a production still from Tales of Hoffman, a robot girl fans herself while impressed onlookers stare.

Season 2022-23

Butler Opera Center

Shakespeare Gala • Song Re-Imagined • Proving Up • Les Contes D’Hoffmann

Butler Opera Center

Past Season Galleries

 

a painting of a mystical forrest, filled with lush greenery, strong tree trunks, and floating twinkles of light.
Shakespeare Gala
October 2022

Works by
Giuseppe Verdi • Charles Gounod • Benjamin Britten • Ambroise Thomas
 

Photos by Amitava Sarkar and Lazaro Gonzales

production still a group of singers on stage, in formal dress. a singer stands in front, arms outstretched, wearing a red cape.
Production still from Shakespeare Gala, a man and woman hold each other closely, seated on a chaise lounge, she buries her head into his shoulder while he looks off into the distance.
Production still: two embracing couples stand down stage with an orchestra behind them. The background is a projection of a pink rosebush in full bloom.
production still from the gala: A singer sits on a bench in the foreground dressed in a suit and scarf, with an orchestra on stage behind him.
Production Still from the gala: A woman in a white dress sits not he lap of a man in a dark suit. They sit at a small cafe table, a projection of a lush hillside through windows behind them.
Production Still: A woman clad in black lifts a sword above her head, looking up at the blade in a powerful pose.
An abstract image of a smoke filled stage, lit up with red and orange colored lights
Song Re-Imagined
November 2022

Works by
Schumann • Strauss • Liszt • Shostakovich
 

Photos by Tzu-Chin Hsu

a man in a brown suit sings on stage, accompanied by a pianist behind him
A woman in a red gown sings on stage with a pianist behind here. Sketches of Grecco-Roman busts are projected in the background.
Production Still: A woman stands on stage in formal pink gown with a pianist behind her. A garden of pink flowers is projected on the stage behind her.
Three singers stand down stage, fists raised in the air in triumph. A Van Gogh inspired painting of a sunlit wheat field is projected behind them.
Two women with their heads covered by shawls perform on stage.

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a small pioneer house sits near a cliff in a wooded area, silhouetted against a stormy sky. In the clouds above the house, the figure of a female apparition looks down on the home.
Proving Up
February 2023

Music by 
Missy Mazzoli
 

Libretto by  
Royce Vavrek
 

Photos by Amitava Sarkar

a group of singers clad in pioneer costume sits solemnly on a stage drenched in yellow light in front of a ramshackle living structure and a clothesline holding a few dreary garments.
singers clad in dreary pioneer dress sing to the audience on a stage lit dimly in orange light, as if at sunset.
a man squats on the ground reading a letter, two women crouch near him reacting in agony to the contents of the letter.
two sickly looking young women stare through a crooked window frame, singing with creepy, forlorn faces.
a woman crouches beside a young, shirtless boy who looks sullen and defeated. He is smeared in blood, with bloody handprints on his torso.
3 women clad in pioneer costumes sit on stage. A central figure appears somber but tall on stage, while another woman leans into her shoulder, and the third lays her head in the strong woman's lap.

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A steam-punk mechanical head in profile amidst flowing purple ribbons, and a background of cogs and sprockets.
LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN
April 2023

Music By 
Jacques Offenbach

Libretto By 
Jules Barbier

Photos by Nathan Russell
 

a Woman in and ornate gown and headpiece stand on stage, with huge wing-like spans of cloth extending from her back up into the sky high above the stage. she is surrounded by singes in victorian formal wear.
A life-sized steam-punk robot stand on stage, robotically fanning herself with a fan, while party-goers clad in victorian formal attire gawk at her from afar.
Two men sit cross-legged on the ground. A third man crouches near the man on the left, covering his ears while he tells sings to the other man.
A woma in an ornate gold dress sits on a chaise lounge on a dimly lit stage, singing an aria, while a man in a velvet dinner coat crouches beside her, with his head in her lap.
A man dances on a long bar table, while singers clad in victorian peasant clothes lounge in the chairs, drinking beer and enjoying the performance.
A steam-punk android teeters precariously on stage with a surprised look on her face.
A man in a velvet overcoat watches a woman pirouette awkwardly across stage as she impersonates the movements of Hoffman's steam-punk robot girl.
A woman in a beautiful green victorian gown stands alone on stage, holding a letter, and singing solemnly.
An inventor outfitted in "mad-scientist" clothing with an oversized monocle on one eye shows off his steam-punk android invention to a group of amazed aristocrats at a party.

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