NORFOLK, Va. – Virginia Opera, The Official Opera Company of the Commonwealth of Virginia, is excited to announce single tickets for the 2012-13 Season will go on sale Monday, August 6, 2012. The 2012-13 Season features four operas that delve into classic themes of love, jealousy and revenge. The Opera is also offering a special presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved musical Carousel in conjunction with the 2013 Virginia Arts Festival.
The Company opens the season with the Virginia Opera Premiere of The Pearl Fishers on Saturday, September 29, 2012 at Norfolk’s Harrison Opera House. Georges Bizet’s classic tale of the forbidden love shared by two friends for the same woman unfolds on an island fishing village cloaked in mystique. The Pearl Fishers is the second installment in Virginia Opera’s “First of Firsts” series, which features new, season-opening productions of operas never before presented by the Company.
Just in time for the holiday season, Virginia Opera will produce Die Fledermaus by Austrian composer Johann Strauss II. Die Fledermaus is the most widely-celebrated of Strauss’s operettas because of its gorgeous, effervescent music and lilting arias.
The Virginia Premiere of Andŕe Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire is scheduled for February 2013. The opera, which premiered in San Francisco in 1998, is a faithful adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ renowned play of the same title which received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. “Virginia Opera continues its ‘American Opera Cycle’ with Streetcar,” said Robin Thompson, Virginia Opera’s Artistic Advisor. “This series will explore the American opera that reflects our country’s unique take on the art form.”
In April 2013, Virginia Opera will feature Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s comic opera The Marriage of Figaro. Arguably one of the greatest operas ever written, The Marriage of Figaro is a witty, yet profound tale of love, revenge and forgiveness.
Finally, in 2013, Virginia Opera presents Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, TIME Magazine’s “Best Musical of the 20th Century.” Set on the coast of Maine, Carousel is a story of love and redemption surrounding the tragic relationship between a gruff carousel barker and a naïve millworker.
Single tickets for the entire 2012-13 Season go on sale online Monday, August 6, 2012 and will be available by phone or in person through the Box Office for performances in Norfolk and Richmond, Va. Ticket prices range from $25 to $114. Tickets go on sale for performances in Fairfax, Va., on Saturday, September 1, 2012 through George Mason University’s Center for the Arts Box Office. To purchase tickets, visit www.vaopera.org or:
Norfolk:
- Call 1.866.OPERA.VA
- Visit the Virginia Opera Box Office
Harrison Opera House
160 E. Virginia Beach Blvd.
Norfolk, VA, 23510
Richmond:
- Call E-Tix at 1.800.514.3849
- Visit the CenterStage Box Office
Richmond CenterStage
600 E. Grace Street
Richmond, VA, 23219
About Virginia Opera
Virginia Opera is in its 38th year of operation. The Company has a working budget of $6.4 million with over 40 mainstage performances in three markets, reaching nearly 60,000 attendees. In March of 1994 Virginia Opera was named The Official Opera Company of the Commonwealth of Virginia in recognition of the organization’s contribution to the Commonwealth and to the world of opera.