Pittsburgh Opera’s season has 5 operas and world premiere
Pittsburgh Opera has announced its 2024-25 season featuring five operas and a world premiere, “Woman With Eyes Closed.”
This is one fewer than the six operas of recent seasons, reflecting increased costs affecting the arts at this time.
“Cost increases are outpacing revenue increases,” said Chris Cox, director of marketing and communications.
“This is not the new normal. We’d like to get back to six operas as soon as we can.”
Pittsburgh Opera is experimenting with ways to capture new audiences, including offering free Uber vouchers for patrons heading Downtown and childcare at upcoming performances.
The opera has also started offering an “Opus Pass” that allows purchasers to attend whenever they’d like. This $20 monthly pass — $240 for a one-year commitment — is more akin to a Netflix subscription than a traditional arts subscription.
The season kicks off in October with a classic, Puccini’s “Tosca,” before continuing with a double feature: Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci.” In 2025, the series continues with the baroque opera “Armida” with music by Haydn and another Puccini favorite, “Madama Butterfly.”
The season closes with a new opera, “Woman With Eyes Closed” with music by Brooklyn-born composer Jennifer Higdon and a libretto by Jerre Dye. The story centers on a woman who must confront her son’s misdeeds after discovering that he’s stolen priceless paintings. The opera probes the value of art and will have three different possible endings.
The season also includes the customary special events: the Diamond Horseshoe Celebration in September, the annual Fashion Show in April, the black-tie Maecenas XL in May, and a variety of other community and free programming, including the new “Bravo Academy summer camp for rising sixth through ninth graders.
Around the country, some opera companies have canceled productions or even entire seasons in recent years. The winds of philanthropy in the arts are changing to emphasize more socially conscious programs and programming, while attendance remains somewhat erratic since the pandemic.
In general, opera companies in cities that are seeing population and GDP increases — Atlanta, Houston, Columbus and others — are faring better and even seeing growth. Companies in cities with population decline are struggling more. (Pittsburgh lost population
in the last census.) There are, of course, exceptions.
Pittsburgh Opera subscriptions to the opera are on sale now, with packages beginning as low as $30. The opera, like other arts organizations, has been experimenting with more flexible subscription options as the traditional full-season subscription model continues to decline around the world.
Single tickets will go on sale in August and start at $15.
Here are details of the 2024-25 season:
“Tosca:” Oct. 5-13 at the Benedum Center. Music by Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.
When painter Cavaradossi — the lover of Rome’s enchanting diva Floria Tosca — harbors a fugitive of the law, he makes himself and his beloved Tosca a target of the corrupt chief of police. Now it is up to Tosca to free both her lover and herself from the chief’s clutches by making a horrific bargain that will have consequences for them all. Ana Maria Martinez makes her Pittsburgh Opera debut as Tosca, while Kyle Albertson returns as the evil Scarpia.
“CavalleriaPagliacci:” Rusticana”/” Nov. 917 at the Benedum Center. Cavalleria Rustican features music by Pietro Mascagni and a libretto by Guido Menasci and Giovanni TargioniTozzetti; “Pagliacci” features music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Both operas are about husbands discovering their wives’ infidelity and the aftermath. Eve Gigliotti makes her Pittsburgh Opera debut as Santuzza in “Cavalleria,” while Ricardo Jose Rivera” debuts as Silvio in “Pagliacci.”
“Armida:” Jan. 25-Feb. 2 at Pittsburgh CAPA School Theater. Music by Franz Joseph Haydn, libretto from Antonio Tozzi’s “Rinaldo” and amended by Nuziato Porta. The enchantress Armida attempts to seduce the Christian heroes of the First Crusade, but she falls for the knight, Rinaldo. This production features the opera’s resident artists.
“Madama Butterfly:” March 22-30 at the Benedum Center.
One of the top-selling operas of all time, “Butterfly” is about a U.S. naval officer’s selfish marriage to a Japanese girl, his abandonment of her and his eventual reunification with his child. Many audiences object to the use of stereotype in this opera, and this production has been updated by an allJapanese and Japanese American creative team to a modern tale where the naval officer is actually a video gamer using a virtual reality headset. Karah Son makes her Pittsburgh Opera debut as Cio-Cio-San, while other new voices include Mazomi Kato and Eric Taylor.
“Woman with Eyes
Closed:” April 26-May 4 at the Bitz Opera Factory.
From the opera’s website: “When Mona finds a mysterious suitcase filled with stolen masterpieces, she must grapple with a choice to save these priceless paintings or save her son — the thief. Burning the paintings would destroy the evidence of her son’s crime, but one of the paintings — Lucien Freud’s ‘ Woman With Eyes Closed’ —looks just like her own mother, a painter who died when Mona was young. The uncanny resemblance unlocks long-buried memories that fuel the fires of three different possible endings.”
Meredith Arwady debuts as Mona in this world premiere production commissioned by Opera Philadelphia. Opera Philadelphia was unable to premiere the work due to the pandemic. Music by Jennifer Higdon; libretto by Jerre Dye.