Seattle—Single ticket sales for Seattle Opera’s productions of Verdi’s Trovatore and Falstaff are now on sale. Tickets for the company’s other two 2009/10 productions — Verdi’s Traviata and the world premiere of Daron Aric Hagen’s Amelia — went on sale in June.

Verdi’s Trovatore opens at McCaw Hall on January 16 and runs for eight performances through January 30. This passionate tale of love, secrets, and revenge is an intense masterpiece of sound and spectacle, featuring numerous familiar tunes.

Tenor Antonello Palombi and soprano Lisa Daltirus — who shared the stage last season in Seattle Opera’s production of Aida — return to the company as the lovers Manrico and Leonora. The Friday/Sunday cast features tenor Arnold Rawls in his Seattle Opera debut as Manrico, alongside Mary Elizabeth Williams, a former Seattle Opera Young Artist, making her Seattle Opera mainstage debut as Leonora.

Mezzo-soprano Malgorzata Walewska, who made her Seattle debut last season as Judith in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, sings the role of the gypsy Azucena, alternating with Mary Phillips.

Baritone Gordon Hawkins, who sang Donner and Gunther in Seattle Opera’s 2009 Ring cycle, returns to the role of Count di Luna, which he sang in the company’s 1997 production. Baritone Todd Thomas alternates with him in the role of the oath-bound count.

In February and March, the merry wives of Windsor unite in mischief-making when an ignoble nobleman plots to plunder their savings. Falstaff integrates the knight’s pithiest observations from Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays into the plot of Merry Wives, creating an opera that is equal parts orchestral virtuosity and riotously paced comedy.

Bass Peter Rose and bass-baritone Eduardo Chama alternate in the role of the portly knight, with bass-baritone Simone Alberghini and baritone David Won alternating in the role of Ford.

Stephanie Blythe, a 2009 Artist of the Year for her portrayal of Amneris in Aida, sings Dame Quickly at all eight performances. Svetla Vassileva, in her Seattle Opera debut, alternates with Sally Wolf in the role of the mischievous Alice Ford.

Tickets for Il Trovatore and Falstaff can be purchased at seattleopera.org starting September 12. On September 14, phone and in-person sales begin. Tickets may be purchased at Seattle Opera’s ticket office, 1020 John Street (two blocks west of Fairview), or by calling 206.389.7676 or 800.426.1619.