Though Opera Philadelphia’s 2019–2020 season has been cut short due to the continued bans on mass gatherings during the coronavirus shutdown, the company will present a festival of some of its previous productions online.
The majority of titles in the Digital Festival come from Opera Philadelphia’s “Festival O,” which takes place at the start of each season across various venues, presenting new and classic works of various scales. “It is our hope to see everyone in September at Festival O20, but until that time, Festival O stands for Online,” General Director and President David B. Devan said in a statement.
The series kicks off May 1 with composer Philip Venables and librettist Ted Huffman’s Denis & Katya, which made its world premiere at last year’s Festival O19. The 2017 world premiere of Daniel Bernard Roumain and Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s We Shall Not Be Moved will follow May 10.The company’s 2014 production of The Barber of Seville will stream May 15. Two more world premiere productions will round out the May lineup: Lembit Beecher and Hannah Moscovitch’s 2018 Sky on Swings (May 22) and the 2016 staging of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Breaking the Waves (May 29).
All evening streams will be available on OperaPhila.org and on the company’s YouTube channel.
