Name: Notte Napulitano
Start: 2025-02-27T19:00:00
Location: Luminary Arts Center

Fumiyasu Kawase

Minnesota Opera

Who was Florence Price, beyond the music? Prolific American composer Florence Price made history as the first Black woman to have a symphony performed by a major U.S. orchestra. In this world premiere from MN Opera’s New Works Initiative, My Name is Florence was inspired by writings and correspondence unearthed in the backyard of her family home. This chamber opera composed by B.E. Boykin to a libretto by Harrison David Rivers presents vignettes from Price’s life that bring into focus the impact of family, legacy, and the transformative power of a seat in front of the piano. With warmth and humor, My Name is Florence explores the complexities of identity, generational connection, and ultimately the power of music to transform. It is a celebration of Price’s enduring legacy in music and a reclamation of the space she occupies within the American musical canon.

My Name is Florence

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

Can one choice change everything? Edgar, just the second opera that Giacomo Puccini ever composed, tells the story of a man torn between the promise of virtue and the allure of vice, where love and desire collide with devastating consequences. Moments of striking lyricism underscore a tale of indecision, self-delusion, and betrayal that leads to ruin. With the MN Opera Orchestra and MN Opera Chorus on stage behind a cast of singers, this rare concert presentation offers a tantalizing glimpse into the mind of a master still discovering his voice, just a few years before his greatest triumphs.

Edgar in Concert

The show must go on, but how? For Canio and his traveling troupe, painted smiles and colorful costumes belie infidelity and betrayal. The façade is shattered when a hidden affair is revealed and a lighthearted night at the theater gives way to jealousy, suspicion, and ultimately violence. As the line between performance and reality blurs and the drama onstage begins to mirror the turmoil offstage, Pagliacci begs the question—does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?

Pagliacci

MN Opera Resident Artists will perform in a beautifully unique evening of Neapolitan music at the Luminary Arts Center. The program will be curated and narrated by fluent speaker MN Opera Head of Music Mario Antonio Marra, who will share duties at the piano with Resident Artist pianist Fumiyasu Kawase.