Opera in the Ozarks, the summer music festival and prominent opera training program based in Eureka Springs, kicks off its 2024 Summer Season this month with dozens of exciting opera productions and special musical events across the region.
The 2024 Season, “Enchanted Evenings,” begins on Friday, June 21, and continues through Friday, July 19, at Opera in the Ozarks’ mountainside venue, Inspiration Point, located on Highway 62, overlooking Beaver Lake five miles west of Eureka Springs.
The new season will feature a talented cast of singers along with professional musicians from across the country.
“We have assembled a company of 37 wonderful singers who will convene on our mountain this summer, and the always wonderful orchestra will be at full strength with 25 instrumentalists, ready to thrill you with their beautiful music making,” says Nancy Preis, Opera in the Ozarks General Director. “Together they will perform 22 fully staged and costumed opera productions, including three Sunday matinees.”
Now in its 73rd season, this year’s “Enchanted Evenings” repertoire includes three exceptional operas: Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata, Robert Ward’s The Crucible, and a double bill featuring Vittorio Giannini’s Beauty and the Beast and Maurice Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges, plus additional special events at locations throughout Northwest Arkansas.
“Each of the featured operas this season explore the concept of enchantment,” Preis explains. “La traviata is about the enchantment of love; The Crucible is all about folks being accused of witchcraft, a form of enchantment with an ugly twist; and in the double bill, L’Enfant et les sortilѐges is literally about a child and his enchanted toys and other household items, while Beauty and the Beast is the classic story of love’s transformative powers — another form of enchantment.”
The three main-stage productions will be staged on a rotating basis throughout the season, with evening performances at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 3 p.m.
Beyond the 22 main-stage performances in Eureka Springs, there will also be more than a dozen performances of a traveling outreach production at locations throughout the Northwest Arkansas region, including area libraries, schools, retirement centers, and more. The traveling opera this summer will be Little Red’s Most Unusual Day, by John Davies — the story of Little Red Riding Hood, set to music by Offenbach and Rossini. Featuring Opera in the Ozarks’ Studio Artists, all performances of Little Red are free.
In addition, audiences will enjoy the always exciting Chamber Music concert on July 15 at Inspiration Point, and not one, but two Broadway Cabarets. One cabaret will be in Fayetteville on July 11 at Mount Sequoyah (7 p.m.) and will include heavy hors d’oeuvres, and the other will be in Eureka Springs on July 16 at the Crescent Hotel (6 p.m.) and will include dinner (both cabaret venues will have cash bars). These cabaret performances will feature a variety of popular songs from Broadway shows, performed by members of the Opera in the Ozarks company.
Tickets may be purchased online at opera.org, or by calling the box office at 479253-8595. For more information, including a complete list of performance dates and other details, visit opera.org.
