Mar7

Samson and Delilah 101: Characters and Synopsis

The epic tale of Samson and Delilah emerges from the pages of its biblical origins to an opulent spectacle in Saint-Saëns’s opera. This indulgent display of stunning visuals and dance includes well-known arias such as “Mon cœur s’ouvre à...

Read more
Dec18

The Flying Dutchman 101 – Characters and Plot

Imagine you are sitting at your local bar and a man enters, dressed like a pirate from the eighteenth century. How would you react? In Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, this mysterious stranger is met with suspicion by most. Luckily,...

Read more
Sep26

Don Giovanni 101 – Characters and Plot

Don Giovanni takes the legendary character of Don Juan and sets his escapades to Mozart’s sweeping music. This serial womanizer, along with his trusted servant Leporello, gallivants around Spain attempting to seduce as many women as possible. While he...

Read more
Mar27

Turandot 101—Characters and Plot

By: Betsy Schwarm and Angelica DiIorio We close our 40th Anniversary Season with Puccini’s larger-than-life fantastical drama, Turandot, from May 6 to 14.  This opera features some of the most gorgeous arias in the repertoire, including “Nessun dorma.”Before you head...

Read more
Dec19

Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) 101 – Plot

By: Bethany Wood and Angelica DiIorio Korngold’s early twentieth-century masterpiece Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) may not be as familiar as some of the other operas in our 40th Anniversary Season, but it will quickly become one of...

Read more
Oct25

Rigoletto in Pop Culture

By: Jennifer Colgan Some of the best-known opera arias have made their way into movies, commercials, video games, and more, hundreds of years after the composer set their pen to paper. Have you ever wondered what causes some opera...

Read more
Sep20

Rigoletto 101 – Characters and Plot

By: Suzanne Whitney & Bethany Wood The 2022-23 Season marks four decades of songs and stories at Opera Colorado. We are kicking off our 40th Anniversary Season with an Italian classic! Rigoletto is one of the archetypal operas for a...

Read more
Aug23

Cavalleria rusticana 101—Musical Style

By: Betsy Schwarm In 1888, Pietro Mascagni (1863 – 1945) heard of a competition for one-act operas. With four complete operas to his name, the Italian composer was on the verge of submitting one excerpted act of his historical...

Read more
Aug4

Cavalleria rusticana 101 – Characters and Plot

By: Suzanne Whitney & Betsy Schwarm As the American composer Paul Moravec says, “opera is about three things: love, death, and power,” and that could not be more true for Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana. This one-act opera may only be seventy-five...

Read more
More posts