Announcing Minnesota Opera’s 2023–2024 Season
Minnesota Opera is delighted to announce our 2023–2024 Season. The season consists of three productions at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, a double bill performance at the Luminary Arts Center and features exciting new works alongside beloved inherited works that take risks and explore community and belonging.
The Ordway Series features a new production of the popular mariachi opera, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna by composer José “Pepe” Martínez, featuring a new, fully orchestrated score by David Hanlon; the return of Donizetti’s popular comic opera The Elixir of Love; and a new production of Puccini’s beloved La bohème. At the Luminary Arts Center, Minnesota Opera will feature a double bill performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and Christopher Weiss and John de los Santos’ Service Provider—two one-act operas.
“We are thrilled to bring a new set of stories to life in our 2023–2024 Season,” says Minnesota Opera President and General Director Ryan Taylor. “We wanted to continue to expand our circle of storytelling and explore the universal themes of vulnerability and connection. In our 61st Season, our repertoire, casting and stagecraft celebrate our Twin Cities and national opera communities, fostering the valuable connections we’ve worked hard to build over the past several years. We look forward to presenting the first fully orchestrated production of the popular mariachi opera, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, alongside our first double bill in decades featuring a company premiere by Christopher Weiss and John de los Santos, and our first production of a work by Leonard Bernstein in nearly 50 years. We also bring new life to two audience favorites as we look forward to staging new, exciting and creative productions of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love and Puccini’s La bohème.
The 2023–2024 Season sees the return of artists who have made their mark on Minnesota Opera performances in the past several years and welcomes a handful of new and exciting voices. Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, which audiences sampled during Minnesota Opera’s Ópera Afuera in the fall of 2021, features award-winning mariachi singer mezzo-soprano Vanessa Alonzo (Ópera Afuera) alongside soprano Zulimar López-Hernández (Edward Tulane), mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte, baritone Octavio Moreno and baritone Efraín Solis. The Elixir of Love features recent star of MN Opera’s The Daughter of the Regiment, soprano Vanessa Becerra, who will share the stage with tenor Andrew Stenson (The Italian Straw Hat), baritone Joseph Lattanzi and bass-baritone Stefano de Peppo (The Barber of Seville). The company’s double bill evening at the Luminary, featuring Trouble in Tahiti and Service Provider, will highlight Project Opera alum and former Company Artist mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams (Carmen), alongside Minnesota Opera Resident Artists Charles H. Eaton, Keely Futterer, Efraín Corralejo and Jeremiah Sanders.
Minnesota Opera’s season closer, La bohème, will feature tenors Won Whi Choi (Carmen) and Resident Artist Alum Christian Sanders, sopranos Melinda Whittington and former Company Artist and Resident Artist Alum Symone Harcum, baritone Joo Won Kang (La traviata), Resident Artist Alumni bass Benjamin Sieverding (Edward Tulane) and baritone Andrew Wilkowske (The Daughter of the Regiment) and Minnesota Opera Resident Artists Keely Futterer, Charles H. Eaton, Jeremiah Sanders, and Efraín Corralejo.
Season Ticket Packages for the 2023–2024 Season are available now online or by calling Minnesota Opera Patron Services at 612-333-6669. The Luminary double bill is currently available exclusively as an add-on to a season package. Individual tickets go on sale in July.
