The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang A. Mozart
September 20th at 7:30pm & 22nd at 2:00pm, 2024 – Foster Family Theater, Gallo Center for the Arts
The Marriage of Figaro takes place on Figaro’s wedding day. Figaro and fiancé Susanna are furnishing a new room that their master the Count has given them. It turns out that the only reason the Count has made such a generous gift is to keep Susanna nearby. When Figaro finds out, he is furious and vows to outsmart the Count. Together with Susanna, the abandoned Countess and the page boy Cherubino (who adores all women, especially the Countess), they create a cunning plan to ensnare him. Disguises, mistaken identities, and a lot of hiding in (and under) things abound in this great comedy by Mozart – Sung in Italian, with English supertitles.
Around the World Concert
December 8th at 2:00pm, 2024 – Prospect Theater Project
This concert combines vocal soloists and instrumentalists of all ages, as they celebrate the many cultural backgrounds in the great Central Valley and beyond, while telling personal stories about the relevance of the music and languages in their own lives.
Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdink
January 18th at 2:00pm & 19th at 2:00pm, 2025 – The State Theater
Hansel and Gretel, the opera, is based on the beloved fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. Hungry and bored, Hansel and Gretel dance and sing instead of doing their chores. Their angry mother sends them into the enchanted forest to search for food to eat, and so begins a great adventure…they encounter the magical Sandman and Dew Fairy, and stumble upon a mysterious, edible house, which turns out to be inhabited by a terrifying, child-eating Witch! Will Hansel and Gretel escape with their lives, or will they be cooked and eaten? Spoiler Alert! – They live happily ever after…but the witch doesn’t! Opera Modesto’s magical production is filled with beautiful tunes, great voices and joyful fun for the entire family (plus a few scary moments with the Witch)! Sung in English, Hansel and Gretel is a treat for the entire family.
Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi
May 2nd at 7:30pm & 4th at 2:00pm, 2025 – Foster Family Theater, Gallo Center for the Arts
Opera Modesto’s General Director, Roy Stevens, will star in the title role of Falstaff, a role he has performed to great acclaim on four continents.
Verdi’s Falstaff is often called the greatest operatic comedy ever composed and is based primarily on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. This heartwarming comedy tells of the knight Sir John Falstaff who has fallen on hard times and schemes to get his hands on some cash by romancing two wealthy wives of Windsor – Alice Ford and Meg Page. However, when these best friends find out that he has sent them both an identical love letter, they decide to teach Falstaff a lesson! After plots and counterplots, confusion, disguises, deception, and a dunking in the River Thames by way of a laundry basket, the entire company agrees that the whole world may be nothing but a jest filled with jesters, but he who laughs last, laughs best! Sung in Italian, with English supertitles.
