From the General Director | Susannah

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 American composers every year and the canon of American opera continues to grow in this significant anniversary year for both Carlisle Floyd and the United States.

Susannah is inspired by the apocryphal story of "Susanna and the Elders" from the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. It is not a literal retelling, but it explores similar themes around innocence, injustice, and social structures of discrimination.

Storytelling has been a fundamental method to teach life lessons for centuries, since preliterate times. Stories, and in this case opera, are a safe way to experience unsafe situations without having to live those difficult realities ourselves. What we learn from Susannah is a painful lesson—that the very people who should protect each other can be unduly influenced by the destructiveness of mob mentality.

It is my hope that we leave the theater and remember to think critically and independently, and to treat others with “lovin’ kindness,” as Susannah’s brother Sam says.

Looking ahead, we have three operas still to come this season: Handel’s Hercules featuring the world-renowned English Concert on Friday, March 13, Bluebeard’s Castle with the Omaha Symphony on Friday, April 24 and Saturday, April 25, and the continuation of our Family Opera Series with UnShakeable from June 5-7.

And we have announced our 26/27 Season, which is the most varied of my tenure at Opera Omaha, and I am genuinely excited and proud of each title.

We open with Opera Outdoors at a new venue, Stinson Park in Aksarben. Then, in September, we feature GRAMMY Award-winning baritone and composer Will Liverman in concert at Slowdown (one night only!). In November, we celebrate the holiday season with Puccini’s La bohème, not seen in Omaha since 2016.

January brings the third installment of the Family Opera Series with The Pigeon Keeper, a new opera that we will perform at The Rose Theater. We head back to the Orpheum in March for Ariadne auf Naxos, the first opera by Richard Strauss to be programmed by Opera Omaha. And The English Concert returns at the end of April with Handel’s Alessandro, which has only been performed in the United States one time since its composition in 1726. Subscriptions are on sale now—you don’t want to miss a show!

Thank you for believing in the value of our work, and for being part of our community. We are sincerely grateful.

All best wishes,
Allison Swenson
GENERAL DIRECTOR