Opera Omaha Launches Inaugural ONE Festival

Broadway World
Opera News Desk, Dec. 20th 2017

Opera Omaha, Nebraska's sole opera company, celebrates its 60th anniversary season with the launch of ONE Festival (derived from Omaha, NE), running April 6-22, 2018. Expanding Opera Omaha's commitment to innovative work, the inaugural ONE Festival, led by Festival Artistic Director James Darrah, includes over fifty multi-disciplinary performances, installations, conversations and explorations of the operatic form.

ONE Festival is anchored by two premiere productions: the first fully-staged, professionally-sung production of Proving Up by Missy Mazzoli (pictured right) and Royce Vavrek, directed by Darrah himself and co-commissioned by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha, and Miller Theater; and Luigi Cherubini's Medea, in a production by Fiona Shaw and conducted by Jane Glover.

Surrounding these premiere productions is a Performance Series comprised of three multidisciplinary presentations: unconventional takes on Handel's Ariodante, John Adams' The Dharma at Big Sur, and Annie Saunders' new on-site creation, The Wreck. The audience enters the creative process for R. B. Schlather's wild approach to Handel's Ariodante, wherein open sessions become distinct live performances and listeners freely come and go. Adam Larsen generates an immersive video installation to The Dharma at Big Sur featuring a one night only live performance by electric violinist Tracy Silverman. And Director Annie Saunders works with Ukrainian electric/folk composer Mariana Sadovska for The Wreck, melding feminist literary works and spoken texts with excerpts from art songs and arias, for a 60-minute immersive experience.<

Says Opera Omaha General Director, Roger Weitz, "Opera is a multidimensional art form, one that is greater than the sum of its parts. With the ONE Festival, a cadre of world-class artists from far and near are coming together in the heart of the country to engage the community with the most dynamic, innovative, and collaborative work being done in the field of opera today."

Travel and ticket information may be found at: www.onefestivalomaha.org.