Blog

We are pleased to announce that two additional resident Fellows have been selected for the Holland Community Opera Fellowship for the 2018-2019 Season: Kate Pomrenke and José Maldonado. Pomrenke and Maldonado will join first-year Fellows Jessica Johnson Brock and Chabrelle Williams, bringing the program to its full capacity of four resident Fellows for the second year of the program. All four artists will participate in the season-long residency, which has vastly expanded Opera Omaha’s ability to serve the community with professional opera programs, while honoring long-time Opera Omaha benefactor Richard D. Holland. Kate Pomrenke Soprano Kate Pomrenke recently completed her Master of Music in Vocal Performance at Bowling Green Sta...

Here are all of the exciting events happening during the final week of the ONE Festival, April 16-22! This is the last chance to attend any and all of these events, so make sure to put them on your schedule! MONDAY | April 16 Staged reading of Medea by Euripides 6p | Creighton Lied Education Center for the Arts Presented by Creighton University's Department of Fine and Performing Arts, in partnership with Opera Omaha TUESDAY | April 17 Proving Up Gallery Tour 11:30a | KANEKO Ariodante Open Session 7:30p-9:30p | Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts WEDNESDAY | April 18 Proving Up Gallery Tour 5:30p | KANEKO The Wreck 7:30p | 1407/1409 Jackson Street THURSDAY | April 19 Ariodante Open Session 11:30a-1:30p | Bemis ...

Mezzo-soprano Naomi O'Connell returns to Opera Omaha this season as Neris in the upcoming production of Medea after appearing last season as the Stewardess in Jonathan Dove's production of Flight. Read the article below to learn more about Ms. O'Connell's life on and off the stage. Where do you spend most of your year? I travel a lot in this job, and packing up suitcases for a couple of months of hopping around the country is a given, but I share an apartment with my husband in New York City, which is where we call home. What is your all-time favorite opera? Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmélites is a m...

Here are all of the exciting events happening during the second week of the ONE Festival, April 9-15! TUESDAY | April 10 Ariodante Open Session 6p-8p | Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts WEDNESDAY | April 11 ONEmore: Healing Arts 12p | Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center ONEmore: Written - Spoken - Sung Gallery Hours 2p-6p | The Union for Contemporary Art Lincoln-based artist Matthew Sontheimer’s exhibition, That’s right…I still don’t have a website. will be explored through a performative installation. THURSDAY | April 12 ONEmore: Written - Spoken - Sung Gallery Hours 2p-6p | The Union for Contemporary Art Lincoln-based artist Matthew Sontheimer’s exhibition, That’s right…I still don’t have a website. ...

Here are all of the exciting events happening during the first week of ONE Festival, April 2-8! Friday, April 6th The Dharma at Big Sur First Friday Gallery Hours 11a-8p | Gallery 1516 Saturday, April 7th The Dharma at Big Sur Gallery Hours 11a-5p | Gallery 1516 Gallery Talk: The Nature of Big Sur 11:30a | Gallery 1516 Where art meets science. Students from University of Nebraska Omaha’s Conservation Biology course will host gallery talks exploring conservation and environmental issues of Big Sur. ONEmore: Archetype After Hours 10p-Midnight | Archetype Coffee A more personal and casual exploration of the musical worlds and artistic pulse of the festival. Unscripted, unplanned and spontaneous. Sunday, April 8th Th...

As Omaha prepares for the launch of Opera Omaha’s first-ever ONE Festival, we wanted to offer a deeper look into three of the performance series that will be offered throughout the city. From the Bemis Center of Contemporary Art, to Gallery 1516, to a unique on-site location at 1407/1409 Jackson Street, these performances expand opera beyond the doors of the conventional theater. Adam Larsen, curator and filmmaker of The Dharma at Big Sur, Annie Saunders, curator and director of The Wreck, and R.B. Schlather, curator and director of Ariodante, offer us insight into the creative process and inspiration behind these three different performance series. The Dharma at Big Sur For Ad...

Opera Omaha's world premiere opera is only weeks away! Read about it from the composer herself! Proving Up, based on a brilliant story by Karen Russell, explores the origins, realities, and fictions of the American “rags to riches” mythology. The musical language of this opera draws on traditional “Americana” – wheezy harmonicas, guitars, and old-timey fiddle tunes – combined with dream-like, warped orchestral textures, haunting harpsichord gestures, and harsh percussion samples that reflect a dry and inhospitable frontier. Each member of the Zegner family represents an American who has been erased from history, lost to fate and overcome by circumstance. It is my hope that Proving Up can pose provocative questions about the American...

The Icelandic baritone Olafur Sigurdarson makes his Opera Omaha, and United States, debut in our upcoming production of Falstaff. Read the interview below to get a better sense of what brings Mr. Sigurdarson back to the role of Sir John Falstaff time and again, what he's looking forward to in this production, and what he's enjoying the most about his time in Omaha! Since you have performed the role of Sir John Falstaff in several different productions, how has your interpretation of this role changed throughout your experiences? Is there an essence to the character of Falstaff that you’ve tried to incorporate every time you perform this opera? There is...

Jessica Johnson Brock Mezzo-soprano Jessica Johnson Brock makes her Opera Omaha debut with Opera Outdoors. Ms. Brock is also an Opera Omaha Holland Community Opera Fellow. Recent engagements include the Aspen Music Festival, performing the roles of Nettie and Aunt Bea in Bolcom’s A Wedding and covering Ursule in Béatrice et Bénédict. Corey Crider Baritone Corey Crider returns to Opera Omaha having last appeared in The Tragedy of Carmen in 2008. Recent engagements include Marcello in La bohème with the Munich Philharmonic and Arizona Opera, Sharpless in Madame Butterfly with Dayton Opera, Escamillo in Carmen with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Ford in Falstaff with Opera on the...

Jonathan Dove, Flight Composer Born to two architects in the city of London on July 18, 1959, Jonathan Dove is a modern English composer of opera, as well as choral works, plays, films, and orchestral music. While his first experiences in music came from piano, organ, and viola performance, Dove’s official musical education in composition was pursued at the University of Cambridge under the tutelage of Robin Holloway. Following his time at the university, Dove worked as a freelance arranger of music and accompanist. These first professional experiences graced Dove with a great understanding of the vocal instrument and acoustic properties of the traditional opera house. These lessons have stayed with Do...