GUADALAJARA - An avalanche of top-notch opera talent will light up the Degollado Theater between now and mid-December, as the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) sees out the year in fine style.

Guadalajara is an “operatic city,” JPO Director Hector Guzman acknowledged this week, while talking to the local media about the new season, which gets underway on Friday, October 24.

“We would like to bring more (opera) here but it isn’t always possible,” he said of the high cost of staging operas.

With a budget of only 800,000 pesos to work with, there won’t be any staged operas this season, but some fine singing performances can be expected.

Guadalajara’s most famous baritone, Flavio Beccera, will be honored in the second program (Oct. 30 & 31), dedicated to Verdi’s “La Traviata.” Local talents Alma Rocio (soprano) and Luis Ignacio Gonzalez (baritone) get a chance to shine in the opening program. U.S. tenor Alan Glassman and Italian baritone Marzio Giosso top the bill in the Puccini gala (Nov. 7 & 9), while soprano Monica Chavez, who resides in Germany, makes her major operatic debut in her home country in the fifth program (Nov. 28 & 30).