Marin Alsop, Baltimore Symphony returning to Carnegie Hall for Honegger work

announces its season before the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra does, which means I can now report a little something about the 2011-12 lineup:

In November, Marin Alsop and the BSO will perform Arthur Honegger's extraordinary oratorio from the 1930s, "Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher" ("Joan of Arc at the Stake").

This enticing news is contained in the Carnegie season announcement, released Wednesday. Local fans of the orchestra will, I assume, hear the oratorio a few days before the New York date. The BSO's most recent Carnegie appearances were last November, when Alsop led the orchestra in two well-received concerts.

It's obvious that a few details about the 2011 program have yet to be settled at the BSO, since the Carnegie calendar listing looks like this:

BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage

Saturday, November 19, 2011 at 8:00 p.m.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Marin Alsop, Music Director and Conductor

Tenor to be announced

Tenor to be announced

Bass to be announced

Soprano to be announced

Alto to be announced

Chorus to be announced

Children's chorus to be announced

Additional artists to be announced

Stay tuned for the filling in of the blanks when the BSO reveals its full 2011-12 lineup in the weeks ahead.

UPDATE: I have since learned that Alsop will first conduct "Jeanne d'Arc" in July at the Oregon Bach Festival in a semi-staged version directed by James Robinson, artistic director of Opera Theatre of Sant Louis. That version will be re-created in Baltimore and NY. Among the soloists slated for the  Oregon presentation is soprano Tamara Wilson, who has done notable work for Washington National Opera.

AP PHOTO OF A PORTRAIT OF JOAN OF ARC