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music by Robert Xavier Rodríguez
book by Hilary Blecher
lyrics and monologues by Migdalia Cruz
Friday | January 26, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday | January 28, 2024 at 2 p.m.
Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts
sung in English with some Spanish with English and Spanish supertitles
No one was more “All for Art” than the incredible Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, and her life story takes Steinmetz Hall by storm this January as Opera Orlando presents Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s operatic celebration of the artist in Frida. This poetic and beautiful retelling of Frida’s life reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality, an artist whose sensual vibrancy came straight from her experiences: her childhood during the Mexican Revolution; a devastating accident at age eighteen that left her crippled and unable to bear children; her tempestuous marriage to muralist Diego Rivera and intermittent love affairs; her association with the Communist Party; her absorption in Mexican folklore and culture; and her dramatic love of spectacle.
Robert Xavier Rodríguez’s score, written for chamber orchestra, mixes mariachi-style orchestrations, classical opera, and hints of Mexican folk songs for an authentic, alluring musical reflection of Frida all played masterfully from the pit by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Argentinian maestro Jorge Parodi, who makes a return to the Company. Collaborating with maestro Parodi in developing this all-new production will be stage director John de los Santos making his Company debut. Opera Orlando welcomes back Mexican-American soprano Cecilia Violetta López to sing the iconic title role, and Venezuelan baritone Bernardo Bermudez makes his Company debut as Frida’s formidable husband Diego Rivera.
Full of life, full of death, full of wonder, full of pain: Frida is an operatic ride of the most satisfying sort—a sweeping tale of a woman who fulfills her most passionate desire and remains true to herself. Hardly any woman of the 20th century is as unique as Frida Kahlo, and hardly any work captures Frida’s spirit as completely as this opera’s intricate and proud portrait of the iconic Mexican artist’s life.
The cast also includes 2023-24 studio artists, members of the Opera Orlando chorus, and members of the Opera Orlando Youth Company. Frida will be sung in Spanish and English with Spanish and English supertitles and have a run time of approximately two hours and twenty minutes with one intermission.
presents
music by Gaetano Donizetti
libretto by Salvadore Cammarano
Steinmetz Hall at
Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts
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Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World is based on the book of the same name by Laurence Anholt. Share the book with your little ones, then join us for these community performances.
Music by Joe Illick
Libretto by Mark Campbell
Adapted from the book Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World by Laurence Anholt
Commissioned by Fort Worth Opera
By arrangement with Barbara Hogenson Agency, Inc.
If you have never been to an opera, this one should be on your bucket list. The city of Orlando is truly blessed to have world-class opera right here at the Dr. Phillips Center at Steinmetz Hall.
Tosca was inspired by Giacomo Puccini when he saw the play, La Tosca in Rome by French playwright Victorien Sardou, in 1899. Obtaining the rights, he spent four years translating the work into Italian.
From entering Steinmetz Hall, a grand architectural marvel, you leave behind the turmoil of the world today and escape into the turmoil of Rome in 1800 during Napoleon’s threat of invading Italy. Josh Shaw (Stage Director) staged the performers perfectly with a well-balanced beautifully artistic set by Grant Preisser (Scenic Designer). Preisser framed the stage with large paintings that he selected by Anne-Louis Girodet, a famous French painter during the Napoleonic era.
This opera has one of the most romantic scores and the conductor, Eiki Isomura led the orchestra from power to the sublime.
We meet Floria Tosca, a diva who transforms from bitch, loyal bitch, heroine and ends with martyrdom. The amazing soprano, Eleni Calenos plays her perfectly with all the nuances and thoughtful acting transitions. Ms. Calenos sang the premiere aria, “Vissi d’arte” with so much emotion the audience was elated. Her acting was excellent and proved she could not only sing Tosca she became Tosca.
Nathan Granner (Tenor) was charming in his role as Cavaradossi, Tosca’s love interest and the town painter and revolutionary. His portrait of another beautiful woman is the cause of Tosca’s jealousy and suspicion in Act I. Granner hit with power and passion “E lucevan le stelle.”
While these two star-eyed lovers are bantering, Baron Scarpia, played by Daniel Scofield (Baritone) has other sordid and dark ideas to thwart their love. Wanting Tosca for himself, he has Cavaradossi arrested and plans his execution, pinning Tosca to decide if her love lives or dies. Scofield is excellent in this role as the villain with convincing wickedness.
The Opera Orlando Youth Company was an absolute delight. The children’s voices were heavenly.
In the words of stage director Josh Shaw, “I encourage you to get lost in this heart-wrenching story for the next two hours.”
music by Giacomo Puccini
libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Sung in Italian with English supertitles.
Estimated run time of two hours and twenty minutes including one intermission.
This production is graciously underwritten by Audrey & John Ruggieri.
TICKETS: start at $29
Opera Orlando presents Puccini’s tragically grand Tosca to kick off its 2023-24 All for Art MainStage series. As war and rebellion ravage the city of Rome, the celebrated and passionate opera diva Floria Tosca finds herself caught in a web of religious and political intrigue, betrayal, and jealousy as she tries to save her lover the painter and firebrand Mario Cavadorossi, while being coveted by the villainous and corrupt Baron Scarpia, who holds all the power. It is an utterly untenable situation that proves dire for all involved, but Tosca isn’t one to back down from a fight.
This taut melodrama unfolds on stage at Steinmetz Hall in a brand new and sumptuous production led by stage director Josh Shaw, making his return to Opera Orlando, and conductor Eiki Isomura who is making his Company debut, with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra in the pit. They are joined by an international cast that includes Greek-soprano Eleni Calenos as the luminous and fiery Tosca with acclaimed tenor Nathan Granner as the fearless and dashing Cavaradossi. They are both making their Company debuts, while baritone Daniel Scofield, last seen as Sheriff Jack Rance in Opera Orlando’s site-specific production of The Girl of the Golden West, returns to Orlando as the treacherous and forceful Scarpia.
The cast also includes 2023-24 studio artists, members of the Opera Orlando chorus, and the Opera Orlando Youth Company. Tosca will be sung in Italian with English supertitles and have a run time of approximately two hours and twenty minutes with one intermission.
Experience Degas at the Opéra, and view the first show dedicated to Edgar Degas’s fascination with the Opéra—its spaces, the music, and the people surrounding the thriving theatrical life of 19th-century Paris. Click on the different colored dots to read wall texts, listen to the audio tour, watch related video clips, and more.
This is the New York Premiere.
Set in Restoration England during the time of King Charles II, Prince of Players follows the story of Edward Kynaston, a Shakespearean actor famous for his performances of the female roles in the Bard’s plays. When the King grants permission for women to appear onstage, and forbids male actors from continuing to appear in female roles, Kynaston must relearn his entire craft or face the end of his career..
Adapted from Jeffrey Hatcher’s play A Compleat Female Stage Beauty and the subsequent 2004 film Stage Beauty, the opera was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera. It received its world premiere this past March 2016 at the HGO Studio. Since the performances in Houston the composer made a few small revisions, which will be heard for the first time in this production by the little OPERA theatre of ny this February 2017 at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College.
At its premiere in Houston, Carlisle Floyd’s opera Prince of Players received praise from the Houston Chronicle as being “beautifully realized with an electrifying score,” and The Classical Review celebrated its “fiery, heaving music.” Opera News praised the work’s “rich, full-ensemble sweeps of emotional color” and Floyd’s adaptation that “evoked the sinister harshness of Restoration-era London [through the score’s] harmonic and rhythmic distortions.”
