If you’re looking for all things opera, you’re in the right place! The Des Moines Metro Opera is preparing to kick off its 47th annual Festival Season.
The DMMO’s General and Artistic Director, Michael Egel, says “Presenting repertory performances of major works in dynamic contract to one another is a hallmark of Des Moines Metro Opera.” Throughout this summer of 2019, The Des Moines Metro Opera will present Puccini’s La Bohème, Bernstein’s Candide, and Berg’s Wozzeck for their Mainstage Festival at the Blank Performing Arts Center. Hoiby’s Bon Appétit! will be the production for their Second Stage Series at the Iowa Culinary Institute in Ankeny. (Bon Appétit! is sold out, but there is a waiting list!) Don’t miss these incredible performances and all of the unique events surrounding them in June through July. Events include dinners, lectures, and intimate performances. There are events for everyone, including families, children, couples, and friends! For tickets and more information, visit http://desmoinesmetroopera.org/productions/. Tickets are going quickly, don’t wait too long!
The festival runs from June 28 through July 21, 2019, and offers 17 performances of four different operas.
Listen below to hear the DMMO’s General and Artistic Director, Michael Egel discuss the DMMO festival events surrounding the three mainstage operas, and hear exciting details about the opening of the Lauridsen Opera Center.
DMMO’s 47th Festival Season:
The festival begins with Puccini’s La Bohème, “one of the greatest love stories in all of opera” with “a flickering candle and an accidental touch of cold hands in the dark.” This opera takes place in “the heart of Paris as a group of struggling artists strives to create beautiful art, find love and ultimately live life to the fullest in this romantic operatic blockbuster.” Puccini’s famous opera “features some of the most familiar and beautiful music ever written.”
Bernstein’s Candide is “part opera, part musical and entirely irreverent, drawing on everything from European operetta to Latin American dance rhythms.” Inspired by Voltaire’s original operetta, It “sparkles with wit and humor” and the score “abounds with spectacular music.” Audience members will recognize a famous overture, the soprano showpiece “Glitter and Be Gay,” and the soaring finale, “Make Our Garden Grow.” The DMMO’s cast will tell the story with “frenzy, fabulous color and flair!”
Berg’s Wozzeck masterpiece “combines music of intense emotional power with a profoundly dramatic story.” The style that “shocked” listeners at the 1925 premiere still sounds “seamlessly natural today, so perfectly suited to character and incident that the drama and its soundtrack unfold together with utter clarity.”
For tickets and more information, visit http://desmoinesmetroopera.org/productions/.
