Opera Philadelphia Returns with O Festival
Premiere Opera Company Surprises and Delights
By: Susan Hall - Mar 15, 2022
- The return of Festival O in September, featuring the company premiere of Rossini’s Otello at the Academy of Music with Lawrence Brownlee in his 18th Rossini role debut, as Rodrigo, opposite young South African tenor Khanyiso Gwenxane in his American stage debut as Otello.
- Opera on Film, a film festival within Festival O, with theatrical screenings of new and classic opera films – both short form and feature length – that charts a collaborative future for cinematic opera. On March 15, we will open a Call for Entries encouraging producers and artists to submit their film projects to be screened in Festival O.
- The world premiere of David T. Little and Anne Waldman’s Black Lodge, a combination surrealist film and live rock opera performance produced by Beth Morrison Projects.
- The company premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s The Raven, based on the Edgar Allan Poe classic, in an immersive new production from Toronto-based director Aria Umezawa.
- Yuval Sharon’s bold staging of Puccini’s La bohème in reverse order—starting with Act IV and ending with Act I.
A more extensive description is coming! See the website here.
Frank Luzi, Vice President of Opera Philadelphia, has been noted for his contributions to streamed opera during the Covid epidemic.