Spoleto Festival USA announces 2010 lineup

The Spoleto Festival USA, running May 28 to June 13, has announced its schedule of events for 2010.

Its restoration complete, the Dock Street Theatre again is a showcase venue. The storied theater reopens in May with a festival production of "Flora," thought to be the first opera ever performed in the American colonies.

Apart from "Flora," festival highlights include the U.S. premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's opera "Proserpina"; Geoff Nuttall in his new role as Spoleto Festival USA director for chamber music; the return of Dublin's Gate Theatre in Noel Coward's "Present Laughter"; the Colla Marionette Company's production of Franz Joseph Haydn's marionette opera "Philemon and Baucis"; and the ballet "Giselle," danced by Nina Ananiashvili and the National Ballet of Georgia.

Also, the revival of Lucinda Childs' "Dance," a seminal collaboration with Philip Glass and Sol LeWitt; the festival debuts of jazz vocalists Lizz Wright, Norma Winstone and Fabiana Cozza; the U.S. premiere of Daniel MacIvor's "This Is What Happens Next"; and the return of festival favorites the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who will headline the Festival Finale.