A look ahead to 2004-05 in the arts.

Byline: Fred Crafts The Register-Guard

There's a Chuck Berry song that goes: ``Roll over Beethoven / And tell Tchaikovsky the news.''

Well, the big news for Pyotr Tchaikovsky is that the Eugene Symphony, after a two-year investigation of Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies, will be playing many of the Russian master's greatest hits next season, in two concerts that conductor Giancarlo Guerrero describes as ``Tchaikovsky in a pressure cooker.''

If you love Tchaikovsky, whom Guerrero calls "probably the most popular composer of them all," then you'll be in heaven.

Scheduled are the waltz from "Eugene Onegin," the Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35, and the Andante Cantabile from the symphonic fantasy "Francesca da Rimini." And that's just the first concert (Jan. 27).

The second concert (Jan. 29) will be a total blowout: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23, "Romeo and Juliet" Fantasy Overture and the ``1812 Overture.''

Quips Guerrero, "It's Super Bowl weekend for us."

Other local arts officials are proudly talking about their 2004-05 seasons, exuding a spirit of optimism not felt for some time.

Money is always an issue in the arts, and it's been especially hard to come by since 9/11. But arts leaders, who had to trim back on staff and productions, are now feeling more confident.

So local arts groups, even before this season has ended, are tantalizing audiences with mentions of what they have in mind for next season and are getting their subscription ticket offers rolling.

Not all arts organizations have finalized their plans, but enough is known at this time to give a sense of what's coming:

Drama

Willamette Repertory Theatre will spice up its lineup with three play readings, raising its output to five events next season. "Reading in Rep" (May 20-22), in the Hult Center's Studio One, will feature local actors reading "The Big Knife" by Clifford Odets, "A Lie of the Mind" by Sam Shepard and "Bicycle Country" by Nilo Cruz.

The main season, in the Soreng Theatre, will include Ted Swindley's musical "Always ... Patsy Cline" (Nov. 24-Dec. 12); Michael Healy's drama "The Drawer Boy" (Jan. 28-Feb. 13); and the George Kaufman-Moss Hart comedy classic "You Can't Take It With You. (April 6-24).

Founding artistic director Kirk Boyd will direct the two latter plays. The season will open, as usual, with the revue "Ashland Salutes Willamette Rep" (Oct. 25) in which Oregon Shakespeare Festival actors sing, dance and act in short sketches.

With its 75th season celebrations behind it, the Very Little Theatre will offer a solid five-play season (dates have not been set): The farce "Footlight Frenzy"; the murder mystery "Ravenscroft"; Stephen Sondheim's fairy tale musical "Into the Woods"; Oscar Wilde's comedy "The Importance of Being Earnest"; and Arthur Miller's classic "Death of a Salesman."

Another new revue inspired by incidents in the lives of its performers awaits the Encore Theatre next season. What that show will be will largely be determined by who is in the cast. But director Eliza Roaring Springs and songwriter Lydia Lord plan to open it in February, and to tour their TRUTHeatre workshops, do two residencies at juvenile detention facilities, perform programs for the public and teach inquiring theatrical minds from around the nation exactly how they do it so they can do something similar back home.

Since Cottage Theatre operates on a regular calendar (January-December), it won't pick all of its six plays for next season until June. However, one production definitely will be the stage version of Ken Kesey's novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

Musicals will dominate the Actors Cabaret of Eugene's season in the cabaret: The new Broadway smash "Seussical: The Musical" (Sept. 17-Oct. 23); the West Coast premiere of Doug Kattsaros' "Oh, Rats!," inspired by the Pied Piper of Hamlin (Oct. 29-Nov. 13); the movie-inspired musical "The Wizard of Oz" (Nov. 19-Dec. 18); and Cole Porter's classic "Kiss Me Kate" (March 18-April 16).

Two other plays are to be announced.

The ACE Annex season has eight productions in the works (dates are set so far for just one): Frederick Knott's thriller "Wait Until Dark" (Sept. 10-Oct. 2); Lanford Wilson's "Fifth of July"; Beth Henley's "The Miss Firecracker Contest"; Neil Simon's "Chapter Two"; Phillip Barry's "The Philadelphia Story"; Paul Rudnick's "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told"; Sam Shepard's "A Lie of the Mind"; and the third annual East Coast/West Coast One-Act Festival.

ACE's Youth Academy will present "Guys and Dolls Jr.," "Really Rosie" and "Once on This Island Jr."

Comedy will begin and end the season at the Lord Leebrick Theatre, which will be presenting three Eugene premieres: "Three Days of Rain"; "The Goat"; and "Copenhagen." The latter two recently won Tony Awards for best new play. Two other titles will be announced.

Daring new plays will dominate the University Theatre's season in the Robinson Theatre at the University of Oregon: "Good Morning Athens," a new rock musical based loosely on Aristophanes' "Lysistrata" (Nov. 5-20); Arthur Miller's classic "A View From the Bridge" (Feb. 25-March 13); and a new play, "Kafka's Parables," to be developed by professor/director John Schmor and students, inspired by writer Franz Kafka (May 13-28).

Dance

Three favorites and a new work will make up the Eugene Ballet Company's season. First up is Toni Pimble's choreography to Felix Mendelssohn's music for William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Oct. 23-24). Next comes a reprise of the holiday favorite "The Nutcracker" (Dec. 17-19), then the return of Dennis Speight's sensual "Scheherazade" (April 16-17). But perhaps the highlight will be the premiere of Pimble's tour of Neverland in "Peter Pan" (Feb. 19-20).

Growth is on the mind of the Dance Theatre of Oregon, which will return to its three-production schedule, with a potpourri program featuring the premiere of Marc Siegel's "Midway," an untitled work by Pamela Lehan-Siegel and dancing by the Oregon Festival Choirs (Nov. 19-20); a new version of "Gems of the Valley," with pianist Robert Ashens and singer Carol Ann Manzi, plus other guests (Feb. 25-26); and a family-oriented show whose subject is still being decided (May 21-22).

Music

Who are the best young singers in America? Eugene audiences will find out in a new regional vocal competition being launched by the Eugene Opera (Feb. 13).

The event will encourage the public to follow its favorites as they proceed through a competition to a concert. At the end, 10 finalists will give a staged concert and others will do scenes from favorite operas. The repertoire will be announced later. Winners will take home cash prizes; some may be invited back for future Eugene Opera productions.

Although a Gilbert and Sullivan light opera such as ``H.M.S. Pinafore'' may float the public's boat (Eugene Opera's two performances in March were nearly sold out), the opera company isn't about - to mix some cliches - to milk that cash cow to death.

Instead, it will put its back into two all-time hits, Johann Strauss's "Die Fledermaus" on New year's Eve (Dec. 31 and Jan. 2) and Giuseppe Verdi's ``Rigoletto'' (March 11 and 13). Both will be conducted by artistic director Robert Ashens.

The organization also plans an expanded educational program in the schools.

The Oregon Mozart Players' artistic director and conductor, Glen Cortese, will be on the podium for all of the chamber orchestra's concerts next season.

He opens with "Symphonic Starter," featuring Victor Steinhardt in W.A. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 (Oct. 9-10), then goes to "Harvest Moon Serenade" with tenor Marc Deaton singing Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (Nov. 13-14).

"Baroque for the Holidays" will return (Dec. 12-13), this year - combined with the popular Candlelight Concert. The season also includes "The Trumpet Shall Sound" (Jan. 8-9), featuring Robert Sullivan in Johann Hummel's Concerto for Trumpet; "The Song of the Earth" (Feb. 19-20), the world premiere of Cortese's chamber music adaptation of Gustav Mahler's "Das Leid von der Erde"; and "Where Loves Lies" (April 30-May 1), featuring soprano Amy Burton and composer John Musto.

Of all the inviting concerts planned by Eugene Symphony Orchestra conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, the one he talks the most about will feature Tchaikovsky's bombastic ``1812 Overture,'' a work that, he laments, has ``become synonymous with the Fourth of July, cannons and outdoors.''

"I'm sorry," he corrects, ``1812 is a great indoors overture. This is a chance to play probably the most popular of his works the way it was intended to be."

Guerrero grows louder and more animated as he builds up steam over the 2004-05 season, his third with the Eugene Symphony.

Back will be "two old friends" - pianist Jon Nakamatsu, winner of the 1998 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and violinist Jorja Fleezanis, concertmaster of the Minneapolis Orchestra. Both were here last season.

Other soloists include guitarist David Tanenbaum, violinist Stefan Jackiw, pianists Stewart Goodyear and Adam Neiman and mezzo soprano Milagro Vargas.

Beethoven, whose music the orchestra has explored over the past two years, will return as well, in the form of his Third Piano Concerto. "We need to do Beethoven at least once a year," Guerrero says. "Or at least I do."

While Beethoven is key to the Eugene Symphony, Christmas plays a similar central role for the Eugene Concert Choir, which always draws crowds with its "An Old-Fashioned Christmas" program involving the choir, the Oregon Mozart Players, guest artists, youth choirs and local celebrities.

Next year's holiday concert wrinkle will be excerpts from Benjamin Britten's St. Nicholas Mass. The Don Latarski Band and Marilyn Keller have been invited back, as have the Oregon Festival Choirs and Oregon Children's Choir. The Eugene Vocal Arts Ensemble will also don its Elizabethan finery to sing some really olde carols.

After that, the Eugene Vocal Arts Ensemble will present the premiere of Eugene composer Jon Sutton's five-part work "The Family of Man" (Jan. 22), which employs poignant quotations from Chief Seattle, Carl Sandburg, Kahlil Gibran, William Shakespeare, William Blake and others.

Rounding out the season are three blockbuster concerts: "On Broadway!" a historical exploration of musical theater favorites (March 4-6); a program of a cappella works by the Eugene Vocal Arts Ensemble and - if arrangements can be made - Cantus, a chamber choir from Corvallis' "Sister City" Uzhgorod in the Ukraine (April 16); and Mozart's choral masterwork Grand Mass in C minor (May 7), by the Eugene Concert Choir, Oregon Mozart Players and four professional soloists.

Besides the major concerts, the chorus will present "Singing a Masterwork," which it does every three years to involve elementary and middle school children in performing a portion of a choral masterwork (Mozart's Grand Mass in C Minor, May 5).

The esteemed Chamber Music Series at UO's Beall Concert Hall will bring in the St. Lawrence String Quartet, with clarinetist Todd Palmer, playing the Eugene premiere of a work by composer Osvaldo Golijov (Oct. 21); the Ying String Quartet and the Turtle Island String Quartet engaging in "A Battle of the Quartets" (Nov. 11); the Philharmonia Quartett Berlin - four premier players from the Berlin Philharmonic - (Jan. 20); the Paris Piano Trio, in an all-French program (Feb. 15); and Concertante playing two wind/string works (March 3).

The Hult Center Presents series is taking shape. So far it includes Carlota Santana and Company in "Flamenco Viva" (Oct. 15), the Turtle Island String Quartet playing music by Miles Davis (Nov. 10), the contemporary music revue "Latinas: Women of Latin America" (Nov. 14), singer/dancer Tommy Tune, with the Manhattan Rhythm Kings, in a Broadway/vaudeville review (Jan. 23) and a fully staged production of Giuseppi Verdi's "Aida" by Opera Verdi Europa (May 4). Look for other shows to be added later.

The Oregon Festival of American Music plans five concerts in its American Symphonia series. James Paul will be on the podium for at least two of the concerts. Programs and artists are still being worked out.

The same goes for OFAM's "Now Hear This" series. The Assad Brothers (Nov. 16), Ken Peplowski (Dec. 17), Regina Carter (Jan. 28) and Darol Anger (Feb. 5) are the only shows booked so far, but negotiations are under way to present some 20 to 30 additional artists.

Meantime, OFAM's Emerald City Jazz Kings will do four programs: "A String of Pearls" (Oct. 21 and 24); "Clarinet Marmalade: Goodman, Shaw and Herman," with reed whiz Peplowski (Dec. 17); ``Come On and Hear: American Standards 1900-20'' (Feb. 17 and 20) and "Cocktails for Two: Humor in Popular Music and Jazz" (May 19 and 21).

OFAM also will keep The Shedd busy by launching a new "Shedd Casuals" series featuring local musicians and by continuing its Saturday morning "Magical Moombah" series.

Reach Fred Crafts at 338-2575 or [e-mail].