prejean, whose order, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, is based in Cincinnati, will be here for the opening.