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American opera has suffered enormous hardships since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced an immediate termination of live performances and normal operations. Nonetheless, artists and organizations responded to the crisis with extraordinary ingenuity, devising new ways of presenting opera and using the field’s extraordinary resources to keep the art form alive.
New Venues, New Ideas
Forced out of their traditional performing venues, companies came up with innovative solutions for producing opera in unexpected places, generating a new kind of excitement in their stagings of live opera.
Opera Lafayette’s production of The Blacksmith, with Sarah Shafer, Arnold Livingston Geis, Dominique Cote, Joshua Conyers, Pascale Beaudin, and Frank Kelley (photo: Paul Boyer)
Megan Marino in The Atlanta Opera’s Big Tent production of Pagliacci (Ken Howard)
Patricia Racette in Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’ outdoor La voix humaine (photo: Eric Woolsey)
Avery R. Young in Twilight: Gods at Lyric Opera of Chicago (photo: Kyle Flubacker)
Prosper Makhanya, Kayla Nanto, Sarah Ann Holt, and Jordan Hammons perform on The Dallas Opera’s Operatruck. (photo: Karen Almond)
Audiences for Il trovatore at The Glimmerglass Festival (photo: Karli Cadel)
San Francisco Opera’s drive-in Barber of Seville (photo: Stefan Cohen)
Lights, Camera, Action!
With the mounting of live opera out of reach, a number of organizations set their sights on the digital realm, initiating projects that took their creative teams into previously unexplored territory.
Alexandra Lobianco on set for Seattle Opera’s Tosca (photo: Philip Newton)
Nicole Heaston in Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera, a Houston Grand Opera production (photo: Bend Productions)
Kimberly Jones in Haymarket Opera Company’s Acis and Galatea (photo: Anna Cillan)
Pittsburgh Opera’s Semele, with Maire Therese Carmack and Véronique Filloux (photo: David Bachman)
Hawai’i Opera Theatre’s world premiere of Hometown to the World, with Ian Mcguffin, Sarah Lambert Connelly, and Maya Hoover (photo: courtesy HOT)
Justin Vivian Bond in Boston Lyric Opera’s desert in (photo: Michael Elias Thomas)
On the set of Opera Philadelphia’s Soldier Songs (photo: Dominic M. Mercier)
Artists at the Forefront
Facing an imposed hiatus from normal performing activities, some of the field’s most prominent singers launched online projects, directly bringing their activities and their ideas to computers, tablets, and smartphones worldwide.
Hera Hyesang Park visits Sondra Radvanovksy and Keri Alkema’s Screaming Divas.
Angel Blue welcomes Anna Netrebko to her talk show Faithful Friday.
An episode of Karen Slack’s Kiki Konversations with Afton Battle and Russell Thomas
Streams of Consciousness
Preexisting filmed performances became a valuable resource during the pandemic. A number of companies dipped into their archives to offer streamed opera, maintaining their connection to their established audience, widening their geographical reach, and forging bonds with new followers.
Sondra Radvanovsky in Roberto Devereux at San Francisco Opera (photo: Cory Weaver)
Minnesota Opera’s Das Rheingold, with Mary Evelyn Hangley, Alexandra Razskazoff, and Nadia Fayad (photo: Cory Weaver)
Jordan Rutter and Danielle Pastin in Three Way, from The American Opera Project (photo: Steven Pisano)
