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Announcing Youth Auditions for the 26/27 Opera Omaha Season! Opera Omaha will hold auditions for the following PAID roles: -Opera Omaha Children’s Chorus Roster for the 26/27 Season, to participate in Puccini's La bohème (in Italian) and Hanlon and Fleishmann's The Pigeon Keeper. -The role of Kosmo in David Hanlon and Stephanie Fleishmann’s The Pigeon Keeper  (A cover, otherwise known as an understudy, for the role of Kosmo will also be cast). Details for the children’s chorus and named roles: -Age Range: 10–18 years old (younger children with the ability to read music and a strong vocal range will also be considered) -Vocal Range: Treble -No gender preference for these roles ...

DEAR FRIENDS: We are so pleased to welcome you to the first production of the New Year, Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah. As both the composer and librettist for Susannah, Carlisle Floyd was one of the first successful American opera composers. And this opera is quintessentially American. It takes place in rural Tennessee, and you will hear the influence of Appalachian folk melodies and colors in the score and instrumentation. 2026 is the centennial of Carlisle Floyd’s birth, and we are honored to partner with The Carlisle Floyd Foundation in a national celebration of his legacy. Susannah may be one the first successful American operas, but new operas are written by Amer...

Join us for Susannah Friday, January 30, 2026 | 7:30pm Box Office Open | 6:00pm Lobby Open | 6:30pm House Open | 7:00pm Sunday, February 1, 2026 | 2:00pm Box Office Open | 12:30pm Lobby Open | 1:00pm House Open | 1:30pm Orpheum Theater 409 S. 16th Street, Omaha, NE 68102 The performance runs approximately 2 hours, including one 20-minute intermission. Content Warning This production contains a gunshot in Act Two. This production contains appearances of firearms and spoken references to violence and sexual assault. View performance details Before you arrive Construction Please give yourself extra time to navigate construction near the Orpheum Theater. 14th Street is closed between Douglas and Farnam Streets for Mutual of Omaha construction. The Farnam Street bridge is closed until ...

Carlisle Floyd's Susannah sits close to my heart: it draws me to my identity as an American, as a woman, as a member of society at large, as a singer (when I was only 20 years old, it was the very first operatic role I ever performed!), and now it extends its pull on me as a director. Rediscovering this story (loosely based on the Apocryphal account of "Susanna and the Elders" from the Book of Daniel) inspired me in terms of not just its relevance of depicting a community buried in dogma, narrow-mindedness, and intolerance but also, because of the connection between the tale’s truth and the ro...

ACT ONE The people of New Hope Valley, a rural Tennessee town in the Appalachian Mountains, have assembled for a square dance on a hot July night. The Elders’ wives gossip about the beautiful young Susannah, calling her a “shameless wench” raised by a drunkard brother. Reverend Olin Blitch arrives and confidently introduces himself. As the visiting revival preacher, he intends to bring sinners to repentance. Noticing Susannah, he joins her in the square dance. Little Bat walks Susannah home that night. Staring up at the starry sky, she shares her dreams of leaving New Hope Valley. Sam arrives, and Susannah asks him to sing her favorite song before they go to ...

As we celebrate the 100th birthday of Carlisle Floyd, we join the ranks of his innumerable admirers in recognizing his singular stature as the Dean of American Opera. With his death in 2021 at age 95, Floyd left not only a legacy, but also a standard by which modern American opera can justly be assessed. His compositional procedure emphasized the pre-eminence of textual prosody—the music of the text. There’s a reason why his characters seem comfortable in their operatic skin: their creator has vanquished from their stage-language any pretense or stylized contrivance that would interfere with their unalloyed naturalness. Despite a lifetime of steady operatic output that included such operas as W...

As we approach Carlisle Floyd’s 2026 birth centennial, it is mandatory to honor him for the creation of thirteen such groundbreaking operas as Susannah, Of Mice and Men, Cold Sassy Tree, and his last, Prince of Players; yet it further behooves us to recognize that his life and career encompassed the work of at least five men: librettist, composer, educator, administrator, and spokesperson for his craft and its sponsoring institutions. A half-century of teaching at Florida State University (1949-1975) and University of Houston (1975-1996) informed generations of singers, conductors, coaches, and composers; and into his nineties he offered private mentoring to such twentieth- and twenty-first century talents as Mark Adamo, Ma...

Announcing Youth Auditions for Opera Omaha's 26/27 Season! Opera Omaha will hold auditions for two productions featuring the Opera Omaha Children's Chorus, as well as a featured youth role. When: Monday, February 23, 2026 | 6:00PM – 8:00 PM Saturday, February 28, 2026 | 2:00PM – 5:00PM Callbacks will be on Thursday, April 16 from 6-8PM and Saturday, April 18 from 2-5PM. Where: Opera Omaha Leavenworth Studio 2215 Leavenworth Street, Omaha, NE Audition Requirements: Prepare one piece in a language of your choice (no longer than 5 minutes) showcasing your vocal range and ability. A pianist will be provided by Opera Omaha. Please bring a printed or hard copy of your music for the pianist. No iPads, please. You may provide a head...

Announcing Chorus and Comprimario Auditions for Opera Omaha's 26/27 Season and Beyond! Opera Omaha will hold auditions for the following: Opera Omaha Adult Chorus Roster for the 26/27 Season and Comprimarios roles for the 26/27 Season and future seasons. For information on youth auditions click here. When: Monday, February 23, 2026 | 6:00PM – 8:00 PM   Saturday, February 28, 2026 | 2:00PM – 5:00PM  Where:  Opera Omaha Leavenworth Studio  2215 Leavenworth Street, Omaha, NE  Audition Requirements: Prepare two pieces (each no longer than 5 minutes) showcasing your vocal range and ability. Please ensure that at least one of your pieces is in English. A pianist will be provided by Opera Omaha. Please bring a printed or hard copy of your music for the pianist. No iPads, please. You may provide ...

THE LESSONS OF SUSANNAH After half a century, Carlisle Floyd’s opera still has much to teach us By Roger Pines Susannah has been performed thousands of times over the past seven decades. It reaches out to seemingly every audience, not just with Carlisle Floyd’s magnificent yet instantly accessible music, but also with a story that has never lost its relevance. This was a deeply personal work for Floyd. Although its hymns and folk-like moments were entirely his own, they were very much in the spirit and tradition of music he’d always known. As a child he attended revival meetings, which he remembered as “very terrifying,” with an unnerving ...