MEET OUR NEW BOARD CHAIR! We chat with incoming OSB Board Director Nicholas Burlett about Tosca, tech companies, and his latest cocktail creation, “the Ersatz Albanian”. . What was your first opera? My first live in-person opera was Opera Santa Barbara’s 2009 production of Carmen. I......
In life and in the arts, we make our entrances and exits. It’s always a bittersweet feeling when a show is finished, but we can always look forward to the next opera with excitement, knowing that a new kind of magic will once again astound......
Diane Louise Dodds-Reichert January 7, 1947-March 22, 2022 A Remembrance by David Reichert For eleven years I had the privilege of being Diane’s loving partner. After four years, we married, and this past April 11 would have been our seventh anniversary. As she was hospitalized,......
Opera Santa Barbara Ends Season With a Wow by Leslie Dinaberg Let me preface this by saying that I am not even remotely qualified to be an opera critic. For an insightful music guru’s wisdom and cultural/historical context, look at our senior arts writer......
Puccini, Rossini, Wagner, and more: one of each, one performance only. Save the dates now! TOSCA 1900, by Giacomo Puccini Drama/Thriller Sung in Italian with English supertitles Run time: 2 hours and 5 minutes Granada Theatre Saturday, October 1, 2022, 6pm The great diva has......
Two Singers and a String Quartet Portray One Person by Charles Donelan It’s rare to see an opera with both as much new about it and as much to recommend it as As One, which had its Santa Barbara debut last weekend at the......
By Richard Mineards Opera Santa Barbara was again in fine form when it presented Handel’s Semele at the Lobero, which was first performed in 1744 at London’s Covent Garden. A fusion of elements of opera, drama, and oratorio, the popular work is taken from Ovid’s......
Opera Santa Barbara Halloween Double Feature By Charles Donelan Opera Santa Barbara is on a roll this season, offering uplifting programs that please audiences while revealing the potential of inter-organizational collaboration to enrich our performing arts community. The El amor brujo of Manuel De......
Opera Santa Barbara Teams Up with Grammy-Winning Mariachi Los Camperos by Charles Donelan Look no further for a sign that life has returned to our grand performance venues than Opera Santa Barbara’s thrilling production of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna. Propelled by a......
• Joyce Familara Bids Farewell to Opera SB • Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong. —Terry Pratchett This could not be more true of what it feels like for those of us who work behind the scenes and......