At this moment in Hamon Hall at the Winspear Opera House, the Dallas Opera is announcing its next line-up of productions — its 53rd season, its second in the Winspear. And if there’s no world-premiere blockbuster like Moby-Dick, opening in April, there is Boris Godunov, which will finish the season next April, the first time the DO has presented Modest Mussorgsky’s opera and the first time anyone has offered it in Dallas since 1978.

The production is from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (above, the 2003 Covent Garden staging), and it will feature celebrated bass Mikhail Kazakov of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater in the title role (you can see a video of his stunning Bolshoi Boris here), as well as Elena Bocharova as Marina, Vitaly Efanov as Pimen and, as Rangoni, the return of legendary bass-baritone  Sergei Leiferkus, who appeared in the DO’s Fidelio and Lohengrin. The DO’s Graeme Jenkins will direct.

Read about the other four operas below the fold.

The season opener is Don Giovanni — with, in the title role, Paulo Szot, the baritone who won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his Emile de Becque in the Broadway revival of South Pacific. (You can see his Some Enchanted Evening here.) Soprano Georgia Jarman will play Donna Elvira and Claire Rutter will sing Donna Anna, bass Morris Robinson will be the Commendatore. Nicolae Moldoveanu will conduct, John Pascoe will direct and design — he did the “Mozart meets The Matrix” Giovanni production in 2007 for the Washington National Opera.

A new DO production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena will run in “semi-repertory” with Don Giovanni. Music director Graeme Jenkins will conduct, Stephen Lawless will direct, while Armenian soprano Hasmik Papian — last seen in the DO’s Roberto Devereux in 2009 — will play the young second wife of Henry VIII, who will be portrayed by bass Oren Gradus.

Romeo & Juliet will follow, with Marco Zembelli making his Dallas Opera debut as conductor with Michael Kahn, artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., directing a production originally designed for the Montreal Opera. Russian soprano Lyubov Petrova — last seen here in The Marriage of Figaro — will sing Juliet opposite tenor Charles Castronovo making his DO debut as  Romeo.

Last performed in Dallas in 2001, the popular Rigoletto will return — for the first time in the Winspear and in ‘semi-rep’ with Godunov. Conducted by Pietro Rizzo — who made his American opera debut with the DO’s La Boheme last year — the Verdi opera will be staged by Harry Silverstein with sets by the Tony Award-winner and former Dallasite, Michael Yeargan. Bulgarian baritone Vladimir Stoyanov will make his DO debut in the title role, with Texas-born coloratura soprano Laura Claycomb as Gilda and tenor James Valenti as the Duke — Valenti won the Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year Award for his Rodolfo in the DO’s La Boheme.

The 2010-2011 season of “Dangerous Desires” at a glance:

Don Giovanni (Oct. 22-Nov. 7)

Anna Bolena (Oct. 29-Nov. 14)

Romeo & Juliet (Feb. 11-27)

Rigoletto (March 25-April 10)

Boris Godunov (April 1-17)

Current subscribers will be able to renew their seats beginning April 1. New subscriptions will go on sale June 7, single tickets in August. Full season subscriptions for the 2010-2011 season will range from $90 to $1,125 for members of the general public. Inner Circle seating may be higher. For tickets and information, call the Dallas Opera office at 214-443-1000 or go to the DO’s website.