Past Performances
Opera Santa Barbara recently celebrated its 30th Anniversary Season. The company has staged more than 70 operas and is committed to producing a diverse repertoire of traditional and contemporary operas.
Friday, November 8; Sunday, November 10
Ruggero Leoncavallo, 1892
A classic tale of lust, jealousy, and murder inside a troupe of comedians. This new production by Octavio Cardenas and Daniel Chapman is set in 1930’s Italy, inspired by Italian neorealist cinema.
Friday, February 21; Sunday, February 23
Wolfgang A. Mozart, 1786
Mozart’s masterpiece of seduction, mistaken identities, and master/servant rivalries set on a luxury ocean liner in the 1930’s. Projection and set design by Sara Widzer and Yuki Izumihara, who created Opera SB’s Semele at the Lobero in January 2022. Starring a Southern California cast featuring almuni of our Chrisman Studio Program including Colin Ramsey, Sunwoo Park, and Jennifer Lindsay. Kostis Protopapas conducts the Opera Santa Barbara Chorus and Orchestra.
Friday, May 2; Sunday, May 4
Gaetano Donizetti , 1840
A girl raised on the battlefield by a rowdy French Regiment falls in love with an enemy peasant boy, in the ultimate bel canto romantic comedy full of melodies and vocal fireworks. Starring Jana McIntyre, and directed by Pacific Opera Project’s irrepressible Josh Shaw.
Fri, Sep 29, 2023 (7:30pm) & Sun, Oct 1, 2023 (2:30pm)
Georges Bizét, 1875
Georges Bizet’s verismo opera ‘Carmen,’ based on a French novella, is about a fiery young woman who seduces a soldier, ultimately leading to his demise.
Fri, Nov 10, 7:30pm - SB & Sun, Nov 12, 2:00pm - Thousand Oaks
Greek soprano Eleni Calenos, has portrayed Puccini and Verdi heroines throughout the United Stated in performances that were hailed as “for the ages, both vocally and dramatically” by Opera News, “searing…, mercurial, heart-on-the sleeve” by The Wall Street Journal, and “a true wonder” by the Houston Press.
Metropolitan Opera Competition 2022 Grand Prize winner Jana McIntyre has performed with Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Arizona opera, in addition to several roles with Opera Santa Barbara. Jana, whose repertoire includes baroque and bel canto operas, contemporary works, and musical theater, has been praised for her “dancer’s grace, mercurial wit, and vibrant soprano tone” by Opera News and her “…movie star looks and the poise to match” by Opera Wire.
The program will include selections from Maria Callas’ signature repertoire, such as The Barber of Seville, Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto, and Norma.
Dec 1–3, 2023
Xavier Montsalvatge , 1948
El Gato con Botas originally premiered in Barcelona in 1948. Rarely performed, this age-old children’s story tells of the wealth-seeking, match-making cat who, in return for a hat, a sword and a pair of boots, secures for his young master (a lowly miller) a kingdom and a royal marriage to a princess, tricking a slow-witted ogre out of his castle along the way.
From its opening Montsalvatge’s music is energetic, tuneful and full of catchy rhythms, lush melodies and feline musical effects!
(via MidWalesOpera)
This one hour production features current and former members of our Chrisman Studio Artist Program and is perfect for the whole family.
Fri, Feb 9, 2024 (7:30pm) & Sun, Feb 11, 2024 (2:30pm)
Giuseppe Verdi, 1853
Verdi’s dark historical melodrama Il Trovatore (“The troubadour”) is a story of superstition, revenge, and ill-fated love set in medieval Spain and contains some of Verdi’s most passionate melodies including the famous “Anvil Chorus”.
Fri, Apr 19, 2024 (7:30pm) & Sun, Apr 21, 2024 (2:30pm)
Héctor Armienta, 2022
Hector Armienta’s swashbuckling adventure Zorro is based on the adventures of Johnston McCully’s legendary pulp hero, the dashing masked vigilante who defends the commoners and indigenous peoples of California against tyrannical officials.
Giacomo Puccini, 1900
The great diva has it all: beauty, talent, friends in high places, love, and an unshakeable faith in God. She lives a charmed life, blissfully unaware of the dystopia that surrounds her. All that will change in one harrowing day and night, in Puccini’s nail-biting melodrama.
Gioachino Rossini, 1812
Every night beautiful Giulia lowers a silk ladder from her window for her lover to climb to her bedroom. A series of misunderstandings turns their little love nest into a circus of relatives, suitors, and servants plotting, eavesdropping, and ultimately happily reconciling, in a blast of Rossini’s glorious vocal acrobatics.
Jack Perla, 2013
Treasured possessions become symbols of their lost homes for two women during World War II: a Japanese American facing incarceration and a German Jewish immigrant preoccupied by those she left behind, in Jack Perla’s 2013 drama.
Adam Guettel, 2005
March 23, 24, 25 and 26
Based on the 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer, The Light in the Piazza tells the story of Margaret Johnson, a wealthy Southern woman and her daughter Clara, who falls in love with a young Italian man during a vacation in Italy.
Richard Wagner, 1870
Lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde provoke the wrath of the Gods of Valhalla, who decree the death of Siegmund. Brünnhilde, the titular Valkyrie, defies her father Wotan, leader of the gods, to rescue Sieglinde and the couple’s unborn child.
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