Director

Opera Orlando is honored to present the Orlando premiere of the Pulitzer Prize winning opera Silent Night with music by Kevin Puts and libretto by Mark Campbell. Based on the screenplay by Christian Carion for the motion picture Joyeux Noël produced by Nord-Ouest and commissioned by Minnesota Opera as part of their New Works Initiative, Silent Night stands alone as the most performed modern opera of our time with a cinematic and compelling retelling of the unbelievable true story of the 1914 WWI Christmas Truce. Silent Night recounts a miraculous moment of peace during one of the bloodiest wars in human history. Scottish, French, and German officers defied their superiors and negotiated a Christmas Eve truce. This powerful work underscores the yearning, despair, and hope of the soldiers living in the trenches. Silent Night masterfully juxtaposes the bombastic sounds of war with serene songs from home, and stands as a heartfelt hymn to our common humanity.

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Silent Night

Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

Opera Orlando is thrilled to present a unique operatic experience with "Beatrice Benedict / Cavalleria Rusticana" at the esteemed Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. This innovative production will take place in Steinmetz Hall on April 25 & 27, 2025, offering performances at 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. respectively.

This exceptional event combines Hector Berlioz’s "Beatrice Benedict," based on Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing," with Pietro Mascagni’s "Cavalleria Rusticana" into a single, compelling performance. Audiences will be transported to an Easter day in the Sicilian town of Messina, where they will first be delighted by Berlioz’s comedic tale of love and misunderstandings in the town square, culminating in joyous weddings and a happy conclusion. The mood shifts as the same setting becomes the backdrop for Mascagni’s powerful verismo opera, weaving a story of passion, betrayal, and tragedy.

This all-new opera mash-up is the brainchild of Opera Orlando's artistic director, Grant Preisser, who leads the production. Making his company debut, conductor Pasquale Valerio brings his expertise to the forefront, accompanied by the talents of the Opera Orlando Chorus and Youth Company, as well as dancers from the Orlando Ballet.

"Beatrice Benedict" will be performed in English, while "Cavalleria Rusticana" will be sung in Italian, with both operas featuring English and Spanish supertitles. The total runtime for the evening is 2 hours and 45 minutes, including one intermission.

Subscriptions for the 24/25 season are now available, offering special season launch pricing until July 4. Subscribers can save up to 50% and enjoy an additional 10% discount on two subscriber add-on productions. This is a unique opportunity to experience the fusion of comedy and tragedy in one unforgettable evening at the Dr. Phillips Center.

For more information on tickets and subscriptions, please visit the Dr. Phillips Center's official website or contact the Bill & Mary Darden Box Office at 407.358.6603.

Beatrice Benedict / Cavalleria Rusticana

A forbidden romance is kindled in Scotland’s Lammermoor Castle. Despite their clans’ age-old feud, Lucia and Edgardo, fall deeply in love and vow to marry. Lucia’s brother, Enrico, has promised her hand in marriage to a wealthy nobleman to save the family’s fortune. Desperate to ensure Lucia goes through with the wedding, Enrico tricks her into believing Edgardo has betrayed her, leading to a devastating turn of events that ultimately drives Lucia to madness.

St. Pete Opera: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor

Palladium Theater St. Petersburg

Opera Orlando goes back On the Town and concludes its 2023-24 All for Art season with a dark retelling of Grimm’s The Juniper Tree, a contemporary chamber opera by composers Philip Glass and Robert Moran to a libretto by Arthur Yorinks. This tale about a jealous and scheming stepmother who murders her stepson and serves him up in a stew to his unsuspecting father, only to then meet her own dramatic end, is a haunting and hypnotic opera with some of Glass’ most tuneful melodies.

The Juniper Tree

Opera Orlando heads to Westeros as it closes its 2023-24 MainStage series with a Game of Thrones inspired take on Donizetti’s bel canto masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor. A tale of love, jealousy, betrayal, and madness, Lady Lucia Ashton is torn between allegiance to her family and her love for Edgardo–sworn enemy to the Ashton household. A forced marriage leads to tragic ends for all involved in this gorgeous operatic treatment of Sir Walter Scott’s gothic romance The Bride of Lammermoor.

Lucia di Lammermoor

Opera Orlando heads to Westeros as it closes its 2023-24 MainStage series with a Game of Thrones-inspired take on Donizetti’s bel canto masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor. A tale of love, betrayal, and madness, Lucia is torn between allegiance to her family and her love for Edgardo–her brother Enrico’s sworn enemy. A forced marriage leads to tragic ends for all involved in this gorgeous operatic treatment of Sir Walter Scott’s gothic romance The Bride of Lammermoor.

LUCIA di LAMMERMOOR

No one was more “All for Art” than the incredible Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, and her life story takes Steinmetz Hall by storm this January as Opera Orlando presents Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s operatic celebration of the artist in Frida. This poetic and beautiful retelling of Frida’s life reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality, an artist whose sensual vibrancy came straight from her experiences: her childhood during the Mexican Revolution; a devastating accident at age eighteen that left her crippled and unable to bear children; her tempestuous marriage to muralist Diego Rivera and intermittent love affairs; her association with the Communist Party; her absorption in Mexican folklore and culture; and her dramatic love of spectacle.

Frida

Opera Orlando presents Puccini’s tragically grand Tosca to kick off its 2023-24 All for Art MainStage series. As war and rebellion ravage the city of Rome, the celebrated and passionate opera diva Floria Tosca finds herself caught in a web of religious and political intrigue, betrayal, and jealousy as she tries to save her lover the painter and firebrand Mario Cavadorossi, while being coveted by the villainous and corrupt Baron Scarpia, who holds all the power. It is an utterly untenable situation that proves dire for all involved, but Tosca isn’t one to back down from a fight.

TOSCA

The stunningly gorgeous Bella Collina property in Montverde, FL serves as the perfect stand-in for the Donati estate in this one-night-only mash-up of two comedic one-acts by two of opera greats. Enjoy Rossini’s The Marriage Contract and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with friends, food, wine, and an incredible cast of singers headlined by Opera Orlando general director and Grammy-award winning baritone Gabriel Preisser as Gianni Schicchi himself. Music director and pianist Kyle Naig and stage director Grant Preisser lead this immersive double-feature about family, money, marriage, and contracts, and the antics of the dysfunctional Donati household is sure to have the audience in stitches.

Bella Notte at Bella Collina

The Club at Bella Collina

Written by Peter Rothstein with vocal arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach, artistic director Grant Preisser once again directs this band of brothers with Andrew Minear making his Company debut as music director. The troupe of singers welcomes back previous cast members, along with new faces coming together in harmony to tell this powerful story: the story of a German soldier stepping into No Man’s Land to sing “Stille Nacht (Silent Night),” which began an extraordinary and unprecedented night of music, acceptance, and peace.

All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914

Mozart’s comedic and mystical singspiel (a predecessor to musical theater) transports the audience to the mythical realm of Ozymandia where the story unfolds in frames like a graphic novel bringing all of the arts together to tell this fantastical tale. Artistic director Grant Preisser directs this all-new production inspired by the fine art anime of Yoshitaka Amana, with dance choreographed by Maxine Montilus, puppetry by MicheLee Puppets, and music conducted by Chaowen Ting, making her Company debut. She will take the podium and lead the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, along with a stellar cast including Metropolitan Opera soprano Kathryn Bowden as Queen of the Night, bass William Meinert as Sarastro, the stunning, up-and-coming soprano Magdalena Kuźma as Pamina, and renowned baritone Brian James Myer as Papageno. The cast also includes members of the Opera Orlando Chorus and Youth Company.

The Magic Flute

Opera Orlando presents Franz Lehár’s effervescent operetta The Merry Widow in an original production featuring dancers from the Orlando Ballet with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra in the pit led by conductor Noam Aviel. A star-studded cast is headlined by soprano Sarah Joy Miller who was recently featured in the HBO series The Gilded Age. She sings the title role, joined by her husband, internationally-renowned Il Divo tenor David Miller as Camille and Grammy award-winning baritone Gabriel Preisser as Count Danilo. The Merry Widow offers a taste of genuine old world glamour, aristocratic reverie, catchy melodies, and of course the can-can.

Director

Grant Preisser

Events

Upcoming events

24 - 26 Apr, 2026

The Merry Widow · Opera Orlando

Past events

6 - 8 Feb, 2026

Silent Night · Opera Orlando

25 - 27 Apr, 2025

Beatrice Benedict / Cavalleria Rusticana · Opera Orlando

About

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