Opera Boston to offer more shows at Cutler

Opera Boston will present Gian-Carlo Menotti's ''The Consul," Emmanuel Chabrier's operetta ''L'Etoile," and Donizetti's ''Lucrezia Borgia" for its 2005-2006 season.

This is the same number of operas as this season, but the company will expand the number of performances in the Cutler Majestic Theatre from two to three for each production, adding Tuesday evening to the previous Friday night and Sunday afternoon performances. Company music director Gil Rose will lead all three works.

''We are happy to continue our exploration of operetta and our mission of presenting an American opera every year," says Opera Boston's general director, Carole Charnow.

Next season, the company continues its emphasis on New England singers, as well.

''The Consul," Oct. 21-25, will star Boston-based soprano Joanna Porackova in the show-stopping role of Magda Sorel, who is desperately seeking a visa so she and her family can escape from a totalitarian regime. Porackova enjoyed the greatest successes of her career when she sang this role a couple of years ago for the Washington National Opera. Others in the cast will include contralto Marion Dry, tenor Fank Kelley, baritone David Kravitz, and bass Daniel Cole.''We are very proud to give Joanna the opportunity to repeat the great success she had in Washington, D.C., in her hometown," says Charnow.

''L'Etoile" (''The Star") until recently was considered a connoisseur's piece, rarely heard outside France. A production at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y., that later traveled to the New York City Opera put the piece on the American map a few years ago. The cast for the performances next March 3-7 includes soprano Heather Buck (from the Opera Unlimited production of Thomas Ades's ''Powder Her Face" a couple of years ago), tenor Torrance Blaisdell (a New England Conservatory alum who was in the Gimmerglass production), and baritone Drew Poling. Scott Edmiston, who staged ''Nixon in China" for the company, returns to direct the work with new sets and costumes.

''We inquired about bringing the Glimmerglass production here," Charnow says, ''but it wouldn't fit onto our stage, and we couldn't work out the financing and scheduling. So we are going to do our own production."

''Lucrezia Borgia" was chosen as a vehicle for Barbara Quintiliani as soon as the curtain came down on the Quincy soprano's performances of Verdi's ''Luisa Miller" last season. Others in the cast April 28-May 2 will be tenor Justin Vickers, mezzo Kathryn Friest, and bass Bert Johnson.

Subscription brochures can be requested at 617-451-3388. Single tickets go on sale after Labor Day at Telecharge, 800-233-3123.