Season opens in October with Rossini’s The Italian Girl, followed by Verdi’s Aida in February
Tulsa Opera is adding Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods and a Tulsa Youth Opera production of Alice in Wonderland to its 75th anniversary season. The season opens with the company premiere of Rossini’s The Italian Girl on October 28 and 30, followed by a gala concert performance of Verdi’s Aida on February 25.
“We are delighted to bring to the stage these two different takes on fairy tales – one, Sondheim’s fantastical collision of Brothers Grimm characters, and the other, the U.S. premiere of the opera version of Lewis Carroll’s classic – to Tulsa Opera’s 75th anniversary season,” said Aaron Beck, Tulsa Opera artistic director.
“Into the Woods and Alice in Wonderland round out a stellar lineup for Tulsa Opera’s landmark diamond-jubilee season,” said Ken McConnell, Tulsa Opera general director. “With Rossini’s classic The Italian Girl staged for the first time in Tulsa and a star-studded cast for a concert production of audience-favorite Aida, we are delivering a season that spans the best our art form has to offer.”
Into the Woods takes the place in the season schedule, May 12 and 14 at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, previously occupied by Emmeline. Ticket holders for Emmeline can use those same tickets, without need for exchange, for Into the Woods.
Season and individual performance tickets are on sale now! Buy tickets online or call the ticket office at 918-582-3133. The ticket office is open from 9am-1:30pm Monday-Friday.
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Here is the latest information about each production:
The Italian Girl
Friday, October 28 & Sunday, October 30
VanTrease Performing Arts Center for Education
The 1813 comic opera The Italian Girl (L’italiana in Algeri) is one of several seminal works by Gioachino Rossini through which he came to be known as the “Italian Mozart.”
Singing the role of the title character, Isabella, is mezzo-soprano Allegra De Vita who made her Tulsa Opera debut as Maddalena in the company’s Baseball Rigoletto. Bass-baritone Ashraf Sewailam, who has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, stars as Mustafà.
Aida
Saturday, February 25
Tulsa Performing Arts Center
Tulsa Opera returns to the Tulsa Performing Arts Center for its 75th-anniversary gala concert production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida in concert with costumes and commissioned scenic projections.
The production features one of today’s most noted Verdi sopranos, Michelle Bradley, in the title role. Tenor Limmie Pulliam will perform as Aida’s beloved, Radamès, a role he will first cover with the Metropolitan Opera.
Into the Woods
Friday, May 12 & Sunday, May 14
Tulsa Performing Arts Center
Stephen Sondheim’s popular 1987 musical, Into the Woods, intertwines the plots of several Grimm fairy tales, including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Beanstalk. The musical won Tonys for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical and remains one of Sondheim’s greatest hits.
Ann Toomey, acclaimed for her rich voice and widely recognized as an actress, will perform as the Witch. Cinderella will be Jana McIntyre, a former Tulsa Opera Filstrup Resident Artist whose most recent Tulsa performance was in the 2019 production of Don Giovanni. Jack will be Tulsa native and Filstrup Outreach Artist Sam Briggs, who has starred in such musicals as American Theatre Company’s production of Sunday in the Park With George and won the 2019 Tulsa Sings! Competition.
Alice in Wonderland
Saturday, June 10 & Sunday, June 11
Lorton Performance Center at the University of Tulsa
This Tulsa Youth Opera production will be the U.S. premiere of Alice in Wonderland by contemporary Italian composer Pierangelo Valtinoni. The 90-minute family opera of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale premiered in April 2021 in Hong Kong.
The Tulsa production will be performed in English with orchestra.
Tulsa Youth Opera is a tuition-free training program for singers in grades 3-12. Tulsa Youth Opera provides weekly training from music professionals, which includes vocal technique, foreign language, acting, movement, and performance skills. Performances are scheduled throughout the year.
2022-23 Season On Sale Now!
Celebrate our 75th season! See The Italian Girl, Aida, & Into the Woods.
Single tickets start at $65. Bundle two or more shows and save BIG on tickets!
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Illustration by Colleen Stiles